Free The Missing Link by Kate Thompson Page A

I could see his expression change as his attention shifted from the road and on to Tina. He slowed, and peered closely at her as he passed, then seemed to drift hesitantly for a hundred yards or so. Finally, to our amazement, he stopped.
    Tina and I sprinted over the distance and Danny hobbled after us, not that far behind, with Oggy. The man got out of the car and waited for us on the passenger side. When we caught up to him he looked Tina up and down, then smiled at me.
    ‘Going far?’ he asked.
    ‘Inverness,’ I said.
    ‘You’re a long way from Inverness,’ he said. Then his eye fell on Oggy.
    ‘That your dog?’
    I nodded.
    ‘I’m not having a dog in my car,’ he said. ‘You’ll have to leave him.’
    I stepped away from him, and maybe some instinct was at work deep within me, because I remember feeling vaguely relieved.
    ‘We can’t leave him,’ Tina was saying. She was laying on the charm again and it made me uneasy. ‘He’s very quiet, honest. You won’t even know he’s there.’
    Danny had caught up at last and was already climbing into the back of the car. The man didn’t pay him any attention at all.
    ‘All right,’ he said. ‘If the dog goes in the boot I’ll take you as far as I’m going. That’s my final offer.’ He opened the passenger door and Tina dropped her bag on the floor and got in. Then he came round and opened the boot.
    There was plenty of room for a dog in there, but Oggy was behaving very strangely. He couldn’t say what was on his mind, but he expressed himself pretty well all the same. He whined and put his tail between his legs and refused to come over when I called him. I thought he was just being sniffy about having to travel in the caboose, but the truth was that his instincts were far more highly attuned than ours were.
    ‘Do you want us to go without you?’ I said.
    He whined and cringed and wagged his tail, but he wouldn’t come. I was so sorry afterwards for what I did next, but at the time it seemed like the only thing to do. I threw my bags into the back of the car, grabbed Oggy by the scruff of the neck, and lifted him bodily into the boot.
    The man slammed the lid and went round to the driver’s side. As soon as his back was turned, Darling drifted down on silent wings and I picked her out of the air and slipped her into my pocket. I got into the back with Danny and, before long, we were a snoring jumble of heavy limbs.
    I woke with a start.
    ‘Out, lads,’ the man was saying. ‘Quick, now.’
    I stared out with bleary eyes. It was pitch dark and the headlights were illuminating a junction where two roads met. The road we were on was steep at that point, and the man was holding the car on the clutch. Tina had her head down, getting her bag, I supposed.
    ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘I’m turning right here and you need to go left. Out you get.’
    Danny already had his door open and I fumbled at mine and spilt out, dragging my plastic bags behind me. I was already on the road when I heard Tina shout.
    ‘Let go of me!’
    She had opened her door and by the inside light I could see that the man had a tight grip on her arm and was preventing her from getting out. I dropped my bags and grabbed Tina’s door, but the swine was already letting off the clutch and the car was pulling forward.
    We were lucky that Darling had her wits about her. With the courage of a lion she flew at the man’s face and went for his eyes with her beak and claws. I don’t suppose he had any idea what was happening. He let out a yell and threw up his hands to protect himself, letting go of Tina in the process. I pulled her out and, luckily enough, her foot caught in the shoulder-strap of her bag and it got dragged out behind her, spilling its contents on to the road. Behind Tina, Darling left off the attack and swept out of the car just as it roared like a jet plane and careered away.
    Danny was trembling and gasping. We all were. We watched the red tail-lights diminish and