‘Oh, I’m fine thanks. Not brilliant, but okay.’ Maggie paused, not sure exactly what the purpose of her call had been. ‘I guess you’ve heard the news about Janet?’

‘Oh yeah. What is going on? Two of us in less than a week. I don’t like this one little bit.’

‘I know what you mean. I’m keeping my front door locked when I’m in the house, you know, just in case.’ Maggie couldn’t help but feel a bit stupid by her admission.

‘Yeah, I’ve told Pete he has to work from home at the moment. I don’t want to be left on my own with the kids when there’s some nutter out there.’

‘You think it’s a random nutter?’ Maggie asked.

‘I don’t know. Why, what do you think?’

‘I think it’s someone we know, for sure.’ The words made Maggie feel queasy.

‘Really? Who?’ It seemed that thought hadn’t occurred to Kim.

‘I dunno. Wouldn’t like to say either, but it’s not a coincidence, is it?’

‘No, I guess not.’

‘Anyways, I didn’t call you so I could play Miss Marple.’ Maggie wanted to move the conversation on. ‘I was calling because I’ve been thinking about Dean.’

‘Yeah. Poor kid.’ Maggie could hear that Kim was smoking.

‘Shouldn’t we do something? Go and see him? Check if he’s okay?’

‘I suppose we could.’ Kim didn’t sound as enthusiastic as Maggie had hoped.

‘He’s got no family around here, has he? We could just take him some shopping and make sure he’s taking care of himself.’ Maggie had always been a kind person.

‘It’s a nice idea, but none of us really know him, do we?’ Kim had a point.

‘But Shirley does, doesn’t she?’ Maggie planted the seed.

‘Yeah, Shirl knows him.’

‘Well, maybe you could call her and suggest she drops by to check on him? I’m not really speaking to her, after what happened at Amy’s house.’

‘I’m not sure I should get involved.’ Kim was doing her best to avoid any responsibility. She knew Shirley would be upset by the death of her friend and wasn’t looking forward to having to talk to her about it.

‘We could all chip in for a hamper, or something. She could just drop it round.’

‘Mags, he’s nineteen. He won’t want a hamper. More likely booze and fags!’ Kim had a point.

‘Alright, not a hamper, but something. Maybe we could do a collection and give him some money to help tide him over?’

‘Not a bad idea.’ Kim said, watching the twins playfully wrestling in the water and seriously contemplating joining them when the conversation was over.

‘I’ll call round everyone and you speak to Shirl, yeah?’ Maggie encouraged.

‘Yeah, leave it with me.’