"Oh yes?" The woman gave a harsh laugh. "I doubt Cody will want to talk to you after the way you've treated him."
She glanced at Owen, then back at May. Owen blinked in confusion.
Still polite, May replied, "Ma'am, this is our first visit here. We haven't yet met Cody, but we do need to follow up on a recent case that he was connected with."
"He didn't do it," she said angrily.
"We're not saying he did," May said in a soothing voice. "We're just hoping we can ask him a few questions. Is he here?"
"My boy's had a hard time." The blonde raised her chin. "He was unfairly suspended from school because of inappropriate behavior in science class, and then he was interrogated by the police in a very unfriendly way, just for holding down a job that he was fired from! It was at least a week before that terrible explosion occurred."
"I'm sure that he definitely has his side of the story, and we'd like to hear it," May said soothingly.
Owen could see the woman's wrath beginning to evaporate.
"He's not in the house. He's in the cottage with a friend." She indicated a small building in the valley, a couple of hundred feet away. "That's where he lives. You can go there, but don't upset him. He doesn't deserve it."
"Thank you, ma'am," Owen said respectfully, feeling as if he should contribute in some small way to the dialogue.
She sighed heavily and shut the door in their faces.
Owen felt briefly worried that he just didn't have May's diplomatic touch. But May clearly wasn't worried. She was already turning in the direction of the cottage.
"I'm glad he's home," she said.
She began striding over the grassy hill, and Owen followed, wondering what would play out when they came face to face with Cody. He couldn't deny that he was curious to meet him, to see what kind of person he was, and if he could be involved in such terrible crimes. Already he got the impression that Cody was a loose cannon, and that his mother was protecting him from the consequences of his actions.
As they neared the cottage, Owen picked up the deep throb of heavy metal music, playing at full volume. The sound reverberated through the air, seeming almost to shake the wooden walls.
Smoke was rising from the cottage's chimney.
Owen frowned. It looked very thick and black to be fire smoke. What was going on inside there?
May was also looking perturbed.
"Perhaps we should take a look, and check it out, before we knock?" she muttered to him.
With explosive devices on his mind, Owen thought that was an excellent idea. If this man was their killer they couldn't be too careful, and needed to start taking precautions now. What if he’d wired a booby trap to activate when the door was opened?
May sidled around to the window. Then she and Owen peered through the rather dusty glass.
Owen's eyes widened as he saw the scene inside.
The cottage was set up like a science lab. There were containers of substances, test tubes, wires, and something that definitely did not look like a wood fire, smoldering in the grate.
Two men, wearing helmets and fireproof suits, were busy connecting the wires. They had their back to the window.
“Explosives!” May hissed.
Quickly, Owen took out his phone and snapped a few pictures, in case these were needed for evidence. His hands were trembling slightly, from the need to be as fast as possible, and also from the shock of stumbling on this nightmarish scenario.
He could not believe they had found the maker – the actual maker – of experimental explosive devices. This was a massive achievement.
“We need to go in there, now, and arrest them,” May stated in a low, firm voice.
Owen agreed. There was no time to waste, and the danger was not yet over, because whatever these two boys were busy with, they looked about to take further steps.
In fact, he revised that. There might be no time at all.