‘I’m id fuggig agony, you bassard!’ The sweat on Nathan’s face was making the dried blood glisten like jam.
‘And I feel for you, Nathan, but we en’t goin’ nowhere till after we has a meaningful conversation. Now…
‘Tells us go id heavy,’ Nathan said.
‘On Foley?’
‘Uh!’ Nathan twisted his head. ‘Be-ows.’
‘What?’
‘Beddows!’
‘Jeremy Berrows?’
Nathan nodding. ‘Said he was a bad tenad.’
‘He en’t a bloody tenant!’
‘Didn’ pay. Nebber fixed fences, loosed his sheep—’
‘Bullshit!’
‘Is whaddhe said!’ Nathan coughing, phlegmy. ‘Said go id hard. Beast on his ground, he won’t kill id!’
‘Beast?’
‘Seven grand,’ Nathan said.
‘What?’
‘Seven grand if we geds him.’
‘Nathan—’
‘Swearda God. We brings him a body, we geds seven, cash.’
On the back seat, Jane went rigid. Gomer carried on rolling his ciggy.
‘Run that by me again, Nathan,’ Danny said.
‘Fuggsake… We brigs him a beast, it’s seven thousad. Cash.’
There was a long silence. Gomer wet the ciggy paper with the tip of his tongue. Jane looked at Nathan; he wasn’t as old as she’d thought, might be no more than mid-twenties. And maybe not as hard as he’d imagined he was. You could start to feel sorry for Nathan. But she still didn’t understand what he was on about. Seven
‘Forgive me — we en’t talking ’bout foxes yere, are we?’ Danny said.
Nathan tried to breathe through his shattered nose and the breath got caught somewhere. There was a clicky, ratchety noise, and Nathan whimpered in pain. Whatever he’d done, Jane just wished they’d get this over, get him to hospital.
‘What, then?’ Danny said.
‘Dog.’
Jane breathed in hard. ‘Clancy said—’
Danny raised a hand. ‘Go on, Nathan.’
‘Killid’ sheep. Dacre said he’d god five, six sheep, throa’s ripped out.’
‘When?’
‘Dunno. Recent. Didn’ wad no fuss, no panig, see. Just wannid dealin’ wid.’
‘For seven grand? You really expect me to—?’
‘Wadds id kept quiet, he does, dassa mai’ thig. Don’ wadda locals involved. And don’ you go spreadin’ dis around, ’cause dis Dacre’s a hard basd—’
‘
‘Swearda God! I’m not godder make ub da’ kinda moddey, ab I?’
‘And that’s why you was gonner shoot Jeremy Berrows’s sheepdog?’
‘We wadder godder shoot no fuggig shee’dog!’ Nathan gritted his teeth, rocking his head. ‘Bigger, yeh? Down from the Ridge. Big black bugger.’
Danny turned round to Gomer. ‘He on about?’
‘Hold on, boy.’ Gomer leaned over Danny’s seat, and Jane knew what Mum meant about the light in his glasses. ‘You talking some’ing like… for instance, there was this so-called puma down West Wales, year or two back.’
‘Uh!’ Nathan nodding hard, wincing at the pain. ‘We was on dat… How Dacre god onto us, see.’
‘A mystery beast? That’s what you’re sayin’? Dacre reckons he’s got a mystery beast preying on his stock?’
Nathan closed his eyes, still nodding, sank down in the passenger seat.
Jane felt this unearthly tingle.
‘Comin’ out of Jeremy Berrows’s ground?’
‘Uh.’
Danny said, ‘Let me get this right, boy. Sebbie Dacre was offering you and your mates seven thousand pound if you brought him the body of a big black dog that been attacking his flocks. Usin’ you on account he didn’t want no local boys involved.’
Nathan made some kind of grunt you could probably take as affirmation. Danny turned back to Gomer.
‘I knew it, see. All that bullshit about demonstratin’ what it’s gonner be like if they bans huntin’ with hounds…’
‘The Hound,’ Jane said, breathless. ‘The black—’
Gomer put a hand on her arm. ‘Don’t get too carried away, Janey. We don’t know the half of it yet.’
‘Berrows’s ground,’ Danny whispered. ‘Gwilym Bufton said Sebbie seen it
Jane said, ‘Danny, I think…’
She was looking at Nathan struggling to sit up. A gout of fresh, bright blood flooded out over his lips. Jane stifled a scream.
‘Oh hell,’ Danny said, not too calmly. He turned on the engine.
Part Three
It was several years before we discovered there was anything ghostly about it. I’d never believed in ghosts really… not until we experienced it ourselves. About three years ago, walking up the stairs late in the evening, I got to about here… and there was a shadowy figure crossed straight across in front of me… sort of a crouched person, almost like a largish sort of dog… just passed straight in front of me and into the inner hall and… well, I didn’t see any more after that. A prickly feeling went up my back.
21
Cwn Annwn
Turning over the apartment — this wasn’t something you did lightly.
The attic door opened easily. No alarm went off, though it wouldn’t have come as a big surprise to find one had been secretly installed. Merrily stood on the threshold of Jane’s domain, remembering how important having her own apartment had been to the kid’s acceptance, aged fifteen, of a new life in Ledwardine.
