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'Oh yes anyone we know?'

'Emrys Hughes's brother, Selwyn.'

'Not like either of them to be off on a coach trip.’

‘No.' She offered him one of the mugs. 'Here .you are.'

'Oh thanks, love.' He took it and sipped tentatively, at the hot tea. He blew on it a couple of times to cool it. ‘Let’s have a sit down, shall we?' He settled at the table and sniffed at the air. 'Pea soup?' he asked.

'I'm afraid so.'

'Never mind. Best thing in this weather.' .He got up and warmed his rear on the Aga while he cupped his hands around the mug.

His wife looked out at the water-distorted view through the window over the sink. 'You'd hardly believe it's summer, would you?'

At that moment, there came a loud rapping at the front door. Hugh pushed himself away from the warmth of the stove. 'I'll go and see who it is,' he said.

'That's a good idea, love.'

Hugh went into the dark hallway and pulled open the door. 'Hello, Hugh, I've come to stay a few days,' the Doctor said, shaking his wet umbrella over Hugh's feet.

Inspector Stevens chewed the doughy lump of cake contentedly as he watched the faces of people going past the glass front of the cafe. When he had swallowed it he licked his finger and ran it across the surface of the plate to gather up the stray grains of sugar. Then he gulped down the dregs of his coffee.

His lunch over, he rose and went out into the street.

Although officially stationed at New Scotland Yard, Stevens’s office was a rented space in a five-storey Georgian house some distance away from central London. He strolled casually back to his office, nodding at familiar faces, occasionally offering a word of greeting. He went into the house and climbed the three flights of stairs. His was an anonymous door, no different from the toilet door across the landing, perhaps an indication of the esteem in which he was held by his fellow police He pushed open the door and entered his cluttered office. Every wall and every surface was filled with useless and useful junk. Overlooking his desk was a blown-up still from Close Encounters of the Third Kind - as lights flew overhead a group of people held up pieces of cardboard bearing the words

'Stay and Be Friendly', On the opposite wall an array of Escher prints surrounded a map of Britain, dotted with coloured pins. His desk was a mass of papers and magazines; balanced precariously at one end was a desktop computer, He walked over to his desk and pushed the 'on' button on the computer, shut a copy of Zodiac that he had been reading, and sat down,

He had always been interested in the supernatural, the paranormal and the mythical. As a boy it had been one of consuming passions which-it had been assumed he would grow out of, But he hadn't, and when he had left police training school it wasn't long before his interest had paid dividends, There had been a series of mysterious crimes, at first sight unconnected but as they progressed further Stevens had become aware of an increasing disturbance in his Chief Constable's behaviour. After some careful observation, and consultation with a mystic friend of his, he had concluded that his superior was being plagued by some sort of poltergeist. Despite resistance, he ha managed to persuade the Chief Constable to be exorcized, and it had worked, The crimes stopped, and Stevens was reward by being made Inspector and only member of the Paranormal Investigations Team, He had had few successes since that time, but enough to keep him in a job, and enough for his colleagues to steer clear of him.

He flicked a switch on his answerphone to check if there had been any messages. There was one, from a vet called Stuart Taylor who claimed to have discovered a unicorn in Wales. Suddenly Stevens's interest was aroused as his mind groped for a connection. He leaned over to the computer and tapped in the name of the village where the unicorn had supposedly been seen.

LLANFER CEIRIOG, he typed. The computer buzzed softly and after searching through files stored