Free No Mercy by Roberta Kray Page B

years they’d grown used to one another.
    ‘So why can’t we?’
    Maddie didn’t like to bang on about money and so she tried a different tack. ‘Well, his mum’s at home all day. Dogs don’t like being on their own, sweetheart. They get lonely.’
    Zac ate some of his cereal while he thought about this. ‘I could stay home,’ he said. ‘Keep him company.’
    Maddie grinned at him. ‘Nice try, buster, but you have to go to school, and I have to go to work.’
    ‘I bet Gran would take care of him. Just in the day, you know, until we got back.’
    ‘I think Gran’s got enough to do. It wouldn’t really be fair.’ Maddie saw the disappointment on his face and felt the familiar stab of guilt that she couldn’t give him everything he wanted. Her only solution was to try and make him laugh. ‘And anyway, if we got a dog, there’d be all that poo to pick up.’
    Zac giggled, spluttering out a couple of milky cornflakes. ‘You don’t pick up poo!’
    ‘Sure you do. If you didn’t, the pile would just grow higher and higher until you couldn’t see over the top.’
    Zac’s eyes widened a little, half in disgust, half in fascination. ‘That big?’
    ‘Yep, as big as a house. But you don’t pick it up with your hands or anything – you have to use a plastic bag and put it in the bin.’
    ‘And then where does it go?’
    ‘It goes to the dump with all the other rubbish.’
    Maddie knew that her mother would be horrified at the conversation – bodily functions, even of dogs, was hardly suitable for breakfast talk – but Kim Layne wasn’t around to protest. She was too busy saving donkeys in Portugal. As such, Maddie had to find her own way of dealing with awkward situations.
    Zac finished his cereal and pushed the bowl to one side. ‘So what about the dinosaurs?’
    Maddie, unsure as to what he meant, gazed patiently back at him. ‘What about them?’
    ‘Where did all their poo go?’
    She laughed. ‘Ah, now, there’s a question. You’ll have to ask your uncle Sol about that. He’s the expert on dinosaurs.’ Mentioning Solomon’s name reminded her that he was going to try and find out about Cato and she wondered if he’d have any news for her tomorrow. It was probably too soon, but he may have discovered something. ‘Come on, eat your toast or we’ll be late picking up Kyle.’
     
    Shauna Powers was still in her dressing gown when she answered the door. She was a small, skinny girl with an oval face, cropped peroxide hair and pale blue eyes. There were piercings in her upper lip and tongue, and large gold hoops in her ears. This morning, her eyes were rimmed with red, and the faint smell of alcohol drifted from her body.
    ‘Kyle!’ Shauna yelled, looking over her shoulder. ‘Are you ready? Shift your arse. Zac’s here.’
    ‘Late night?’ Maddie asked.
    Shauna rubbed at her eyes. ‘Had some mates round. You know what it’s like. You have a few beers and before you can blink, it’s two in the morning.’
    Maddie, although she didn’t exactly approve of being drunk in charge of an eight-year-old, wasn’t about to criticise anyone else’s parenting skills. Instead, she gave a sympathetic nod as if she knew exactly what she meant. The truth, however, was that Zac had a more lively social life than she did. It was time that she started changing that. ‘I don’t suppose you fancy the Fox tomorrow night? Sol’s taking Zac, so I’ve got the evening free.’
    ‘Tomorrow?’ Shauna frowned, her thin brows coming together as she searched through the fuzzy data in her brain. ‘Maybe. I dunno. I’ll see if my mum can babysit. I’ll give you a bell, yeah?’
    ‘Okay, let me know.’ Maddie didn’t fancy going to the Fox unaccompanied. She was still unclear as to Rick Mallory’s intentions and didn’t want to make a fool of herself. What if she got there and found he was with his mates or a girlfriend or, even worse, a wife? It would seem odd her showing up alone. And then, of course,