No Holds Barred

by Lyndon Stacey

  ‘Me?’ Reg asked, puzzled.

  A sharp yap answered the sound of his voice, and the veteran driver’s expression changed to one of shocked disbelief.

  ‘Skip?’

  Dek leaned down and moments later straightened up with the Jack Russell terrier held in his arms. The little dog’s eyes sought and found his master, and he wriggled and whined in his efforts to be free.

  Smiling broadly, Dek put the dog on the floor and, with a scrabbling of claws, Skip shot round the side of the sofa and made a beeline for Reg, leaping into his arms, covering his face with frantic licks and squeaking with excitement all the while.

  Reg pushed his face against the dog’s warm body, his eyes shining with unshed tears.

  ‘How?’ he said wonderingly. ‘I mean – I saw his collar … The blood …’

  ‘I’m sorry we had to do that to you,’ Dek said. ‘But it was necessary to prove myself to the Boyds, and I couldn’t risk telling you the truth at that stage. Too much was resting on it.’

  ‘You bastard!’ Reg said with quiet fury. ‘If you only knew …’

  ‘I do know,’ Dek assured him. ‘I have a dog myself and I longed to tell you the truth.’

  ‘Where has Skip been all this time?’ Jenny asked. Her eyes were suspiciously bright, too.

  ‘Living the life of Riley at the home of one of the kennel maids at the local RSPCA,’ Dek told her. ‘Apart from missing his dad, he certainly hasn’t suffered.’

  Reg didn’t comment. Carrying Skip, he left the room, face buried in the little dog’s fur.

  Dek looked wistful and Daniel went to his side.

  ‘Let him go. He needs time but he’ll get over it.’

  ‘I hope so. The thing is, Taylor had it in for that dog after it bit him, and if I hadn’t taken it, he would have done it himself. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that if he had, the outcome would have been very different.’

  ‘Absolutely. When Reg realizes what you’ve actually done for him, he’ll come round, I’m sure.’

  Jenny joined them.

  ‘You didn’t look particularly surprised,’ she said to Daniel. ‘Have you known all along?’

  ‘Not at first,’ Daniel admitted. ‘But since I found out about Dek and realized what a chance he took to save Taz, I knew he couldn’t have harmed Reg’s dog. The only thing I can’t work out is how you squared it with Taylor,’ he added to Dek. ‘Didn’t he want to see the evidence?’

  ‘It was a tricky one, but I set it all up in advance with Lou’s help. When I snatched Skip, I was supposed to hand him over to Taylor straight away, but obviously that wasn’t going to happen, so we swapped him for another Jack Russell that had had to be put down at one of our rehoming centres. When I showed Boyd the body, I told him Skip must have had a weak heart. I knew he wouldn’t know whether it was Skip or not, and it was a pretty good match, to be honest.’

  Behind him, the door opened, and Reg came back in, Skip now trotting happily at his feet. Taz wandered over and sniffed him, waving his tail gently.

  ‘I don’t know whether to knock you down or shake your hand,’ Reg said, his face ruddy. ‘But just so’s you know – if you ever do anything like that again, I’ll personally beat you to a pulp or die trying.’

  ‘I understand,’ Dek said, looking down from his six-inch and thirty-two-year advantage without a trace of amusement. ‘And you have my word that I won’t.’

  Reg nodded shortly, then headed for the door, saying, ‘Come on, Skip, you lazy varmint. No time for socializing. We’ve got a day’s work to do, my lad.’