He had his car keys with him, but he also had Ben. Frowning a little, he looked from the dog to the car and then, shrugging his shoulders, unlocked the car door and opened the rear door for the dog.
Immediately Ben hopped in and settled himself on the rear seat happily—Piers already knew that he was quite comfortable about travelling in the car. Closing the door, he got into the driver’s seat and then activated the electric windows to make sure that the dog had enough fresh air. It was a warm day, not too hot for a human being, but Ben was a dog with a thick coat and Piers was mindful of the fact that he needed a cooler environment.
The car park opposite the town square on to which the estate agent’s office fronted had a couple of empty parking spaces, but neither of them offered the kind of shade he felt that Ben needed so, instead, he turned down a small side street, parking his car on the shady side of the road and leaving the rear windows and the sun roof open enough to allow Ben plenty of fresh air.
He wouldn’t be gone long.
‘Good boy,’ he told Ben as he walked away. Ben thumped his tail and settled happily on the seat. He liked travelling in cars, and it was very pleasant lying here in the shade where he could watch the world go by.
There were several cars parked on the narrow side street, but only one of them interested the two youths who slid deftly in and out of the shadows, trying every car door they passed, more out of habit than any real interest as they headed for Piers’s car. They had been watching as Piers parked the large, gleaming Jaguar, their boredom momentarily lifting as they studied the car’s sleek lines.
‘No good for ram-raiding,’ one of them said to the other, shaking his head.
‘Nah,’ the other agreed. ‘Cool for speed, though. We could really give the cops a run for their money in that.’
Now, whilst one of them watched the street, the other quickly forced the lock on the driver’s door. He knew exactly how to do so, and how to deactivate the car’s alarm system and start the engine. After all, he had had plenty of practice, most of it whilst he was still under the legal age to drive.
As the two youths slid into the car, Ben gave a low growl, but as they turned up the sound of the radio and searched for a preferred station neither of them heard it.
On the pedestrian crossing a young mother with a small child and an elderly man both shot indignant, frightened looks after the departing speeding car, making its two occupants laugh, but to their disappointment, as they raced past the town’s police station, there was no one there to witness their provocative behaviour, no striped police car to pursue them and give chase, adding to the excitement and exhilaration of their afternoon.
They knew the town and its environs even better than any cop could possibly do, they were fond of boasting, and they had safe places where they could hide out, garages they could drive into whilst the police searched for them.
This car, like all the others they had stolen, would end up either wrecked or broken up for ‘spares’.
As they shot across a roundabout, causing other drivers to brake and swerve, they both laughed, whilst in the back Ben growled.
* * *
Piers was longer in the estate agent’s than he had expected, his original decision to tell the agent that he had decided against both the properties he had viewed oddly overturned by the sight of a photograph in the window of the farmhouse. Looking at it, Piers had undergone an unfamiliar wavering and a totally unexpected and unwanted change of heart.
‘The farmhouse?’ the agent queried, frowning. ‘But I thought...’
‘I’m prepared to offer them the full asking price,’ Piers heard himself telling the agent, ‘on the condition that they move out almost immediately.’
The agent’s frown deepened.
‘But I thought you said that you wanted...’ His voice tailed off as he saw the look in Piers’s eyes. ‘I’ll telephone the vendors now and put your offer to them,’ he offered instead.
Ten minutes later, as he walked out of the estate agent’s office, Piers had committed himself to buying the farmhouse. Was he totally and completely mad?
He started to walk a little faster, unwilling to pursue his own thoughts, and then came to an abrupt halt as he turned into the street where he had left his car and saw someone else had parked where he had expected to find his Jaguar—and Ben! A quick check of the street confirmed that there were no signs anywhere warning against parking and threatening clamping and removal of vehicles should anyone do so, convincing Piers that his car had not been removed by some righteous corporation official.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw a police patrol car turning into the street and immediately he hailed the driver, quickly explaining to him that his car appeared to have gone missing.