Nine Bells

The bell above St Cuthbert's rang nine times at a quarter past four in the morning, which it had not done since the flood, because the mechanism had been stripped for parts in 1998 and the tower had been locked ever since.

By six the fog had come up off the levels the way it does, and half the town was standing in the churchyard in coats over pyjamas, waiting for someone official to arrive and tell them it was nothing.

Mercer arrived. She did not tell them it was nothing.