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like I'd hoped.
    "Hannah told us it spoke to you," Langley said.
    Jack nodded. "I don't know if it spoke to me specifically, but I seemed to be the only one who could hear the screams and understand it."
    "It spoke English?"
    "Yes."
    "How strange," Samuel muttered.
    "Did you recognize the voice?" Langley asked.
    We all turned to stare at him. "Why would he recognize the voice?" I said cautiously. The conversation had taken an even more disturbing turn.
    "Uncle?" Sylvia said when he didn't answer me.
    "Did you recognize it?" Langley asked again.
    Jack stretched out his long legs and sat back in the chair. "Not as such, but it was high-pitched and childish."
    "Oh my God," Sylvia whispered. "What was it?"
    We all looked to Langley. "I believe that you encountered a demon," he said. "One that has taken on the souls of the long-dead Frakingham children."
     

CHAPTER 3
     
     
    I stared at Langley, my mouth ajar. The brief but charged silence was punctured by Samuel's snort of derision.
    "There's no such thing as demons," he said. "I don't think you ought to frighten the ladies like that, Langley."
    Sylvia did indeed look frightened. Her entire body trembled, and her eyes were so wide that I thought she might strain a nerve.
    "Didn't we already establish the existence of the supernatural?" I asked. "I thought you'd come to terms with it, Samuel."
    "Ghosts I can accept." He wiggled his fingers. "Even your fire I will acknowledge is not out of the realms of possibility, as are my hypnotic abilities. But you're asking me to believe in an entity that is neither human nor animal, but something else entirely. If demons exist, why aren't we overrun by them? That thing and its ilk would be quite capable of obliterating entire villages."
    The thought of several of those things going on a rampage sickened me even more. I tended to agree with his logic. "I see your point. Surely we'd be aware of them if they existed."
    "Have you never wondered about unexplained phenomena?" Jack asked. "The disappearance of people without a trace, the occasional sightings of strange creatures in the woods?" He nodded at the window. "The horrible death of a man by wild dogs when there are no wild dogs in the area."
    Sylvia folded her arms and hugged herself. "I must say, I like to think Hannah and Samuel are right."
    "That would involve denying what I saw today," Jack said. "Hannah and Samuel didn't see it."
    "In that case, I shall remain in denial," Sylvia said.
    I rubbed my forehead. It ached, and I still felt sick to my stomach. That poor man's screams would never leave me.
    "Perhaps it's wise to keep an open mind," Samuel said. "I'll concede that I don't have an answer for everything."
    Jack gave a grudging laugh.
    "What should we do now?" Samuel went on. "If it is demonic, how do we capture it?"
    "The first thing we must do is alert the authorities," Langley said. "Jack, ride into the village and tell the police about the death. We'll keep to the wild dog story. Claiming otherwise would be counter-productive. In my experience any suggestion of the supernatural is met with ridicule, denial and occasionally admission to an asylum."
    "Oh, thank goodness," Sylvia said. "I was worried you would try to convince the police of the existence of demons. We're quite ostracized enough as it is and with the dinner party at such a crucial stage of planning, the mere whiff of something freakish here would be social suicide."
    "A man has just died, Syl," Jack said tightly. "The dinner party is the least of our concerns."
    Sylvia seemed to deflate, as if his sharp glare had pricked her.
    "What happens after the authorities have been told?" I asked. "They won't catch it, so what should we do?"
    "We must find someone who knows more than we do about demons," Langley said.
    "Who?"
    "I'm not sure, but I can ask Mr. and Mrs. Beaufort."
    "Isn't she a spirit medium?" Jack said. "What do they know about demons?"
    "They have first-hand knowledge." He lifted his hand to stem our