‘Bao doesn’t live far from here,’ I pointed out to Rani after Kirsten and Jamie had handed their special parcel over to their shipping agent, a brisk older man, bald and with glasses, not at all put out by being summoned in the middle of the night. ‘I feel like visiting.’

‘Hoping to put some suspicions to rest?’

‘That’d be nice. Fairytale nice.’

When we were on the way, I drummed the dashboard a little. ‘I need to let you know that Bao can handle herself.’

‘She looks like it.’

‘I hope you’re not thinking some sort of Shaolin Buddhist monk kung-fu thing.’

‘The thought had crossed my mind.’

‘Don’t fall for the stereotype. She’s a boxer. She’s done bare-knuckle stuff in the past, apparently, but gave that up a long time ago. She mostly trains young fighters now, but I hear she’s still dynamite.’

‘I’m pleased to hear that.’

A little surge to get around a dairy tanker so we could take the slip lane. ‘You did a slap-up job against those Ragged Sisters,’ I said.

‘I didn’t kill anyone, you mean.’

‘Hey, I’m not going to say “Get over it” or anything. I don’t know what it’s like – I’ve never killed anyone.’

‘I hope you never have to.’

‘Me too.’

‘The trouble is that I probably will, in this job.’

‘You could give it up.’

‘I could, but I don’t want to. I enjoy it. Most of it.’

‘Let’s put it this way then. If we need people around carrying big swords to protect us, I’d much rather have someone who feels like you do than someone who couldn’t care less about the whole business of killing. Or, worse, someone who enjoys it.’

‘That’s what I’m telling myself.’

A ten-minute drive after that, but we saw plenty of ghost activity along the way, going through the motions of lives gone past. Some insubstantial figures in old lace-up guernseys and caps were playing football on one of the ovals we passed, and a trio of mid-twentieth-century ghosts were mooching around the car park of the big Officeworks on Williamstown Road.

I said ‘mooching’, not mooning, although the sight of three ghost bums would have fitted in perfectly with the whacko times we were in.

Bao’s house was an old Californian bungalow near the Lakes Reserve, nicely maintained with a sweet cottage-style garden at the front. Lots of daisy bushes.

I rang the doorbell. Bao answered it almost straight away, and she had a suitcase in one hand. With the other, she punched me in the face, kind of apologetically.

Rani caught me as I toppled sideways into the daisy bushes. A giant bell kept tolling inside my skull and I was absorbed in admiring how all my bones had turned to rubber. Rubber bones. Whee!

With a head stuffed full of cotton wool, I spent some time studying the underside of the eaves, and the little bit of sky I could see. I might have hummed a little to myself, too.

Distantly, the soothing sounds of people punching each other came to me, and the noise of someone being thrown to the ground then being slammed against the side of the house, which made the daisy bushes rustle beneath me. They tickled!

After a while, I thought that it wasn’t really the right thing to be lying around and taking it easy while Rani did all the hard work, so I rolled off the bushes and onto the concrete path. I dragged myself, all wobbly, to my feet in time to tangle up with Bao as she was sent staggering backwards by a blindingly fast Rani combination.

Bao and I fell over, which gave Rani a chance to dart around, grab Bao by the back of the collar and haul one arm up behind her back in a hammerlock.

I shook my head as I stood, which wasn’t a great idea as it unleashed a headache that would have been happy to eat rocks for breakfast. I put a hand to my brow and winced. ‘Hello, Bao. Got something to tell us?’

In Bao’s living room, which was very tastefully decorated with a classy art deco lounge suite and a pair of pedestal lamps that were to die for, Rani tied Bao up with electrical cords and plonked her in one of the easy chairs. To keep out of her way, I ransacked the bathroom until I found some Panadol.

Panadol, the wonder drug. Eases pain, cures most known diseases, allows you to breathe underwater (terms and conditions apply). I chugged the tablets with a glass of water and sat opposite our captive. ‘I assume you betrayed us for a good reason. Please don’t tell us it was for money. That’d be so disappointing.’

‘The Ragged Sisters,’ she said hoarsely. She had a nasty scrape on her cheek, and a massive bruise starting to appear on her forehead. Rani was unscathed. ‘They terrify me.’

‘You got close to them?’

‘Two weeks ago I was patrolling down near the oil refinery, when I bumped into Molly. Goth Moth. A fellow ghost spotter.’

‘Goth Moth. I haven’t heard of her for ages,’ I said.

‘And you won’t hear from her again,’ Bao whispered. ‘The Ragged Sisters pulled up in a van and grabbed us. We were taken to the facility I directed you to.’

‘That sounds like they have more than one,’ Rani said.

‘Oh yes. Many, scattered around the city, ready if needed.’ She shuddered. ‘We were both in chains, but they took Molly inside and did dreadful things to her. She was the first since they arrived, their leader said.’

‘Liliana Pascal?’ I said.

‘I need you to understand that she isn’t mad,’ Bao said urgently. ‘Don’t make that mistake.’

‘But the things that she’s done—’ Rani began.

‘No, don’t think like that,’ Bao interrupted. ‘She’s ruthless, she’s heartless, she’s prepared to do anything to reach her goals, but she’s not mad. Don’t give her that excuse.’

‘She’s responsible for what she’s doing,’ I said carefully.

‘Exactly.’ Bao sat back in her chair, shivering. ‘After their demonstration with poor Molly, they sat me down. She wanted to know everything I knew about the Marins and the people who worked with them.’

‘And you told her?’ I said

‘Everyone’s a traitor if enough pressure is brought to bear.’

‘Sounds like you’re justifying your actions,’ I said.

‘What wouldn’t you betray if someone threatened to harm Rani? Or Rebecca? Or your father?’

Okay, she had me there. Sorry, but if it’s a choice between the ones I love and the rest of the world, then I’m afraid that the rest of the world is going to come off second best. It mightn’t be right, but it’d be the least wrong.

Rani was flexing her hand. ‘Icepack?’ I murmured.

‘It can wait.’

‘We want to know more about the Ragged Sisters and their plans,’ I said, ‘and how we can find them.’

Bao sighed. ‘If I tell you, my sister will die.’

Okay, insert portentous chord here. ‘Oh,’ I said. ‘You’re going to Hong Kong to try to save her.’

‘Liliana Pascal said that the Ragged Sisters have a presence there. If I didn’t cooperate it would go poorly for Wei.’

Is it betrayal if you’re saving someone you love at the same time? And if it is, is it still the right thing to do? Aargh, why is life so complicated?

‘What if I said that your sister could be protected?’ Rani said, jolting me out of my ethical wrestling. ‘My organisation has a major branch in Hong Kong. If I explain the situation to them, they’ll bring your sister in and keep her safe until the situation is resolved.’

Bao straightened. ‘Your organisation?’

‘I’m on secondment from the Company of the Righteous,’ Rani said.

Bao looked at me. ‘They’re a multinational ghost-hunting organisation,’ I explained. ‘Hundreds of years old, very rich, very powerful. A bit stuffy, but they do have resources.’

‘Would you trust them?’

‘In something like this? Yes. To organise a speed-dating evening? Nope.’

‘I’ll need proof,’ Bao said.

It took a couple of hours for Rani to work up through channels – don’t you love a bureaucracy? – but eventually things started moving fast and Rani held the phone up to Bao’s ear.

She cried. That composed, self-possessed boxing trainer and ghost spotter cried. And spoke a lot of Cantonese before finally saying what I assumed was goodbye.

You can tell a farewell by the dying fall in someone’s voice.

Bao handed the phone back. ‘I’ll tell you what I know. Please untie me and please do some major harm to those murderers.’

‘That’s the plan.’ I unwound the electrical cord and Bao rubbed her wrists. ‘Give us what you’ve got.’

‘After they killed Molly, they extracted the names of other Marin ghost spotters from me, as well as passwords to access our social media groups.’

Yikes.

‘So they’re in danger too,’ Rani said.

‘I’m sorry.’ Bao shivered, but then she straightened. ‘One last thing. While I was there, I overheard Liliana Pascal while she was on the phone. She mentioned your aunt’s name.’

‘Wait,’ I said, ‘this was before Tanja actually appeared?’

‘A week before they fought you in that factory.’

I was wrestling with the implications of this bombshell when Rani’s phone buzzed. She listened for a good long while, and her face fell. ‘Tanja’s gone,’ she reported. ‘While Leon and Bec were getting some sleep, she took one of the burner phones, something from the armoury, and it looks as if she’s been through our lists of ghost spotters.’