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opportunity.”
    “Motive. I get that, even though they’re totally not understanding what Nanna meant when she talked to that guy. Adam Bitzer. But means?”
    “Anyone can fire a gun. Ballistics can’t match the trace with anything in our system, and we’re assuming it’s an unregistered weapon that was disposed of later.”
    I sighed. Not being able to match a weapon against Nanna should’ve been a positive, but at this stage it was more like a neutral. “But what about getting into the building?”
    “Adam buzzed someone in a couple of minutes before his death.”
    “And you think it was Nanna.”
    “It was someone he knew and wasn’t scared of.”
    “Hang on, aren’t you saying he was scared of Nanna?”
    “You know what I mean. Not physically scared.”
    “Right. And that brings us to opportunity.”
    “Exactly.”
    I frowned and thought over her words. What she’d just told me wasn’t much help, but still. At least now I knew where we stood. It was a start. “Thanks for telling me all this,” I said. “I really appreciate it.”
    “That’s ok. Besides, the press’ll probably grab hold of this information pretty soon anyway, so… as long as you don’t snitch to anyone, we should be ok.”
    Emily had only met Nanna once or twice and,, although she was downplaying her help, I knew this kind of stuff could put a cop’s job on the line. Despite that, I pressed on.
    “What about suspects?” I asked. “Surely there must be a better suspect than a sweet old lady like Nanna?”
    “No. I’m afraid not. Adam had no real enemies, and there wasn’t anything much going on in his life.”
    I sighed. “I guess that’s good to know. Thanks again.”
    She brushed off my gratitude gruffly, and we decided to meet for drinks in a few days’ time. Under normal circumstances, I would’ve spent some time chatting about my date with Jack, but I just didn’t feel like talking about anything else right now, and Emily understood.
    “Good luck with your investigation,” she said, as she hung up.
    Right, I thought. My investigation. So far I’d learnt that Nanna was the chief suspect, there were no other real suspects, and Adam had no enemies. It didn’t look very promising, but I had to get to work and try to find something useful.
     

Chapter Nine
     
    Stone and Nanna had been watching me during my entire conversation with Emily, and now both of them were staring at me impassively.
    “I never had this conversation,” I told them, and they nodded. “It’s pretty serious, you know,” I added to Nanna.
    “You sound just like your mother,” said Nanna. “She keeps saying stuff like, ‘This is what happens when you go around threatening people.’ How was I supposed to know that the loser was going to get himself offed?”
    I looked at her doubtfully and said, “Best not to talk about the guy like that. And since when do you talk about people getting ‘offed?’”
    “You learn things. That’s what you call it, right? My friend Steven used to work for the – ” she jerked her head sideways twice, “as an enforcer, until he had his first heart attack. Still has connections.”
    “La, la, la.” I covered my ears with my hands. “I’m not hearing any of this. La, la, la.”
    I closed my eyes and wondered just how long Nanna intended to stay at my place. At least the duffel bag wasn’t big – but then again, I’d heard of people who went travelling through Europe for months on end with just a tiny backpack. Maybe Nanna was like one of those people, and she could survive for eons at my place, with just a stiff old purse, some paisley-print dresses and a fast laptop.
    There was a knock on the door and I sighed, knowing who it would be.
    “Hey!” said Ian, when I opened the door. He peered around me and caught sight of Nanna and Stone. “Everyone’s here! Cool!”
    He stepped inside and stood in front of the sofa.
    Nanna closed the fridge and turned around. “Hello, Ian. It’s nice to see