Grant looked at his watch. ‘I really can’t today,’ he said. ‘Perhaps later in the week?’

She looked disappointed, but she had more than two years before she’d need to hand in her thesis. She could surely wait a day or two.

There was a bang at the top of the stairs as the doors to the lecture hall opened. Grant looked up and did a double take when he saw Mary standing there.

‘Honey?’

She didn’t look happy as she stomped down the steps towards them. Jessica looked from Grant to Mary and back again, looking sheepish all of a sudden.

‘I tried calling you,’ Mary said.

‘I was in the middle of a lecture,’ Grant said. He looked at Jessica.

‘Let me know,’ Jessica said, before turning and, scuttling up the stairs and out of the room, avoiding eye contact with Mary as she went.

‘Keen student?’ Mary asked, sounding a little aggravated.

‘Apparently so,’ Grant said, feeling a little embarrassed.

‘The police came around again this afternoon,’ Mary said, and Grant wasn’t quite sure whether he was happy about the abrupt change of subject or not.

‘Ethan?’

‘Yeah.’

Grant had absolutely no doubt as to which of Merton’s responses to strain Ethan most closely aligned with; retreatism, used to describe people who rejected both cultural goals and means, and who committed acts of deviance to achieve things outside of normal society’s values. Basically drop-outs. True deviants, some would call them.

‘What’s he done now?’ Grant asked, putting his hand on Mary’s shoulder to offer comfort.

‘He was arrested last night for drunk-driving and possession. Again. He was released on bail this morning. Apparently your lawyer got him out. You didn’t know?’

‘What? I had no idea!’

But then Grant did remember that he’d seen a missed call and voicemail on his phone earlier. He’d been in the middle of something else at the time though and, not recognising the number, had forgotten all about it.

‘That isn’t what the police came over for today, though.’

By now Grant’s mind was racing with confusion. Where would the problems stop with that boy?

‘So, what then?’ he asked.

‘They were looking for him in connection with two murders – that woman who was stabbed and was on the news the other day. And a man, too. One of Ethan’s friends. Paul Reeve. But they also asked about a Jimmy Colton and what we knew of him.’