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distance behind you.”
    “Like a stalker.”
    “Uh, yeah, okay. That will look weird. I’ll have to walk
beside you, then. Sorry.”
    “I’ll suffer it this once.”
    “Thanks.”
    They soon reached the road. The rain was a light drizzle
now. Drew laughingly called it a “mizzle” – apparently a mixture of mist and
drizzle. When they got onto the pavement by the road, Kali decided she’d been
on her best behaviour for long enough, and lurched without warning down a ditch,
heading straight to some temptingly brackish water at the bottom.
    “Get back up here!” Penny was dragged behind, trying not to
lose her grip on the lead, with her feet scrabbling ineffectively for purchase
in the treacherous mud. “Kali! No!”
    Kali reached the bottom of the ditch and happily bounded
along for a few steps before deciding that she didn’t like the feeling of her
paws in mud, after all, and she tore back up to the pavement again. Penny felt
hot with shame as she scrambled up. “I am so sorry,” she muttered. “I’m new to
dogs, and … ugh. Just, ugh.”
    “Don’t apologise! Are you all right?” Drew’s hands hovered,
as if he wanted to reach out and help. He dithered, and shoved them back into
his pockets.
    “Yeah, I’m fine. Dented pride, that’s all.” Penny hauled on
the lead to get Kali closer. “She doesn’t listen to me but I am going to find
some training classes. I’ve got to.”
    “How long have you had her?”
    “About a week.”
    Drew smiled. They moved off again, Penny keeping Kali at
her side. Her shoulders ached with the effort. Drew said, “It’s early days,
yet. But she looks strong. It’s that Rottie muscle around her neck and
shoulders. I don’t think that collar and lead is the best thing, you know.”
    “Some bloke I met said I should get a choke chain,” she
admitted. That bloke had been a horrified man who’d been waiting for a bus,
minding his own business, and who had witnessed Kali leap at a passing terrier,
apparently intent on murder. She had resented his unsolicited advice.
    Drew shook his head. “You haven’t, so I am guessing you
don’t like them.”
    “No, I don’t. It doesn’t seem right to strangle the poor
thing. But the way it’s going, maybe I’ll have to try it.”
    “No, don’t,” Drew said very firmly. “Not the choke chain. There’s
always another way. Watch her reactions. You need to bond with her, but take it
slow. It will happen.”
    “I’ll keep trying.” They reached the crossroads in town.
“Here’s my street.” She wanted to ask where he lived, but her tongue seemed to
dry up.
    He nodded, and rubbed Kali on the head. “Get in and out of
the rain. Don’t worry about your dog. I’m sure she’ll settle. Take care, now.”
    “And you.” She tugged on the lead and walked away. She was
acutely aware of the large brown stain of mud that was inevitably spread across
her bottom. Her hair would be everywhere, and she’d be a general mess.
    Not that it mattered or that she was in any way concerned,
of course.
    Not at all.
    Kali rolled her eyes up at her, mouth partly open as if she
was laughing at Penny. Penny frowned. Kali dropped her head and scurried on.
    She thought about the dead man, David Hart. So, it wasn’t
just the farmer’s brother who might have taken against him, she said to herself
as she let herself in to the cottage and Kali shot down the hallway before Penny
could grab a towel for her paws. In the enclosed space, the pungent smell of
wet dog was immediately apparent. She paused, thinking. The local ramblers had
issues with the farmer, too.
    If it wasn’t suicide – though she still thought it could be
– then it might have been an accident… but what if it was murder?
    I’ll follow this story, she said to herself. I’ll start
buying the local paper and learn who is who. It will give me something to talk
about, and I can become a part of this community. Shared experience, and all
that. After all, as I found him, I