The day of each prophet’s death is marked by their Manifestation. You’re not allowed to attend a Manifestation until you’ve turned 13, and talking about it to outsiders is absolutely forbidden. I’m not comfortable writing down details of the Manifestations. I can only tell you that I’ve seen absolute proof that the dead can come back. That doesn’t mean I think the prophets themselves were truly holy. I only know they come back on the anniversaries of their deaths. The Manifestation of the Stolen Prophet is always pretty frightening but the Manifestation of the Drowned Prophet is the worst by far. Even knowing it’s coming up changes the atmosphere at Chapman Farm.
I don’t know whether the Drowned Prophet can materialise anywhere other than the farm, but I do know she and the others still exist in the otherworld and I’m afraid of calling her forth by breaking confidence around the Manifestations.
Maybe you think I’m crazy, but I’m telling the truth. The UHC is evil and dangerous, but there is another world and they’ve found a way into it.
Kevin
Two days after they’d taken on the Edensor case, and having given a lot of thought to how best to proceed, Strike called Robin from the office. Robin, who was having a day off, had just arrived at the hairdressers. Having apologised to the stylist, who’d only just picked up her scissors, Robin answered.
‘Hi. What’s up?’
‘Have you been through all the Edensor documents I sent you?’
‘Yes,’ said Robin.
‘Well, I’ve been thinking about it and a good first step would be getting hold of census records, to find out who’s been living at Chapman Farm in the last twenty years. If we can track down ex-UHC members, we might be able to confirm some of the claims Pirbright made about what’s going on in there.’
‘You can only access census records up to 1921,’ said Robin.
‘I know,’ said Strike, who’d been perusing the National Archives online, ‘which is why I’m buying Wardle a curry tonight. Want to come? I tipped him off about that tosser who’s paying for everything with fake tenners, and he agreed to try and get hold of the full police report into Pirbright’s shooting in return. I’m buying him curry to soften him up, because I want to persuade him to get us the census records, as well.’
‘I’m sorry, I can’t come,’ said Robin, ‘Ryan’s got theatre tickets.’
‘Ah,’ said Strike, reaching for his vape pen. ‘OK, just thought I’d ask.’
‘Sorry,’ said Robin.
‘No problem, it’s your day off,’ said Strike.
‘I’m actually about to have my hair cut,’ said Robin, out of a desire to show that she was still working on the case, even if she couldn’t meet Strike’s police contact that evening.
‘Yeah? What colour have you decided on?’
‘Don’t know,’ said Robin. ‘I’ve only just sat down.’
‘OK, well, I was also going to ask whether you could come over to Prudence’s tomorrow evening. She’s happy to lend you some clothes.’
‘That’d be great,’ said Robin. ‘Where does she live?’
‘Strawberry Hill. I’ll text you the address. We’ll have to meet there, I’m tailing Bigfoot until five.’
