My stomach dropped further. Twelve years was a long time.
‘He was thirty-three at the time. If he had any partners, we’ve not found any mention of them.’
My optimism was evaporating by the second. ‘Anything else?’ I asked. ‘Anything at all?’
‘I think Rizwan found an old Twitter account belonging to him. I’ve got the handle here.’ He read it out loud. ‘I’m afraid that’s all I’ve got.’
‘Can you text me the sister’s details?’ It would be night time in Australia but I could always leave her a message.
‘We didn’t get that far, I’m afraid. All I have is she went to Melbourne.’
Fuck. ‘Alright,’ I said. ‘Thanks anyway.’
‘What is it, Daisy?’ Mark asked. ‘What’s the rush?’
‘We’re searching for a sceptre, right?’
‘Right.’
‘Whatisa sceptre?’ I asked.
It was Hester who answered. ‘It’s a big stick that I’ll hit you over the head with when we find it.’
I wrinkled my nose. ‘Maybe a better question is what does a sceptre represent?’
Mark’s voice was filled with doubt. ‘Power?’
I smacked my lips together. ‘Exactly,’ I said. ‘Power.’
Amy foundWilliam Hausman’s old Twitter account within seconds. There had been no activity on it for years but his old tweets remained visible. We huddled together in the middle of the street as she scrolled through them. ‘There’s not a lot. A complaint about the council, a plug for some local pub, a link to a cat video…’
Otis brightened immediately. ‘A cat video?’
‘Yep. Do you want to see it?’
He clapped his hands greedily. ‘Of course!’
I interrupted. ‘Which pub?’
She pursed her lips. ‘The King’s Head. It looks like a dive.’
I didn’t care what it looked like, I only cared that William Hausman had liked it enough to tweet about it. There might still be people there who remembered him. I jabbed the name into my own phone and found it – it wasn’t even a mile away from where we were standing. My earlier enthusiasm was already returning.
I orientated myself, located the side street and jogged towards it. ‘Hey!’ Amy called. ‘Where are you going?’
Otis sounded concerned. ‘Daisy, what’s wrong?’
‘She’s finally lost it,’ Hester said. ‘All that stress was bound to get to her sooner or later.’
I ignored them and picked up speed. The faster I got to that pub, the faster I could find the answers I wanted. I crossed the street, sprinted around the corner – and came to a sudden halt.
Hester was the first to catch up to me. ‘For fuck’s sake, Daisy. What’s going on with you?’
I didn’t move. I barely even breathed.
Hester buzzed in annoyance – then she looked up and saw what was in front of us. ‘Oh,’ she whispered.
Otis flew to my shoulder. ‘Thank you for waiting,’ he said. ‘What is—?’ He stopped abruptly in mid-sentence and his body stiffened.
