Chapter 20

Saturday18th April 2009 1 am

Siren. Dog barking in the kitchen. Bob missing.

Joseph was on his feet almost before he was awake, struggling into his clothes as Angela began to wake. That fox again!

He ran to the cupboard in the study and scanned the screens. It was not a fox. All the outside lights were activated. There were two men at the cages protecting the turbines. In the floodlights he could see them using heavy industrial cutters on the gates.

He unlocked the gun cupboard and took one of the two shotguns and loaded it with shot. He made for the back door as Angela emerged sleepily from the bedroom.

"Angela! Phone the police! 999. Two men breaking into the turbines, tell them I'm taking my shotgun."

She ran to the study and phoned the emergency services and asked for the police. She was giving the message, and watching the screens. She saw Joseph emerge from the back door and begin to walk toward the turbines.

He travelled about twenty metres when two figures came behind him and one of them struck him on the back of the head with a piece of wood. Joseph dropped on top of the shotgun. The two men then began to kick him.

She screamed down the phone, "They're kicking him! I'm taking the other gun," and slammed the phone down.

Angela ran to the gun cupboard and took the other shotgun and loaded that with two cartridges from the box Joseph had left out, then ran to the kitchen door. Bob was leaping up and down, frantically barking and throwing himself at the door. She grabbed his collar and opened the door, keeping her back against the wall, Bob was pulling hard against her grip, teeth bared, growling and barking.

"Get away from him!" she yelled.

The two man stopped, looked round and saw her, the gun and the dog. One of the men bent to pick up the other shotgun.

"Leave that and step away from him, or I let the dog loose," she shouted. "Then I'll have both hands free for the gun, and I'll use it."

The two men froze, then took a few paces away from the prone figure of Joseph. Bob was snarling and pulling to be let free.

"I'll have to let the dog loose to use the gun," she shouted, "which of you will the dog go for? Back away from him."

The two men stepped further away.

"You don't know anything about guns!" one of the men said laughing, and she recognised the voice as Gerard's, "and you couldn't shoot anyone if you tried."

"OK, Gerard," she said grimly. "Try me! Bob here hates you, so you can try me if you want! Now the two of you, sit down on the ground – DO IT!"

Gerard made to move toward her, and Bob bared his teeth and pulled hard at Angela's grip on his collar. Gerard immediately joined the other man on the ground.

In the meantime, the two men who had been working on the cages had been alerted and were approaching.

"Stay there!" shouted Angela.

They stopped, seeing the dog and the shotgun.

"OK," she shouted, "I've got one dog, and two barrels. One of you will get away. Who's going to be the lucky one? Want to take that risk? After what you lot have done to Joseph, I'm itching for one of you to try something."

"You can't keep us here all night," shouted one of the the cage men. "There's four of us, and you'll get tired holding the dog and the gun."

There was a moment's silence – even Bob settled a little, and faintly, in the far distance, there could be heard the wail of a number of sirens.

"I'm not staying," said one of the cage men. "Come on Lee," and the two ran off round the other side of the house, zig zagging in case she fired. The remaining three humans could hear their car start and drive off at speed.

Joseph groaned and began to move sluggishly on the ground.

Angela desperately longed to go to Joseph, but there were two men just waiting for her to lose her concentration on them. She edged towards Joseph. The men were too near.

"Crawl further away," ordered Angela, waving the gun at them. They obeyed and edged further away until she said, "Stop."

Then she moved forward again gingerly, keeping her eyes on the two seated men, now well out of reach. She knelt by Joseph and put her gun down. One hand still firmly grasping Bob's collar, she worked the other shotgun from under Joseph, keeping her eyes firmly on the two crouching men. She took it to the wall of the house and laid it down. She could not break it without letting Bob loose.

It was a split second when she took her eyes of the men, but saw the movement out of the corner of her eye. The man, not Gerard, had launched himself towards her.

She let go of Bob, and retrieved her gun. Bob attacked, a flurry of bites and shaking of the man's arms and legs. The man was kicking, shaking and shouting at the dog, keeping his face well clear of the snapping jaws.

"Bob! LEAVE!" she shouted. Bob immediately left the man, who she could see thought of kicking the dog, but the shotgun was now aiming directly at his upper legs, and he realised she knew what she was doing, avoiding his face or chest area and that she intended to fire if necessary. "Here, Bob!" and the dog returned.

"Good dog," she said roughing his head, while keeping her eyes and gun on the man.

"Don't shoot!" he begged, shrinking back to where Gerard was sitting, and sitting down himself.

The dog immediately went to Joseph and was licked his face and wining.

Then came a shout.

"Put the gun down! Raise your hands!"

She broke the gun, ejected the cartridges and laid it on the ground, but ignored the rest of the instruction and dived for Joseph, taking him into her arms. Bob leant against her.

"Joseph? Talk to me Joseph," she stroked his face and kissed him. He groaned but was not really conscious. She began to weep. Then she felt gentle arms pulling her up.

"Come on darling," said a quiet man's voice, "Let's have a look at him."

She looked up and saw it was a paramedic; he was the early response man. She was helped to her feet. She became conscious of Gerard's voice as she watched the medic checking Joseph over.

"You want to arrest that woman, she threatened us with that gun and set the dog on us! She's mad!"

"Yes sir," said the imperturbable policeman. "Perhaps you can tell me what you are doing here at one in the morning?"

"We were out for a late night walk, and came on that man lying on the ground. Then that woman came at us screaming; she set the dog on us! Look at Craig, that dog savaged him!"

"I'll tell you what he was doing," Angela said, casting glances at Joseph as the ambulance had arrived in the yard and the two personnel from that vehicle began lifting Joseph onto a stretcher.

"Four of them," she said tersely, "Two were trying to get into the turbines' cages, I assume to sabotage them. Joseph – him," she nodded at Joseph who was now being loaded into the ambulance, "went out to confront them and these two came up behind him and clubbed him. I saw it on the monitors inside the house, so I came out to stop them from kicking him. It's all been recorded.

"The dog is Joseph's and wanted to protect him. He," she pointed at Gerard's companion, "tried to rush me, so I let the dog free. He protected me. That'll all have been recorded inside as well."

"Where are you taking him?" she shouted to the crew of the ambulance as they moved to leave.

"Macclesfield General darling," said the driver. "You coming?"

"I can't leave until I've got someone to look after the animals. I'll follow on, I'm his fiancée." She said it without thinking: only a few hours earlier she'd agreed with Joseph they were far from engaged!

The ambulance left, and the police were already taking Gerard and Craig away. One of the other policemen spoke to her.

"Can you show me the CCTV footage?"

"If you help me to collect these guns and the cartridges," she said, and the two of them collected the weaponry, breaking and emptying Joseph's gun, and took them inside.

"We detained the other two," he said as he walked into the kitchen ahead of her. "Met them on the track. We know them."

They went to the study where he helped her to replace the guns in the gun cupboard, and lock it. Then they turned their attention to the monitors and the recorders. He obviously knew what he was doing, for he found the relevant place on the disc and together they watched the drama unfold.

"I'm Stuart Norris," he said as they watched.

"Angela Furness."

"This will be needed, Angela, I need to call SOCO." [Scene Of Crime Officers]

He took out his mobile and looked puzzled.

"Sorry, Stuart, they don't work here. Land line?"

"Thanks."

He phoned and relayed the events to whoever was on the other end, listened and signed off.

"I'm afraid you'll have to put up with me or one of my fellow officers until SOCO get here. They'll have the knowhow to sort out these recordings so they're fit for the courts. It's so easy to mess up with CCTV. You mind?"