Tony might be staying with a friend in what-was-it Street?'
'Webster Street. Have you got cloth ears or what?' said Stringer angrily.
'Good tale stands twice telling,' reproved Dalziel. 'So you went round . . .'
'. . . and I sat in my car, not knowing which house it might be. It were a long street, tall terraces, mainly flats or bedsits, there was no way I could try 'em all. So all I could do was sit and hope . . .'
'What did you hope, Mr Stringer?' asked Dalziel gently. 'That you'd see Tony and persuade him to come home with you? Or that you'd warn him off forever?'
'I just wanted to talk,' said Stringer. 'I'm a reasonable man. I didn't blame him for going off looking for work. Better than sitting on your backside up here, drinking your dole like some I know.'
'You could have given him a job yourself, couldn't you?'
'Do you think I didn't offer?' exclaimed Stringer indignantly. 'He didn't want to work for me, told me flat. Said it were bad enough living with me. I said he could soon put that right if he had a mind to.'
'And he took off south. Right. So now you're sitting in Webster Street and suddenly you see your son-in-law walking along the pavement and he's with this lass...’
'This tart!' said Stringer fiercely. 'I know a whore when I see one.'
'That's a great talent,' said Dalziel admiringly. 'Saves you a lot of bother in a nunnery. So you follow them into this house and have a row..’
'I didn't want a row. I just wanted to know what the useless article were playing at.'
'So there wasn't a row?'
'It weren't all that quiet,' admitted Stringer. 'Upshot were that this tart started yelling she'd had enough, this were her pad, she were going out and when she came back she didn't want to find either of us here.'
'And after she'd gone, you got down to some really serious discussion?'
Stringer said grimly, 'I told him straight I didn't want him coming back up here and being around my lass and my grandson, not after he'd been rolling around with that slag and picking up everything she'd got!'
'Oh aye? And how did you make sure he got the message? Nut him and knee him, the old Liverpool reminder?'
'I never laid a hand on him,' said Stringer. 'Didn't need to. He were passing bricks just listening to me.'
'And you left him well persuaded he'd best not show up here again?'
'I reckon I did,' said Stringer.
'It'll mebbe come as a shock, Mr Stringer, but you were a lot less persuasive than you think,' said Dalziel. 'But mebbe you know that already.'
'What are you on about?'
'I mean your son-in-law, Tony Appleyard, did come back, Mr Stringer. Reappeared and vanished again, like a magician's mate.'
Stringer regarded him blankly.
He said, 'Come back, you say? He'd not come near me, would he? Not after what I'd said to him.'
'It wouldn't be you he wanted to see, would it?' said Dalziel.
He turned and looked up at the stair leading to the office. It was empty now. Wield had descended and was talking to Swain. But a shadowy figure could be seen behind the grimy window.
'And he didn't come near Shirley, if that's what you're thinking. What's all this about anyway?'
'I should've thought that were obvious. Lad goes missing, it's our job to find him.'
'Come off it! You showed no interest before. And you lot don't waste time chasing after folk unless you think you've got good reason.'
'We chase when we're asked sometimes, Mr Stringer.'
'Is that right? And who asked you?'
Dalziel shrugged massively. It was Stringer's turn to raise his eyes to the office window.
'Why's she so concerned about him?' he asked in genuine bewilderment. 'Useless idle lout that's brought her nowt but tribulation.'
'And a child,' said Dalziel. 'You'd not be without your grandson, would you? At least you owe him that.'
'I owe him nowt,' said Stringer fiercely. 'Nowt! Look, will you have to tell her that I saw him in London?'
'That would bother you?'
Stringer thought for a moment. He looked old and defeated. He said, 'No, you're right. Why should something like that . . . something so trivial ... Do you believe in God, Mr Dalziel?'
'As a last resort,' said Dalziel.
'What? Oh aye. Well, I've believed in Him as a first and last and only resort. I've tried to run my life proper. I always reckoned if you did that, then nowt could happen that wasn't meant to happen. I don't mean it'd all be plain sailing, I'm not an idiot, but that it'd all have a meaning and God's will would show through everything!'
'And?'
