by El Edwards
“Promise?”
“Cross my heart.” I made a swiping gesture across my chest.
“Robert.”
I burst out laughing. “Robert Peters?”
He nodded. “Why are you laughing?”
“Well it’s just so normal. Why’d you call yourself Bo?”
“Because Robert is just so normal,” he said, mimicking me. “Now come on, tell me about these pigs of yours.”
And with that he pulled out a notebook and sat poised, ready to take the details, all thoughts of coffee gone. I still wasn’t convinced that the kid could get my story published but I knew I had to let him try. And anything had to be better than admitting to Rob I was at a dead end.
TWENTY-TWO
I arrived home to find a pair of excitable teenagers waiting for me. They were talking at what felt like one hundred miles an hour, their noise making my head spin.
“Woah, slow down. At this rate you’ll have given us all a headache before the drinks even arrive.”
“But Mum,” Louise said. “We haven’t seen Rob for ages.”
“I thought you’d broken up with him or something,” Grace added.
“Broken up from what? There was nothing to break.”
Grace and Louise looked at each other, barely disguising their smirks.
“What?”
“Oh come on Mum, why don’t you do us all a favour and just admit that you have a bit of a soft spot for him.”
I felt my face flush. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Okay, whatever.” Grace looked out the window. “He’s here.”
Before I could warn her to keep her opinions about my love life to herself she’d skipped out the door towards Rob’s car. I could hear her excited chatter from the house and wished I could have prepared Rob for the imminent assault on his ears. Instead, I grabbed my coat and ushered Louise ahead of me out the door.
“Italian alright for you ladies?” Rob asked, smiling at me but directing his question at the girls.
“Molto bene!”
“Grazie!”
I couldn’t help but laugh as I watched my two daughters giggle together on the back seat. There were times when they couldn’t bear to breathe the same air and it was all I could do to stop war from erupting but then there were times like tonight, when they were in cahoots, usually at my expense, and the very best of friends.
Rob had called ahead and reserved us a table in the back corner of the restaurant. He held out my chair as I sat down and smiled so sweetly I could feel my insides melt a little. Pull yourself together. This is Rob and you’re a middle-aged mother of two!
“Thank you,” I said, as he handed me a menu.
The chatter continued around us but I was oblivious to it.
“Good day?” I asked him, desperate to find something safe to talk about while my insides did the lambada.
He shrugged. “Not too bad. You know how it is. Lots of paperwork and not much action.”
I paused, wanting to ask him about Beverly’s case but knowing that if I did so I’d be not only breaking the ‘no talking about work’ rule I’d insisted upon, but also opening myself up for questioning.
“Nothing new,” he said, a smile playing across his mouth.
“What? I didn’t say anything.”
“But you wanted to.”
I started to protest but gave up. We both knew I was lying. Instead I just smiled. “Thanks.”
“For what?”
“For the update. Even if there is no news.”
“Any time. How about you? What’ve you been working on?”
I took a deep breath and was about to give him my prepared explanation about why I couldn’t just drop the case when a waiter appeared to take our order. I was saved, if only briefly. I knew that Rob wouldn’t give up that easily and could feel his eyes on me as I smiled at the waiter and asked him about the specials.
Two hours later, with a belly so full I was convinced I wouldn’t need to eat for at least four days, we walked back to Rob’s car. The conversation over dinner had been relaxed. Grace and Louise had been on fine form, entertaining us with stories of the latest goings on at school, who was dating who, and the ever-impending drama of the end of year prom. With both girls expected to attend in full evening dress, I’d been saving for months. My suggestion that they might like to get a Saturday job to help pay for some of the accessories had been met with protests.
“Thing is Mum, if I get a job, when am I going to study?”
Grace hated studying but Louise had backed her up. She’d even prepared statistics about the correlation between exam results and hours of employment per week. It was hard to argue with the maths and the last thing I needed was them blaming me if they didn’t get the grades they wanted.
“I suppose you can use them again for your eighteenth, so at least you’ll get a bit of wear out of them.”
Grace looked at me as if I had two heads but it was left to Louise to explain the folly of my thinking. “It’s simply not the done thing Mum. It’ll be the same crowd. We absolutely cannot be seen in the same dress twice.”
“What if you swapped?” This seemed like the perfect solution to me.
“No chance!”
“Have you seen my thighs?”
Rob had simply sat back and watched the whole episode unfold with increasing delight. I glanced across at him, saw him grinning, and suggested we could talk about it at home. Dessert had arrived at this point and it had seemed like I’d totally gotten away with not having to talk about my continued involvement with Beverly but now we were walking towards Rob’s car, the girls ahead of us out of ear shot.
“Come on then, let’s get it over with,” Rob said.
“What?”
“It’s no good playing the innocent with me Charlie Diamond, I’ve known you too long.” When I didn’t say anything he stopped walking and touched my arm, forcing me to stop with him. “You’re still looking for the dog?”
I shrugged, refusing to meet his eye.
“Charlie!” His voice sounded stern and up ahead I saw the girls stop walking and look back in our direction.
“Keep your voice down!” I spoke in a whisper before raising my voice to call out. “Nothing to see here girls, just Rob being a pest as usual.”
“Oi!”
I saw the girls giggle and carry on walking.
“What do you expect me to tell them? Oh don’t worry girls, dear Uncle Rob’s simply trying to warn me off a case because he thinks it might be dangerous.”
“Well it’s the truth.”
“Since when did you let that bother you?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You should have told me there was more to this missing animals case than you were letting on. I knew you were hiding something but you’d never just come out and say it.”
“It would be more than my job’s worth.”
“That doesn’t usually stop you.”
And before he could say another word I stormed ahead to catch up with Grace and Louise. We travelled home in silence and when Rob stopped outside our house I leapt out of the car before he could stop me. I couldn’t remember a time I’d been as angry with Rob as I was at that moment and if he thought he could sweet talk me into playing by his rules he clearly didn’t know me as well as he liked to think he did.
TWENTY-THREE
The next couple of days passed in a blur, or more accurately a storm, with me in the foulest of moods and my daughters both doing their best to stay out of my way. I knew I was being awful, I just didn’t know what to do about it so I stomped around playing at being the grumpy middle-aged mother, taking Missy for long walks in the fields around the village and drinking lots of coffee in the hope I would soon return to my formerly upbeat, contented self. The one bright spot in my day was Beverly and her beau. I wanted to believe that he was bad news but every time I started to formulate a bad opinion of him, he came along and crushed it by doing something kind.
“What flavour are they?” I asked, pointing to the donuts.
“Apple. But if you don’t like them, I also have iced buns,” he said. He pulled a packet of buns out of his bag and waved them in my face.
“The next time you wave your buns in my face I’m going to have you arrested.”
Shaun grinned and put them away. We took the hill to the hotel at a good pace, I was determined not to let Shaun the amateur slow me down, and soon the hotel loomed into view. I sniffed the air.
“Smell that?”
Shaun crinkled his nose. “Yeah, what is it?”
I shook my head. “Not a clue. It’s not as bad as last time though. I thought I was going to be sick!”
Shaun sniffed again. “It’s weird, sort of organic.”
“The postman reckons it’s the mud. It’s not rained for a few days though. Might explain why it’s not as strong today. But what I’m really interested in is inside. Come on.”
I led Shaun round the side of the hotel and before he could say anything, wrapped my fist round my jacket and punched in a pane of glass in the door.
“Oops, I slipped.” I grinned, put my hand through the window and opened the door from the inside. I gestured to Shaun. “You coming?”
I stepped through the door but before Shaun could reply, an alarm started wailing.
“Shit!” I slammed the door shut and ran back the way we’d come.
“Is it meant to do that?” Shaun shouted, following me.
I shook my head but didn’t stop to reply until we were halfway down the hill under the cover of trees. I ducked down out of sight of the road. “Shhh, come here.”
Shaun did as he was told and we huddled together, our senses on high alert. We couldn’t see the hotel from our hiding place but I heard the muffled sound of voices coming from up ahead. I put my finger over my lips and waited, my heart thundering in my ears. We waited for several minutes, my ears straining for the sound of footsteps and when no-one appeared I turned to Shaun.
“Sorry about that.” I kept my voice low, just in case.
Shaun’s eyes were bright and he grinned. “It’s quite alright. I never expected my first outing to be so exciting.”
“It’s not usually like this. Hadn’t expected an alarm, the place is meant to be deserted.”
“What will you do now? You’re not going back in?”
“Nope. Next comes the boring part.”
“Oh?”
“Time to ring round the local alarm companies and find out who’s been up here recently. Someone might have a contact. Key holder maybe.”
“You think it’s a professional job?”
“Can’t hurt to ask around. You never know.”
“And if not?”
“If not then we explore other options. You can buy security stuff over the Internet but I doubt this place has a power supply so it might just be a very noisy deterrent. But no, I’m not going back in today.”
I poked my head out from where we were hiding and, after satisfying myself that the coast was clear, led Shaun back down the hill. Shaun could return to Beverly, satisfied that he’d done something to help, and I could get busy on the telephone. It might be tedious work but I was satisfied to have an angle to explore.
We rounded the corner and I was about to outline my plan to Shaun when I looked up to see a familiar figure sauntering up the hill towards us.
“Well hello Shaun, fancy seeing you here.”
“Piss off Declan,” Shaun said, and he carried on walking.
Declan stepped in front of his brother to block him. “Don’t be like that.” He looked from Shaun to me. “And who do we have here? Oh, it’s you. What a lovely surprise.” He turned to Shaun. “Is this your fancy woman? Bit young for you isn’t she? Did she tell you we already met? Bitch!”
Shaun grabbed my elbow and together we walked down the hill in silence. “Sorry about him,” he said, when we were back outside Beverly’s house.
“He really is quite the most repulsive human being I’ve ever met. Are you sure you’re related?” I laughed a little.
“I’m afraid so.”
“And he lives round here? Near the hotel?”
“He lives the other side of town, near the harbour. Not sure why he’d be sneaking around here,” he said, apparently reading my mind. “But he’s too stupid to be really dangerous. Unpleasant maybe, bit of a petty thief, but harmless enough.”
If that was the case, why did I find myself wanting to vomit every time I saw him? There was something about Shaun’s brother that I didn’t like one bit and a part of me was mildly terrified to find out what.
TWENTY-FOUR
When I walked into my house after dropping Shaun back at Beverly’s, the phone was ringing. I raced across the room to answer it, tripping over Missy and stubbing my toe in the process.
“Bloody dog! Hello?”
“Answer your phone!” It was Rob, in his usual charming frame of mind.
“I am answering my phone. Unless I’m speaking to you telepathically?”
“I’ve been ringing your mobile for the last hour. Where were you?”
“Over in Burry Port but …”
“Have you got a death wish or something? I can’t believe you would do this, after what I told you.”
My toe was throbbing and I was struggling to understand what had got Rob’s knickers in such a knot.
“What are you on about?”
“Stay there, I’m coming round.” And before I could reply, the line went dead.
I looked across the room, past the clutter, into the kitchen where the breakfast dishes still lingered. I wasn’t particularly house proud and I definitely wasn’t going to any special effort for Rob, he didn’t deserve it, but while I waited for the kettle to boil I hid a few of the plates and bowls in the dishwasher. I’d have had to do it later anyway, I decided, but if he thought I was going to offer him one of my special biscuits or run the hoover round in his honour, he could sod off.
By the time I’d made a coffee there was a knock at the door. “Come in,” I called to Rob from the kitchen.
I listened as Missy made a show of barking at Rob but she soon calmed down and his hulking form appeared in the doorway.
“Coffee?” I asked, pushing a mug across the table to him. “It’s only instant though. I’ve run out of coffee beans.”
Rob smiled. “That’s not like you. You sure you’re feeling okay?”
I sat opposite him but didn’t return his smile. “What’s up?”
Rob pulled a paper out from under his arm and laid it out flat on the table. I glanced at the front page and rolled my eyes.
“Slow news day eh?”
Rob didn’t say anything. He opened the paper and turned a few pages before passing it to me. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
I glanced at the page and felt my tummy twinge with delight. “They published it!” For a moment I was too excited to register the waves of disapproval coming from Rob. “I mean, I hoped, but the kid was an intern. This is brilliant!”
“This is bloody insane! It’s even got your phone number. Why would you do this?”
“How else was I meant to make contact with the pet owners? You said you couldn’t help me so …”
“You were meant to be dropping the case. This is a police matter. I can’t have you running around sticking your nose in.”
“But why? I keep asking why your lot are so interested in a few missing animals and you won’t tell me.” I saw something flicker across Rob’s face. “You don’t know do you?”
“It’s not my investig
ation.” Rob’s shoulders slumped.
“They won’t tell you?” I couldn’t keep the grin off my face. “I’m sorry Rob, but this is brilliant. You always know, so if they won’t tell you, it must be something big.”
“Exactly! Something big and dangerous. You have to stop this Charlie.”
“Who’s case is it?”
“You wouldn’t know him.”
“But which department?”
Rob hesitated.
“Oh come on Rob, just tell me.”
“It’s been referred to HQ. That’s all I know, honest.”
“Okay, well thank you for telling me.” And I meant it. Rob loved his job, liked being at the centre of the action, and I knew it would have cost him a lot to admit a case was being kept off limits.
“So you’ll back off? Now you know?”
“I didn’t say that. But I’ll be careful.”
“Why do you have to be so bloody stubborn! What is it about this damn animal that’s got you so hooked? I thought if I came here and explained what a big deal it is you’d see sense for once and step down.”
I didn’t know what to say. There was no logic to my stubbornness and I’d been in enough scrapes to last me a life time, I didn’t need any more trouble, but Beverly trusted me and even though Shaun was back, who knew how long he’d stick around this time? Tortoise was her family and I couldn’t believe that anyone could care as much about reuniting family as I did. I knew to Rob’s lot it would be just an animal. They wouldn’t see she was a treasured pet. I had to admit there was also a matter of pride at stake. Beverly believed in me and I wasn’t prepared to let her down. I respected the police, Rob was one of my best friends, but I knew not all of them were like Rob. It would feel pretty terrific to get one over the experts.
Not that I could say that to Rob of course. Instead I just shrugged and mumbled something about personal pride.
“If it’s all the same to you, I’m going to be keeping an eye on you, just to make sure your personal pride doesn’t wind up getting you killed!”
“You’re going to help me?”
It was Rob’s turn to shrug. “Can’t have my favourite investigator this side of the Severn Bridge getting herself into mischief can I?” He smiled.
