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    “Not my lad,” she was saying in protest. “My lad wouldn’t do a thing. Nope, not my Danny.”
    “Mrs. Stocks, we’re not trying to accu‌–‌”
    “It’s Ms. Stocks, alright? Ms. Learn to get it right before you start bossing me around, lady. All the same, the lot of you. All the same…”
    “Can I help you, Madame?” Brian looked at Ms. Stocks with concern. Cassy shook her head, battling to resist saying anything inappropriate.
    Ms. Stocks eyed Brian closely. “Just this woman of yours. Us women, we shouldn’t be in the police. We don’t have a clue about things like that. In my day, it was just the fellas. Back to those days, I say!”
    Cassy rolled her eyes. The way she tensed her jaw, Brian knew she was dying to say something.
    “Look, it’s all right,” Brian said. “I’m here now. Cassy‌–‌you grab a coffee. Got one in the car for you. Okay?”
    Cassy, her mouth dangling open, stared at Brian. Then she shrugged and walked over to her police car. “Whatever.”
    Ms. Stocks tutted. “So rude, that girl. So, so rude.”
    Brian sighed. This woman was going to be hard work, but he’d dealt with worse in the past. “Sorry about my colleague. First off, I just want to assure you that we’re not here to do anything to your son‌–‌”
    “Grandson. He’s my grandson, our Danny. Mum died a few years back. Got the breast cancer. Never was strong enough.” She slipped a long cigarette between her chapped lips and took a drag, then let out a tickly, chesty cough. Stale, smoky breath clouded around Brian’s face. The way she coughed, she’d probably want to keep an eye out for “the cancer” herself.
    “Your grandson. Now, we don’t want any trouble, Ms. Stocks. All we want to know is where he could’ve got to. We’re worried about him, okay? That’s all. We just want to ask him a few questions about his girlfriend. You with me, Ms. Stocks?”
    “His ex,” Ms. Stocks said, sharply. “Never was good enough for our Danny, that girl. Didn’t give two shits about him. He thought the world of her, y’know? Thought the world of her. Fool. Silly fool.”
    Brian leaned against the garden wall. He felt something sticky in his hand and turned to see he’d rested his palm on a thick, slimy slug.
    “Oh those bloody slugs,” Ms. Stocks said, pulling the cigarette out of her mouth and ramming it into the slug’s back. It shrivelled and dropped to the floor, drying up almost instantly.
    “You say they split up?” Brian asked, cringing as Ms. Stocks continued to smoke on the slime-coated cigarette.
    “I didn’t say that, did I? His ex, I said. ‘Cause she’s gone now. Long gone.”
    Brian wasn’t convinced. She seemed to know more than she was letting on. Her eyes, the way they twitched. Her evident animosity towards Nicola Watson.
    “You weren’t fond of Nicola, then?”
    Ms. Stocks coughed. “Hope you aren’t trying to say nothin’ about me or my family, ‘cause I swear we ain’t done nothin’, I tell you!”
    “Ms. Stocks, I can assure you I’m not trying to do anything of the sort. I just want to know a little more about Nicola Watson. Try to build the best sort of character picture that I can. You can see how much that could help us, okay?”
    Ms. Stocks took another spluttering drag on her cigarette. “My Danny, he was obsessed with her‌–‌crazy about her. At first, she was all right. But then she’d end up cancelling coming ‘round for tea, ‘cause she had stuff better to do. Broke our Danny’s heart, she did. Then she’d stop coming at all, and Danny would end up having to pay to go see her. Was as if she thought she was too good for us, y’know?”
    All this was good information, but Brian wasn’t getting anywhere concerning Danny’s whereabouts.
    “Ms. Stocks, I don’t mean to pry, but do you have any idea where your grandson might be? Any friends or relatives, or just somewhere he might go to when he wants to be alone?”
    Ms. Stocks