There was a screech of brakes and a sudden shout outside, and Norman leaped up and ran to the window. His head swiveled from side to side as he scanned the street for signs that the kerfuffle had anything to do with Leonard. After a few seconds he turned back and shook his head dejectedly.

“Nothing, Mum. What are we going to do? Where is he?”

Norman sat back down heavily on the bed and started turning the phone around in his hands.

“Hey, Mum. Do you think...? I mean, it’s kind of an emergency, so do you reckon...could we maybe look in Leonard’s phone and see if we can call Iris or something?”

And because I was clueless as to what to do next myself, I agreed that, in these circumstances, it might be okay to nose through an old man’s private property without his permission. Within a few seconds, Norman passed the phone back to me with the trail of Leonard’s call-history revealed.

There was a landline number at the top with double digits in brackets beside it indicating the number of recent incoming calls. In fact, it appeared to be the one and only number Leonard had been called from in the last two weeks or so. It had a southwest prefix, so I assumed it had to be his home number, with Iris waiting on the other end.

“Mum, so do you think we should call Iris? Maybe Leonard mentioned something to her and she’ll be able to tell us where he’s gone. Just to...you know, put our minds at rest.”

Norman’s voice was slightly shaky and I could tell he was getting worried about his new old mate. I thought it was doubtful that Iris, several hundred miles away in Penzance, would know where her husband might be at this time of the morning in Edinburgh, but we didn’t have anything else. And I had to admit, when I realized how much time had passed, I was definitely starting to worry a little.

I hit return call against the number and put it on speaker, gesturing for Norman to lean in. I figured I’d just wing it with some small talk rather than straight out declare to Iris that her husband had disappeared without even taking his coat, but as I was gathering some thoughts about the weather the number barely even rang before a voice answered.

“Good morning. Wheeler Center Exeter, Emily-Jade speaking, howmayIhelpyou?”

I hadn’t expected anything other than a sweet old lady’s voice on the other end, so I was a little taken aback.

“Hello...um... I... I...”

Norman was way ahead of me, though, and started making the hang-up sign before Emily-Jade could say anything else. I hit the red button just as a slightly concerned sounding “Hello? Hello, can you hear me? This is the Wheeler...” came down the line, then dropped the phone back on the bed.

“Well, I think we can safely say that wasn’t Iris, can’t we?” I was still a little flustered at being put on the spot by Emily-Jade.