‘Listen, you just give us the money back and we’ll say no more.’ His voice was harsh, distorted by her phone’s speakers. ‘I’m not an angry or vindictive man. That’s all.’
Rachel let Benji have his way and crossed the road. ‘Well, I’m afraid I can’t just—’
‘Listen, you sold us a pup!’
‘Literally. We agreed the terms. Now goodbye!’ Rachel ended the phone call and scanned through her contacts list for the man’s number. Before she could block him, he was calling her back. How rude! She killed the call, then tapped the button to block him. Excellent. A wave of calm surged through her. ‘Come on, Benji.’ She tugged at his lead and set off down the grass verge on this side of the lane, uneven but preferable to walking on the road.
That woman was staring hard at her over the fence. It hadn’t been here a week ago, but now its varnished wood barred any view of the garden. Used to be one of the highlights of Rachel’s day, but now it was… Well. ‘Don’t you even think of letting those dogs get in here again.’
Rachel shook her head. Some people just didn’t get it, did they?
‘I’m talking to you!’ She was keeping pace with Rachel and shooting angry looks over the fence. ‘Your bloody dogs should be—’
‘I’m not listening to you.’ Rachel tightened her grip, quickened her pace, but held her keys in her pockets in case she needed a weapon.
‘Snooty cow. You and your horrible little—’
‘Snooty?’ Rachel chanced a look at the spiteful woman. ‘If you knew half of—’
‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just keep walking. And don’t come back.’
‘Gladly.’ Rachel spotted that point where the pavement picked up across the road. One last look over the fence, though. ‘Good day to you.’
‘Good day? Good day? Christ! I’ve lost a year thanks to you!’
Rachel jogged over the road away from the harpy.
A car horn jolted her out of her rage.
Some black thing was stopped in the middle of the road. The driver was shouting something at Rachel, but the glass muted whatever it was.
‘Come on, you too.’ Rachel clutched the leads in both hands and dragged Benji and Jemima across the road.
‘Could say thanks for not running you over!’ A woman’s voice, soon drowned out by the roar of the car’s engine and the bitter tang of burnt petrol.
What was wrong with people?
Rachel hurried on down the pavement, eager to get away and get home in time for Pointless. Not too far now – she could see the back of their house off in the distance, behind the runs that filled their garden. If only there was a shortcut.
‘Excuse me?’ A car was coming up from behind, some dance music thumping out into the country air.
Rachel stopped, sighed, then made to turn.
Before she could, something hard pressed into her back and it felt like her whole body shook and turned to jelly. She fell forward, unable to break her fall, and landed flat on the tarmac. Her cheek scraped off some loose stones.
The dogs looked back at her, then up at someone, then turned tail and ran away, their leads trailing behind them.
That was the last thing Rachel saw before something was shoved over her head.
* * *
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