A NOSE FOR TROUBLE

Let Mum have a sniff about. She said she wanted to call in anyway,’ my boyfriend advised when I rang at work.

Luke was stuck in his office that Saturday morning, but apparently his mum Janice was free to help me track down a mysterious odour in my house that was driving me crazy.

‘She’s legendary in my family, Ally,’ he went on. ‘She has a heightened sense of smell – the nose of a bloodhound. I haven’t told you the story about her and my ex yet, have I? Ask her about it later.’

‘THE HAIRS ON THE BACK OF MY NECK TINGLED’

Janice arrived half an hour later. I’d last seen her in the supermarket sniffing a grapefruit.

I’d had no idea then about her miraculous hooter. A thin woman in her 60s with sharp, blue eyes and brown, wavy hair, she started by surveying my 13-year-old son’s bedroom.

‘I did warn Toby I’d tidy up when he went to his mate’s,’ I explained. I’d cleared out most of the