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him.’
    ‘And the man with the hidden camera.’
    ‘Do you recognise the other one?’
    I shook my head.
    She said, ‘Smith called me Ms Lane. I didn’t tell him my name.’
    ‘I know.’
    She sighed. ‘I don’t understand any of this.’
    ‘There’s a note on the back of the photograph,’ I told her.
    She turned it over and read the scribbled note.
    ‘Your dad wrote this,’ she said.
    ‘I know. What do you think it means?’
    ‘Fifth of August . . . the fourth . . .’ She scratched her head. ‘I don’t know . . . “dem” could be an abbreviation.’
    ‘That’s what I thought.’
    ‘Or an acronym. D.E.M. – Department of Energy and . . . something? Drug Enforcement Management? It could be anything. And “last day” . . . ?’ She shrugged.
    ‘Who knows?’
    ‘Did you get anywhere with the BMW’s registration number?’ I asked her.
    ‘It’s registered to a company called Smith & Co Digital Holdings Ltd.’
    ‘Smith?’
    She nodded. ‘The company’s based in Dundee. I googled them on my mobile but I couldn’t find anything.’
    ‘Nothing at all?’
    She shook her head, looking concerned. ‘Maybe it’d be better if we got in touch with the police about this. There’s obviously something going on.’
    ‘The police won’t do anything unless a crime’s been committed.’
    ‘Well, strictly speaking, Mr Smith is guilty of fraud by false representation. But as he didn’t actually try to get anything out of us, I doubt if the police would be
interested.’
    ‘So what do we do?’ I said.
    ‘
We
don’t do anything,’ she replied. ‘I’ll see what else I can find out, and if I come up with anything definite . . . well, we’ll deal with that if it
happens. But in the meantime,
you
don’t do anything, Travis, OK?’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘You know why not.’
    ‘Because I’m just a kid, I suppose?’
    ‘You
are
just a kid.’
    ‘That doesn’t mean I’m an idiot.’
    ‘Yes, it does,’ she said, smiling at me. ‘All kids are idiots. That’s their job.’
    I grinned.
    ‘I know you’re not stupid, Trav,’ she said seriously. ‘I know you’re perfectly capable of looking after yourself. But you need to let me look after you a bit too,
OK?’ She smiled again. ‘Just humour me, all right? Pretend I’m a responsible adult and I know what I’m talking about.’
    I could see the sincerity and determination behind her smile, and I knew she wasn’t just thinking of me, she was thinking of Mum and Dad too. And that really meant a lot to me.
    But sometimes, no matter how much you
want
to do what you’re told, you just can’t help yourself.
    ‘OK,’ I said.
    ‘OK what?’
    ‘OK, ma’am?’
    She laughed.
    I said, ‘Can I have the printout back?’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘I want to show it to Grandad.’
    ‘I thought you said you didn’t want to bother him with any of this?’
    ‘He’ll want to know about it when he’s feeling better.’ She kept her eyes on me for a while, trying to see into my mind, and then – seemingly satisfied that I was
telling the truth – she passed me the picture. ‘Promise me that you won’t do anything on your own, OK?’
    ‘I promise,’ I lied.

9
    I don’t usually break my promises, and I felt really bad about lying to Courtney, but I would have felt a million times worse if I’d just gone home and done
nothing. If there
were
only two days to go before the last day, whatever that meant, I didn’t have time to do nothing. I had to find out what was going on. It was as simple as that. I
had
to know.
    I texted Nan as I wheeled my bike along North Walk –
wth frnds in twn bak l8r travx
– then I turned right into Magdalen Hill, got on my bike, and headed off towards Wonford
Docks.
    It was a hot and humid day, the air thick and heavy, and although it was only a couple of kilometres to the docks, I was covered in sweat by the time I got there. The area
known as Wonford Docks is a mixture of old industrial buildings, car repair places, and