Free Leave the Last Page by Stephen Barnard Page A

he’s doing. We need to study what we’ve got and look out for the next one. Hopefully we can catch up with them soon.’
    Alex turned to Charlotte. ‘Do you buy all this?’
    She shrugged. ‘What other option do we have?’
    Alex looked at Ben. ‘So why do you want to help us so much?’
    Ben took a moment’s thought before answering. ‘I have a son too. He isn’t missing like yours, but sometimes he might as well be. He lives with his mum most of the time which doesn’t make things any easier. Your Tom’s story is the first thing we’ve shared in a long time, and to be honest, seeing how interested he was in it made my week. He wants to see how this plays out as much as I do.’
    â€˜I’m glad you’re finding something positive out of our trauma,’ said Alex bitterly.
    â€˜Alex, enough,’ said Charlotte. ‘Ben, I am glad, because it means you’re helping us when you didn’t have to. We need all the help we can get.’ Her eyes filled with tears. ‘I can’t believe it’s not even been a full day yet. I miss him so much.’
    Alex went to Charlotte and gave her a hug. He looked over her shoulder at Ben. ‘Sorry, detective. Your help is appreciated.’
    â€˜It’s Ben, please. I’m off duty, remember. I’ve got some ideas from Tom’s story that I think we might look at. Do you have a computer with internet access?’

    *
    Ten minutes later they were all sat around Alex’s laptop ready to look up key words from the pages in a search engine. ‘The Dragon and Key pub got me thinking. Would Tom have ever seen that name or sign before?’
    â€˜I doubt it,’ said Charlotte. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever taken him there. The park I mean, not the pub.’
    Ben nodded. ‘That’s what I thought. He couldn’t have known about it to put it in his story. So how did that happen? Sheer coincidence? Not likely.’
    â€˜None of this is likely,’ said Alex, but he wasn’t complaining, just stating a fact.
    â€˜Now, that pub is on Tarleton Street. If I searched for it yesterday, I’m sure there would have been some reference on the web to the Dragon and Key. Today though…’ He typed the information into the laptop, but there were no search matches found. ‘If I alter it a little…’ He deleted the “
and key
” section from the search.
    They found a pub on Tarleton Street. It was called the Red Dragon. A photo showed it to be in the precise location as the one they were looking for.
    â€˜How is that possible?’ asked Charlotte.
    â€˜And look at this,’ said Ben. He searched for the park itself. He found a site that had a number of photographs, including one of the fountain itself. ‘When you asked me yesterday, Alex, was it a horse statue that was damaged I told you it was a dragon. It was broken but I saw a dragon head piece and a stone wing with my own eyes. But look.’ The fountain of the photograph was in the shape of a horse rearing up on its hind legs out of some waves. ‘I wonder if it had already started to change back when you turned up. You saw bits of horse where I had previously seen dragon.’
    â€˜That’s…amazing.’ Alex looked closely at the image. It was definitely the same park.
    Ben continued. ‘The story gave us frogs and wolves, and they were there, but they disappeared as the effect of the story faded. The Red Dragon pub and this horse fountain changed, perhaps only for those of us involved, for the time that it mattered. But I bet if we go back this lunchtime, it won’t be The Dragon and Key that’s open for business.’
    â€˜It’ll be back to the Red Dragon,’ added Charlotte.
    â€˜Exactly. Problem is, we’re a few steps behind, and we’re only getting a, a
residue
of the story, rather than the full effect. But looking at where