Death Comes to the Costa del Sol by M.H. Eccleston

Author:M.H. Eccleston [Eccleston, M.H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781803280400
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-one

The Second Chance Animal Rescue Centre was signposted at the bottom of a dry ravine behind a flank of apartments. A dirt-track road circled round to the east. Instead, Astrid took a sparse path that ran directly uphill. It was hard going. She was glad she hadn’t brought the bike.

After twenty minutes, the path had almost run out. She lifted her bag and edged through a thin section hemmed in by thorny bushes. Not many people took this route, she thought. It might only be used by goats. There were cloven footprints in the dust. She pressed on and clambered out and rejoined the dirt-track road.

Looking back over the edge, she realised how steep the path had been. Below her was the town, the marina and the open sea. To the west, only a few hundred yards at the other side of the valley, was Bridget and Sebastian’s farmhouse, the El Paridiso golf course in the distance.

Astrid carried on towards the sanctuary, which was just ahead. In the first field, a donkey was lying in the shade of a tree. It raised its head, flicked its ears at a small cloud of flies, then slumped back into the dust. After that was a big pen made from metal poles and chicken wire. There were around two dozen dogs in there. All shapes and sizes – the largest was a lurcher of some sort. The smallest, a brown terrier with patchy white fur. As she passed, they bundled down to the wire and started yelping for her attention.

Wonderful must have heard the barking because she appeared at the door of the main building before Astrid reached it. She was wearing a shapeless boiler suit and dusty work boots. ‘Hey, Astrid.’ She leant against the door frame and looked her up and down. ‘You took the path – I’m impressed.’

Astrid picked a couple of thorns from her shorts. ‘There’s no stopping me,’ she said.

Wonderful seemed pleased to see her. After the troll’s tweet, thought Astrid, she might just be happy to see any friendly face. They both knew that that was why she was there. ‘I’ve got to feed the dogs. You mind tagging along?’

‘Sure, you do what you have to,’ Astrid said.

Wonderful went over to an outhouse that wasn’t in a much better state than the main building. Both were made from grey breezeblock, with shutters that didn’t quite fit. She emerged with a sack of dried dog biscuits, which she carried over to the dog pen. Astrid got ahead and opened the door for her. Wonderful tipped the biscuits into the first of a line of steel bowls. The dogs chowed down, snapping and jostling for more room.

‘You ever have pets?’ asked Wonderful.

‘I had a dog for a short time recently. And when I was a kid, there was a family cat. I called it Chairman Meow.’

‘Good name.’

Wonderful finished pouring out the biscuits and stepped back out of the pen, shutting the door behind her. ‘Dogs… they ask so little, don’t they? But they give so much back.

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