One Dog and His Boy

11 Hal Has Gone

Albina was sitting by the telephone. She was as pale as death and every so often she let out a little moan. Gloria sat beside her, ready to take over when Albina had to go to the lavatory so that the phone was never left unattended. Geraldine was manning the coffee machine in the kitchen.

The Fentons were waiting for word from the kidnappers who held Hal. Any moment now they would ring and demand an enormous ransom for the boy – and then Hal would be returned. Donald had sent out for thousands of pounds in cash. It was in a pouch in the hall guarded by Glenda so that they could drive it instantly to wherever the kidnappers wanted to meet them.

If they were willing to pay enough, Hal would be returned, they told themselves again and again. Everything would surely come right, if the money was there. Even in their distress and fear for Hal, the Fentons found it hard to believe that money wasn’t the answer to everything.

It was three hours now since they had rung Joel’s parents to tell them to send Hal home, and heard that Hal had not been with them – that they had no idea where he was.

Albina’s terrified shriek had brought Donald running, and half an hour later the house filled with policemen. Donald had been angry because they were ordinary constables, not high-ranking detectives, and he’d made so much fuss that a second squad car arrived with an inspector and a sergeant.

The police had searched the house, examined Hal’s belongings, taken photographs and removed items from the bathroom for DNA testing.

And they had asked questions, some of which had annoyed the Fentons very much.

“Is there anything that was upsetting your son?” they had wanted to know. “Anything that might make him think of running away?”

Even in the midst of their grief, Hal’s parents had been very angry.

“Certainly not. Hal had everything a boy could want,” said Albina.

“You say he was going away to boarding school. Could he have been frightened of that?”

“No. Definitely not.” Both Hal’s parents were certain. “He said only yesterday how much he was looking forward to it. And you can see,” repeated Albina, waving her hands at the heaped-up toys in Hal’s room, “he had everything a boy could want. He wouldn’t run away.”

“I tell you the boy’s been kidnapped,” said Donald. “Everyone knows we’re well off. You must get a lead on that – and make it clear that we’ll pay any ransom. The sky’s the limit.”

But the infuriating policemen had insisted on going through the routine procedures and getting the names of all the people they wanted to question: Joel’s parents, Hal’s school friends, people in the shops.

“Was there anyone else working here in the house?” asked the superintendent.

“There was a maid, a foreigner. But she won’t know anything. Unless she’s in league with the kidnappers. She was a most impertinent woman.”

A policeman took down Olga’s address. Their slowness infuriated Donald.

“For God’s sake! Surely you know how to track down kidnappers? They’re probably a well-known gang. They could be hacking off his ear.” He broke off and turned his head away. All the ghastly things he had seen on television swam before him. “I’ll offer a hundred thousand pounds’ reward for any information,” he went on. “Make sure you put that up everywhere.”

“Best hold on a minute, sir. We don’t want everybody coming in with cock and bull stories. Not till we’ve finished our enquiries.”

So now they had gone, leaving Donald desperate and fuming.

“They’re hopeless. You can tell. It’s all plod, plod. I’m going to hire a private detective. Mackenzie had one when his wife lost her jewels. He said he was very professional. Cost the earth, but that’s all to the good. You can’t get the best on the cheap.”

Donald went to look up the names of private detectives, and poor Albina sat by the telephone, weeping and waiting for word from the kidnappers while Gloria and Glenda and Geraldine made coffee and brought her clean handkerchiefs. But the hours passed and no word came.

The first thing Kayley heard when she came down the street towards the Easy Pets building was Queen Tilly screaming.

“Oh heavens, what’s happened?” said Kayley and began to run.

She was still ill and shouldn’t have been coming to work at all. Her mother had tried to stop her but without success: there was no one else to see to the dogs.

The side door which led into her office was unlocked. The burglar alarm was off.

Kayley’s heart was thumping now. What was Queen Tilly doing in her daytime cage when she should have been asleep with the others out in the compound at the back? And why were the doors of the other cages wide open?

Queen Tilly, seeing her, screamed even louder. Her hot water bottle had been cold for hours and she had an itch on her back. Tilly never scratched her own back; she waited till somebody came and gave her a body rub.

But today, Kayley, who always spoke so gently to the dogs, just said, “Shut up, for goodness’ sake,” and hurried out to the yard. What had happened to the other dogs in Room A? Where were Otto and Francine and Li-Chee and Honey? And where was Fleck?

It didn’t take long for her to find out that the dogs were gone. She searched the sleeping quarters, the other rooms, every nook and cranny of the Easy Pets building, whistling and calling, but there was no sign of them.

An hour later, Mr and Mrs Carker sat in their office, scowling at the policemen who had come to investigate, and scowling at Kayley.

“It’s a tragedy. An outrage,” said Mr Carker. “Five of my most valuable dogs stolen! What do I pay for if not the protection of the police, eh? Tell me that!”

Kayley sat scrunching her handkerchief into a ball. She had been crying and looked completely exhausted, and the youngest of the policemen glanced at her and shook his head.

She had answered their questions as truthfully as she could, but she had not told them everything. It was clear to her that Pippa had forgotten to put on the burglar alarm and as a result the thieves had been able to get in and steal the dogs. And she would not give Pippa away. Her sister was too young to be in that kind of trouble.

“I must have forgotten,” she said when she was questioned about the alarm. “I wasn’t feeling very well.” The police could see that this was true. The girl shouldn’t have been at work at all.

But Mr Carker was busy telling the superintendent how valuable the dogs were.

“The St Bernard was bred specially for me in Switzerland,” lied Mr Carker. “He must be worth a cool three thousand pounds. And the poodle won best in show in Paris. I’ve refused a fortune for her. Every dog in that room is priceless. One of them was a new breed, a Tottenham terrier. He’s just been registered by the Kennel Club. I’ve had a stampede of people trying to buy him off me, but I wouldn’t sell.”

The policeman who had been recording what Mr Carker said looked up. “What about that bald little yelper?” he asked. “The Mexican hairless? She was in the same room as the others, wasn’t she? Is she worth anything?”

“I’ll say she is,” said Mr Carker. “She’s the most valuable one of the lot.”

“I wonder why they didn’t take her then,” said the inspector – and the youngest policeman, who had met Queen Tilly, grinned and said under his breath, “I could guess why not.”

Routine investigations took up the next couple of hours – fingerprints, paw marks, door locks, statements…

“We’ll let you know, sir,” the superintendent said to Mr Carker. “And we could take the young lady home. She obviously isn’t well.”

“Oh no, no,” said Kayley. “I’ve got a lot to do.”

But when the police had gone, Mrs Carker turned to her. “I’m afraid you’ll lose your job over this. We can’t have someone so careless in charge of thousands of pounds’ worth of dogs.”

Kayley looked at her with brimming eyes. She could not imagine life without the dogs.

But Mr Carker gave his wife a look. Kayley was paid half of what they would have to pay anybody else. And all the stolen dogs were heavily insured. He wasn’t going to lose any money, and that was all that mattered.

“You can stay till we find someone to take your place,” he said.

So Kayley went on working though she was ill, though her heart felt like breaking when she thought of the five dogs who had been her friends, and though she was worried sick about Pippa, who would be in such terrible trouble if the truth came out.

Just as the awful day was coming to an end, Donald decided to ring his father and mother up in Northumberland. After all, they were Hal’s grandparents. They had a right to know.

Alec and Marnie were already in bed when the phone rang, but Alec padded downstairs, stepped over old Meg, the Labrador, and picked up the phone. He hated the telephone, and a call late at night could only be unwanted news.

But it was worse than he could have imagined.

“Hal’s been kidnapped?” he repeated – and took a deep breath because the room was spinning round.

Donald told him what had happened.

“The police think he might have run away, but that’s complete nonsense. I’ve got the name of a detective to put on the case. He’s supposed to be very good. He ought to be at that price.”

“How’s Albina taking it?”

“Badly, of course. She won’t go to bed, just sits by the phone.”

“Poor lass. You’ll let us know the minute you hear anything, won’t you?”

“Of course.”

Donald was about to hang up when his father asked one more question. “Was the dog with Hal when he disappeared?”

“What dog?”

“Fleck. He wrote to tell us he had a dog.”

“No, no. That was days ago. We took the dog back. It was only out on hire. Hal didn’t mind. He made a fuss at first and then he forgot all about him. He was excited about going away to school.”

Alec went upstairs very slowly. He thought about saying nothing to Marnie but he’d never been much good at concealing things from his wife.

“What is it?” she asked. “Come on, it’s bad news I know.”

Alec told her.

“Donald is sure the boy’s been kidnapped, but I wonder.”

They sat up in bed, very close together, trying to bear what seemed to be unbearable – that Hal was missing and in danger.

“What exactly did Donald say?” Marnie wanted to know.

She listened carefully while Alec repeated his conversation with his son.

“Well, there’s one thing in all that that’s nonsense,” said Marnie. “There’s no way Hal has forgotten about the little dog.”

“That’s what I thought,” said Alec.

After a while they gave up all attempt at sleeping and went downstairs and made a pot of tea. They sat with it while the night turned gradually paler, thinking about the boy they saw so rarely and loved so much. And old Meg lay with her head resting on Alec’s feet and kept watch also.