Francis didn’t respond for a moment. Something about the big dog was troubling him. They were watching them move away now; the old man and the target were walking side by side and chatting as if they were old friends.
Huffing out a breath, Francis said, ‘Let’s get back to the van.’ He didn’t wait for Eugene to respond; he was already heading back the way they had come. They’d been watching Victor Harris walk his dog and were getting ready to pounce when the old man appeared. But it was just too dodgy to snatch their target with someone else around. They could just eliminate him, but the dog would make noise and that might attract other people to look their way. It just wasn’t worth the risk. There was something about that dog too. The big one, not the funny little sausage dog. The big one had looked right into the shadow where he stood out of sight last night, and then again this morning. Francis was certain neither he nor Eugene could be seen but the dog had been staring directly at them.
If it came to it, he would kill the dog and the old man. They had to make their move today, but with luck, Eugene would be right about them being able to snatch Harris from the side of the road as he came back to his house. Unfortunately, in the meantime, he had to listen to Eugene spouting on about how they were going to have a bench press contest when they got back to the gym.
Cell Block
Choosing to delay breakfast, despite the faint rumble in his stomach, Albert said, ‘I’ll walk with you.’
‘You’re coming to the station?’ Victor sounded surprised. ‘I thought you were heading back to your hotel for breakfast.’
‘I’ll get there,’ Albert assured him. ‘You read the last part of my son’s message. He spoke with the duty sergeant last night so the request for Kate to call you has either been passed because she will have been woken by now, assuming she got any sleep, or it will not be passed at all. My guess is that the station isn’t far away.’ The guess was based on the size of Biggleswade. It was several times larger than Stilton, the last place he and Rex had stayed, but still small enough that a person could walk from one end to the other in a matter of minutes.
‘It’s on the other side of town,’ he replied, by which Albert assumed Victor meant on the other side of the busy B road which bisected the town into two halves. ‘It should take about five minutes to get to from here.’
Listening to his stomach gurgle, Albert felt thankful the delay to his full English platter wouldn’t be a long one. Going to the police station might very well prove fruitless, but it would give them a chance to ask a few questions about Kate. Replaying Randall’s email in his head, his son made it sound like the conviction was already assured. If the police in Biggleswade believed that, they wouldn’t spend time interviewing her, they would have taken her statement yesterday, confirmed she had no alibi, and probably had her scheduled for transfer to prison this morning.
Albert didn’t feel sorry for her; he learned to detach himself from such unhelpful emotions a long time ago, and his investigation had switched from attempting to prove she was innocent, to determining for himself if she was guilty or not. That might seem like a subtle change, but it was significant, nevertheless. The evidence pointed her way.
Though the air was cool, it was a pleasant walk and they passed people who were most likely on their way to work, hurrying here and there in their cars or on foot. Supermarkets were open, so too small cafés selling breakfast and businesses like bakeries, the smell of fresh bread filling Albert’s nostrils in a tempting manner.
Rex caught a whiff on the wind, sucking in a deep noseful of air to confirm what his first sniff told him. His own stomach rumbled, and he groaned with excitement, ‘Oh, yeah!’
Hans glanced at him, the two dogs locking eyes for a moment as they both savoured the dominant smell. ‘Kebab!’ they squealed in tandem and both dogs surged forward. Straining against their collars to find the source of the smell which seemed to fill the air and push out everything else. Their reaction caught the humans off guard.
‘Crickey!’ Albert stumbled slightly as Rex tugged his right arm forward.
Victor too, though steadier on his feet, found Hans was suddenly trying to run where a moment ago he was content to walk. ‘What’s got into them?’ he asked.
The smell was getting stronger, Rex’s nose leading him on, but he missed a stray piece of meat at the side of the road which Hans fell upon with glee.
‘Did you see what that was?’ asked Victor. He’d never had a dog, and thus wasn’t used to dog behaviour. Albert was though, and he’d danced to this tune before.
Scanning the pavement ahead, he spotted the abandoned kebab. It was a sad truth that late-night kebab shops were the refuge of public house evictees, where a pitta bread full of meat acted as a compass to steer the inebriated home. Held in both hands like a divining rod, the meaty grease-laden receptacle of bread all too often ended up either partially, or completely on the ground where it remained until someone cleared it away. Albert had tried one once and hadn’t enjoyed it. Though he suspected what he’d tasted was a poor imitation of a nation’s cuisine, he had never tried one since.
Rex, however, homed in on an abandoned kebab like a bee to honey.
Rex could see it now, his powerful nose getting him close enough that he no
