the air before us, pointing the way to the intruder. Molly set off briskly, and the arrow moved on ahead of her. I hurried to catch up. As far as I was concerned, barging in here uninvited was like desecrating a grave. Good people died here. The Department should have been left in peace. If there were ghouls or vultures rooting around here, I would make them suffer for their temerity. We followed the glowing arrow as it led us through empty corridors and past empty rooms, into the heart of Uncanny.
“Who could have got in here without being noticed?” I murmured to Molly. “There’s only the one entrance, and that’s been continuously guarded.”
“All it takes is a moment’s distraction,” said Molly, just as quietly. “And may I remind you, you are listening to the voice of experience here.”
“But they must know there’s nothing left worth the taking,” I said. “People have been in and out, carrying stuff off, for weeks.”
“Hope springs eternal in the heart of the burglar,” said Molly. “There’s always the chance they missed something. Perhaps something very secret and very important that wasn’t officially here . . .”
“Unless . . . this is one of the unquiet dead,” I said. “Some very powerful individuals died here. If the forensic people missed something—if they didn’t follow all the proper procedures—there could still be someone moving around. Some remnant or revenant, stumbling around and wondering where everyone else went. Not realising they should have moved on . . .”
“You and your imagination,” said Molly. “Far more likely it’s a burglar.”
The arrow finally came to a halt outside the closed door to my grandfather’s office. Where he was murdered. The arrow flickered, then disappeared. It had taken us as far as it could. A slow chill crawled up my back. I knew the Regent wasn’t in there. My family said he’d been put to rest, and I believed them. But still . . . of all the places the arrow could have brought us . . . Molly moved in close to the door, and listened, and then beckoned urgently for me to come and join her. I leaned in close beside Molly, and listened. There was definitely someone moving around inside the room.
My grandfather was dead. I’d seen the body. With the great bloody hole in his chest, where that ancient and powerful jewel Kayleigh’s Eye had been torn out by brute force. The only way it could be taken. I knew there was no way the Regent could be in his office. But a part of me still hoped, because it just didn’t seem right that such a good man could be gone and not leave something of himself behind. For those who loved him.
Molly straightened up, gestured sharply at the door, and it sprang open, flying all the way back to slam against the inner wall. I charged into the office, with Molly beside me. And there, frozen in place by shock and surprise, caught searching through the drawers of the Regent’s desk, was an entirely unremarkable young man. He gaped at me and Molly, and then straightened up quickly, backing away from the desk with both hands raised to show they were empty. He was wearing a cheap, ill-fitting suit, without a trace of character in it. It went with his face.
“I know you!” he said suddenly, in a harsh, cracked voice. “Oh yes. I should have known, should have expected . . . Eddie Drood! And Molly Metcalf! The runaway Drood and the wicked witch of the woods! I’ve read your files. Did you know they had files on you here? Not that there was much in them, of course. And what there was, was pretty contradictory. But then, that’s Droods for you. And witches. But you don’t know who I am, do you?”
“No,” I said. “Who are you, and what the hell are you doing here? If you do know me and Molly, then you know better than to hold out on us.”
He drew himself up and sneered haughtily. “I used to be a Shadow. One of the Regent’s old Shadows, from the organisation he used to run before they lured him away to Uncanny. He took most of the Shadows with him when he moved; but he didn’t take me.”
“What are you doing here?” I said. And although I could hear how cold my voice was, he didn’t flinch one bit.
“What are you doing here, Drood?” he said, lowering his hands so