'We only have his word that they were already dead.'

Jessica looked at her father, who said: 'Wasn't there a witness who saw him go into the house? A woman with a child who was passing by at the time?'

'Yes, I've read the report. But how do we know he hadn't already been to the house, hadn't actually been present when the suicides and executions took place. From what I've learned of this Bishop, he believes in a more scientific approach to the supernatural. Didn't you tell me Boris Pryszlak also had a scientific interest in these matters?'

'Yes, but . . .'

Peck went on. 'You see, it could be that our Mr Bishop is part of Pryszlak's secret sect himself. It could be that he was a member chosen to stay behind to carry on whatever fanatical cause they were all involved in.'

'That's nonsense!' Jessica's face was flushed red. 'Chris was also attacked two days ago!'

'He says.'

Kulek's voice was calm. 'I think you're wrong, Inspector.' His sightless eyes looked towards his daughter and Edith Metlock. 'We all think you're wrong.'

'I also got the impression that he wasn't entirely in favour of your investigations into Beechwood.'

'That's true,' said Jessica, 'but only in the beginning. His opinion is different now. He's trying to help us.'

'Is he?' Peck's tone was flat.

Roper came back into the room and sat in his chair again, retrieving the whisky glass from the floor with an undisguised look of relish. He glanced over at Peck before he drank.

'Bishop went out just after eight. Our obo followed him to a place near Twickenham, er, Fairview . . . no, Fairfield Rest Home.'

Jessica said, 'It must be the home where his wife is a patient.'

'A mental home?'

She nodded and couldn't read the expression on Peck's face.

'Get back on the radio, Frank. Tell them to bring Bishop here. I think he could be useful to this little gathering.'

'Now?' Roper's lips were poised over the edge of his glass.

'Right away.'

The policeman replaced his glass and left the room once more.

Peck sipped at his own whisky and water and regarded Jacob Kulek over the rim of his glass. 'Okay, sir, you said you wanted to talk theory.'

The blind man's mind was still on Bishop. No, it wasn't possible. Chris Bishop was a good man, he was sure. Confused. Angry. But not of Pryszlak's kind. Jessica had finally come to like the man and she was the best judge of character he knew. Sometimes he felt her judgement was a little too good, a little too critical . . . The few men in her life had never come up to her expectations.

'Mr Kulek?' There was a note of impatience in Peck's voice.

'Sorry, Inspector. My mind was wandering.'

'You have a theory?' Peck prompted. Kulek's eyes seemed to be boring into him and he could have sworn he felt the back of his mind being searched.

'It's difficult, Inspector. You are a practical man, a down-to-earth person who does not believe in ghosts. But, I think you are probably very good at your job and therefore, you may have some imagination.'

'Thank you,' Peck said drily.

'Let me start by telling you of the strange experience Edith had two nights ago. Or perhaps she will tell you herself?' He turned to the medium.

'As a sensitive medium, spiritualist, are words you are probably more familiar with, Inspector as a sensitive I am more susceptible to forces, influences, that are outside our daily lives. Forces from a world that is not of our own.'

'The spirit world.'

'If it can be called that. I'm not sure any more. It may be that we have a misconception about what we term "the spirit world". There are others in my profession who are beginning to have the same doubts.'

'Are you saying there are no such things as, er, ghosts?'

Roper had re-entered the room and he gave Peck a bemused look. He nodded at his superior to indicate that his instructions were being carried out, then took his place in the chair and reached for the glass at his feet.

'Perhaps not as we have always considered them,' the medium replied. 'We have always thought of them as individual spirits, existing in another world not unlike our own, but on a higher lever. Closer to God, if you like.'

'And that's all wrong?'

'I'm not saying that.' There was a trace of irritation in her voice. 'We just don't know. We have doubts. It may be that this spirit world is not as far removed from our own as we thought. And it may be that they do not exist as individuals but as a whole. As a force.'

Peck frowned and Roper gulped his drink noisily.

'Inspector, I will try and explain later,' Kulek interrupted. 'I think Edith should just tell you what happened two nights ago.'

Peck nodded his agreement.

'I live alone in a small house in Woodford,' Edith told him. 'On Tuesday evening it was late, some time between ten and eleven, I think I was listening to the radio. I like those phone-in programmes, you know. It's good to hear what ordinary people think of the state of the world occasionally. But the set kept crackling as if someone nearby was operating a machine without a suppressor. I tried twiddling the knobs, but the interference kept coming back. Short bursts of it, then longer. In the end it was one continuous buzz so I turned the radio off. It was then, sitting there in the silence, that I noticed the change in the atmosphere. I suppose my attention had been too fixed on that blessed radio interference for me to have noticed it before. There was nothing alarming about it presences have often made themselves known to me in the past without invitation so I settled back in my armchair to allow it through. It took me only a few seconds to realize it was unwelcome.'

'Hang on,' Peck interrupted. 'You've just been telling me you aren't sure there are such things as ghosts.'

'Not as we think of them, Inspector. That doesn't mean something other than what we see or feel does not exist. You can't ignore the incredible number of psychic experiences that have been recorded. I must stress that at the moment I'm confused as to just what it is that communicates through me.'

'Please go on.'

'I felt my house was being surrounded by a . . . a . . .' she searched for the word '. . . a dark shroud. Yes, as though a blackness were creeping around my home, pressing itself up against the windows. And part of it had already reached me. Part of it was already in my mind, waiting to spread itself, waiting to absorb me. But it needed to smother me physically and something was holding it at bay.'

'Your will power?' Peck said, ignoring Roper's grin.

'Partly that, yes. But something else. I felt darkness was its ally, its travelling companion, if you like. I don't know what made me do it, but I switched on every light in the house.'

Nothing unusual in that, thought Peck. He didn't personally know of any woman living alone who wasn't afraid of the dark. Plenty of men, too, although they wouldn't admit it.

'I felt as though a pressure had been taken off me,' the medium said, and Peck could see by her expression she was reliving the experience. 'But it was still outside . . . waiting. I had to block my mind, resist the urge to let it flow through me. It was as though something were trying to devour me.' She shivered and Peck himself felt a certain coldness at the base of his neck.

'I must have gone into a trance I can't remember any more. Except for the voices. They were calling me. Mocking me. But enticing me, also.'

'What were these voices saying? Can you remember that?'

'No. No, not the words. But I felt they wanted me to turn off all the lights. Somehow, a part of me knew if I did I would be lost to them. I think in the end I just retreated into myself, fled to a corner of my mind where they couldn't reach me.'

That would be a nice trick for me to use when the Commissioner asks me what I've uncovered so far, thought Peck, holding back a weary smile.

They sensed his cynicism, but understood it. 'Edith was in that state when Chris and I found her,' Jessica said. 'When we left you that evening, Inspector, we were suddenly afraid that something might happen to her. Chris, my father, and Mrs Kirkhope had been attacked; we'd forgotten about Edith.'

'And what did you find at Mrs Metlock's house? Apart from the good lady herself.'

'We didn't find anything. We sensed an atmosphere. A cold, oppressive atmosphere. I was afraid.'

Peck sighed heavily. 'Is this really getting us anywhere, Mr Kulek?'

'It might help you to understand my . . . theory.'

'Perhaps we can get on to that now?'

The blind man smiled patiently. 'Believe me, we understand how difficult this is for you. We cannot give you solid evidence, no hard facts. However, you must not dismiss us as cranks. It's vital that you seriously consider whatever we tell you.'

'I'm trying, Mr Kulek. You've told me very little so far.'

Kulek bowed his head in acknowledgement. 'My daughter and Chris Bishop brought Edith here they thought she would be safer. As you know, I was in hospital but returned home later that day. It wasn't until yesterday evening that Edith began to talk of what had happened. When she had been found she was in an extreme state of shock, you see, and it took some time for her to emerge from that state. The only words she had said before then were, "Keep the dark away." It seems the darkness was somehow symbolizing whatever it was she feared. Now I'm sure it hasn't escaped your notice that everything that has happened in Willow Road recently has taken place at night.'

'The woman who attacked you in Beechwood. That was in the daytime.'

'She had killed her employer the night before. I believe that was when the madness hit her. Remember she was hiding in the cellar of Beechwood; in the dark.'

'The murder of Agnes Kirkhope and her housekeeper? The further attack on you? Bishop's alleged attack? These were all during the day.'

'It's my belief that the perpetrators were disciples of Boris Pryszlak. Theirs was a different kind of madness. I think they were a physical guard left behind by Pryszlak to carry out certain duties. Protectors, if you like.'

'Why should he need protection if he's dead?'

'Not for his protection. They were left as a safeguard to his plan. Perhaps a tangible force to support his ethereal force.'

Peck and Roper exchanged uncomfortable glances. 'Could you explain exactly what you mean by "ethereal force"?'

'A force not of this world, Inspector.'

'I see.'

Kulek smiled. 'Bear with me; you might see some sense to it by the time I've finished.'

Peck hoped so, but he wouldn't have laid odds on it.

'When Boris Pryszlak came to enlist my assistance some years ago, he told me he was a man who did not believe in the existence of God. For him, science was the key to mankind's salvation, not religion. Disease and deprivation were being overcome by technology, not by prayer. Our economic and social advances were achieved by science. The decision to create new life was now our own; even the gender of the newborn would one day be decided by ourselves. Death itself, if not entirely thwarted, could at least be delayed. Our superstitions, our prejudices and our fears were steadily becoming obsolescent in the face of new scientific discoveries. World wars had been virtually eradicated not because of Divine Intervention, but because we, ourselves, had created weapons too fearsome to use. Old barriers had been broken down, new barriers smashed through by mankind's own ingenuity, not by some superior being in the heavens.

'Pryszlak claimed that one day we would even discover scientifically how we gained that ingenuity, how, in fact, we were not created by a mystical Someone, but created ourselves. We would prove by science that there was no God.'

Kulek's words were said calmly, his voice soft and even, but Peck could feel Pryszlak's madness in them. It was the cold logic of a fanatic and Peck knew these were the most dangerous kind.

The blind man went on: 'So, if there was no God, there could be no Devil. Yet, as a pragmatist, Pryszlak could not deny the existence of evil.

'Through the centuries, religious and mystical leaders had always played on the superstitions and the ignorance of their fellow men. The Church had always insisted that Satan was a reality: for them it helped to prove the existence of God. Freud had confounded the Church and demonologists alike by explaining that each of us had been through a phase of individual development corresponding to that animistic stage in primitive man, that none of us has traversed it without preserving certain traces of it which can be re-activated. Everything which now strikes us as "uncanny" fulfils those vestiges of animistic mental activity within us.'

'You're saying that somewhere in here ' Peck tapped his temple ' is a part of us that still wants to believe in all this "evil spirits" nonsense.'

'Freud said this and, in many respects, I believe he was right. In thousands of cases where ecclesiastical exorcists have tried to rid disturbed men and women of so-called diabolic possessions, rational examination has revealed a varied range of psychoses in those same people. Philosophers such as Schopenhauer advocated that evil sprang from man's fear of death, his fear of the unknown. It was man's will to survive that brought conflict to the world, and within himself. But his own iniquity had to be blamed on something someone else: Satan provided the ideal psychological scapegoat. In the same way, because of the adversities inflicted on man throughout life, and because he knew his own inadequacies, man needed a god, a superior, someone who would help him, someone who, in the end, would provide the answers. Someone who would pull him through.

'Unfortunately for the Church, the age of rationality is here; perhaps one could say that education has been the greatest enemy of religion. The edges have become blurred, questions are being asked: How could atrocities be committed to achieve right? Wars, killing, executions how could "bad" acts achieve "good"? How could men the world knew to be evil claim God was on their side? Would a civilized country ever fight a religious war again? In the late seventies, who had been the more evil, the dictatorial Shah of Persia or the religious fanatic, Ayatollah Khomeini who overthrew him? Idi Amin claimed to have conversed with God several times. Hitler claimed God was on his side. The persecution of so-called heretics throughout the centuries by the Church itself has still not been answered. This dichotomy has been challenged and Pryszlak saw it as man's recognition of his own powers, a predetermination over his own destiny. He had discovered his own Original Sin and decided it wasn't as evil as the Church had always taught him. Satan has now become a source of ridicule, of entertainment, even. A comical myth. A bogeyman. And evil came from man alone.

'Pryszlak believed it was a physical energy field within our mind and, just as we were learning to use our psi faculties energies such as telekinesis, extrasensory perception, telepathy, telergy so we could learn to use physically this other power.'

Kulek paused as if to allow the two policemen's thoughts to catch up on all he had said. 'I think Pryszlak developed his concept into a proven fact: he located this source of energy and used it. I believe he is using it now.'

'That's impossible,' said Peck.

'Many things in your own lifetime that you once thought impossible have been achieved by science, and knowledge in every field of technology is in escalation. Man has accomplished more in the last hundred years than in the previous thousand.'

'But for Christ's sake, Pryszlak is dead!'

'I think he had to die, Inspector. It's my belief that Boris Pryszlak and his followers have become that energy.'

Peck shook his head. 'I'm sorry, you know I can't buy all this.'

Kulek nodded. 'I didn't expect you to. I just wanted you to hear a theory I'm convinced is true. You may have cause to reflect upon it over the next few weeks.'

'What do you mean by that?'

'The madness will get worse, Inspector. It will spread like a disease. Every night there will be more who will succumb to its influence, and the more minds it takes the stronger it will grow. It will be like the raindrops on a windowpane: one small drop will run into the one below, then both into the one below that, growing in size and weight until it is a fast-flowing rivulet.'

'Why night-time? Why do you say these things only happen when it's dark?'

'I'm not sure why it should be so. If you read your Bible you'll see evil is constantly referred to as darkness. Perhaps that terminology has more significance than we thought. Death is darkness, Hell is in the dark, fearful underworld. The Devil has always been known as the Prince of Darkness. And isn't evil expressed as the darkness in one's soul?

'It could be that darkness is the physical ally to the manifestation of this energy. Perhaps the biblical concept of the constant battle between Light and Darkness is a true, scientific concept. Whatever energy light rays contain, be they from the sun or artificial, it may be that they counteract or negate the catalystic qualities of darkness.

'Pryszlak implied much of this at our last meeting and I must admit that although I often found his ideas fascinating, this time I thought there was some madness in his thinking. Now I'm not so sure.'

Kulek's frame seemed to relax imperceptibly in his chair and Peck realized the blind man's disquieting statement was over. He looked at each individual in the room and noticed even Roper's secretive smirk had disappeared.

'You realize everything you've just told me is totally useless to my investigations, don't you?' he said bluntly to Kulek.

'Yes. It is at this moment. Soon I think you will change your mind.'

'Because more is going to happen?'

'Yes.'

'But even if what you say is true, what would be the point for Pryszlak?'