Falling Again for the Animal Whisperer

by Becky Wicks

  The candle on the hearth had burnt out. Lambing season meant all kinds of call-outs at odd hours, so she wasn’t alarmed at first...but then she saw the flashlight outside through the window. The beam across her face had woken her up.

  Jodie’s heart surged as another light flashed fast across the flowers in the window. It seemed to be moving towards the kennels.

  Grabbing up her phone, she sprang from the rug Cole had draped over her and pulled on his oversized shirt and her jeans, which they’d left on the couch. Her boots felt rough without her socks as she slid her bare feet into them. Outside, the dogs were strangely silent, which didn’t feel right. Some of them always barked, unless it was someone they knew.

  ‘Russell?’ she called, expecting the stablehand to answer. Nothing.

  She shone her phone light into the night. ‘Toby?’

  She swallowed her nerves. It couldn’t be Toby: he’d be in bed. Cole’s Land Rover was gone from the driveway, so it definitely wasn’t him either. It was just her, facing a row of quiet kennels.

  She called Cole’s phone, left a message. ‘Cole, everything is probably OK, but I thought I saw a flashlight near the kennels. I came outside to check it out but...there’s no one there. It’s a bit weird.’

  Embarrassed, she hung up. She didn’t need to bother him over nothing and he was probably busy. She couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary now, but she crossed the yard to the stables, just to check. The grass crunched under her feet. Inside, the horses were quiet. Some were sleeping, some were munching and she lingered a moment by Blaze.

  ‘How are you, beautiful boy?’ she whispered, breathing in the heady scent that always soothed her. The horse snorted softly but didn’t move or show any agitation. She reached out a palm to an inch from his forehead. ‘You can trust me,’ she said.

  To her surprise, Blaze lowered his head, if only slightly, permitting her to lay her hand flat against him. It was the softest touch, the first time she had ever touched him. Her heart thrummed this time with excitement as she stroked his face, around where his scars were healing well. She couldn’t wait to tell Cole.

  A noise made Blaze’s ears prick up. Jodie raced back outside. It sounded like something heavy had fallen and now the dogs were barking up a storm. Back at the kennels she hovered in the shadows. ‘Who’s there?’

  A black figure slipped behind the last cage in a row of kennels, where they kept Blue and her puppies.

  ‘I’m calling the police!’ she announced, as her heart leapt to her throat.

  A light flickered on in the main house behind her, just as the figure in black appeared right in front of her. Heavy hands slammed her against the bars of the last cage. Her phone shattered on the concrete. The impact across her back felt like someone had struck her with ten baseball bats and was so painful she lost her voice.

  Gasping for her breath, Jodie kicked at the man pinning her by the shoulders, but he was strong for someone so slight. He was in his mid-thirties, wearing a black tracksuit and blue trainers. She recognised those trainers... ‘What do you want?’

  His clammy fists gripped her wrists. Jodie’s brain was in overdrive. She thought she’d seen him somewhere before, but she couldn’t place him. ‘Let go of me!’

  ‘Not unless you promise to be quiet.’ His growl was pure alcohol. ‘I’ll be out of here in seconds, then you can just forget about me. Understood?’

  Headlights suddenly roared towards them on the driveway. Her attacker faltered and Jodie watched the satchel he was holding slip from his shoulder. A car door slammed, a puppy yelped from inside the bag before a little head poked out—one of the French bulldog pups. ‘Don’t say a word,’ her attacker warned her.

  ‘Don’t threaten me. You were trying to steal the dogs!’ Struggling again to free her wrists, she almost kneed him where it would have hurt most. She got so close she could see the anticipation of impact in his eyes...but in a second he was gone, ripped from her at gunshot speed.

  ‘Get away from her!’

  Cole was here. A rush of air felt like a whiplash as he slammed the guy up to the bars with one arm and held the other across her like a barrier. ‘What did you do to her?’ he roared.

  Jodie gasped and struggled for composure as Ziggy leapt around their feet. She tried to take hold of Cole’s arm but he wasn’t letting the man go. ‘Cole, he didn’t do anything. I’m OK.’

  She watched his jaw tense as fury ravaged his features. His knuckles were white. A siren wailed briefly in the distance. ‘Were you trying to take those dogs?’ Cole’s fury was pouring over the intruder like magma as she scooped two puppies up from around her smashed-up phone. Her legs were shaking in her boots.

  ‘I was just taking what’s mine!’

  ‘What do you mean, what’s yours?’ Jodie managed, but she remembered now where she’d seen those trainers. ‘Cole, he’s the guy from Miss Edgerton’s photo...’

  ‘I told my girlfriend she shouldn’t have left them here with you!’ The guy was fuming but Cole ignored him.

  ‘Are you OK?’ His eyes were slits of black, shimmering in fury and contempt. It shocked her.

  ‘I’m fine.’ Her back throbbed as she pickeded up the last pup. Cole saw her struggling a little on her feet, and the sight made his mouth contort before he hauled the guy into an empty kennel.

  He swiped the bars across, bolting the iron gate shut. ‘Stay quiet, you’re on camera,’ he snarled, jabbing one finger to the hidden security cam inside one of Ziggy’s old dog toys.

  He turned to Jodie and held her at arm’s length. ‘You’re hurt.’

  ‘Maybe a little bruised, but I’m fine. I’ll be all right.’

  Cole scanned her face like she was a precious jewel about to crack. Jodie’s back was still throbbing but she knew it was nothing serious. She was just glad the man hadn’t got away with his crime.

  ‘I would have kneed him in the privates if you hadn’t got to him first,’ she told him. ‘You came when you got my message?’

  Cole’s nostrils flared, and for a second he looked like he wasn’t even there behind his own eyes. He was someone she didn’t recognise at all.

  ‘Cole?’

  The police car was pulling up next to the Land Rover and double headlights shone accusingly on their locked-up perpetrator. Russell ran towards them, a policewoman close behind.

  Cole seemed to retreat into himself as he strode down the line of kennels, somehow silencing the barking dogs in seconds. She noticed a shower of dog treats on the floor around the kennels. The perpetrator had stopped them barking by giving them food—the preparation was impressive for a drunk.

  It transpired the man—John Kowara—had been following Cole, working out his schedule, planning on when to take the puppies back so he could sell them himself on the black market for a disproportionate price.

  ‘It could have been him who was watching us from the lighthouse with a camera,’ Jodie told the policewoman, hugging her arms around herself.

  ‘We’ll check his phone when we get to the station,’ the policewoman told her. ‘Meanwhile you should think about pressing charges for assault.’

  ‘Yes, you definitely should,’ Cole said through gritted teeth. His arm tensed around her shoulders as Kowara was carted away to the police car.

  Later, in bed, she listened to the sound of Cole’s steady breathing like a lullaby she’d missed for longer than she could remember, but Jodie still couldn’t sleep. The scene kept playing on a loop inside her head—the attack, the residual shock of it, the poor pups, who must have been terrified, and Cole... Cole had gone crazy seeing her being threatened by that guy. He’d looked haunted more than anything and it was haunting her now. She had never seen anyone look like that in her life.

  * * *

  Cole passed the kennels, raising his hand in greeting at Toby, who was sweeping the cages eagerly like he did every Sunday m
orning. They had three more people coming to look at adopting dogs later and another crazy day ahead, enough to keep him and an army busy, but he couldn’t stop his brain rehashing the break-in.

  He’d just watched the security footage. Twice. It made his blood run cold, seeing Kowara making a lunge for Jodie.

  Jodie and Dacey both looked up when he walked into the kitchen, and a little lamb wobbled out from around the fridge, knocking a magnet off the front as it passed.

  ‘Did you watch it? Can you see him taking the puppies?’ Jodie’s eyes were brimming with concern as Dacey left the room to greet a client in the surgery.

  He dodged the lamb and retrieved the magnet. ‘It’s all on film,’ he said, sticking the photo of Evie’s grandkids back on the fridge. ‘It’s with the police report.’

  ‘OK...good. Well, if they need me, I can talk to them from the road.’

  The sudden tightness in his chest made him put his coffee cup down without pouring anything. Jodie had to be at the airport in a matter of hours. She had been here just over a week already. He still didn’t really know when she’d be back at Everleigh. It depended on Emmie’s school and her ex’s schedule, he supposed. He didn’t want to pressure her by asking, especially after last night.

  She probably wanted to go back. She’d been in danger here. He had put her in danger. He’d gone out on a call with Ziggy and he hadn’t locked the door of the cabin behind him. Something far, far worse could have happened to Jodie after Kowara had scaled the fence at the entrance and sneaked in while she’d been sleeping to get the keys to the kennels.

  Jodie crossed to him. ‘Cole, are you OK?’

  He glanced at her hand on his arm as his guts twisted up into a knot. ‘It will be easier to press charges if they find evidence he was watching us before he broke in,’ he said, picking up a chunk of ham from Evie’s chopping board and tossing it to Ziggy.

  ‘I probably won’t press charges myself,’ she announced suddenly, folding her arms.

  She couldn’t be serious. ‘He attacked you, Jodie. You have to press charges.’

  ‘He’s already being prosecuted for theft and you got to him before he could do anything worse. Not that he would have done, he was just trying to scare me into letting him take the dogs. I told you, I was about to knee him where it hurts.’

  Cole just stared at her, raking a hand across his chin, then shoved his hands in his pockets so she wouldn’t see his fists clench. He’d been picturing his father the whole time he’d been staring at the footage. Kowara could have been him, laying his filthy hands on Jodie. It had brought everything back, the way he’d had to fight his father off, time after time.

  ‘You don’t know what he would have done to you, Jodie,’ he growled. ‘He was totally wasted.’

  She poured herself a glass of water from the sink, sighed. ‘I don’t want to think about it, Cole. I have to get back to Emmie. I’m too busy—’

  ‘Too busy?’

  ‘Yes, and if we start that process we’ll have to keep on thinking about it! Everything is OK now, isn’t it? The police won’t let it happen again and neither will you.’

  His jaw clenched. The security footage still wouldn’t leave his head. There was Jodie, wearing his shirt out in the yard. One second she’d been shining her phone around the kennels and the next she’d been pinned against the bars. It had made him see red. It had been his childhood all over again. He’d been the victim so many times, too damn scared to bring the man to justice; thinking he’d be hurt even more just for speaking out.

  ‘I can’t let you go without facing this, Jodie, and I’ll be with you.’ He wanted to rewind real time like he’d rewound the security footage, but he couldn’t go back and stop Jodie being attacked on the property. Their property. She’d been adamant on selling her half before...she’d be even more determined to do so now. At least, he wouldn’t blame her if she was.

  He couldn’t believe she just wanted to forget about it. Maybe she was frightened of the consequences of pressing charges, like he’d been all those years ago, fending off the fists that had always come at him.

  ‘I told you, I’m OK. Please, just let it go,’ she said gently, as if she was reading his mind, God forbid.

  ‘I can’t do that.’

  Vinny came into the room with a bottle and took the lamb over by the fire for a feed. ‘We have two kids and pigeon in there,’ he said to Cole, nodding towards the surgery, oblivious to their conversation.

  ‘I’ll go and help. You rest,’ Jodie said quickly, like she was trying to escape him. Cole followed her to the door.

  ‘It’s your last day and I’m not letting you out of my sight,’ he said, keeping his voice low. Already it felt like she was slipping through his fingers.

  She turned, eyes narrowed. ‘Cole, you do know that what happened last night wasn’t your fault? If anyone is to blame for him getting in, it’s both of us. We were both distracted, doing things last night that we’d said we wouldn’t do...’

  ‘That’s no excuse for what he did to you, Jodie.’

  ‘You don’t have to worry about me.’

  But I do, he thought to himself, holding the door open, resisting the urge to reach for her. I always worry about you, I always did everything I could and I still couldn’t protect you.

  Jodie was downplaying her injuries and the shock of what had just happened to her to save his feelings, but he knew when she was hurt, inside and out. He spotted her stretching out her back a couple of times as she pulled her white coat on. She caught him looking, pretended she was fine. Just like he always used to do in front of her.

  It was too late for pretence. He’d seen the bruises on her flesh in his bed this morning, angry black and blue marks along her spine. She was leaving Everleigh for Edinburgh hurt today, and that was everything he’d always done his best to prevent.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  THE TWO YOUNG boys studying the pigeon with Cole were a little older than Emmie and Toby, but it turned out they went to the same school. ‘What happened here, guys?’

  ‘We were playing in the field when we saw it. We think its wing is broken,’ one of them said despondently.

  The pigeon was silent in Cole’s steady hands on the table. He held it up, showing them the tag on its bony pink leg. ‘It’s a racing pigeon. We can find out who set him off on his flight if we type this tag number into a special website.’

  ‘Really?’ The kids looked fascinated. Cole offered them seats so they could watch them at work, and their presence in the room eased Jodie’s thrumming heart.

  She was worried about Cole after last night. He blamed himself for leaving the door to the cabin unlocked so Kowara could help his sticky fingers to the kennel keys. It creeped her out, thinking how that guy must have seen her lying in bed, sleeping. Cole was driving himself crazy over it, but she didn’t blame him for it.

  ‘You were right about the broken wing,’ Cole said to the kids as she set about cutting a twelve-inch strip of bandaging tape.

  He folded the bird’s wing against the side of its body in its natural position. The poor little thing kept turning its head and clucking as if it was searching for Cole’s eyes, seeking comfort.

  ‘Now we wrap the tape around the bird’s body, which will hold the wing in place,’ Cole explained to the boys, looking towards her for the tape.

  She picked up the iPad to check the tracking number on the tag. ‘Turns out it’s from Cambridge. I’ll give them a call and see what they want to do,’ she said.

  Sitting on hold with the Royal Pigeon Racing Association, her back felt uncomfortable again, but she wasn’t about to let on and worry Cole. It was just bruised. He gave instructions to the kids if they wanted to look after the pigeon a while but, still, she could feel him watching her like a hawk, as if he was scared to let her out of his sight for more than a second.

  Jodie glanced around
at the oak-panelled walls and Casper’s certificates, and the paddocks through the windows, where Blaze was trotting around. The sun was shining and spring was taking a firm hold—it seemed like for ever ago that they’d arrived in the snow.

  Everleigh had always meant surrounding themselves with excitement, one way or another, good and bad, she thought. Things were no different now but her ties in Edinburgh were too tight for her to be on the ground here at Everleigh any longer.

  Right now, it wouldn’t be fair to anyone to commit to coming back in person, least of all Emmie. But already the thought of leaving Cole for any undetermined length of time was making her heart flap in her chest like another pigeon was stuck inside.

  She wouldn’t tell him but the image of Kowara’s face bearing down on her against the bars of that kennel was getting harder to block out. She didn’t want to sleep alone tonight back in her bed in Edinburgh, but she had no choice.

  * * *

  Cole stepped into the pen, flipping the latch back behind him. Jodie was stroking Blaze along his mane and he couldn’t believe his eyes. She turned to him and shrugged, seeing his look of surprise.

  ‘Didn’t I tell you Blaze let me touch him last night, when I came in here?’

  He frowned. ‘When?’

  ‘When I came into the stables to check these guys were all OK. I heard Kowara from here—’ Jodie stopped what she was saying abruptly, like she was afraid to bring it up again.

  ‘Maybe he’ll be ready to ride sooner than you thought,’ she said. He could tell she was desperate to change the subject.

  ‘Only for someone he trusts,’ he told her, taking her hands and drawing her close by the waist in her city-girl dress and sweater. She was dressed for somewhere else already; her boots in the hay were even shiny again. The thought of her suffering at all back in Edinburgh because of him made him feel sick to his stomach, even as he fought to transmit composure.

  ‘I know last night affected you more than you’re telling me,’ he said, eyeing the saddle on the fence. They’d agreed to try and saddle Blaze before she left but he had other things on his mind now.