I’VE HAD MY PHONE switched off inside the hospital. There are signs all over the place saying mobiles interfere with the defibrillators or ventilators … or something, which I’m sure is probably bollocks, but can understand all the same. The last thing you’d want lying in a hospital bed is some loud-mouthed idiot telling the world how important he is.
When I reach my car I switch my phone back on and see I have a text. It’s from Lorna, one of the kennel girls at the shelter. It says simply:
Bluey back.
I give out a small cry of relief and climb behind the wheel. I get the heat going and immediately ring Lorna. As soon as she answers, I say, ‘Where was he?’
‘Tied to the fence at the bottle bank by Booths,’ she says breathlessly. She must be in the middle of mopping up. ‘Mad Jackie Wagstaff found him at seven this morning, when she was recycling her empties. She dropped him off saying he must have been abandoned, because the car park’s empty at that time. She sends her apologies for bringing you another dog, by the way, but said she couldn’t just leave him there.’
‘How long do you think he’d been there?’ I ask.
‘No idea. She said he was a sorry sight. Poor bugger had his head down as usual, waiting for someone to come and get him. Probably stand there all bloody week if he had to.’
I feel a sob building in my chest and have to take a couple of breaths to stifle it.
‘Lisa,’ Lorna asks, ‘you still there?’
‘Yes,’ I sniff, ‘just relieved he’s all right … is he all right?’
‘He seems okay. He’s not eaten, but that’s not unusual for him. I might mix a bit o’ cat food in with it, see if he’ll have it then. What d’you think that fella wanted with him, anyway? Why run off with him then go and dump him? … I said to Shelley, “What’s the point in that?” ’
‘I’ve got a theory – I’ll tell you about it when I get in. I shouldn’t be too long, depends on how bad the roads are.’
‘They’re better than yesterday.’ Then her tone changes: ‘Lisa?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Joe told us about your friend in hospital. Is she going to be okay?’
I’d asked Joe to telephone work for me and let them know the score, told him to tell them about Kate so I could get straight to the hospital to see how she was doing.
‘She’ll recover,’ I say to Lorna. ‘I’ve just seen her, and she was sitting up and able to talk. Her sister’s with her, I’ve let them have some time together.’
‘Did she, like, have problems or something?’
‘She’s the one whose daughter’s missing.’
‘Oh,’ she says emphatically. ‘Oh, that’s awful.’
‘I know,’ I say, and I tell her I’ll be around in half an hour.
As I drive, my head is muddled with thoughts. I try listening to the radio but I can only get Radio 2 in this area, and I can’t stand the string of moaners who ring in to Jeremy Vine at this hour, so I turn it off.
My exhaust is blowing worse than ever and as I press on the accelerator I frighten a young mother standing at the lights with a pram. I check my mirror and see she’s shouting something angrily in my direction. I hope I’ve not woken her baby, I hope—
What the hell is Kate doing trying to kill herself?
That’s what I can’t get out of my head.
I wanted to shout it at her. I wanted to shake her senseless and make her tell me just what the bloody hell was going on.
Now I can’t think straight. Now my head feels like someone’s firing pellets at it from close range, and every time I try to think rationally, every time I try to go through something from start to finish, the thought is obliterated before I can come to any proper conclusions.
Why didn’t she ask for Lucinda when she woke up?
Why did she fall apart so badly when she was told Guy had been arrested?
And this is a minor point, but I’m going to go ahead and voice it because it’s pissing me off, why did neither Kate, Alexa nor, come to think of it, Guy, thank me for saving Kate’s life?
I know they’re all over the place presently, but I’d have thought one of them might at least have said, ‘Thank God you came, Lisa.’
But no. Nothing.
My knuckles are a bloodless white on the steering wheel and I tell myself, Okay, stop. For now, just stop thinking. Because Bluey’s back. It’s the one good thing to come out of today.
Bluey’s back and I’ve made the decision that tonight he’s coming home to live with us.