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Bonnie hadn't had to think too long about how to afford a lawyer for John. She and Lucy sat down with Alvin, who sighed at his brother's fate, but made an admission.

"Our parents didn't leave us with nothing." he says. "What John squandered, I invested. I don't spend much. It should be about enough for a lawyer." He shakes his head. "You've done enough for us, Bonnie, you've got the others to support."

"You'll be able to get by yerself, won't you?" Bonnie asks.

"The church houses me." Alvin says. "John won't like it, but that's how it is."

John hasn't let any of them see him since he came out of hospital. When Bonnie telephoned yesterday, they reported he was in solitary confinement, withdrawing from his addiction.

The silence is finally broken towards the weekend, when John actually asks for them to visit. They decide to send Alvin in last, since John might not be in a talking mood after seeing him. As John approaches, Bonnie notices that he looks pretty terrible, but in marginally better shape than last time.

"I'm sorry." John says, sitting down in front of her. "I've been an ass."

"Did they charge you?" Bonnie asks.

"Yeah. Second degree murder." John sighs. "I'm hopin' to get it upgraded to involuntary manslaughter."

"You don't even remember if you did it. We're workin' on a lawyer, so don't say nothin' until they pitch up." Bonnie says.

"Aunt Bonnie... I think I'm goin' to be in here fer a long time." John says. "And there's something I have to tell you. I, er... I may have a kid."

Bonnie blinks. She'd been about to say nothing John could say at this point could surprise her. But that kind of throws her for six.

"You may have? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well, I didn't really believe it was mine." John says, noticing her flinch at 'it', and then grimacing himself. "You remember when you came to my place on the day of my trial, and Jean was there?"

"Jean Edwards, class of '47?" Bonnie remembers indeed. Drunk, high, and not wearing much. "You saw a lot of her fer a while in school, I remember." Beat. "Guessin' you saw almost all of her."

John blushes.

"I didn't know she had a kid, she barely took any time out of school. And she cheated on me a couple times. Her folks took the baby, just pretended they'd had another." John shakes his head. "Last year, I found her again in a bar, I needed a lodger to pay the bills and they moved in. That's when I found out Terry could be mine."

"Where's Terry now?" Bonnie asks. That house did not look safe for a child of... eight, nine?

"I don't know." John says. "I mean, Jean was takin' as many drugs as I was, and her kid brothers were in juvie. Her father got killed in the war, her mom took off with some new guy. I wasn't really in a responsible frame of mind..."

"John, you've been here since August, you haven't asked once?" Bonnie asks, aghast.

"I didn't think Jean wanted to know me." John says. "But now I'm gonna be in here longer, I tried to get in touch, and the phone's disconnected. I was wonderin' if you could go around, see if they're okay."

"I can." Bonnie has a nagging feeling there's something more here. "Wait, was Terry in the house, hidin', when I went round before?"

John looks ashamed, and nods.

"John!" Bonnie shakes her head. "You and Jean were so intoxicated, you cain't keep a child in those conditions."

"Look, I know I screwed up." John says. "I know I let you down so bad, but please, find Jean and Terry, I just want to know they're safe."

"Well you better narrow it down." Bonnie says. "I ain't spendin' the rest of my days lookin' fer missin' people, so if I don't find them it'll be down to the police."

***

It would have helped, Bonnie suspects, if John had at least got a picture of Terry. When she makes her way back to his place, it looks, if possible, in even worse condition than last time she went. The trash bags have multiplied, and all the windows are boarded. But the rubbish in the bags looks, and smells, old, as she goes up to the house.

Nobody answers the door, and she notices a layer of dust around the frame. She skirts around the house, looking for a loose panel of wood, checks around, and carefully slides through a gap in the wood and in through a broken window.

It doesn't look like anyone has lived here for a while. Certainly there's no food in the house. Fearing for a moment that Jean might have left Terry alone, Bonnie checks through the whole property, until she's satisfied that there hasn't been a kid here any time recently.

There doesn't appear to be a whole lot of kid stuff, period. She eventually locates a bed, in the corner of what appears to have been used as a study, where a couple of pictures have been drawn on the wall itself. No clothes, no toys, no photographs. Jean must have taken Terry's stuff and gone.

She heads back out, careful to seal the wood again properly, and goes to knock on the neighbour's door. After a moment, it cautiously opens, and an elderly man peers out.

"Excuse me." Bonnie says. "I'm John's auntie, the guy who used to live next door."

"In the drug den?" the old man asks, scowling. Bonnie sighs.

"Apparently yes." she says. "I was wonderin' when you last saw the woman that lived with him, and whether there was a little boy with her? He'd be about eight. Don't know what he looks like otherwise."

"You're the one that came just before he went to jail, ain't you?" the man says. "Police raided the house a few weeks later, saw them take the woman and a kid, didn't get a good look at him though. Kid's probably in foster care by now."

Bonnie thanks him and heads back home. Wherever Terry is, he was found, so that means she doesn't have to worry tonight. It's another mystery for another day.