The Secret Dog (13 page)

‘Yvonne!’ the vet called. He turned back to Josh. ‘I hear you did really well in English today.’

Josh glanced up. The vet’s face changed from his usual good humour to concern. For a moment, Josh wondered why. Then he realised his eyes must be puffy, and he quickly turned away. ‘Thank you,’ he whispered.

He heard someone getting up from the dinner table and then Yvonne’s distinctive footsteps coming towards him down the hallway He looked up and could see her taking in the situation. Then he felt her hand on his back gently steering him towards the sitting room.

‘You haven’t finished dinner,’ the vet said.

‘I’ll skip pudding,’ Yvonne replied firmly. ‘And I’ll tidy up later.’

* * *

Once he’d realised he had to try to rescue Reggae, in the secret valley, all Josh could think was that he
had to talk to Yvonne. But now that he was here, he didn’t know where to begin.

‘What happened?’ Yvonne had asked as soon as she’d sat Josh on the sofa. But all he could do was stare at the pattern on the brightly coloured Persian carpet on the floor.

Someone came into the room. Yvonne said ‘ta’, then handed him a glass of water. He drank it mechanically. ‘My mum,’ she explained. The vet must have told her he looked terrible.

‘What happened?’

‘She’s gone,’ Josh said, in a voice he hardly recognised. ‘Someone took her.’

‘
. . . 
Reggae?’

Josh nodded. He looked up at her, feeling completely lost.

‘When did you find out?’

‘Just after school.’

‘Why didn’t you come straight here?’

It never occurred to him. He was used to dealing with things by himself.

After a pause, Yvonne said, ‘We’ll leave that for the moment
 . . . 
Tell me the whole story.’

‘But you’ve got to tidy up
 . . .
’

‘We have plenty of time.’

* * *

Yvonne sat, listening carefully, until Josh finished his account. ‘I can’t believe Kearney would have helped his father do such a terrible thing.’

Josh didn’t bother replying. The evidence spoke for itself.

‘I’ve been to their place with my father a couple of times. But the last time was years ago,’ she continued.

‘Where did he keep his dogs?’

‘In his front yard.’

‘People don’t usually move their kennels.’

‘Do you really think he’d keep her in his kennel?’

‘I don’t even know if she’s alive
 . . . 
But if she is, my guess is that he’d keep her close.’

‘You won’t get near the kennel without the dogs raising a huge racket,’ Yvonne said quietly.

Josh had realised this while he walked on the commons. That’s when he’d known he needed help.

‘I’ll need someone to provide a reason for the dogs’ barking.’

‘An accomplice,’ Yvonne mused. Then she looked at Josh sharply. ‘Me?’

He held her gaze. ‘Who else could I ask?’

Josh could almost see her thinking. Of course she
wanted
to help him. But it would mean going against the biggest bully on the island. This wasn’t something to do lightly. Josh had got into his bad books, and now he was paying the price.

After some minutes, Yvonne asked, ‘Do you want to help me wash up?’

Josh nodded.

‘Washing up helps me think,’ Yvonne continued, rising to her feet. ‘We have a lot of thinking to do.’

Josh followed Yvonne into the kitchen.

‘And I suppose you haven’t had anything to eat
 . . .
’

* * *

Josh sat at the kitchen table, munching on cold chicken as Yvonne turned on her laptop.

‘Here,’ she said, indicating the screen. ‘The Redlins’ farm.’

It took Josh a moment to get his orientation. The photo was taken from above, probably from a satellite. ‘That’s brilliant!’

‘We can make a map.’

‘I can memorise it,’ Josh said, his spirits rising.

‘We need to anticipate everything,’ Yvonne said. ‘You won’t have a second chance if you don’t have everything you need with you.’

‘I’ll need to keep the dogs in the kennel quiet while I free Reggae,’ Josh said, thinking aloud.

‘My dad has tons of bones in his freezer. He won’t miss a couple.’

‘At least four,’ Josh said. ‘And we’ll need to take them out tonight so they’re completely defrosted.’

Yvonne nodded. ‘What if Reggae isn’t in the kennel? Or he’s chained her up?’

Josh was sure Reggae
would
be in the kennel. But Yvonne was right. They should make plans in case she wasn’t. And even if she was in the kennel, Dunham might have chained her to something.

‘My uncle’s got bolt cutters. I can borrow them.’

‘Will they be strong enough?’

‘They’re old
 . . . 
But I’ll sharpen them.’

Chapter 22

This was definitely a case of a problem shared, a problem halved, Josh thought as he headed home. They didn’t have a proper plan yet. But they’d done a lot of thinking.

And he didn’t feel so alone with it all. Which was nice, for a change.

To his surprise, his uncle, who often said (and usually practised) ‘early to bed and early to rise’ was still up when he got home. Not up in the sense of awake, but up in the sense of sitting, fully dressed, in his favourite armchair.

Josh tapped him gently on the shoulder. It took a moment for Calum to respond, but when he opened his eyes, they were already alert.

‘I’m so proud of you,’ he said warmly. ‘I never got a comment from a teacher like that.’

‘I was lucky.’

‘Great insight into Shakespeare?’ Calum recited from the card. ‘It would take more than luck to deserve that
 . . . 
I’m sorry I can’t give you a reward, like other parents,’ he went on. ‘But I just wanted you to know that I really appreciate the way you’ve buckled down and taken our conversation to heart.’

‘Thank you.’ It seemed an awfully long time since Mrs Margolies had written those comments. He
wished he could tell Calum what was really on his mind. But that would mean admitting that he’d been lying. For months. How could he expect him to be sympathetic after that?

Still, he had to say
something
more than ‘thank you’.

‘Thanks for staying up too. We’d better get to bed.’

His uncle hesitated. He stood, suddenly looking old. Defeated.

What did he expect? Josh thought, defensively.

* * *

Calum had let him use the bathroom first, on the grounds that he had to get his rest so he could do well at school again the next day. He brushed his teeth mechanically. School was the last thing in Josh’s thoughts. He was imagining how frightened Reggae must be.

An involuntary moan escaped him.

‘Are you all right, Josh?’ his uncle asked.

‘I’m fine.’

Josh finished up and said good night again. Then he climbed the ladder to his room. He was aware of his uncle’s eyes on him. The ladder seemed longer than usual.

And his bedroom darker. And emptier.

Josh was hardly aware of removing his clothes and climbing into bed. His only thoughts were of Reggae. How alone and cold she must feel.

Like
he’d
felt, when the police had come to his door that awful night.

He’d been asleep when the doorbell rang. He’d opened his eyes and had seen the mobile hanging over his bed, the one he and his mum had made, with planets and stars. When the bell rang a second time, he’d realised his mum wasn’t home yet and he got up to answer it. His first thought, when he saw the two policemen, was that they’d come about the desk he’d written on at school.

They’d been awkward, two big men probably happier chasing a criminal with a gun than standing here on his doorstep.

‘Can we speak to your father?’

‘He’s dead,’ Josh told them.

‘Is there another adult we could speak to?’

‘Just my mum, but she’s not here now. She’s taking Charlene to the hospital.’

‘Could we come in?’

‘I’m not supposed to let strangers in.’

‘That’s generally good advice,’ the bigger one had said.

The other said gently, ‘
We’re
not really strangers,’ and took out his police badge for Josh to look at.

Josh curled up on the worn sofa, still half asleep in his Transformer pyjamas. He wondered if he should offer them water, like his mum would have done.

The two policemen turned the armchairs around so that they faced him and not the telly. Then they sat, and looked at one another.

The smaller one said, ‘Your mum has had an accident.’

Even then, Josh hadn’t twigged. ‘Is she hurt? Are you here to take me to see her?’

The big policeman asked, ‘Do you have a relative living anywhere nearby?’

‘What does that matter? She’ll want to see
me
. Just take me there!’

‘We can’t do that.’

Then
Josh had understood. It was as if suddenly he was far away from the living room and the two policemen, as if he’d been transported to outer space, to the planets in the mobile above his bed. He remembered thinking, as all the light in the room, in the world, vanished, this is what a black hole does
 . . .

* * *

Josh shivered in spite of the heat. How had he forgotten all that? He’d felt the world had come to an end then. But it hadn’t, really.

He was still here. And in some ways, she’d come back to him, especially through her music. He reached over to the wooden box on the side of his bed and picked up the MP3 player Yvonne had given him. He turned it on. It was still tuned to the faint reggae programme he listened to late at night.

They were playing a song he remembered! It was his mother’s ‘fighting song’. The one she played (and sang, at the top of her lungs) before she went into
‘battle’ with teachers about Josh or council officers about their flat. They’d sing it together. He’d sing the chorus, ‘Get up, stand up!’ and she’d do the following verse. He listened to the radio. Yes, that was it! ‘Don’t give up the fight.’ That’s what she sang!

For a moment, Josh was lost in the memory. Then he thought, it’s a sign they played that song just then.

He couldn’t do a thing about his mother’s accident. But he
wasn’t
helpless now. He could fight. And he had a friend who would help him.

Chapter 23

Their bodies leant forward as they struggled to walk into the strong north-east wind. The drizzle that started when they left Yvonne’s house had turned into a downpour. Josh’s anorak protected his head and chest for the first ten minutes, but now the driving rain had forced its way through the hoodie’s worn seams and waterproofing. His jeans were already completely soaked.

The wind blew Yvonne’s umbrella inside out as soon as they hit the road. She just carried on without it.

As they caught their first sight of Dunham’s dark house, silhouetted against the grey clouds in the distance, Josh said, ‘Here’s where I go.’ He noticed the rain dripping steadily off Yvonne’s glasses onto her nose and face, and her determined expression.

‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘Whatever happens tonight.’

Yvonne touched him briefly on the arm. ‘Good luck.’

Josh vaulted over the fence that marked the boundary to Dunham’s property. He waved to Yvonne, and then jogged away. His heavy rucksack thudded rhythmically on his back. As he ran, he began to recognise buildings from the map he’d memorised.

It was unlikely anyone would be working outside in this weather, but he threaded his way through Dunham’s farm buildings carefully just in case.

As he passed between two big barns, he suddenly stopped, startled, as he noticed the door to one of them was open. Was Dunham inside? Josh’s first impulse was to run and hide. But then he realised he needed to know if someone was there. He couldn’t afford to have Dunham stumble upon him while he was rescuing Reggae.

Josh crept up to the side of the open door, and tilted his head so that his ears were close. He wished he wasn’t so tense, and tried to relax his breathing and shoulders. But after a few minutes, he realised the barn was empty and he started to breathe normally again. He headed for Dunham’s house.

As he and Yvonne had planned, he ended up behind a red-roofed barn not far from the front door. He took out the mobile phone Yvonne had lent him and texted, ‘I’m in position.’

* * *

As Yvonne waited in the pouring rain for Josh to text her, all the things that could go wrong with this hastily planned rescue wove through her mind: Reggae might not be where they expected. Dunham could answer the door. Kearney might have told his father that she was friends with Josh. And then there was all the lying she’d have to do: could she do it convincingly?

When the text finally arrived she was so tense, she fired off a response without thinking. ‘What took you so long?’ Josh’s reply didn’t help: ‘Long story, later’. She pictured him alongside the barn, his face grim with determination. She was glad she was there to help him. And she hadn’t felt this alive in ages!

She opened the garden gate. The dogs in the kennel started barking frantically. As she walked towards the door, she was sure she could see Josh moving towards the kennel out of the corner of her eye. But she didn’t turn her head, in case someone in the house was watching her approach.