The smell of old fish and spilled diesel wafted across the quay. Off in the middle distance three massive seagulls were fighting over a cod’s head, screaming at each other as they swooped and dived.

‘And are the fights worse when he drinks? ’

‘Nah. . . Well, you wouldn’t be able to tell, ’cos he never stops drinking.’

Chalmers looked up from her notebook. ‘What about when he takes drugs? ’

‘What, weed? ’ A laugh. Then the last smouldering stub of cigarette pinged out over the edge of the quay and into the rainbow-filmed water. ‘Not exactly drugs, is it? Just a bit of mother nature’s finest to help a body unwind. God knows where he gets it from, but it’s mint. . .’ Clive’s mouth clamped shut, he rolled his shoulders forward, looked off into the middle distance. ‘Not that I would know anything about that, Officers.’

‘Any idea where they’re staying? ’

Clive rubbed his hands down his bloody shirt, then dug a hairnet out of his apron and pulled it on. ‘No idea. But wherever it is, she’s probably winding him up something chronic.’

‘. . .and I mean seriously loopy.’ Penny Cooper sucked at her teeth for a bit, staring up over Logan’s shoulder at the secur-ity monitor mounted above the whiteboard. Then she sighed, broad shoulders moving beneath the black T-shirt. Enough gel in her ash-blonde hair to make her look like an electrocuted Jedward. ‘OK, she’s pretty enough, if you like that whole brash perky look-at-my-boobs thing, but still. . . Welcome to Freaktown, population: Agnes.’

The bookshop staff room smelled of stale kebab and onions, the microwave buzzzzzzing away to itself on the countertop. Breezeblock walls painted white, and covered with posters for kids’ books and serial-killer thrillers.

Penny peered through the microwave door. ‘Always takes forever, doesn’t it? ’

‘Do you have any idea where they might have gone? ’

‘He’s been banging Stacey the whole time, and Agnes still won’t take the hint. Tell you, I lost count of the times Ton’s tried to ditch her, but she’d just turn up the next day with a litre of voddy and a six-pack of Stella, and that would be that. This one time, he dumped her right before Valentine’s Day and she went out and got his name tattooed right on her thigh. How weird would you have to be? ’

Logan glanced over at Chalmers: still scribbling away in her notebook.

‘So you’re saying he’s a heavy drinker? ’

‘Agnes the nutter drove him to it. Always burbling on about Harry Bloody Potter and Twilight, and that stupid Witchfire book. Seriously, what is she, six? ’