Mike dropped the WPC off at Berwick Police Station. Using the police car until he could pick his own up from Durham, where it was being held in a friend's lock-up, he drove Smiler and Tiny to his Aunt May’s house on Holy Island.
When they arrived, she was waiting at the gate for them. Mike had explained all about Smiler over the phone, and about the scars on his arms and face, so as not to give her too much of a shock, though he strongly doubted if anything in this world could shock Aunt May. She had after all dealt with that kind of thing before. She smiled and nodded a welcome at Smiler, then froze rigid, her eyes wide with exaggerated fear, when Mike got Tiny out of the police car.
'And where, Michael Yorke, do you think that brute is going to live?' she demanded. 'You said nothing at all about bringing a monster home with you. Dear me, he’s bigger than a bloody Shetland pony. Fairly outdone your bloody self this time, haven’t you! And a barn to keep the bloody brute in, we haven’t got.' She folded her arms across her chest.
Mike grinned. 'Well, not quite, but he can always have my room. Anyhow, you know you love dogs, Aunt May… If I hadn’t rescued him he probably would have starved to death by now, and I know you wouldn’t like that to happen -- a good honest, kind, loving and caring woman like yourself, Aunt May.'
'Oh yeah, got more bloody blarney than the Irish, you have.' She looked at Smiler. 'He’s been picking up waifs and strays since he could get out on the street. You wouldn’t believe me if I was to tell you what he’s carted home.'
Smiler gave her a brief smile. He hoped she wasn’t counting him as one of Mike’s waifs and strays, though he knew deep down, really that’s just what he was. He also knew enough about Aunt May from what Mike had told him to know that she would not have meant anything bad by the remark.
Mike put his arm around her shoulders, kissed her cheek then gave her a hug.
'Away with your charm, Michael Yorke.' She tutted. 'You’ve always been able to charm the birds right out of the trees. A wee dog I wouldn’t have minded so much, for God’s sake. But this… this great big ugly brute...' She glared at Tiny, who wagged his tail. 'What’s its name?'
'Tiny.'
'You’re joking.' She threw Mike a look of comic amazement.
Mike shrugged. 'That’s the name he came with, Aunt May… Anyhow, it’s only for a couple of days.'
'What is -- his name, or how long he’s staying?'
Mike grinned. 'As cute as ever, Aunt May.'
Shrugging, she turned her attention to Smiler. 'You’ll be walking the bloody brute, I presume, and feeding it?'
Smiler nodded quickly.
'OK, but one hair one whiff of a smell, and he’s out. I mean it… It’s a good job I’m not full up. More cancellations than enough with all the bloody rain we’ve had this year,' she grumbled, glaring at Tiny as if the weather and lack of bookings were his fault.
'Thanks Aunt May, you’re a doll.' Mike bent and kissed her cheek again. 'Gotta go now, we’ll talk when I get back.'
'Get away then, and don’t forget to check the tide.' Grinning, she turned to Smiler. 'He got caught on the causeway one night and the helicopter had to come out and rescue him.' She rolled her eyes in mock horror. 'How bloody embarrassing is that?'
Not knowing if she really wanted an answer or not, Smiler nodded, and bit his lip to stop an actual laugh at the picture in his head of Mike standing on top of a car, the raging North Sea all around him and being rescued by a helicopter, as she went on, 'And him living on the island most of his growing years in short pants, he really should have known better, shouldn’t he? No one, but no one, beats Mother Nature, certainly not bloody Michael Yorke. Mother Nature isn’t that easily charmed.'
Mike laughed. 'Never gonna live that one down, am I? And your memory’s fading, darling, I never wore shorts. They were a few generations before me. Don’t know who you’re thinking about there -- some old sweetheart, perhaps?'
'Get away with you.' Laughing, she flapped her hands at him.
Mike’s phone rang. Still smiling at Aunt May, he took it out of his pocket. 'Hello, this is Mike.’ His smile faded as he listened intently to the voice at the other end. 'OK,' he said a moment later. 'I’m on my way.’
Slapping the phone shut, he said to Smiler and Aunt May, 'Gotta go, guys. See youse both tonight. And you be very good.' He patted Tiny’s head, and received a wag from his tail, and a nudge on the knee from Tiny’s nose.
As Mike headed back over the causeway, a picture of the murdered girl entered his mind. He couldn’t begin to understand the pain she must have suffered at the hands of the depraved bastard who had murdered her. Thank God two suspects were being held at the station.
Though it seemed too easy. Far too easy!
Almost as if they had been handed to them on a plate. Which made Mike all the more suspicious. Nothing involving murder was ever that easy.
He drove over the causeway, reminding himself to pick up a timetable of the tides. He never wanted to go through the experience of being rescued from a car roof ever again.