Taking himself off to one side for a moment, Albert took his phone from his jacket pocket and called his son. Gary was on the express train from London, which travelled from London to York in two hours and was due to arrive any moment. Albert had been heading to the station when the attack occurred and was supposed to be waiting for his son in a coffee shop inside the station. Thinking it best to let him know, he started talking the moment the call was answered.
‘Gary, it’s dad. I’ve got caught up and will be a few minutes adrift getting to the station. Sorry. Can you find a coffee shop, or a pub and I’ll meet you there shortly?’
To Albert’s surprise, Gary said, ‘No, Dad. There are leaves on the line.’
‘Leaves on the line,’ Albert repeated. ‘How late will you be?’ That a few leaves falling in autumn could disrupt travel beggared belief in Albert’s opinion and secretly, he suspected the rail companies used it as a catch-all excuse at this time of year because no one could argue with it.
‘Only about half an hour,’ grumbled Gary. ‘It’s okay. I have a book I’m reading. I’ll let you know when I get there.’ Albert was waiting for his son to ask what could possibly have caused his own delay in arriving at the station. He didn’t want to explain that he was involved in another incident, and he certainly didn’t want to tell him he couldn’t find Rex. Thankfully, Gary said, ‘We’ve just gone into a tunn …’ and the line when dead.
Pocketing his phone once more, Albert went to check on Rosie. Mum was in the back of the ambulance where her hands were being cleaned and dressed. Two of the fingers on her right hand had been taped together. Her son, Teddy, was being cradled by another paramedic, a man in his forties with a bald head and big smile. He was pulling faces at the infant, trying to keep the little one’s mood even while his mother was attended to.
Albert wanted to ask if she was all right, but she got in first. ‘I forgot to thank you for helping me back there,’ Rosie said, peering around the side of the paramedic to look at Albert. ‘Did you find your dog?’
‘Not yet,’ said Albert, trying to squash down the ball of worry forming in his gut. ‘I’m sure he’s fine. The police will pick him up begging at a restaurant I expect.’ The joke was for his benefit, not anyone else’s and he managed a tight smile. ‘Are you okay?’ he asked.
She shook her head and a small tear escaped her right eye. ‘I’m fine,’ she lied. ‘I have to get to work.’
‘With your hands like that?’ he questioned. ‘Surely, you can be granted a day off.’
She shook her head again, more vigorously this time, and refused to make eye contact. ‘It’s a temporary contract. If I don’t turn up, I don’t get paid.’
Albert felt an upwelling of empathy for the young mother. From her clothing and tatty shoes, he could see she wasn’t well off. It caused a natural desire to help her though he couldn’t work out how he might achieve that.
The paramedic finished what he was doing and stood up, hunched over a little in the back of the ambulance. ‘That’s about the best I can do here. Your fingers are most likely just bruised from being hyperextended. They will hurt for a few weeks but there is no sign that anything is broken and very little a doctor can do other than prescribe pain medication.’
‘Which you said I can get over the counter or from my own GP,’ Rosie added. The paramedic agreed and joined his colleague entertaining Teddy. Rosie held up her hand to study it, wincing when she tried to flex her fingers. ‘This is going to be a problem,’ she muttered.
There was nothing left for Albert to say: Rosie was treated, and though her hand most likely hurt, there wasn’t a thing Albert could do about that. He was about to wish her luck when Yates tapped him on the shoulder.
‘I think we found your dog, sir.’
Humans in Uniform
Rex waited for a while. He couldn’t measure it in minutes; he had no concept of time other than to observe that it was time to eat, or time to go for a walk. The sun came up and that was the start of the day. Later, the sun would set again. However, after determining that his human wasn’t coming for him, he started walking. Any direction was as good as another, so he set off. As luck would have it, he was going in completely the wrong direction to the one which would lead him back to his human. Without a scent to follow, he couldn’t tell.
After a few minutes, he chanced upon a man in uniform. He recognised uniforms as a positive thing since everyone he met as a puppy was wearing one. He had been a police dog and though this man was wearing a different uniform, it still also looked quite similar. Plus, the man smelled like food.
Coming nearer, Rex could see more uniforms. They were climbing onto a large red vehicle which was inside a large building with tall roller doors. The door in front of the big red vehicle had just finished ascending. The man he saw first hadn’t noticed him yet, but he did when Rex decided going inside was a good idea.
Trotting past his legs, the man turned to see the giant German Shepherd letting himself into the fire station. ‘Hey, dog!’ he called, but Rex was already inside and looking about.
Inside the fire station, and jogging to
