BOILER

Chapter 31

There was a white dog with brown patches and a light brown nose sat at the side of the road. It was tearing at a paper bag, and there were spilled crumbs on the floor around it. Toland pulled over. The dog had its nose in the bag and its eyes on him. He got out and slammed the door. The dog snatched the bag and bounded away. He searched every pocket as he walked, then stopped and went back to the car and found his lighter between the driver seat and the door. The lighter took a few strikes to get going but did as the dog reappeared with a strip of paper stuck to its mouth. It sniffed the ground on its way to a shop that had boxes of fruit and veg stacked either side of the door. The shopkeeper came out with a mop that carried stink into the fresh air and prodded at the dog until it sprang away again in that high-bouncing gait.

Toland took the last fire of his cigarette and stamped out the filter. The shopkeeper was getting back to his paper next to the register when he got to the door.

That mutt comes sniffing 'round here every day. God knows how much he got away with.

Something electric buzzed in there. Toland went down the aisles and picked up a bottle of cold and flu, water, and a bag of nuts, and brought them to the counter. The shopkeeper was older with stubble on his cheekbones and bumpy, sore-looking skin on his neck. A red-and-blue cheque shirt collar stuck out of his sweater and nuzzled his earlobes. The counter was a wooden box with a glass top to display the hard candy inside. Toland sniffed and the shopkeeper asked what he wanted.

'Green band cigarettes and lighter fluid.'

He stood up slowly and took the cigarettes and dropped them on the counter and bent down to take a small black tin of lighter fluid. He put that with the rest and took a blue menthol from under the counter. He tongued it into his cheek and asked, 'That all?'

'I'll take a bag of whatever you just ate.'

'How much?'

'Ten.'

'How much? They come in weight.'

'What do ten weigh?'

'I'll give you a quarter pound'

'How about a yard?'

'You're a funny one. I got a two pounds in the jar and this way I know where I stand. I'm not messing up my system so you can have ten.'

'You just took one, yourself,' Toland said. He paid and took his things. The dog was back near the door when he left. He lifted a carrot and walked with it and the dog followed. He offered it. The dog sniffed at it, declined, and set off back to the store. He settled back in his car, took a capsule of the cold and flu, and washed it down.

***

He got back to control and got his coat off. He sat and put his elbows on his desk and his head in his hands. He sighed. He got up and went over to records and asked May for a file on Annabelle Glick.

Charlie's desk had been cleared completely. Absolutely empty. Toland got his cigarettes from his coat and felt the paper Sarah gave him. He brought that out, too, and dialled the number again. There was a second before the connection clicked. It rang on the phone. He looked around the office. Hot energy bloomed in his chest. He took the phone away from his ear and looked out to the stairs. It was ringing in the building. Nobody was picking up. He left the phone off the hook and went to the top of the stairwell. The phone still rang. He went down the steps to the floor below and opened a door to an empty office. Everything had this skin of dust that was white in the daylight and grey in the shade. There were piles of uselessness other offices didn't have room for. There were a lot of newspapers, used drinks, and wrappers. There was a bike with flat tires. The phone had no dust on it. Toland took it off the hook and hung up. He looked around the room from where he stood, and then he went back up to his desk. He lit a cigarette and left the building with no coat. He came back when he'd calmed down.