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your
business."
    "I'm really sorry to tell
you that it is my
business," Tommy answered. "I have some bad news."
    Something about Tommy's manner communicated
itself to the young man and he grew a little less wary.
    "Mum's in the living room watching the repeat
of Home and Away," he said. "Are you police?"
    Tommy showed his warrant card. "I'm a
detective at the Witchmoor Edge Branch and I sometimes get jobs I'd
rather not do. This one of them."
    He followed the youth inside and shut the
door behind him, before walking into the lounge. A blonde woman of
about forty and quite presentable switched off the television. Both
the woman and the room were past their best, but still had a
semblance of what they once were. The woman was tidy and groomed
and must have been young when she had the older boy. The room was
clean and carpeted, but you couldn't say a great deal more for
it.
    "Nice timing," she said, "I'd just finished
my daily dose of envy. I'd really like to live in a nice house in a
place where it’s always summer. Still," she said brightening, "I
don't suppose it's like that all the time."
    "This man's come from the police to talk to
you about Kevin, ma," said the scruffy young man.
    "He's been missing since Saturday tea time,"
Mrs. Musworth said.
    "I'm afraid he was pulled out of the canal
drowned on Sunday morning. He had nothing with his address on it
and it until now to track him down from his fingerprint records.
Nevertheless, although were confident of the identification, I'd
appreciate it you would make a formal identification."
    Mrs. Musworth looked faint. "Dead you
say?"
    "I'm afraid so," Tommy said gently. Musworth
might have been a young thug, but even most young thugs have
mothers who care.
    "I wasn't worried about him not coming home
on Sunday," Mrs. Musworth said, "Especially as Wayne Sansom from
next door disappeared at the same time." Then she added with a
hollow emptiness. "I thought he might have got into trouble with
the police again, but I figured I'd have heard by now. I was just
starting to get a bit worried that he hadn't contacted me at all,
but he was always a thoughtless little bugger. Not like Barry." She
nodded at her elder son.
    She took a paper hanky from a box on top of
the TV and blew her nose.
    "He were running out of control since their
dad up and left me. I couldn't keep him out of trouble and he were
thoughtless, like I said." She wasn't really talking to either
Tommy or Barry directly - just talking in general.
    "Now he's dead, you say. Thoughtless to the
end."
    Then a thought seemed to strike her and she
looked puzzled.
    "Fell in the canal?" she asked. "Funny thing
is, he could swim quite well. He had medals for swimming at junior
school."
    Tommy thought Kevin probably hadn't been very
good at swimming while drunk, but he didn't say anything. "Did
Kevin say what he was doing or where they were going Saturday
night?" he asked.
    "He was going to a disco somewhere. I think
it was at that youth centre down the bottom of Bingley Road towards
Saltaire. He went with Wayne Sansom and an older boy called John
something. John ... something Polish."
    "John Koswinski," said Barry. "He's around,
because I've seen him. He might know what happened."
    Tommy thought he probably had a name for the
body in the ruin and for the one who climbed dripping from the
canal. He made a note of the two names and addresses and thought
this was quite a good afternoon's work.
    "I'm afraid I have to ask you to identify the
body, make sure it is Kevin for official purposes. The coroner will
want to know its all been done properly."
    "I think I'll make myself a cup of tea," Mrs.
Musworth said bleakly, the facts seemingly striking home.
    "I think that's a grand idea," Tommy said
encouragingly.
    When she'd gone into the kitchen, he said to
Barry, who seemed to be a lot more human than he looked, "I'll slip
off now, but I'll ring to arrange for someone to take you and your
mum to identify the body. I'll try and find a woman