Rani caught me and I hardly mussed her hair. ‘Your ghost said nothing about Bec?’ she asked as she dumped me on my feet.

‘No.’

She sprinted for the car. I followed as fast as I could but she was waiting impatiently in the driver’s seat by the time I got there, panting.

We caught a green arrow and turned right into Punt Road. As we crested the hill and motored towards Collingwood, Rani flexed her fingers on the steering wheel before asking, ‘Have you considered that this is another trap?’

‘Using Leon as bait? What choice do we have?’

We blasted through the Victoria Street intersection. The light was orange, officer, honest it was. ‘I hate not having choices,’ Rani said. ‘So what do you say we try to influence matters a little, change the odds?’

‘I’m listening.’

‘I’d say it’s time for some Scottish back-up again.’

‘Good call.’

I messaged both Kirsten and Jamie. They phoned back straight away, super keen. ‘We’re behind your Luna Park,’ Kirsten bellowed. ‘Just got rid of a bunch of Gnashers.’

Jamie butted in, whooping. ‘Manky lot they were, big teeth. Gave us a run for our money. Was a belter!’

I calmed them down and made the arrangements.

‘They’re heading to the bookshop,’ I told Rani. ‘We’ll meet them there.’

Rani pushed it. Nothing totally illegal, but it was close. Speed limits? Plus or minus a couple of K. Mostly plus. I’d got used to Rani’s driving and even though it was still breathtaking, I could sit back and relax, confident that we weren’t going to end up face-slammed by some very expensive airbags.

I don’t fly off the handle at the drop of a hat – and how’s that for a mixed metaphor? – like a lot of guys. I mostly give outrage more of a nudge than anger. Right now, though, anger was rising inside me, hot and sour. They’d involved Dad in their schemes, and that wasn’t okay. Tanja had put herself in the firing line by seeking out the Ragged Sisters, but Dad wasn’t what you’d call an active combatant, in Rani-style terms.

You know those lines in the sand, the ones that you don’t step over or else all hell will be unleashed? These Ragged Sisters had taken a giant stride right over that line, probably knocking over a few castles along the way and making little kids cry. It doesn’t matter that they probably didn’t know that the line was there – hell, they probably deny the existence of such lines. Doesn’t matter. Time to rain fire and fury on their skinny arses.

Leon was my dad. I couldn’t afford to lose him, because I didn’t exactly have a back-up copy at home.

We pulled up behind the bookshop and Rani was inside, calling Bec’s name, before I could get out of the car.

The back door was off its hinges, and I got to it in time to see the final stages of one of the truly great hugs. I tell you, if there was a Hall of Fame for hugs, this one would be one of the prime exhibits, with signs and postcards available in the gift shop outside. Rani had even lifted Bec off her feet and swung her around a little.

I did my best not to make out the muffled words Rani and Bec were saying with their heads buried in each other’s neck. I knew that time was wasting and that Dad and Tanja were in danger, but figured if we couldn’t spare a couple of seconds for some relieved intimacy, then what were we fighting for?

Eventually, though, I committed myself to a total cliché and cleared my throat. ‘All good, Bec?’

They separated, but only a little, as if afraid to let go of each other. ‘I woke up in the Secret Room and …’ Bec’s eyes were red and her knees were shaky. ‘The last thing I remember is the back door smashing open. It hit me in the head.’

‘Leon or Tanja must have put you there while the other held off the Ragged Sisters,’ I said.

‘Why would they do something risky like that?’

‘Maybe they thought you hold the key to finding the bastards we’re looking for.’

I got Bec an icepack for her sore head, then sat the two of them down while I made coffee. Bec told us again what happened, with little details coming to her as she went.

She’d just finished when Kirsten and Jamie banged on the door and trooped in. They were both dressed for action, with lace-up calf-length boots, leather trousers and long, heavy leather coats. Their hair was tied back neatly, no chance of it obscuring vision. Fergus was with them, and he was proudly wearing a new studded collar.

‘Now we can head out and have some serious fun, right?’ Jamie said.

‘Fun?’ I replied. ‘I don’t know about that. My dad and my aunt have been taken by the Ragged Sisters.’

I introduced them to Bec and they introduced her to Fergus. ‘You wouldn’t have anything to eat, would you?’ Kirsten then asked, looking through the cupboards. ‘Just to take the edge off, mind.’

Jamie sat in one of the chairs and put his boots up on another. ‘Biscuits. Crackers. Cheese. Chocolate bars. Of course, if you have something a wee bit more substantial, that’d be appreciated.’

I pointed. ‘Fridge is over there. Help yourself.’ I went to see what damage had been done to the bookshop while Bec and Rani recounted what had happened once again.

You know those police reports that say ‘there were signs of a struggle’? Yeah, well, that. With Rani leading the way we found toppled bookshelves and books everywhere. The glass in the front door was cracked, but not broken. The cash register and my beautiful window displays were pretty much trashed.

Dad and Tanja had put up some kind of fight but the only good sign was the lack of blood.

We gathered in the Secret Room. It mightn’t quite have been Elrond’s Council, although I suspected that Kirsten and/or Jamie could have happily offered us an axe, pulling it out from underneath a coat, but we were serious.

Bec looked at each of us. ‘I should have done more.’

‘Everyone thinks they should have done more in a crisis,’ I said. ‘You’re here, and that’s what’s important.’

Rani squeezed Bec and with her help, Bec got herself together. She booted up the projector, and threw Google Maps up on the screen while we all referred to our own variations on our phones.

Rani had the laser pointer. ‘The Ragged Sisters have had bases here in Newport and here in the Docklands. Neither of them were substantial. Temporary and throwaway sites at best.’

‘Aye,’ Jamie said. ‘Like burner phones.’

‘We’ve come into some new information, though,’ Rani said. ‘There’s a possibility that the Ragged Sisters have been in this city before.’

‘They might have a hidden base here,’ I told them, ‘one that’s been in disrepair and needed work.’

‘Makes sense,’ Bec said. ‘I’ve been looking for any mention of a bloody rampage in the past that could suggest Ragged Sister activity, but I haven’t come up with anything definitive. There’s a lot to sort through.’

‘Hey,’ Kirsten said. ‘You get us close enough and Fergus can sniff them out.’

Fergus grinned at the mention of his name and thumped his tail on the floor.

‘Those Ragged Sisters are soaked in ghost taint,’ Jamie said. ‘No escaping it.’

I shifted uncomfortably. ‘I’m hoping that’s not what it sounds like.’

‘It’s a type of scent that people get after dealing with ghosts for a long time,’ Jamie said, and Fergus sniffed demonstratively in our direction.

‘It was what it sounded like,’ I said to Rani.

I had an overwhelming urge to sniff myself, starting with my armpits and following up with a boiling hot shower.

‘So we find their whereabouts, close enough,’ Bec said, ‘and Fergus can zero in.’ She smacked her hands together and rubbed them. ‘We have some work to do.’

‘Okay,’ I said, ‘so it’s the archives to the rescue, a sentence I never thought anyone would ever say anywhere.’

‘I’ll take from nineteen hundred until nineteen twenty.’ Bec pointed at me. ‘Anton, you take the twenties. Rani, the thirties. Kirsten and Jamie, the immediate post–World War Two period.’ She gave us each the commander-in-chief before battle look. ‘I don’t have to tell you that lives are at risk here, so get in there and research like you’ve never researched before.’