Chapter Nineteen
Gus
The police tossed my house. They even looked in the loft. For a dog. As if we’d rolled her up in cavity insulation and tucked her behind the hot water tank. I’d never been on the hate-the-police bandwagon, but these representatives of the county’s finest were absolute clowns.
They pinned Billy to the side of the riot van and searched him but found nothing in his pockets at all, not even a handful of change.
I laughed. “What are you even looking for?”
An officer spared me a glance. “We’ve had reports of a dog stolen from Linwood Drive. It belongs to someone Mr. Daley had an altercation with this afternoon.”
“At the fair,” Billy supplied helpfully, like I didn’t know. “I smashed his car window to let the dog out because it was dying of heat exhaustion, and now they reckon I went back to his house and nicked it.”
“When?”
“Sometime around six.”
“You were still at the fair, though. Surely the whole town can vouch for you?”
“The fucking mayor can vouch for me. I was stood next to the boring bastard for an hour while he leered at your sister.”
I cringed. “Nice. Was Luke there too?”
“Yeah. But Mia made him stand at the back so he didn’t deck anyone.”
I kind of wished Luke had punched the lecherous old mayor, but right then it was more important that he’d been seen. I’d already messaged an old flame from Grindr who’d give me reason to be seen in Kent if I needed it. As far as I could see, all bases were covered, though, to be honest, I hadn’t imagined the police taking the case of the missing dog as seriously as they seemed to be.
The search teams moved onto the garage. I rolled my eyes and approached the officer in charge. “Can I see your warrant?”
“We don’t need a warrant if we’re granted entry.”
“Billy let you in?”
“Yes. Are you the owner of the property?”
“I am.”
“And are you refusing us access?”
“No, you can look anywhere you want. I was just curious as to how you’d officially worded your reasons, because as far as I can see, you don’t have any, and that’s harassment.”
“Do you want to make a complaint?”
“Not yet. But you need to let Billy go. He hasn’t done anything wrong.”
“The dog is still missing.”
“Yeah. The same dog who was left in a boiling hot car all morning. Don’t you think it’s more likely they left the front door open or something?”
The officer ignored me, and it was probably the most pointless conversation I’d ever had, but a few minutes later Billy was released, and the search was called off. By then, my neighbours were making popcorn. I waved to them, locked the garage door, and dragged Billy inside to watch the police drive away from the living room window.
I blew out a breath. “Well, that was fun.”
Billy chewed on his lip. “I’m really sorry. I had no idea it’d go this far when I broke the window. I didn’t think of the impact it would have on you.”
“What impact? They opened a few cupboards. It wasn’t like it was a full drugs bust.”
“Could’ve been, though. It’s only cos you’ve got me all clean living that I didn’t have an ounce of weed stuffed in my sock.”
