Myers ran his hand through his hair. “I know,” he sighed. “Believe me, I know. I’m sorry. Put it down to tiredness. I’m out almost every night with the Watch these days. It’s tiring me out. All of us. But we can’t risk another girl getting assaulted.” He smiled. “Do you think I really want to give up my evenings to wander these streets until all hours? I’d rather be home with my wife watching TV and having a beer or two.”

“I’m sure you would, sir,” said Gerry. “But I came to see if you could help us. After all, you do patrol the streets around here, even if you don’t venture as far as Hollyfield. You know better than we do what’s going on in the neighborhood. How many of you are there?”

“In the Watch? Oh, it varies,” said Myers. “We don’t wear uniforms or anything, you know. We’re not some paramilitary militia or vigilante outfit. We just walk the streets, usually in groups of two. My son Chris is also involved on occasion. And Lisa’s father and brother. There’s my next-door neighbor, Bill Parsons; Harry, the landlord of The Oak at the bottom of the hill; the Farrars. Several others. Women as well as men. About twenty in all, but not all active at once, of course. We take turns.”

“Can you give me a list of the members?”

“Of course,” said Myers. “I’ll run off a copy for you before you leave.”

“Thank you, sir. Have you noticed anything unusual in the neighborhood lately?”

“As you said, we don’t patrol Hollyfield,” said Myers, “and we certainly advise our children not to go there, so I can’t really tell you anything about this drug addict. We do know Hollyfield’s a haven for addicts and hooligans. They cross the park sometimes. We’ve had two break-ins lately, as well as the assault, you know, but since we’ve increased our patrols, things haven’t been so bad. We might seem a bit like Dad’s Army to you professionals, but we definitely act as a deterrent.”

Gerry wanted to say they hadn’t been much of a deterrent on the night Lisa Bartlett was assaulted, but fortunately she was smart enough to realize before opening her mouth that it would be wiser to refrain. “I know, sir,” she said. “And we really do appreciate your help.”

“It’ll be a red letter day when that whole bloody Hollyfield Estate has been razed to the ground, but until then we have to live next to it.”

“So you haven’t noticed any strangers or suspicious characters in the neighborhood?”

“No. Things have been fairly quiet lately.”