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‘I’ll just say it straight out. No one is good enough for my friend Charlotte.’ Kelly slapped the wheel with one hand. ‘No one. However, judging by what I’ve learned about you with a bit of simple sleuthing, you’d make a decent effort. And you’re certainly better than this James Steamblack. I Googled him, you know. He’s got not one but two court cases coming up. One woman claiming his paternity of a pair of twins, another that he stole a copyrighted magic trick and passed it off as his own. I know he’s a showman and charming and all that, but I don’t much like him. However, he apparently laid down a pretty convincing argument for why he’s some lifelong victim and you’re the root of all evil.’

Jacob couldn’t help but laugh, even though inside he was dying, his worst fears coming true. ‘That doesn’t surprise me at all. He’s had it in for me since we were kids. My dad ran out when I was baby. It was just me and Mum for years; then she met Colin—that’s his dad—at a charity dinner disco thing while I was on a school trip. James is four years older than me. We never got on. He wasn’t a fighting type, but he’d do stuff to get me in trouble, steal my things, tell people lies about me that were believable enough to ruin a few friendships. I don’t know what happened to his own mother—he told me his first trick had been to make her disappear, whatever that meant—but even though mine did her best, it was a bit late in the day for her to be a replacement. He was already in the Sixth Form, full of himself, a bit of a bully and all that. My mother tried to get along with him, but he had a massive chip on his shoulder.’

‘So is that why you tried to sabotage his career?’

‘I didn’t. I just told the truth in court as I knew it.’

‘Court? What court?’

Jacob sighed. ‘It sounds like he was pretty selective with what he said. He was performing magic shows even before I knew him, and Colin—my stepdad—was totally behind his career. He was basically like James’s manager, and treated him like an employee, rather than a son. And he used every penny he could get his hands on to fund James’s career. Those magic props, getting around the country, advertising, promoting him, it wasn’t cheap. My mother did the dutiful thing after they got married, and supported her new son, but that meant all her savings got pilfered away, and pretty soon stuff started going missing. Colin sold everything he could to support James, but it was never enough.’

‘He was just supporting his son, wasn’t he?’

‘My mother’s jewellery, some pretty valuable items my grandmother had left her, it all disappeared. He had a dubious car crash, claimed the insurance, bought a much cheaper car. And then there was the …’ He paused. It was never easy to talk about.

‘The what, Jacob?’

‘The fire.’

‘We used to live out between Willow River and Olive Hill, this big old house that my grandparents had owned. ‘I was off at university; James was doing some club tour that was barely making enough money to cover his costs. Mum and Colin were at home. One night Colin tried to do an insurance job on the house. The police report claimed it was deliberate arson; someone had poured paraffin across the bottom of the stairs.’

‘Oh my God.’

‘But he misjudged how quickly those old carpets would catch. Colin’s body was found, halfway up the stairs. He didn’t even make it back to their bedroom to feign sleep. My mother, however, was still asleep. She was woken up by the sirens. It was summer; they’d had their bedroom window open, which was the only way she survived. Jumping from the window broke her hip, and to this day she has difficulty breathing.’

‘Wow.’

‘If you don’t believe me, it’s all in the police reports.’

‘I do believe you. You have no reason to lie.’

‘The evidence against Colin was circumstantial. My mother couldn’t incriminate him, and didn’t want to speak against him because despite everything, she still loved him. I, however, didn’t have any such qualms. Jacob tried to sue, claiming my mother had started the fire. Everything he got in his father’s will—which was everything; my mother didn’t get a penny—went into a witch hunt against my mother, claiming she had tried to murder her husband for some reason only he could believe. On top of her injuries, her trauma, losing her family home, she got dragged through the courts.’

‘What happened in the end?’

‘James’s case got dismissed. All the evidence pointed to Colin blundering an insurance job. I did feel for James a little, as he’d lost his father, but he was ruthless. Even after the case, he slandered us in whatever newspapers would listen, and I’m pretty sure it was the publicity that helped his career take off.’

‘That’s nuts.’

‘It’s like his whole life is an illusion of his own creation. Afterwards, we tried to pick up the pieces. James left Brentwell to pursue his career, and I hoped I’d never hear from him again.’

‘And did you?’

‘Not directly. But every now and then something would happen to suggest that he was keeping tabs on us. We’d get random postcards from across the world, always blank. Sometimes we’d get weird parcels. A pack of matches, a can of lighter fluid, a square of carpet. Little things that were clearly to remind us of what had happened. I intercepted everything where I could, just trying to save my mother’s sanity. A couple of years after the fire, we were able to get her into an old council terrace, and with her new address the deliveries stopped. I know they were from James, though. He just couldn’t let it go.’

‘He sounds like a madman.’

‘Like I say, I try to have sympathy for him, but it’s hard. And I can’t think that there was any other reason for him to come back to Brentwell than to cause trouble for me and my mother.’

Kelly pulled into the kerb. ‘Right, we’re here.’

Jacob looked out through the window at the snowy cul-de-sac. ‘Ah, this isn’t my place … in fact, I don’t recall even telling you where I lived.’

Kelly smiled. She pointed out of the window. ‘That house right there, with the downstairs light on … that’s Charlotte’s.’

‘What … I can’t—’

‘You absolutely can. Go and knock on her door, then tell her everything you’ve just told me. Come on, Jacob. Don’t screw this up.’ She sighed. ‘All right, in case you do, I’ll park at the end of the street, by that little children’s park we passed. I’ll finish my coffee and play on my phone for a bit. If you don’t show up after half an hour, I’m off. Good luck.’