Chapter 4
FOUR
Though Harry had firmly believed that a month was plenty of time for them to put together the celebration he, Grace, Ben and Liz wanted, come the end of the first week, he wasn’t so sure.
By the end of the second week, he was convinced that a month was a ridiculous deadline and that they should all have a strong word with themselves.
But there was nothing they could do about it now.
Numerous wheels were in motion, and when two of those wheels were Matt Dinsdale and Margaret Shaw, there was no stopping them.
Friday had come round quickly, and work was, thankfully, not as busy as it could be. Harry dared to think that perhaps everyone across the Dales was behaving themselves. Or, if they weren’t, they were keeping it very quiet, so as to not ruin things. Very thoughtful.
Amazingly, and despite the fact that he felt as though things were getting away from him, everything was actually all in hand.
He knew this, because he and Grace had come up with a plan of action, which was stuck to the wall by the dining table, and checked morning and night, with jobs ticked off as they were done.
Margaret had leapt at the chance to be the celebrant, Jadyn had somehow managed to sort out transport from Hawes marketplace to the river and back, and Mandy, along with everyone at the Fountain, was reassuringly on top of not just the food, but the cake, the decorating of the back room, and the music.
The only thing they’d not yet sorted was a photographer.
‘The goats, though,’ said Harry, finishing off a slice of marmalade on toast. ‘We sure about that?’
‘It was your idea.’
Harry nearly choked on his toast.
‘No, it wasn’t. Dave just took something I said in jest, literally.’
‘It’ll be fine,’ said Grace. ‘I think it’s a nice idea, something for the kids. They’ll be in a pen round the back of the Fountain.’
Harry took a mouthful of tea and cleared his throat.
He’d managed to bring Dave down from the idea of doing a goat dance, which had been a relief, mainly because Dave had been surprisingly convinced he could pull it off, and Harry really didn’t want to see him try.
So, they’d met halfway, with Dave suggesting a little pen of goats for the children to go and see, when they got bored of what was going on.
Harry had little idea of who these children were, or who they might belong to, really only knowing Matt and Joan’s daughter, Mary-Ann.
But then the guest list was very much down to Grace, so he’d accepted Dave’s suggestion, and seen the big man swell with pride.
‘They’ll escape, though, I promise you that,’ he said. ‘That’s what goats do, remember?’
Grace gave a shrug.
‘You worry too much.’
‘You don’t worry enough.’
‘Then we cancel each other out, don’t we?’
Breakfast over, Grace left the house first, taking Jess and Cheese with her.
Smudge stayed with Harry and instead of going straight to work, he decided to head off on another footpath across the fields.
He soon found himself following along the old railway line, the scar of it still clear on the landscape.
With Smudge bumbling around just ahead of him, sniffing this and that, and occasionally stopping to stare at things, far off, that only she could see, Harry allowed his mind to drift.
It was something he had once found difficult to do, as though he was in a constant state of alert.
Now, though, the peace of the Dales, the almost profound beauty of the place, was more than enough to help him realise that there was more to life than his worries and concerns.
The wedding celebration would sort itself out, and all would be well.
They’d not yet decided on where they were going to spend their honeymoon, but at least he’d remembered to book the week off, so that was something.
Calling Smudge back, Harry turned for home.
The morning was a bright one, with a breeze just the right side of cold, refreshing rather than freezing, and Harry watched buzzards corkscrewing into the sky above a small spinney.
Arriving back at the house, Harry fed Smudge, then made his way into Hawes, this time in the Rav.
For a Friday, Hawes was strangely busy, he noticed, driving past the Penny Garth Café and seeing it was already buzzing with a large group of bikers.
Further on, a tractor and trailer was parked up outside the Spar, and the carpark in the marketplace was already full.
Harry managed to find a place, however, and with Smudge to heel, made his way down the lane and into the office.
He was just about to push through the door, when it burst outwards and Jen crashed into him, quickly followed by Jadyn.
‘What the—’
‘Harry! It’s Matt!’ said Jen.
‘What is? What’s wrong? What’s happened?’
‘He just rang,’ said Jadyn. ‘He’s been run off the road.’
‘What? Where?’
Jen pointed off to Harry’s right.
‘Just before the road up into Burtersett. On that sharp bend.’
‘He’s okay?’
‘He sounded shaken up,’ said Jen. ‘We were going to call you on the way. Just thought we’d get there sharp. We’ve already got Mike on the case. He’s heading out with his recovery vehicle.’
Harry held up his keys.
‘I’ll drive,’ he said, and turning on his heels, led Jen and Jadyn to his Rav.
The journey was all speed and silence. The road was clear and having left Hawes, Harry soon had them at the location of Matt’s collision.
‘Bloody hell ...’
Matt’s car was on its side and facing back up towards Bainbridge, the opposite way to which Matt would’ve been travelling. Matt, miracle of miracles, was standing in the road, ready to wave traffic past. Harry slowed down and pulled up beside him.
‘Get out of the road, Matt,’ he said. ‘You want to cause another accident?’
‘I didn’t cause this one,’ Matt replied, an edge to his voice that Harry had rarely heard. ‘Some pillock in a black four-by-four rammed me. Came out of nowhere. One minute they were—’
Matt stepped back as a passing tractor rumbled through, drowning him out.
Harry turned to Jen who was sitting beside him in the passenger seat, Jadyn in the back.
‘We need to make this safe,’ he said. ‘I’ve everything you need is in the back.’
‘Will we need a collision investigator?’ Jadyn asked.
‘No,’ Harry said. ‘Looks like Matt’s okay, though he’ll need checking over to be doubly sure. We’ll handle this ourselves.’
‘What do you need us to do?’
‘Photograph the scene, not just Matt’s car, but the road, any skid marks, collect as much evidence as you can.
’ He pointed at a scattering of smashed glass on the road.
‘There’s a good chance some of that is from the other vehicle.
Plus, there should be marks on Matt’s car.
Just gather everything we can, and we’ll go from there. ’
Harry pulled over, putting himself between Matt’s wreck of a car, and the line of traffic building up.
He jumped out and waved it through as Jen and Jadyn proceeded to unload bollards and warning signs from the rear of Harry’s vehicle.
They jogged in opposite directions along the road to set them out and warn oncoming traffic of the incident ahead.
They then took it in turns to let traffic through.
‘Jen’s told me Mike’s on his way,’ said Harry. ‘And we need to get you to the doctor’s for a check over.’
‘I’m fine,’ said Matt. ‘Just a bit knocked about, that’s all.’
Harry jabbed a finger at Matt’s vehicle, then stared at the DS.
‘You’ve seen your vehicle, right? It’s on its side. It’s facing the wrong way. How the hell did it happen, and how did you manage to get out of it without a scratch?’
‘It’s like I was saying, whoever it was, they came out of nowhere.’
Harry looked up the road. There was a corner far off, but the road between it and where they were now stood was arrow straight, no hidden dips.
‘They must’ve been doing a hell of speed for you not to see them.’
‘And to do that to my vehicle,’ Matt said. ‘I’ve never known anything like it.’
Harry saw shock in Matt’s eyes, the memory of what had happened now coming to him hard and fast. Then the colour drained from his face.
‘Harry ...’
Harry caught Matt before he fell, pulling him in for an impromptu bear hug.
‘Doctor’s,’ Harry said.
Quickly, he helped Matt over to the Rav and clipped him into the passenger seat.
‘Where are the keys to your car?’
‘Still in,’ said Matt.
Harry jogged over to Jen.
‘I’m taking him to get checked over. Keys are still in his car. Still going to be interesting to see how Mike gets it back to the garage, though.’
‘Let me know how he is,’ Jen said.
And with that, Harry jogged over to the Rav, dropped in beside Matt, and had them both heading back up to Hawes.