Dick Francis - Silks

‘Dad,’ I said quite urgently. ‘Please go back out and get in the car and drive anywhere, but get away from your house. Or go next door to Beryl and Tony’s. Just please get away from the house.’

‘What on earth for?’ he said, annoyed. ‘I’ve only just got back.’

‘Dad, please just do it, and do it right now.’

‘Oh, all right,’ he said. ‘I’ll just make my cup of tea. I’ve put the kettle on.’

‘Please, Dad,’ I said more urgently. ‘Leave the tea. Go now.’

‘All right,’ he said, his annoyance showing again. ‘You’re a strange boy.’

‘Dad, take the phone with you. I’ll call you back in a few minutes.’

Eleanor pulled up in the car outside the court buildings, and I hobbled out to her as quickly as I could.

‘Drive,’ I said urgently as I struggled in. ‘Straight on.’

‘I can’t,’ she said pointing at the sign. ‘Buses and taxis only.’

‘Ignore it,’ I said. ‘I think Julian Trent is somewhere around my father’s bungalow.’

She looked at me, then back to the road. ‘But surely your dad is still in Devon.’

‘I wish,’ I said. ‘He’s gone home. Trent sent him a text message this morning as if it had come from me, telling him to go back home as soon as possible.’

‘Oh my God,’ she said, putting her foot down on the accelerator.

‘I’m calling the police,’ I said.

I dialled 999 and the emergency operator answered almost immediately.

‘Which service?’ she said.

‘Police,’ I replied.

Eleanor dodged a few shiny metal bollards and then drove straight down Cornmarket Street, which was usually reserved for pedestrians, but it was the best short cut through the city. A few people looked at us rather strangely, and some shouted, but no one actually stopped us and we were soon racing down St Giles and away from the city centre northwards.

I heard the police come on the line and the telephone operator gave them my phone number. ‘Yes,’ said a policeman finally. ‘How can we help?’

I tried to explain that my father was alone in his house and that he was in danger from a potential intruder. I should have lied to them but, stupidly, I told them the truth.

‘So there isn’t actually an intruder in the house at the moment?’ the policeman said.

‘No,’ I replied. ‘But I think that he might be outside, watching and waiting.’

‘And why is that, sir?’ he said.

What could I say? ‘I just do,’ I said unconvincingly.

‘We can’t send police cars as an emergency all over the country just because people think they may be troubled at some time in the future. Now can we, sir?’

‘Look,’ I said. ‘I am a barrister and I have been acting at the Crown Court in Oxford and I’m telling you that I have very good reason to believe that my father may be in great danger. I am on my way to his house right now, but I will be at least another twenty minutes getting there. Will you please send a patrol car immediately?’

‘I’ll do what I can, sir,’ he said. ‘I’ll record the incident as a priority, but it will take some time to get a car to that part of Northamptonshire.’ It was his way of saying that the police wouldn’t actually be there for quite a long while. ‘Perhaps you could give us another call when you arrive, sir.’

‘Hopeless,’ I said to Eleanor, hanging up. ‘Mind the speed camera!’

She slammed on the brakes and we crawled past the yellow box at exactly thirty miles an hour. Then we were off again, considerably faster.

I dialled my father’s mobile number again.

‘Are you out of the house?’ I said when he answered.

‘Nearly,’ he said.

‘What have you been doing?’ I asked him in exasperation. It had been at least ten minutes since I had first called him. I wondered if everyone’s parents became so cantankerous and obstinate as they neared their eightieth birthdays.

‘I’ve been looking for the little present I bought Beryl and Tony in Sidmouth,’ he said. ‘I know it’s in my suitcase somewhere.’

‘Dad, please,’ I almost shouted at him. ‘Just get yourself out of the house right now. Get the present for them later.’

‘Ah,’ he said triumphantly. ‘I’ve found it.’

‘Good,’ I said. ‘Now get out of the house and stay out.’

‘Hold on a minute,’ he said. ‘There’s someone at the door.’

‘Don’t answer it,’ I shouted urgently into the phone, but he obviously didn’t hear me.

I hoped that it might have been Beryl and Tony coming round from next door to welcome him home, but, of course, it wasn’t. The phone was still connected in his hand and I could faintly hear the exchange taking place on my father’s front doorstep.

‘What do you want?’ I heard my father say rather bossily. There was something that I didn’t catch from his visitor, and then I could hear my father again, his voice now full of concern. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I don’t want any. Please go away.’

Suddenly there was a crash and the phone line went dead.

I quickly called the house landline number, but it simply rang and rang until, eventually, someone picked it up. But it went dead again before I had a chance to say anything. I tried it again, but this time there was nothing but the engaged tone.

‘Oh my God,’ I said. ‘I think Julian Trent has just arrived, and my father is still there.’

Eleanor floored the accelerator as we swept onto the A34 dual carriageway north. Fortunately, the rush hour had yet to get into full swing and we hurtled up to the motorway junction and onto the M40 at breakneck speed.

I tried my father’s landline once more, but it was still engaged.

‘Call the police again,’ said Eleanor.

This time I was connected to a different policeman and he now recorded the incident as an emergency. He promised to dispatch a patrol car immediately.

‘How long will it take?’ I said.

‘About twenty minutes,’ he said. ‘At best. Maybe longer.’

‘Twenty minutes!’ I said incredulously. ‘Can’t you get someone there sooner than that?’

‘Kings Sutton is right on the edge of the county,’ he said. ‘The patrol car has to come from Towcester.’

‘How about Banbury?’ I said. ‘That’s got to be closer.’

‘Banbury is Thames Valley,’ he said. ‘Kings Sutton is Northamptonshire Constabulary.’

‘I don’t believe it,’ I said. ‘Just get someone there as soon as you can.’

Throughout the call, Eleanor had been driving like a woman possessed, overtaking a lorry around the outside of a roundabout when turning right, and then causing a group of mothers and toddlers crossing the road to leap for their lives. But we made it safely to Kings Sutton in record time and she pulled up where I told her, round the corner and just out of sight of my father’s bungalow.

‘Wait here,’ I said, climbing out of the car and struggling with the crutches.

‘Why don’t you wait for the police?’ she said. She came round the car and took my hand. ‘Please will you wait?’

It had only been about seven or eight minutes since I had last spoken to them. And they wouldn’t be here for ages yet.

‘Eleanor, my darling, my father’s in there on his own with Julian Trent,’ I said. ‘Would you wait?’

‘I’ll come with you, then,’ she said.

‘No,’ I said. ‘You must wait here and speak to the police when they arrive. Show them which is the right house.’

Eleanor grabbed me and hugged me hard. ‘Be careful, my Barrister Man,’ she said. ‘I love you.’

‘I love you more,’ I said, but then I pushed her away. I had things to do.

I made my way gingerly through an herbaceous border and along the side of the bungalow to my father’s front door. It was standing wide open. I peeped inside but could see nothing unusual, save for the mobile phone, which lay on the floor with its back off, the battery lying close by. I reckoned my father must have dropped it as Trent had forced his way in.