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Chapter Twenty Three

Gareth

Gareth held his breath as he watched the house from his hiding place.

He had woken up with the morning sun on his face, tangled in the sleeping bag and with a crick in his neck as he heard the sound of an engine approaching.

Ralph! That has to be his car.

He rolled over and stared intensely through the window of the tree house, watching for any movement.

Frank was in the kitchen.

What the fuck is he doing there?

The rear window of the living room was much smaller and it was harder to make out what was going on inside.

“What is going on?” he muttered. “If they’re having a threesome, I should be in it, or better yet replace Marcus with me.”

He pulled out his phone to text Oliver.

Hey, are you awake?

Yes, I am. Just saw Ralph drive up. He looked upset.

Marcus must have done it. I’m trapped in the tree house!

Gareth turned back to face the house and hoped Marcus would go out.

The fox was moving about the kitchen with Frank. He felt his phone buzz in his pocket.

I found the hole in the hedge Frank jumped through and pushed the board blocking it over. Jump through!

Gareth wasn’t sure if this was a good idea or not. He watched the kitchen window and wished he could go inside and introduce himself to Ralph.

What if you’re parents see me? he texted back.

Dad is at work, weird professor is out, I’ll keep mum talking. The side gate is unlocked. Jump through and run around there. I’ll meet you at the front.

Okay

Gareth knew he would have to come back for the sleeping bag later. He cast one last glance at the kitchen window. There was no sign of movement.

He wriggled out of the sleeping bag, climbed as quickly as he could down the ladder (almost falling off the bottom rungs in the process) and bolted to the hedge. He expected at any moment to hear someone shouting at him, but he reached where a wooden board had been pushed over and dived through the gap.

He crashed through the twigs and thudded Mrs Durrence’s lawn, causing him to grunt in pain.

Ouch my chest! Although that went better than I thought it would.

Gareth’s moment of relief was short-lived as he realised his cargo shorts had been pulled off as he had dived through. They were hanging like a weird flag from a large twig.

Getting caught by Oliver’s mum in her garden wearing no shorts would take a lot of explaining to do, so Gareth hastily retrieved them and dressed himself.

Oliver had said the side gate was unlocked and Gareth sprinted to it, clutching his chest and wheezing to himself.

Thankfully, the Collie had been telling the truth and Gareth pushed through the gate before sprinting over to the road.

He rounded the corner to where his bike was hidden and peered around the bush to see Ralph’s Lotus parked outside Honeysuckle Lodge along with Frank’s red pickup truck.

His chest still hurt and he wondered if he’d winded himself in the jump, but he kept his eyes fixed on the house.

I’m going to come up with a new hiding place. The tree house means jumping through the hedge. Crashing at Oliver’s means everyone will ask questions and Arseny will find me.

Ralph appeared at the front gate carrying one of his suitcases.

The usually tall and muscular Doberman looked smaller somehow. His ears were drooping and his muzzle was angled to the ground.

He loaded his suitcase into the car and climbed in.

Gareth watched as Ralph drove away and felt his heart sink.

Marcus must have dumped him, that’s why he looks so sad.

“Morning!”

Gareth yelped and almost jumped out of his fur.

“Oliver don’t scare me like that,” he sighed.

“So, I see you escaped the treehouse. What’s new?” the Collie asked as he munched on a banana.

“Marcus is being a slut.”

“What?”

“First Ralph Rivers, now Frank Trelawney. Marcus is such a whore,” Gareth huffed. “I mean look, he gets with Frank right after dumping Ralph.”

“How do you know he’s dumped Ralph for definite?” Oliver asked as he finished his banana and tossed the peel to one side.

“Because Ralph just walked back out of the house looking really depressed with a suitcase, his ears were down. No wonder Frank wanted us to be quiet, he was secretly shagging Marcus!” Gareth gasped. “That’s what is going on.”

“I thought he was just doing the house up?”

“I saw them through the kitchen window, they were hugging or kissing.”

“Jesus, that’s pretty messy,” Oliver replied. “If it’s true that is.”

“It is true, I’m sure of it,” Gareth asserted. “Look, his truck is there.”

Why does no one believe me!

“Okay,” Oliver replied, looking unsure. “Heard any more about the Arseny drama?”

“I actually went back last night, he had all these weird papers in his desk,” Gareth explained, pulling his phone out. “I took this photo. Does HD-C mean anything to you?”

“Search me,” Oliver shrugged as he glanced at the photo. “It looks like a map of some kind, like a street plan.”

“Interesting.”

“Do you think it could provide more material to show your mum and take Arseny down?”

“I’ve got no clue,” Gareth sighed. “What the fuck is HD-C? I mean I know I said it was gross before, but at this rate I’ll have to actually take a photo or a film or Arseny breeding a girl to convince my mum, and even then I doubt it’ll work.”

“Why not?”

“No one believes me anyway. I mean, after my dad left, my mum’s first boyfriend was a weimaraner called Patrick, he was a dick, then she dated a hound called Brian and a then a setter called Terry. They,” Gareth trailed off.

“They what?”

Patrick got drunk and hit me for no reason, and my mum didn’t believe me when I told her, and only did when he almost smacked her. Brian stole to fund his coke habit. She didn’t believe me when I told her, and only found out when she caught him helping himself to her jewellery. I told her Terry wasn’t faithful and she said I was making it up and had a personal bias, then she came home one day to discover he’d packed up and left was what Gareth wanted to reveal, but he kept his mouth shut.

Instead, he wanted to keep those years of desperation and loneliness to himself.

“They all did bad things, and mum didn’t believe me, and only did when they repeated them to her,” he settled on. “Arseny does bad things, like cheating on my mum, but he has money and a nice house, and after shit experiences with previous mates, my mum wants peace and security.”

“Oh.”

They both watched the house, but Frank’s truck remained outside.

“I don’t think they’re going anywhere,” Gareth sighed.

“What should we do?” Oliver asked. “I’m not going in there if Marcus is at home.”

“Nope, nor me,” Gareth replied. “I’m afraid to go home, but I really could do with a shower and a change of clothes. I slept in these all night.”

Oliver sniffed at Gareth and wrinkled his muzzle.

“Yeah, no offense mate but you do smell like you need a shower. Want to use ours?”

“I could, although all my clothes are at home,” Gareth sighed. “Why didn’t I bring them with me?”

“You could sneak back?”

“I’ll try that, but if Arseny is there I’ll turn around and come back to you.”

“That sounds fair,” Oliver nodded. “I’ll walk with you for a bit. My mum wants me to pick up a couple of things from the village shop.”

Gareth began wheeling his bike along the lane, although he quickened his pace past Honeysuckle Lodge.

He felt a pang of sadness as he looked at the empty space where Ralph’s Lotus had been, but as they hurried past Frank’s truck his sadness turned to concern.

“What if they know we’ve been in the house?” he whispered.

“Why are we whispering, they can’t hear us out here,” Oliver replied.

“Shush, I want to make sure they’re not listening,” Gareth replied.

“I mean, you covered us both in aftershave, so that should have masked our scent.”

“I don’t know man, I’m worried,” Gareth admitted, but as they walked along a new idea popped into his mind. “I want to put a new plan into action,” he announced once they had put some distance between themselves and Marcus’ house

“New plan?”

“If Marcus has dumped Ralph I want to get them back together,” Gareth said.

Oliver paused and laughed.

“What? You didn’t want them together before,” the Collie replied in a bemused tone. “Why would you want them to get back together?”

“If they get back together I will have a shot at getting with Ralph, because then he’ll be in the village again. For all I know he’s moving away,” Gareth sighed.

“Wait, wait, wait, this is a really terrible idea.”

“I know what you’re going to say,” Gareth cut in. “Frank and Marcus may know I’ve been in the house, but you should have seen me when I crept into Arseny’s office to take that photo. It was like Mission: Impossible.”

“No, I mean you actually want them to get back together so you can break them up again and take Ralph?” Oliver said, fixing Gareth a frown.

“Not taking Ralph, I rescue him and he rescues me,” Gareth explained.

“I’m sorry, but if your plan is to get someone together again so you can break them up, that’s not rescuing anyone, that’s just being a selfish twat.”

“How is it?” Gareth protested.

“It’s really selfish,” Oliver continued. “If they have broken up imagine how horrible they must be feeling.”

“Marcus isn’t, he’s got Frank,” Gareth muttered.

“And you want to put them through all that again so you can get to your number one crush?”

“Firstly, since when did you care about them as a couple?” Gareth snapped. “You told me to go into their house to learn more about Ralph and laughed when I watched them, and secondly you only encourage me to stand up to Arseny as you find it hilarious, not because you care about saving my mum.”

“I know, and…” Oliver began.

“Morning boys!”

“Gah!” the both exclaimed, before turning to see Mrs Hinchcliffe waving from her garden.

“I know, and now I wish I hadn’t done that,” Oliver continued in a lowered tone. “I feel like I’ve created a monster.”

“You created a monster?” Gareth growled. “Fuck off!”

“You fuck off!” Oliver replied.

“Good morning you two,” a white Alsatian in a vicar’s collar said as he walked by.

“Morning Father Palmer,” Oliver replied.

“Morning,” Gareth mumbled.

“Fuck, I hope the vicar didn’t hear us, I need to stop saying fuck!” Oliver sighed. “You can never walk around here without bumping into someone.”

“I don’t care if he heard us,” Gareth scowled. “I wish I’d never moved here.”

“I wish you hadn’t either, all you can think about is yourself sometimes,” Oliver blurted out.

Gareth stood in a stunned silence for a moment.

“Really, says mister I want to swap work shifts so I can get a shag. Sod off mate,” he eventually growled before mounting his bike and peddling off.

“I hope Arseny does get you,” Oliver yelled, but Gareth ignored him.

Blood pumped through his veins and his heart pounded unpleasantly he cycled along. He didn’t care what the Collie thought. He was going to try getting with Ralph no matter what.

The gates to Arseny’s place loomed up and he cycled through them. He followed the tree line drive and saw with a heavy heart that not-dad’s Bentley was parked at the front.

His anger at Oliver subsided and was replaced by the fear of Arseny wanting to possibly murder him, especially if he had discovered someone had been in his office, and now there was no chance of escaping to Oliver’s.

The thought made Gareth want to sneak in through the back door.

He parked his bike against the wall and crept around the side of the house. His throat felt dry and he wondered whether to grab a glass of water on the way through the kitchen.

Eliza was standing by the kitchen door, texting on her phone and smoking a cigarette. She barely looked up from her phone as Gareth hurried by, but he was sure she glanced up to shoot him something close to a disgusted or disparaging expression.

Gareth crept into the kitchen and noticed his mum was sitting at the table talking to Genevieve. They glanced up as Gareth approached.

“Hi,” he said sheepishly.

“Where have you been dear?” mum asked.

“I went to sleepover at Oliver’s,” Gareth claimed. “But I forgot to bring spare clothes.”

“Oh, so long as you had fun,” mum replied, fixing him a faint smile, although Gareth noticed her eyes looked tired and withdrawn.

“Is everything all right?” he asked, walking over to hug her.

“Yes, I’m quite well,” she replied in a tone that didn’t sound wholly convincing, before she wrinkled her muzzle. “No offense my dear, but you probably should change your clothes, and what happened to your shorts? They’re all muddy.”

“I fell,” Gareth replied as grabbed a clean glass from the cupboard and poured himself some water. He chugged half of it down before hurrying from the room. “See ya Genevieve.”

“Bye Gareth,” the vixen replied.

Gareth skidded to halt on the tiled floor.

“Um, where is Ars, I mean Anthony?”

“In his study, but he’s going off to a meeting soon,” Genevieve replied.

“Okay,” Gareth replied as he darted out of the door.

The entrance hall was empty and he crept along towards Arseny’s study.

This is madness, he’ll walk out and want to kill me.

Gareth willed himself on until he reached the study door.

It was shut and he could faintly hear not-dad talking on the other side. Gareth wondered whether to sneak back outside and see if the window was open, but then he remembered an old trick he had read about.

If you put a glass to a door you can listen through it.

He dumped the rest of the water into a nearby potted plant, gently pressed the glass to the door and listened out, hoping not-dad wouldn’t be able to detect his scent.

“The fucker, he denied anything to do with it. Oh I’m sure he did it, the houses will surround his property, which is something he’ll be opposed to, but tough luck. I have no idea, he hasn’t seen the plans, but Francis isn’t stupid I’m sure he’ll have worked it out. Yes, the sale is moving ahead, so he can’t stop it anyway. The senile old bat has almost ceded the Mansfield place to me. I just have to push her in the right direction so to speak if the deal falls through. Oh, the chaps at HD-C know what they’re doing. They’ve done this before, so the whole planning thing won’t be an issue. Just need to keep them out of sight. Anyway, I’m due at the bottling plant soon. Speak soon Anna.”

“Shit,” Gareth gasped as he pulled away from the door and bolted down the hallway.

There was a downstairs bathroom a few doors down and Gareth darted inside before locking the door.

He set the glass down and panted while trying to listen out.

The faint sound of not-dad’s study door closing echoed down the hall and then Gareth heard him call out “see you later Eliza!”

Gareth felt like his head was spinning as he sunk to the ground; Ralph looking sad, then the argument with Oliver and now more weird schemes from not-dad. It all felt like too much.

He tried replaying the conversation in his head but it made little sense. The only part he recognised was the name Francis (assuming it was Frank Trelawney) and HD-C, which didn’t mean anything to him anyway.

“Wait a minute,” Gareth whispered out loud. “Does he want to kill Frank and not me?”

That put a new twist on everything.

Gareth sat on the ground and pulled his hind-paws up to his chest as he began working out what to do next; continue plotting to reunite Marcus and Ralph to get the Doberman back to Little Hartbrook and work out why Arseny wants to kill Frank.

All involved going near Honeysuckle Lodge again, but Gareth didn’t want to be deterred.

Was I out of order to Oliver too?

Although the Collie had said some hurtful things, Gareth knew the part of his conscience that had posed the question had a point.

If you alienate Oliver, you’ll be even more alone, his conscience added.

“Fine,” Gareth grumbled to himself. “Updated to a three point plan; bring Ralph back, find out this latest not-dad business and say sorry to Oliver – without telling him about point one as he’ll try stopping me.”