'Oh, it's the Speers boy.'

'Who's that with him?'

'That's Alexandra Prynn, the librarian's daughter.'

'What's she doing with him?'

'What have they been doing? He's covered in mud!'

'He's always covered in mud, that one.'

'Kids! Don't they know it's unsafe out here?'

'I heard he's the one who started it! Went missing two days ago, he did!'

'Where's his mother? That's what I want to know.'

'Heard she hasn't left the house since. Just keeps saying he'll be home soon.'

'Aye, 'tis a sad tale.'

'He's always in trouble! The Gibson boy has the scars to prove it!'

'Hah! Taught Bobby Gibson a lesson, if you ask me!'

'How dare you! My Bobby might be dead for all you know!'

'Okay, okay I'm sorry! (But he IS a big bully).'

'Where's that Prynn, anyway?'

'Probably out with young Elsie Smailes!'

'OI! I heard that!'

'Sorry inspector!'

'Never mind him, he seems quite safe to me, what about my boy?'

'And mine!'

'Hush everyone! Now then lad, what have you got to say for yourself?'

It was Alex who spoke first. Billy followed her into the midst of the crowd in a sort of daze, his ears barely taking in the maelstrom of anxious voices and nervous laughter. He was used to being the butt of bitter jokes but here the sentiment was cruel, driven by fear and worry. Amongst the multicoloured ribbons of the villagers' comments he remained guided by a pure pink shaft of light trailing from Alex. He clung to it and it's beauty afforded him some respite from the chaos.

'We saw the man who has been taking all the children,' Alex said loudly. There was a gasp and the muttering crowd fell silent. The Inspector crouched down before the girl and looked seriously into her eyes.

'What's that, Alexandra?' he said.

'We saw the man who has been taking all the children,' Alex repeated, 'He creeps up on you and then grabs you and then -'

'You saw him take someone?' Smailes interrupted sharply, 'Who was it?'

'No,' Alex said, shaking her head, 'we - I mean he tried to catch us.' The little girl puffed out her chest and put her arm around Billy's shoulder, squeezing him proudly. 'But we escaped!' The muttering started up again, but Smailes held up his hand and smiled reassuringly at the girl. Billy watched the black snake of his fear coil around his neck and squeeze. He fought the urge to bat it away. The Inspector hooked a finger into his collar and loosened his top button. When he spoke his voice was quiet, clipped as if he was finding it difficult to breathe.

'Now this is very important Alexandra, what does this man look like?'

'He - he looks like a nightmare,' Billy said, still a little out of breath.

'Yes,' Alex nodded, 'his face is all made of scars like he's been in a hundred sword fights and he wears a long black coat that goes all the way to the ground.'

'He has a thing all strapped onto his head,'

'Like a camera lens-'

'Or a big glass eye and his left hand is all black, like his coat'

'It's a shiny black glove, but only on his left hand.'

'He's big.'

'And scary,' they finished together. The inspector turned to his constable, who was desperately scribbling in his notepad. When the constable looked up and nodded, nervously, Smailes continued.

'Where did you see him?'

'At my house, in the night.' The children spoke at the same time and then looked at each other, startled. Alex let out a little laugh and her story came out in a rush.

'I was getting more firewood for the fire, mum says I always leave it too late and I have to go out in the dark and one day I'll surprise everybody and do something right for once. Anyway I ran to the woodshed and then I had my arms full and I turned around to go back and the man grabbed me out of the shadows. I dropped the wood and screamed and he jumped then I kicked him in the, in the, you know - where it hurts and I ran back inside. Mum was mad I had left the wood and said I'd imagined it but I wouldn't go outside and then she went outside and then he wasn't there anymore.'

The constable sighed in exasperation as he tried to make sense of this story. He sighed a little more loudly when Billy spoke while he was still writing. The Inspector listened quietly and put his hand on Billy's shoulders when he had finished. The little boy was trembling.

'It's okay son, you're safe with us now.' He looked at Alex. 'Now what brought you here today?'

On a normal day all of this would have been ridiculed and stored up for future ammunition against Billy and his mother. On a normal day people would have shaken their heads and the inspector would have told the children to run along and stop wasting everybody's time, while being secretly pleased he's actually had something interesting to do beyond finding Old Mrs Bassenthwaite's wandering ginger tom again. But despite their conspiratorial mutterings and murmurs, the villagers seemed genuinely scared this time. The description of the kidnapper had slotted neatly into the darkest recesses of everybody's worst fears, so no-one interrupted and everybody listened. Smailes would have given anything to be someone else today, because now he had to find this man.

The children were bundled into the back of a police car and told they would be taken to their parents, where they would be looked after until this was all Sorted Out. The Inspector stayed behind to organise a search of the woods. Billy heard the hubbub start up again as soon as they were out of the way. He wondered if the Inspector could still feel the black snake around his neck.

'I hope the snake lets him breath soon,' he said quietly.

'What?'

'What? Oh, nothing!' Billy looked out of the window and tried to bring his thoughts under control. He watched the harrassed Inspector disappear behind the gang of angry faces, hoped desperately the man in the black coat would be found quickly and wondered if Davey was looking after his mother.

'Are you okay?' Alex asked when the car had begun to pull away.

'I think so,' Billy said. 'After you tell your mum you're okay we'll go and see Davey, the old man who lives next door to me. He always knows what to do.' Alex nodded. Billy didn't bother to ask if she knew where he lived. Everybody knew. For a little while they sat watching the village roll by, still holding hands, each lost in their own recollections of the past couple of days.

When they rounded the last corner before Billy's house, there was a screech of tyres, a loud crash and the world turned upside down.