As the Dragon pulled into York Station, huffing and growling, cross at being made to stop, Oscar was surprised to see that the station was almost completely empty. The only people he could see were a few nervous looking railway officials, watching them arrive from a high window, and a small knot of policemen standing by the main entrance.
As they got down from the train one of the police officers moved towards them.
"Glad you're here," he said and shook Ridley by the hand. He shot Oscar a disapproving glance but said nothing, "Don't know how you knew, but I won't ask what I don't want to hear. This way..." and he waved them in the direction of the doors that other officers were now holding open for them.
Ridley glanced at Oscar with a confused expression on her face, but said nothing. The two of them got into a waiting car and soon they were racing through the twisting streets with the sirens wailing.
Like London, York seemed to have become a ghost city; the streets empty but for forlorn looking Christmas decorations, that swung, unlit, in the wind. The ancient buildings, sagging over the road with age, seemed abandoned, but, as they passed, Oscar saw curtains twitch and frightened faces peer out at them.
The car made its way out of the city and into more suburban streets. Ridley scrabbled in her pocket and pulled out the map from the White Tower. She turned it round a couple of times and squinted out of the window at the passing road names.
"Well, we definitely seem to be going in the right direction," she said.
"But they seemed to be expecting us," said Oscar, "What's going on?"
"I'm not sure," whispered Ridley, "But they seem to be impressed with us, so lets not disillusion them, eh?" and she winked conspiratorially.
The sirens stopped wailing and the car pulled up in front of an ugly suburban building that was actually two houses pushed clumsily together with an archway in the middle. The archway was currently full of police cars. The driver leaned back over the seats.
"Its the house on the left - there should be an officer on door, he'll tell you what's what..." he nodded towards Oscar and lowered his voice a little, "Are you sure you should be taking the boy?"
"He'll be fine," said Ridley and ushered Oscar out of the car.
The policeman on the door didn't seem at all sure what was what and had to disappear inside several times to confer with his radio and the officers in the house, and sometimes both, before he would let Ridley and Oscar in.
They were met in the hall by an officer in plain clothes, who took Ridley aside and spoke to her in whispers. She turned to look at Oscar and he saw that her expression had become incredibly serious.
"Oscar," she said, "I want you to have a look on this floor, see what you can see. I'm going to look on the first floor..." and she followed the plain-clothes officer up the stairs.
Despite all the whispering and secrecy, Oscar already had an unpleasant sensation in his stomach that made him think that he was quite happy staying down here, where there were plenty of policemen. He had a horrible suspicion that something nasty had happened upstairs, something that he wasn't interested in seeing right now. And given that the police didn't seem all that surprised to see him and Ridley made him suspect that the Erl King might be on exactly the same trail as they were.
He wandered through a kitchen into a sitting room, the cat following quietly at his heels. Policemen, some in uniform, and some in strange, rustling white boiler suits moved about around him. He could tell that they were looking at him but were either too busy working or too wary of these new inexplicable events to actually ask what a small boy was doing there.
He looked around - it seemed like a perfectly ordinary sitting room - a TV in one corner, a big sofa and a couple of armchairs, a coffee table, a mantelpiece with some pictures on it... Oscar looked at the photographs more closely. He walked up towards the mantelpiece, with the odd sensation that he wanted to try and keep what he had discovered secret, even though it wouldn't mean anything to anyone else in the room. He looked around, but no one seemed to be paying at direct attention to him. He gingerly picked up one of the photographs.
"Oscar!"
Oscar jumped and turned and dropped the photograph. All the policemen in the room turned and stared at the sound of the breaking glass. Ridley stepped over to him from the door.
"He's been here. The Erl King." She looked drawn. Her lips were thin as though she had decided something. For a moment she was far away but then she suddenly looked down at him and put her hand on his shoulder. "We better get you out of here..."
"I know why." Oscar bent to pick up the photo. The black cat was standing by it, watching him carefully.
"Come on - leave that - you'll cut yourself on the glass - the police will clear it up."
"No, I know why, why he came here - see?" Oscar lifted the photo frame up and glass fell out at his feet. The cat edged away from the falling shards. Ridley reached down and took it from him.
"Give that to me."
"Look at it, though..."
Ridley was going to put it back on the mantelpiece but then she stopped. She turned it into the light coming through the French windows.
"My goodness..."
The photograph was of a young couple with a baby. They were standing on a hillside with another, slightly older woman. The three adults were smiling at the camera, although the baby didn't seem all that pleased to be outside. Behind them, at the top of the hill, was a squat, black building, like some kind of castle. The older woman, standing beside the couple, was unquestionably, younger but unmistakeable, Maggs.
"Officer!" Ridley was carefully picking the picture out of the frame, flicking away little crumbs of glass. A policeman approached, warily.
"Yes, ma'am."
"This building - in the background here - do you know what it is?"
"That, ma'am? That's just over the top of the hill here - in the University grounds... I not entirely sure what it is, some kind of water tower, I think."
"I thought it was some kind of substation - you know, for the electricity," said a policeman behind them.
"It's one of the University departments, isn't it?" said another.
"It's a funny thing," said the first, "But I've never noticed it on any maps..."
There was a small smile on Ridley's face. She put the photograph in her inside jacket pocket.
"Can someone drive us there, please?"
