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don’t have souls, so it was no sin to kill them.’
    ‘Sweet of her.’
    ‘She meant well,’ said Ophelia unconvincingly. ‘She offered us a pair of mind-tangler’s anyway.’
    ‘Those things are dangerous!’
    ‘I think that was the general idea,’ said Ophelia dryly. ‘We’re supposed to defend ourselves with them when the werewolves attack.’
    ‘Surely you didn’t take them?’
    Ophelia hesitated. ‘Gloucester did. He said even if the clan is harmless there’s still a murderer about. Said we need to be prepared. Maybe he’s right. I wish I knew.’
    I took a deep breath. ‘All right, we’ve got the lead wolves, the aunts and uncles, and two litters of puppies. And some day the cubs will fight their parents and maybe each other and the winners will…’
    ‘Will breed. And Rusty and Eleanor will retire. Or maybe they’ll just retire without fighting about it. I don’t know. It’s not the sort of thing you ask questions about! Anyway, I bet it’ll be Jennie who takes over—she’solder and bigger than the other girls, so she’ll almost certainly win. And I’d wager good money that Len’ll be the other one.’
    ‘Not Ben and Johnnie?’
    Ophelia shrugged. ‘They’ll probably just submit. Len’s…well, when you meet him you’ll understand.’
    Neo-authoritarianism, I thought. Natural leaders. It fitted.
    There was the sound of feet in the corridor. ‘Hey, did you know there’s a floater…Danny!’
    A slightly grease-stained hug from Hippolyta (she must have been working on the generator again), a drier peck on the cheek from Yorik, a wave in passing from Romeo as he gathered up the rest of the corn muffins and another from Juliet, as he dumped a load of slug-ridden lettuces in the sink and sat down to eat the muffins with Romeo. I remembered Ophelia saying they had made up their tiff. I could hear the yells of the kids outside, then sudden silence.
    ‘That’s your floater outside?’ asked Yorik, joining us at the table.
    I nodded.
    ‘Okay if Gloucester takes the kids for a ride then?’
    ‘Sure.’ I stood up. ‘I’ll just go and…’
    Hippolyta motioned me to sit back down. ‘No need. They’ve already gone. There’s an ancient car engine down by the old highway. I asked him if he’d mind picking it up for me.’ She shrugged. ‘Give him something to do.’
    ‘How is he?’
    Did I imagine it or did the atmosphere tense slightly? Hippolyta pulled out the chair beside me. ‘He’s all right. Hey, coffee! Realcoffee!’
    ‘Danny brought it,’ said Ophelia. ‘There’s more things on the bench too.’
    I’d brought all the Realcoffee I’d had in the house, plus chocolate and Truesugar and wheat flour. Black Stump ate well enough from their gardens and orchards, but anything that wasn’t home-grown tended to run out long before they got their harvest credits.
    ‘Coffee,’ breathed Hippolyta happily, lifting her sandalled feet up onto the empty chair beside me. ‘Yorik, put the kettle on the stove, there’s a love. Has anyone done anything about lunch? Oh, I forgot—I took a call for you earlier.’
    ‘Who was it? Neil?’
    ‘A Water Sprite. She seemed very anxious to get hold of you.’ Hippolyta gazed at me wickedly. ‘A gorgeous girl she was too. What do you get up to at your Utopia?’
    ‘Nothing that involves Water Sprites,’ I said. ‘She probably just wants to know when the beach will be ready.’
    ‘Beach?’ asked Juliet, his arm wrapped cosily around Romeo’s shoulders.
    ‘Just a project I’m working on,’ I said shortly, suddenly embarrassed at having so much time and money to spend on something that was purely for pleasure.
    ‘Do you want me to call her back for you?’ asked Hippolyta, hopefully.
    I shook my head. ‘She can wait until I get home. One thing at a time…’
    Hippolyta grinned. ‘So, you’re going to solve our murders then?’
    ‘Probably not,’ I said. ‘But I’ll try.’
    ‘That’s a good girl,’ Romeo patted my