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'You've just been pretending then, have you,' Ralph said to Tommy. 'I must say you make a very convincing thicko.'

Aren't we forgetting something?' Chloe said more loudly. 'Joan killed herself. A friend of ours is dead. Joan is dead.'

'She wasn't a friend of mine,' Josh said. 'I didn't like her. I thought she was a hard-faced little bitch.'

'You can't say that,' Ralph protested. He sounded genuinely shocked.

Josh shrugged. 'It's the truth. The fact that she's dead doesn't change anything.'

'Joan Cox dies next,' Meg said. "That turned out to be the truth as well, didn't it?' She looked at Josh. 'You think that was a hoax do you? How could that be a hoax?'

'Maybe she was the hoaxer,' he said. 'Maybe she planned the whole thing.'

'Why would she do that?' Ralph asked.

Yeah, why would she do that?' Tommy agreed.

Josh rubbed his hand over his shaven scalp. 'To make her death seem more important than it was.'

Chloe couldn't believe he had actually said that. 'I can't believe you actually said that,' she said. Shamingly, she found she wanted to laugh. 'That is so sick.'

'Suicide is sick,' he retorted. 'Sick and stupid and feeble-brained.'

'It does sort of make sense,' Tommy murmured. 'She was manipulative.

And she was theatrical. And if she had already made up her mind to do it'

Chloe got to her feet. 'It was us who failed her. Not the other way round. It was us let her die. I can't believe you're trying to suggest that we're the victims here.'

'You mean we let her down,' Meg said. 'Us three. The ones who were there when the Ouija board came up with all those threats.'

'I didn't say that,' Chloe said, and thought, yes that is what I meant.

'Yes,' Tommy said, 'that is what you meant.'

Chloe said, 'Is it?' and thought, And why not? I wasn't there, you were. I had no idea what was going on.

'And why not?' Ralph said. 'She wasn't there, you were. She had no idea what was going on.'

Had she said that, or thought it? For a moment Chloe was confused about what she had said aloud and what had only been in her mind. Was this another coincidence or was she imagining things?

'You're imagining things,' Josh said to Meg. 'Chloe wasn't thinking that.' He looked at Chloe. Were you Chloe?'

'Thinking what?'

'You weren't thinking Joan's death was down to us and that Ouija board.'

'No,' she lied. 'I wasn't thinking that.' She sat down again feeling foolish. 'I'm sorry.

It's not a good time is it. 'What was happening to her? 'I'm sorry, I'm not thinking very straight.'

'You've got nothing to be sorry for,' Meg said. 'You least of all.'

So you think it was our fault,' Tommy said, even if she doesn't.'

Meg ignored him. 'First that business in the lab, now this. It's no wonder we're all a bit spaced out.'

'They happened at the same time,' Ralph said. 'As far as I can make out.'

Meg said, 'Joan killed herself while we were?' Her voice trailed off.

'While we were imagining all that blood and stuff,' Chloe supplied, remembering the vivid horror of the sensory-deprivation tank. 'I was in the bloody great coffin, that's what you called it wasn't it?' She glanced at Josh, who nodded. 'I was in the bloody great coffin thinking I was dying in a flood of blood, while Joan actually was. The coincidences just keep piling up, don't they?'

Josh nodded solemnly. 'They certainly do.' He drained his glass and burped. 'Maybe we should have another session with the Ouija board,' he suggested.

'You must be joking,' Ralph said without the trace of a smile.

'All of us this time,' Josh said. 'Set our minds at rest. Prove to ourselves there's nothing to it. It's just a bunch of crap.'

'That is a sick suggestion,' Chloe said.

I am a sick puppy,' Josh admitted. I admit it. Are you up for it?'

'You don't seem to understand how horrible you're being,' Chloe said.

Wrong again, Chloe,' he chortled. 'I do understand. I do, I really do.'

'It's disrespectful,' Ralph said. 'I think it is anyway. I think it's disrespectful to Joan.'

'That's rich coming