Doors slammed shut. The guard gave his signal. The train began to move.
The phone went at six o’clock in the morning and Pippa ran into the hall and lifted the receiver. It would probably be from Alison, the friend she was meeting so that they could go to school together. Everybody was assembling there to wait for the bus which would take them to the camp in the New Forest.
But it was not Alison.
“Is that Pippa?” said a faint voice.
“Yes. Who’s that?”
“It’s Hal.”
“Goodness! Have you got to your grandparents’ already?”
“No, I haven’t.” Hal’s voice sounded strained and worried. “I’m still here. I’m in London because an awful thing’s happened. All the dogs that were in the room with Fleck have escaped, and they caught up with me and won’t go away. I’d got on the train, I was all ready to go, but they just sat on the platform and looked and waited. They were sure I was going to take them too. I tried to ignore them but I couldn’t, so I got off the train again and spent the night in a freezing shed at the back of a building site. It was horrible. There was a Rottweiler guarding it but Otto just talked to him and he let us in. Only you’ve got to come and take the dogs back, Pippa. You’ve got to.”
Pippa’s mind was racing. “Where are you? Tell me exactly.”
“I’m in Mortland Square. There’s a patch of grass and a war memorial. I can wait here for a while but people are beginning to stare. It’s off the North Road.”
“All right. I know it. Just stay there. Don’t move, whatever you do. Tell them you’re waiting for their owners or something.”
She put down the phone. Kayley was still asleep. She’d been asleep the previous night too when Pippa came back. Pippa’s rucksack was packed, there was only her toothbrush to put in and the packet of sandwiches her mother had made the night before. She crept to the kitchen and took it from the fridge and added some cold sausages and half a loaf of bread. Then she hurried to the sitting room and turned on the computer and printer and wrote a note to her teacher to say that she had flu and would be unable to come to camp, and signed it with her mother’s name. Her mother’s handwriting was easy to copy.
“Did I hear the phone?” said Mrs O’Brian sleepily as Pippa crept in to say goodbye.
“Yes. It was Alison to say we’re to meet half an hour earlier. I’ll have to be off.”
She hugged her mother and let herself out of the house. When she reached Alison’s house she dropped the letter in and hurried on to the bus stop. She was sorry to miss the camp but Hal was obviously going to make a thorough mess of things if she didn’t get there to put him right.
Hal looked cold and peaky and there was a smutty stain on his cheek, but the dogs seemed to be in fine fettle. They greeted her rapturously, tails rotating like windmills. Francine gave her a paw; Honey rubbed her nose against Pippa’s leg.
Pippa opened her rucksack.
“We’d all better eat something,” she said. “Cold sausages aren’t good for dogs, but they’ll have to do.”
The sausages did very well, wolfed down by all five of the dogs, and Pippa and Hal shared the sandwiches. Hal was beginning to feel a bit better. The night on the filthy floor of the hut had taken it out of him.
“We’ll get a hot drink in a minute,” said Pippa. And then: “I think I better tell you what happened to the dogs. They didn’t escape. I let them out. On purpose.”
Hal stared at her. She went on. “Suddenly I couldn’t bear to see them in their cages like that, when Fleck was going to be free. It was a sort of brainstorm, I suppose. Really stupid. Anything could have happened to them, but it didn’t. They found you so that’s all right.”
“But it isn’t all right,” said Hal frantically. “I must get away. I think I may be able to change my ticket – I’m not sure – but I can’t take the others. You simply have to take them back.”
“Well I’m not going to,” said Pippa firmly, zipping up the rucksack, “so you can forget that absolutely.”
Fleck was in his usual position on Hal’s lap and Hal gathered him and held him very close.
“My parents will find I’m gone in a few hours and then it will all begin. And I tell you if they try to take Fleck away again, I’ll kill them, and no one wants to kill their parents.”
“Never mind your parents,” said Pippa. “What about your grandparents? The people you’re escaping to. What are they like? Describe them.”
“They’re very kind and … quiet but not soft at all. They’re like … it sounds silly, but like trees, or earth … things that are just there and you don’t think about them but it would be awful if they were gone.”
“And you’re sure that they’d take you in, you and Fleck?”
“Yes. They’ve always thought I should have a dog and they live by the sea in Northumberland where there’s lots of space. They wouldn’t just send us back, I’m sure.”
Pippa was fiddling with the strap of her rucksack. Otto had come to sit beside her and was resting his head on her shoulder. “And what about the others?” She waved her hand at the four dogs sitting round in a companionable silence. “Would they take them in too?”
This was difficult. “I don’t know,” said Hal slowly. “They live in a small cottage and my parents are always saying how poor they are … but I don’t believe they’d send the dogs back to Easy Pets once they knew what it was like. I don’t know, but I don’t believe they would.”
“Well, that settles it,” said Pippa. “We’ll come with you. We’ll all go to Northumberland.”
Hal stared at her. “But how? I’ve hardly any money left and they won’t let us take all the dogs on the train.”
“Then we won’t go by train. We’ll walk and get lifts on lorries or on anything we can get to take us. You’ll see,” said Pippa, getting to her feet. “We’ll get a map as soon as the shops open. But it can’t be too difficult. After all, one thing is certain about Northumberland. It must be in the north.”
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?”