The Fox of Richmond Park Page 12

  Vince sighed. He wasn’t going to convince her that catching frogs in a quiet park was better than rummaging in bins by a road, and he wasn’t sure why he was trying. She had only helped him because Socks told her to. And in the allotments she’d seemed more interested in winding up the geese than saving his life. Although she had asked if he was okay… But that was really just basic manners.

  When she spoke again, though, all traces of sympathy were gone. ‘Well, good luck. I guess I’ll see you around.’ Laurie blinked, turned away and started to hurry back towards the busy junction where Socks was still waiting.

  This was it. Rita had helped him get this far, and Laurie’s directions would get him further still, but from now on he would be alone. There was no way he was letting Laurie leave with a perfunctory ‘see you around’, though.

  ‘Wait!’ he yelled, with no idea what the next words out of his mouth would be.

  She stopped and faced him, cocking her head.

  She might not care about him, but she would sure as Mother Nature remember him.

  He blurted out the words before his brain had a chance to kick in. ‘What’s a poodle?’

  Laurie cackled, her tail shaking uncontrollably. ‘Are you serious?’

  Vince went to speak, but the words stuck in his throat.

  ‘Why don’t you find out and tell me next time we meet.’ Laurie winked. The same wink she’d given him back at the allotments. Except, unlike at the allotments, this time he knew exactly who it was aimed at.

  *

  From a window ledge above the shops, Kara watched Vince pad down the long road, away from the vixen. ‘Perfect,’ she whispered under her breath, although it was far from it. If those geese hadn’t been so incompetent, she would be halfway home by now. Idiots. All of them. Never send a water bird – or four – to do the work of a raptor.

  No matter. She knew where Vince was going now, and, Mother Nature, she’d earned it. Listening to them blather on, pretending to hate each other, would have been tedious for any animal, let alone one who wanted to be done with this as soon as possible.

  Anyway, it would be a quick journey, if that vixen was to be believed. She straightened out a windswept feather, opened her pristine wings and was about to set off after Vince, when a voice echoed from below.

  ‘Hello up there!’ It was that busybody cat. ‘You don’t look familiar. Can we help with anything?’

  ‘No, I’m fine, thank you,’ she called down. They’d seen her. Damn.

  ‘You have some stunning feathers, if you don’t mind me saying. Very dark and unusual.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Kara said. ‘I should get go—’

  The cat interrupted, ‘We don’t get a lot of owls around here, especially your kind. Apologies if that sounds… Er, where are you from, out of interest?’

  Too many questions. She had to get away, but was wary of seeming suspicious. If they doubted anything she said, and saw her follow Vince, they might go after him and ruin her plan. A slight risk, but a risk all the same, and she’d come too far to fail now. ‘A park. Quite far away. I’m just passing through. I really need to be on my way, thanks.’ She went to open her wings, but the cat started to speak again.

  ‘Oh, really? Do you know a lot of the city? Our friend – he just left, you might have seen him? – is looking for a park. Maybe you can help?’

  The vixen added, ‘He’s going north, but I only know Hyde Park really.’

  ‘Oh, which way did he go? I’ll give him a shout on my way past if you like,’ Kara said in her cheeriest voice. She could feel her energy draining with every word. Being nice was hard.

  The vixen smiled. ‘He went that way, towards Hyde Park. It’s a bit of a walk but he won’t have got far. You’ll easily catch him up.’

  Catch him up, overtake him, and beat him there. With enough time to find an animal, make a deal, and finish the job.

  ‘Okay, great. Well, I’ll be off then.’ Kara stretched her wings once again, but this time the cat didn’t stop her.

  ‘Thank you so much,’ the cat said. ‘And if you have any questions, problems, or aggravations, do let me know. It’s my duty to help any animal who requires assistance within my jurisdiction.’

  ‘I’ll bear that in mind.’ Kara flapped away, circling upwards, before heading down the road. An annoying little delay, but at least they hadn’t suspected anything. It wouldn’t be long now until she was back in her roost, munching on a juicy Richmond Park rabbit. She could taste them already.

  *

  Vince made his way down the long road, measuring his progress by the street lights. His head throbbed from their yellow glow, but he ignored it. Hyde Park would be dark and quiet. Hopefully.

  Tall buildings flanked the road and, in place of the occasional paving slab, gaunt trees waited in the dark for the sun to return and warm their leaves. The cars had thinned out, one or two buzzing by every now and again, and the humans had all but disappeared.

  A drop of water tapped him on the nose. Clouds had rolled across the sky, poised to burst. At his feet, tiny dark spots materialised, multiplying across the concrete as he traipsed onwards. Vince pulled his ears back and lowered his head.

  Not stopping yet. Not until I get to Hyde Park.

  The rain grew heavier. Fat droplets plummeted from above and, with dull thwacks, bombarded him like a squadron of angry bumblebees. Still he walked, trying to keep his destination at the front of his mind.

  His last words to Laurie gnawed at his stomach. So much for her making fun of him; his question about the poodle had all but given her a ready-made punchline. He wouldn’t care so much if he thought she was gone for good, but her final words…

  And that wink…

  She could have just been winding him up, though. Based on her attitude up to that point, it was more than likely.

  He shook the vixen out of his head and focused on the pavement. The ground was slick with rain, the orange of the lights reflecting back up at him from between his paws.

  Keep going.

  He repeated his new mantra over and over as the rain pummelled him. His fur was sodden and water dripped from the tip of his snout and tail, but it would take more than a downpour to stop him.

  Keep going. Keep going.

  Up ahead, above the glass shop fronts, two red-and-blue signs jutted from the building wall. Circular, just as Laurie had described. Stretching between them, a wide semi-circular window like the fanned tail of a bird, and a longer sign in the same blue. At ground level, the doorway was blocked off with a latticed metal gate. What had she called it? A Tube station? What did that mean? It didn’t matter. He wasn’t staying. He passed under the signs with little more than an upward glance.

  Not far now.

  The rain carried on, and so did Vince.

  6

  The rain had driven most of Hyde Park’s animals back to the nooks and crannies they called home, but desperate rats still scurried along the path edges. Apart from their skerfuffling, and the raindrops slapping on the leaves, the park was quiet.

  Perched on the back of a bench, Kara explained the deal to a triplet of foxes. Two females and a male, with matching slender frames and oversized ears. Despite living in the park, their fur was grimy, with bare patches across their legs and faces, not unlike that vixen Vince had spoken to. They obviously roamed outside the boundaries more often than not. They narrowed their amber eyes at the owl as she finished speaking.

  ‘So, if we kill this fox, we can come and live in Richmond Park?’ Bailey, one of the females, said.

  ‘Like, for ever?’ Bonnie, her sister, added.

  ‘Yep,’ Kara said, dragging a long feather through her beak.

  ‘What’s the catch?’ said their brother, whose name was Blake.

  ‘No catch. If you make it there, then you can stay. You have my word.’

  ‘And it’s as good as everyone says? Safe? Lots of food?’ Bonnie said.

  ‘Oh, it’s better. And I happen to be very close friends with the d
eer in charge, so anything you want, I can get.’

  ‘And how do we know we can trust you?’ Bailey said.

  Kara shrugged. ‘You don’t. Take it or leave it.’

  Blake and Bailey started to speak together. ‘We—’

  Bonnie held up a paw to silence her siblings. ‘Deal.’

  ‘I’ll hang around until I’m satisfied you’ve held up your end of the bargain, but then I’m heading home. You can make your own way there.’

  The foxes nodded and Kara flapped up to a higher branch, glad of a rest. They seemed capable. Smaller than average, but definitely more street-smart than the geese, although that wasn’t difficult. Regardless, there were three of them. Even a fox bigger than Vince couldn’t beat those odds.

  Kara eyed a rat sniffing at a morsel beneath a litter bin. She silently dropped from the tree, wings open, talons out. The rat froze. Kara swooped. In an instant she snatched it from the ground before flapping effortlessly back up to her perch.

  The rat shrieked, pleading for its life, and squeezed its black eyes shut. Kara grasped its throat with her beak and tore it open. The rat fell still, blood seeping into the coarse fur on its breast. She ripped off a chunk of flesh, tipped her head back and swallowed it whole.

  She remained in the tree for a while, eating her prize as the rain pattered around her. Below, the foxes headed out into the wet night and made their way towards the corner of the park where Vince was most likely to appear. Kara wondered if Edward’s promise of a home to whoever killed Vince actually would stretch to three foxes. The other residents would hardly jump for joy when this lot showed up, demanding their share of the space and food in the hallowed grounds of Richmond Park. Not that it was her problem. As long as she got her rabbits, she couldn’t give a hoot.

  *

  Laurie shook the last of the rain from her fur as she approached the tall fence that separated her from the wetlands. Now that the rain had eased off and Vince was on his way, it was business as usual.

  She heard a barrage of voices, which grew louder as she slipped through the fence and slunk through the nettles. She’d only come for a quick nosey to see if those geese had given that swan his marching orders – she’d been denied the food here for too long – but there was clearly an altercation of some kind going on and she wasn’t about to miss it.

  Honks, chirrups and squeals filled the air as she arrived at her usual hiding spot: a thick tree with low-hanging branches that looked out over the water. She jumped up and balanced on a limb, camouflaged by the leaves. Any slight movement or noise would usually have alerted security, but that wouldn’t be a problem this time.

  Every animal in the wetlands cheered and chattered on the bank. Nearest the water were the mammals – squirrels, rats, rabbits, otters – all watching with delight as five geese and the two Screamers held Oswald on the wooden platform. The platform she’d seen from a distance too many times. She thought of Vince up there. How on earth had he escaped?

  Roger the goose waddled forward from the bank and the hubbub died down. He addressed the crowd.

  ‘Animals of the wetlands! Oswald has been brought here, in front of you all, to account for his behaviour! There will be no witnesses this time, because every one of you – every one of us – is a victim of this animal’s wrongdoing!’

  A cheer erupted. Water birds, songbirds and mammals hopped together on the grass, flashing delighted smiles to one another. Wings embraced furry bodies and paws patted the backs of feathered heads. In all the times she’d perched in this tree and watched the trials of the foxes and other mammals out on that lake, Laurie had never seen anything like it. One swan. That’s all it had taken to turn these animals against each other. And to unite them…

  ‘The foxes were right!’ Roger continued. ‘Vince showed us that we are equal. We do not have to be friends, but we should respect each other, and work together to keep our community safe. The vixen showed me that no animal has the right to be in charge here, especially one as cowardly as Oswald!’

  More noise rose like flames from the bank, angrier this time, cheers morphed into hisses. Oswald struggled and honked, but the birds held him firm in their beaks.

  Laurie couldn’t help but smile. Vince had started this, somehow, and she had finished it. Or pushed it in the right direction, at least.

  A cluster of voices murmured below Laurie. She looked down from her branch. Five small shapes twitched in the thick nettles. Young animals, she guessed. No real threat to her.

  ‘Hey!’ she called down to them.

  The nettles rustled as three goslings and two tiny otters craned their necks. ‘Hey yourself,’ a gosling replied.

  ‘Who are you?’ the young male otter asked.

  ‘I’m Laurie. Just wanted to see what all the noise was about.’

  ‘Oh. It’s Oswald. Everyone is fed up with him,’ the female said.

  ‘Yeah. He wasn’t very nice to me and my sister,’ the first otter said.

  ‘Or our parents,’ one of the goslings added.

  ‘They told us to go back to bed, but we want to see what happens,’ said another.

  ‘I see,’ Laurie said. Then her curiosity got the better of her. ‘Say, do any of you remember seeing a fox called Vince up on that platform? Maybe last night?’

  ‘You know Vince? Is he okay?’ one of the otters squealed.

  ‘He’s fine! How did he escape this place?’ Laurie asked.

  ‘We helped him. Us and our parents. We pulled him through the water to the bank,’ the otter replied. ‘He killed Ash, the cormorant. Vince was very brave. And he told us about how unfair it all is here.’

  Laurie nodded. Had she underestimated Vince? He had stood on the water and faced those birds, even killed one of them, while she only ever cowered in the trees and watched the trials from afar. She was more of a poodle than him. Not that it mattered now. He was gone, off to find his new home. He didn’t want to live on the streets and eat leftovers from bins, and she couldn’t really blame him. He was over-sensitive – most park animals were – but she might have taken her jokes a bit too far.

  ‘Boys don’t like being called names, Laurie. Especially not by girls,’ Laurie’s mother had said.

  ‘It’s not my fault they’re all pathetic runts,’ Laurie had replied.

  ‘Language! And you’ll never find a mate if you spend all your time hanging around that ridiculous cat.’

  ‘Leave Socks alone! And who says I want to find a mate?’

  Laurie shook the memories from her head as the first otter broke her train of thought. ‘Did he find Rita?’ he asked.

  ‘Rita? Who’s that?’ Vince hadn’t mentioned a mate. Laurie’s stomach lurched unexpectedly.

  ‘His friend. A magpie. They came here together.’

  ‘A magpie? Oh, no. He didn’t mention her.’ Laurie relaxed a little, then instantly felt ridiculous. ‘What happened?’

  ‘She distracted the geese so he could escape, but then flew into the trees and the birds came after her. No one saw what happened. Vince had to leave quickly. He didn’t have time to look for her.’

  ‘Daddy said she was killed,’ one of the goslings said sadly.

  ‘Oh, I’m so sorry,’ Laurie said. Maybe that was why Vince had gone so quiet.

  Another of the tiny birds piped up. ‘My daddy said she wasn’t killed. He said the ducks were too scared to follow her out of the fence, so they had to lie to Oswald about it, so there!’

  ‘What? Really?’ Laurie said, looking to each of them.

  The goslings looked at each other and shrugged.

  The otters frowned, then one said, ‘If she made it out of the fence then she might be alright. But we weren’t here, and when we got back inside everyone was shouting and flapping around.’

  ‘No one tells us anything! It’s so unfair!’ the other otter added, slapping her thick tail on the ground.

  ‘Do you know where she was last seen?’ Laurie said.

  ‘Over there.’ A gosling pointed a smal
l, downy wing through the trees to Laurie’s right. ‘By the fence.’

  ‘Thanks.’ Laurie looked out over the pond. The birds were still grappling with the swan on the platform while Roger made his impassioned speech. They would soon drown him, or worse, but Laurie didn’t care about Oswald. She slid down the tree and bounded through the weeds.

  If Rita was alive, she would find her. If she wasn’t, the least she could do was discover what had happened to her. Vince would want to know, and for some reason, Laurie wanted to be the one to tell him.

  *

  Vince arrived at the entrance to Hyde Park just in time. The rain had stopped, but his fur was still damp and his legs ached like never before. He’d barely stopped moving since leaving the wetlands, not counting the time spent in the trap – which he didn’t.

  He crossed the road and headed for the gate. Beside it stood two scarlet boxes, just taller and wider than a human, small columns of windows on three sides. Vince peered through as he went by. Inside one, a human slept, slumped against the glass. His hands and face were filthy and holes littered his drab clothing.

  All these buildings I’ve passed and he’d rather sleep in there?

  The black metal gate was locked, but – as always – the bars were widely spaced. As he squeezed through, reassuring scents hit his nose. Wet grass, earthy and crisp, muddled with an abundance of rats, birds and squirrels. Less reassuring, though, was the smell of foxes.

  They were close by. He kept his head and ears high, scanning the area. Once again he was trespassing but it wasn’t mating season; there was no way his own kind would bother with much more than a few angry barks, as long as he left sharpish.

  He headed deeper into the park but as he reached a fork in the path a deep growl rumbled from the shadow of a nearby tree. Vince turned his ears towards the noise.

  ‘Stop right there,’ a female voice said.

  ‘I’m just passing through,’ Vince said. ‘I don’t want any trouble.’