He ran across the lawn to the end of the garden, opened the small driftwood gate that Lydia had had installed to keep Jack from escaping down to the beach,and hurried down the stone steps to the beach below. He stopped halfway to raise his hand to shade his eyes from the piercing sunlight to scour the sandy beach for Daisy. He spotted her about two hundred metres away, following Jack who was sniffing around something dark in the sand by the water’s edge. He smiled. She was so lovely, and he might have blown it with her. He ran down the rest of the steps towards her on the fine white sand, but as the object Jack was sniffing came into view, he staggered and nearly fell.
It was a rusted, cone-shaped object, with tail fins just discernible. A World War Two unexploded bomb. Occasionally these were washed up on the shore after intense storms and most of the locals knew not to go near them but to report them to the police. But Daisy would have no idea.
He ran faster, calling Daisy’s name. She needed to get away from it, and fast. Who knew when this thing could explode? She seemed to be calling the dog away, but Jack was refusing to take any notice. Gabriel’s heart contracted painfully when he saw Daisy running towards the object to fetch him.
‘Daisy!’ he shouted. ‘Come away from there!’
She didn’t even react. It dawned on him that she couldn’t hear him against the waves that were crashing near her feet. He was horrified to see her standing, arms folded as she spoke to the dog. Jack turned and ran closer and Gabriel screamed her name to distract her. But she still couldn’t hear him. He sprinted towards her.
Daisy and Jack reached the bomb as he called her name again. She looked up in his direction, shocked to see him racing towards her. ‘I don’t really want to talk now, Gabriel,’ she said.
‘Get back!’ he shouted, wanting her to listen, but not wishing to alarm her.
She scowled at him. ‘What’s the panic?’ she asked ashe reached her, grabbed her arm and pulled her away. ‘Hey, let go of me, you’re hurting my arm.’
She looked stunned by his actions, but he didn’t care. He scooped Jack up in one arm and dragged Daisy off as fast as he could.
As soon as they were about a hundred feet away, he stopped. Daisy snatched her arm from his grasp. ‘How dare you manhandle me like that?’
‘Sorry,’ he said, hating the accusatory glare she was giving him. ‘I needed you to get away from that.’
‘What?’
She looked a little frightened and it dawned on him that it might not have anything to do with the bomb. Her expression changed and he thought for a moment that she wanted to punch him. Placing a hand on her shoulder, he turned her to him. ‘I didn’t mean to be rough, but that thing Jack was sniffing at is a bomb.’
Her eyes widened for a second and then she smiled. ‘Are you on something?’
He shook his head. ‘I’m deadly serious,’ he said. ‘Can you hold him for a minute?’ he asked, handing Jack into her arms. ‘I don’t want him to go back and sniff around that thing.’
He took his mobile from his pocket and called the police, reporting what he’d found, and then called another number, giving them the same story. By the time he’d ended the call she was walking further away.
‘How the hell do you know that’s a bomb?’ she asked, obviously not sure she believed him. ‘Is this some sort of game? Because after last night I’m really not in the mood.’
Gabriel could see she wasn’t going to let him off easily. ‘It isn’t a game,’ he said. ‘We need to move further away from it. We also need to make sure no one else gets near.’ He checked his watch. ‘They should be here soon.’
‘You’re serious, aren’t you?’
‘I wouldn’t joke about something like this,’ he said, a little annoyed.
‘OK, so where will this bomb have come from then?’
‘It’s probably a German shell from the occupation and was probably fired from one of the gun emplacements along the coast.’ He heard the sirens seconds later.
‘They can’t have got here so quickly,’ she said, looking doubtful as two of the parish honorary police arrived. They drew up in their car and came over to speak to Gabe.
‘Is that it there?’ one of them asked. Gabe nodded. ‘Blimey, that looks like a fifty pounder to me,’ he said, taking his phone from a pocket in his neon yellow jacket. ‘I’ll call the bomb disposal guys.’
‘We need to make a cordon, at least one hundred metres away,’ the older one said.
‘Ahh, it’s young Gabriel Wilson,’ the other man said, after he’d finished his call. He held his hand out to Gabriel.
‘Good to see you again,’ Gabriel said. ‘Do you want me to wait here until more men arrive?’
‘That would be good. If you could stand further back and ask the lady to take your grandmother’s dog back home?’
Gabe nodded and did as he was told. As he and Daisy walked the short distance away, he explained the situation to her. ‘These two guys are honorary police – volunteer police officers who take an oath in the Royal Court and assist the centenier to keep order in the parish. We have them for all twelve parishes in the island and they do a brilliant job.’
Daisy looked intrigued. ‘I thought theywerepolice by their uniforms and markings on their cars. They seem well organised.’
