A Lesser Evil - Lesley Pearse [179]
‘Right.’ Dan nodded. ‘We’ll get out now, and you are going to go over by that path and call for the dog we’ve lost. I’m going over by the barn to do the same. Now, if anyone comes out and grabs me, I want you to leg it off down that path with Lightning and go and call the police. You tell them you met a man called Dan Reynolds who was looking for his wife Fifi. Tell them to come quickly. You got that?’
Clive nodded, his eyes gleaming.
Dan gave him the ten-shilling note. ‘Now, what are we going to call the dog we’ve lost?’
Clive grinned. ‘Tonto. That’s what I’m going to call my next dog.’
‘Good name,’ Dan said. ‘Now, just promise me you will run for it if anything happens.’
‘I promise.’
‘Right,’ Dan said as he pulled up. ‘That’s it then.’
He was pleased to see the lad was obedient. As soon as he was out of the car with his dog he went straight over towards the bushes and began calling.
Dan went towards the barn.
‘Tonto,’ he called and then gave a piercing whistle. ‘Come on, boy.’
As the door of the barn was padlocked and chained on the outside it was extremely unlikely that there was anyone in there with the women, but Dan wasn’t going to take any chances.
He went right round the barn, continuing to call and whistle, but no one appeared. He tried to look inside the barn through a crack in the door, but it was too dark in there to see anything. He went back to Clive and told him he was going in. ‘Get in the bushes in case anyone comes,’ he said. ‘I’ll whistle if I need you.’
The second key on the cord he tried fitted the padlock and it opened easily, the chain falling to the ground with a clatter. Dan’s heart was pounding like a steam-hammer and his stomach churning as he pulled the door open.
Although it was only around four in the afternoon the light was poor in the barn even with the door open. He pulled the gun out of his pocket just in case. There was a large cage-like construction ahead of him, but he was halfway across the barn before he saw Fifi lying motionless on a mattress inside it.
‘No!’ he yelled, thinking she was dead. ‘Oh no, Fifi, you can’t be!’
He shoved the gun back in his pocket and had the keys ready to open the cage, when he glanced upwards and saw Yvette. She looked like a huge bat swaying slightly in the breeze. All at once he was crying, his fingers trembling so hard he could barely get the other key into the padlock, but he finally managed it, dragged the chain out through the bars and flung it down.
He reached Fifi in two strides, knelt down beside her and wept. She looked like a very dirty angel, her blonde hair flowing out over the mattress and her face so thin, white and lifeless.
‘No!’ he roared out in anguish, flinging the blanket from her and scooping her up into his arms. ‘I should have killed him too, the bastard. How could he do this?’
A kaleidoscope of images ran through his mind. Their first meeting in the coffee shop in Bristol, Fifi running to him barefoot across the Downs last summer, her hair like spun gold in the sunshine. In her cream suit and pink hat on their wedding day, with a smile as wide as the river Avon. Sitting up in bed on Christmas morning, with panda eyes from the previous night’s mascara. And all the lovemaking, those long silky legs wrapped around him, kisses sweeter than he’d ever known before. He didn’t want to live without her.
He sobbed as he rocked her, showering her dirty, cold face with kisses, his tears making rivulets down her cheeks. But all at once he felt a slight movement in his arms, and the tip of her tongue came out between her parched lips, licking at his tears.
‘Fifi!’ he exclaimed. ‘You’re alive!’
‘Dan?’ she croaked out, struggling to open her eyes. ‘Is it really you?’
In that instant Dan knew utter bliss. Nothing had ever or could ever be that good again.
‘Yes, baby,’ he said through tears of joy, rocking her in his arms. ‘It really is me. I’m going to take you home.’
‘Dan?’ Clive