Danny Dempsey and the Unlikely Alliance by Denis Byrne Page B

neighbour’s washing every time she hung it out! What to do about that, Sergeant ? Mrs. Hennessey’s cat has gone missing! What - -.
    When Neville had asked the Superintendent where Harrington was, and when he would be coming back, all he got for his troubles was a mysterious wink. Neville tried exchanging Jackson with another junior, but with no better results. He felt like a yo-yo with all the back and forth traipsing he had to do. He hadn’t realised how competent Harrington had been until he wasn’t there.
    Sergeant Neville liked a nap in the afternoons in his office, but that was out of the question at the moment. He knew the second he lay back in his chair to have a snooze, his services would immediately be called on. More than likely to explain to someone the police really didn’t have the power to put a weather forecaster in jail just because it rained when it wasn’t supposed to.
    And now this! There was nothing for it, he supposed, but to get in a squad car and start searching the countryside. He was just about to get ready to do so, when his phone rang again. He was half-afraid to pick it up, but more afraid not to. He couldn’t believe who was calling.
    *
    Superintendent Clifford put his mobile back in the pocket of his lumberjack’s coat. Sergeant Neville had told him he was never so glad to hear anyone’s voice in his life before. Then relayed the Chief’s order that he get in touch with him right away. The Superintendent didn’t comment on that one way or the other. The only reason he’d phoned Neville was to ask him the time. He’d forgotten to put his wristwatch on that morning.
    *
    He was to meet Danny and Harrington at the deep pool at four, but the wheelchair had run out of aviation fuel halfway to his destination. It had been working brilliantly up to that, flashing along like a rocket, responding perfectly to the special controls. The Superintendent was having a thrill a second on the way, when it suddenly came to complete standstill. Just like that. Jet propelled, then stationary all in the space of the blink of an eye.
    And when the Superintendent glanced at his watch, it wasn’t there. He stashed the wheelchair in amongst a crop of bushes well in off the road, wondering what whoever might stumble across it would make of the discovery. Then he called ahead to Danny and told him he was going to be delayed. And no, he didn’t want Charlie transformed into a winged goat to come and pick him up. He’d be there just as soon as possible, thank you very much! Then he phoned the Chief of Police.
    *
    â€˜I’m the one who’s nearly always late,’ Danny told Harrington, who was sitting on the bank of the river beside him.
    â€˜Did he say what’s delaying him?’ Harrington asked, not looking at Danny, but staring in fascination at Charlie every time he surfaced from the depths of the pool with what looked like somebody’s leg clenched between his jaws. ‘Or how long more he’s going to be?’
    â€˜No on both counts,’ Danny replied, ‘He’ll probably phone again shortly.’
    Harrington was hardly listening. Charlie was now balancing the leg on the tip of his snout and tossing it into the air like a seal, then catching it neatly between his fearsome looking teeth. Danny hadn’t even warned him Charlie was lurking in the pool when they’d met there as per the Superintendent’s instructions. Even though he’d been told of Charlie’s existence at his briefing with the Superintendent, seeing him unexpectedly surface for the first time with the leg in his jaws almost caused Harrington to faint.
    â€˜You might have warned me,’ he’d said peevishly. ‘I thought it was the Loch Ness monster there for a minute.’
    â€˜I didn’t want to spoil the surprise for either of you,’ Danny said, grinning impishly at him, ‘Charlie loves to see people’s