The last time I had been near the park I was in my civvies, acting as a decoy for the flasher. I hoped I wouldn’t see him there this time. The Sergeant had given me the location, and as I approached, a gaggle of women were gathered with their children, in deep and earnest discussion.
‘Well, I think if we see those animals again we should take matters into our own hands. I know where we can get some arsenic.’
‘Jean, really! That’s a bit extreme.’
‘Well, who else is going to do it? Tell me that?’
‘But the poor animals! They would suffer so …’
‘I agree with Jean. We have to deal with this ourselves now or who knows what might happen?’ said another.
As I walked up to them from behind, Jean, the tall woman in thick glasses, swung round.
‘Oh, constable! You made me jump. Thank goodness. We’ve all been beside ourselves.’ She broke away from the group and approached me confidingly. ‘We were taking the little ones through the park, that is myself, Elsie and her sister Joan. And these two huge animals came running over. One of them went straight for Ruby.’
‘Nearly bit her legs right off. Tell her that,’ called Joan, trying to get in on the action. ‘Would have had them too, if it wasn’t for that kind man over there.’
‘Ruby? Is that your daughter, madam?’ I asked, suddenly very concerned. ‘Does she need to see a doctor?’
‘My little Ruby. Here,’ she said, and produced a shivering creature from behind her legs. It was a little dog, with a white head and a brown body. There was a small scratch on one leg, but otherwise I think it was just in shock. ‘He had to prise one of them off the poor creature. The other one – he was the ringleader, I’m sure – he just stood and barked, orders probably. So loud it was, we all had to cover our ears, and the girls were crying. Oh, it was mayhem.’
Over on a bench, a man was sitting quietly. He looked familiar, and then I realized he was the man I had seen feeding that pigeon last time I had been in the park. His hair was even more dishevelled and his clothes were ripped. He had a small grey knapsack underneath the bench, and I wondered for a moment whether he was actually living in the park. Perhaps those were all his worldly belongings. If he was, I might have to move him on. But he seemed so kind and harmless, I didn’t think that would be right somehow.
I looked back at the woman who was waiting for my response.
‘So can you tell me what happened exactly?’ I asked her, taking out my notebook and pencil.
‘Well, as I say, these two creatures came out of nowhere, barking their heads off. No owner in sight anywhere. Feral, I wouldn’t wonder. Living up in the woods, probably. Like wolves. One was a brown thing. Large, almost like a small horse. The other one was white with black spots. But it all happened so fast. And my poor Ruby bore the brunt of it, poor love. She’s only just plucked up the courage to come out at all. She’s a bit of a house-dog, really. Then that gentleman over there, he came over and pulled the dogs off. God only knows how he did it, but he did.’
I was about to go and ask the man some questions, and thank him for helping, but when I looked back again, he was gone. Not a trace of the grey knapsack, nothing. It was as though he’d never been there.
After I had gathered all the descriptions, I had a picture of some very strange dogs. According to reports they were brown, but also grey. Tall, fat and skinny, with big ears and small ears; one was as big as a horse, with teeth as sharp as razors, while the other was small and sly and looked more like a long stoat.
How many dangerous dogs are there in this town, I wondered as I walked back. I had yet to see any of them.
As I was leaving the station that afternoon, Steve ran out after me.
‘What time shall I pick you up later? I’ve forgotten what we said.’
‘What? Oh … um … seven?’
‘Righto. See you then. You hadn’t forgotten, had you?’
‘Of course not! No. Can’t wait.’
All this business with the dogs, and the heat, not to mention Malcolm inviting me to the variety show later in the week, and I had completely forgotten my arrangement with Steve to go to the pictures.
I wasn’t sure if it was wrong to be going out with two of the lads in the same week. But we were all just friends, weren’t we? And anyway, I wanted to see the film.
I spent the rest of the afternoon lying on the beach, and dipping in and out of the sea. It was nice to be able to enjoy the sun and not be on duty for once. I saw Maureen walk past on the promenade on her beat, and called over to her.
‘I’m envious,’ she shouted. ‘I wish I was out there in my swimming costume too, not up here in this boiling old uniform.’
‘Much happening?’ I asked.
‘Not really. Moved a few cars on. They didn’t like it, but what can you do? Hey, do you think we’re allowed to eat ice cream on duty? I could kill for one right now.’
‘I doubt it. You know what old Ditchburn’s like.’
‘You’re probably right! See you.’
I watched Maureen walk off up the promenade, and felt quite proud to see a fellow policewoman out there on the beat.
The sand was so hot it was burning the soles of my feet, so I had one last dip in the sea to cool off.
Even when it was this boiling, it still took my breath away, going into the icy water. I tried to run in all at once, in a big enormous splash, instead of walking in tentatively, which always seemed like slow torture. A pair of girls around me were half screaming, half giggling, holding their arms up in the air as they trotted in up to their waists and stopped.
‘It’s too cold!’ said one. Then the other one dived in and came out again, choking and laughing.
‘Come on, May. It’s easy.’ She lay back and started kicking the water with her feet.
‘Get in, you wimp,’ said one of a group of lads. May screamed even more, before taking the final dive in.
I lay on my back and floated for a while, listening to their screams of laughter and looking up at the gulls whirling above against the clear blue. A group of younger lads came splashing by, shouting and chasing a big blow-up ball. I lost my balance and went underwater for a moment, spluttering on seawater, salty in the back of my throat. But I didn’t care. It was bliss. Eventually I stood up and shook out my hair. Where had the time gone, though? I suddenly realized I only had an hour before Steve was turning up.
When I got back to my digs, my hair had caked dry with salt and my skin felt fresh and warm. I loved that feeling of having been in the sea on one of the few really hot days of the year. As I walked through the door, I imagined I had been stranded on a desert island for years, and was just returning home to my family, who might not even recognize me, I was that sunbaked and wild.
‘Had a lovely swim, did you?’ said Annie. ‘I try to go every morning. No matter what the weather. One morning it was so cold – ooh, must have been January. And when I came out my feet had turned completely green.’
‘That’s what keeps her so young,’ said Colin, leaning out from his chair.
‘What, green feet?’
‘I only go in when it’s really hot,’ I said. ‘I just wish I could spend more time doing that, and less time working!’
I ate my dinner quickly, barely stopping to breathe, and just had time to run upstairs, brush my hair and get changed. I wasn’t sure how smart to be to go to the pictures with Steve, so I went for fairly casual and didn’t even wear any jewellery. When he knocked on the door, I felt a slight nervous tingle.
‘You look nice. Glowing or something,’ he said.
‘Thanks. That’s what the sun does for you.’
I said goodbye to Annie and Colin and we walked off towards town.
‘What have you been up to this afternoon, then?’ I asked.
‘I had to take my old lady out. My mother. She’s not well. Cancer.’
‘Oh. I’m sorry.’
‘Yeah, well. She’s all right. She just keeps going really. But she’s
not that capable any more. So I take her to the shops. Get her things, food and so on. But let’s not talk about that tonight.’ He bounded off up the road like a greyhound after a hare. ‘Let’s enjoy ourselves. Hey, can you do this?’ He swung round a lamppost, all the way, on one arm.
‘No. You’re crazy. Lucky I’m not on duty. I’d arrest you for that.’
‘I don’t know. Sometimes I just feel like I’ve got so much energy I could run right the way round the world in a matter of seconds. It’s like I’m about to burst. Maybe I should try to climb St Paul’s Cathedral, or Everest or something.’
While he had been speaking, Steve had hoisted himself halfway up the lamppost. He hung there for a moment, jumped down again with a springy bounce and leapt up like a giant rabbit.
‘You need tying down, you do.’
‘That’s what Mam always says. She never could control me. I was always out jumping off roofs and all sorts. That’s why they made me join the police. Said it would drum some sense into me. Never did, though.’
‘Well, you’ll have to sit still at the pictures. I want to see this film.’
‘Scout’s honour.’ He saluted with three fingers.
The film was about a boxer, played by John Wayne, who goes to his home town in Ireland after accidentally killing a man in the boxing ring. It was in colour, which was a real treat. Steve didn’t fidget that much either. But more than that, I enjoyed just spending time with him. His energy was infectious and I came away smiling but slightly exhausted, as though I had spent the night with a very excitable puppy, who I would now be relieved to shut away in the kitchen for the night.
‘See you back at the grindstone, then,’ he said, as we neared my house.
‘See you then, then.’
And with that, he ran off down the street, whistling loudly.
I woke up in the middle of the night as a huge crack of thunder rattled around the whole house. A few seconds later the room was illuminated: for a moment I caught sight of the mantelpiece, Annie’s selection of porcelain shepherdesses, the old chair with my dressing gown slung over it and the Victorian cupboard, so large and foreboding, who could tell what was inside it. This was swiftly followed by another enormous boom, which shook my bones. Outside, some neighbourhood dogs started barking. Then the rain came, showing no mercy, as if a giant gardener in the heavens had just tipped the contents of his slosh bucket right on top of us. I was on the beat in just a couple of hours and I wasn’t looking forward to it.
I couldn’t get back to sleep after that, so I tried to read a book. I gave up on that and then just looked out into the dark at the rain splashing against the windowpane. In the garden next door, a skinny brown dog was chained up to a railing, howling at the top of its lungs.
When I got up at five a.m., the rain hadn’t abated, although the temperature had finally dropped, which was something of a relief. As I crept down the stairs, I could hear Colin snoring like a felled animal. For a moment he stopped breathing altogether. I waited on the stairs to make sure he was still alive and then he let out an almighty spluttering growl.
I ate some toast, then grabbed my raincoat and stepped outside. I hadn’t seen Redcar in the pouring rain yet. We’d had a few showers, but this was something else. Dawn had broken already, but huge dark clouds swept across overhead and kept out most of the daylight. Bert, the milkman, was running from house to house with his bottles, trying to shield his head from the rain.
‘Morning, constable. You should have stayed in bed,’ he said as he ran back to his van to fetch Annie and Colin’s bottles.
‘I wish I could have,’ I told him, putting on my hat and looking up at the dismal sky.
Bert had not long moved from using a cart that his dad had used before him, pulled by his old horse, Jemima, to a new electric milk float.
‘It might keep me dry, but it’s not the same. No personality, if you know what I mean. Now all Jemima does is sit in the field, poor thing. I see her looking sadly at me as I leave. Why can’t I come? she says with her eyes. Mary says I should get rid of her but I never could. They make glue out of them, you know. Not on my watch.’
I said goodbye to Bert, then walked as quickly as I could all the way to the station, splashing through puddles as they formed along the roads. When I got in, Sergeant Ditchburn sent me right out onto the promenade again.
‘The rain won’t keep people away. I still need you out there, manning the place,’ he said.
For a few hours I was literally the only person there, along with a collection of gulls scavenging on yesterday’s picnics. After a while, a couple of old men turned up with two young lads and started fishing. They sieved the sands for cockles and worms, baited up their lines and waded out into the sea.
By about eleven o’clock the sun was blazing down and a trickle of eager holidaymakers, undeterred, made their way onto the beach, spread out their towels and produced their obligatory buckets, spades and hampers.
Then, as if by some stroke of curious magic, the clouds parted and silver streaks of sun shone out again, drying everything up in an instant. As people began to fill up the beach again, cars arrived in their dozens, great growling things, and started parking all over the place; on verges, and up on pavements. I rapped on the window of one vehicle which was parked too close to a corner.
‘Excuse me, could you move your vehicle from this dangerous …’
As I was asking him, rather sternly, to move on, the window wound down and there inside, with a big smile on his face, was Father Reilly, all the way from my church in Richmond.
‘Now, you wouldn’t make a man of the cloth move, would you?’
‘Oh, I had no idea it was you or I would have been more … polite.’ I flushed a bright scarlet and wished the pavement would swallow me up right there and then.
‘You’re only doing your job. I don’t expect the special treatment. I’m up here visiting my sister. She’s had a loss. You know. And I couldn’t find a place to park. The husband. Awful business.’
‘I’m sorry. How is everyone back home?’
‘Oh, you know. The same. We plod on, doing God’s good work. Anyway. I best be off, eh?’ and he gave me a little wink, before starting his engine. ‘We’ll be seeing you again soon, I hope,’ he called.
‘Oh yes, not long now. Take care now, Father.’
After that I was too nervous to move anyone else on, in case I got any more shocks, so I walked on to my next point and waited to see if any calls came through.
As I stood in the phone box, I thought how nice it had been to see someone from Richmond. I realized now that I missed them all, and the little town; I had quite put it all out of my mind these past few months. It had been nice being by the sea, and Annie and Colin were wonderful. But I didn’t have as many duties here and it was beginning to get a bit repetitive. I even found myself missing Sergeant Hardcastle, who in my memory seemed like a gentle giant compared to old Ditchburn.
I had just a few weeks before the season would be over. Before that, I had the small matter of my outing with Malcolm to the variety show on the pier. For some reason my stomach was in knots that afternoon, and I began to wish I was meeting Steve instead. He was so easygoing, and I never felt nervous at all with him. But, for some reason, Malcolm scared me a bit. I never knew what he was going to be like. Sometimes he was up and jolly, and then the next he was steeped in a kind of intangible, silent anger. As though the world was a bad place and there was no escaping its dark forces.
I was walking through the corridor at the police station when Malcolm walked past, as if he was in a hurry.
‘So, see you tonight then,’ I said, smiling.
‘What? Oh yes. See you then,’ he said distractedly, and kept walking. I began to wonder if I was making a terrible mistake.
After dinner that evening, I confided in Annie as she washed up and I dried the dishes.
‘Some men are like that,’ she said. ‘One minute they’re up, the next down. It’s the war. It comes down
through the generations, father to son and so on. The Great War, I mean. My brother was the same.’
‘But it’s funny because I’m quite drawn to him. Not like thunderbolt stuff, but he’s kind of enigmatic. Like a mystery I want to solve. Do you know what I mean?’
‘Well, I can’t say Colin was ever exactly enigmatic. But he made me smile. And that was good enough for me.’
There was a sharp knock at the door.
‘Well. It’s too late now anyway, love. He’s here,’ said Annie. ‘You look lovely. I’m sure you’ll have a grand time.’
As I opened the door, my stomach had tied itself into a thousand knots.
‘Hello.’ Malcolm smiled, a beaming broad smile.
My stomach relaxed a little. At least he’s in a good mood, I thought.
‘Are you up for some fun tonight then?’ he asked quietly, almost shyly.
‘I am if you are.’
The variety show was a strange affair. First there was a very small Welsh comedian in a black wig, John Bach, he called himself, who told a string of jokes in quick succession, so fast I could hardly hear a word he said. Then a few dancers came on, with feathery headdresses, and then a woman with a huge hat and a small ukelele sang some songs about how useless her husband was. All the women in the audience laughed uproariously at this.
Every time I looked over at Malcolm, he had a kind of taut expression on his face. As if he was finding it hard to stay sitting there for that long. He only laughed once, very loudly, at a joke about a man falling down some stairs.
When we walked back along the seafront, the sun was just setting, the most glorious sunset I had ever seen, or ever seen since, in fact. I’ll never forget it. There were so many colours, it was as if an artist had decided it would be his last ever work, and he had to use up every last bit of paint in this final explosive statement.
‘Nice, isn’t it?’ said Malcolm, staring intently ahead.
Bobby on the Beat Page 21
