Lost and found

At the entrance to the petrol station, Nick held the door open for an old lady. She reacted with a twinkly-eyed smile and said "thank you, young man!" in what seemed a completely over-the-top way.

As she walked away, she seemed to be chuckling to herself over something.

Entering the shop, Nick looked around; the place seemed pretty empty, which surprised him. It was usually, he thought, one of those places that people seemed to treat like a mini-convenience store. On account of it being so convenient, he reflected.

Ron's mate Frank was behind the till.

"Mr McGregor? Hello, sir. My name is PC Crawford, and I've come to ask you some questions about one of your staff." He made a show of consulting his notebook. "A Mister Cotter, is that right?"

"Oh, thank you for coming by, officer - but I'm afraid I may have given you a bit of a wasted journey. The lady who was just in here - did you see her on the way out? - well, she's just been in to tell me Adam's alright. Apparently he's been very unwell, and he'll be off work for a week or so. Too sick to even phone, she said - completely knocked out by a virus."

"I see, sir. And just exactly who was the lady? Some relative of Mr Cotter's, is she?"

McGregor smiled. "His grandmother, it seems. She says she's the only family he's still got here, so she's been keeping an eye on him. Isn't that nice, don't you think?"

Nick smiled back. "Very touching, sir," he replied. He thanked Mr McGregor, and left as quickly as possible.

He didn't know who that woman had been - but she certainly wasn't Adam Cotter's grandmother.



Part Two begins here.