car park for her missing young dachshund. She glanced back; the two older ones were curled up in their baskets, far too sensible to be out on such a chilly damp day but she had let Lola out for a pee. Being a pup, Tracy didn’t want to risk her messing on the floor, especially as she hadn’t stocked up on cleaning supplies. That was another job on her ever-expanding list. She glanced at her answerphone: twelve messages. She’d get around to that after she’d finished all the other urgent jobs like ordering the next batch of materials.
In the distance, she spotted her husband coordinating the builders on site. This development was going to be the making of them after investing everything they had to build it. Thirty detached homes on an exclusive gated community with security at the entrance, just what the wealthier people of Cleevesford craved. Safety, luxury and comfort. They were offering it all and at least twenty had been reserved after they’d completed the show home.
She glanced back at the board as she contemplated making some toast for breakfast. Every contractor had turned up today except for the one she wished they hadn’t included in the project. Isaac Slater. For two weeks he’d messed them around by turning up late and leaving early, and he’d even dropped a brick from height, narrowly missing a labourer. That had been his final warning. The last thing they needed was bad press when it came to health and safety. She walked over to the board and drew a ring around his name. He’d blown every chance. From now, he was officially off the job. Grabbing the phone, she tried to call him once again but like the other times, the call went straight to voicemail. Maybe he’d left one of the many messages. She shook her head. That would be a first.
‘Be good for Mummy.’ She removed her coat and a dog lead from the back of her chair and left, shutting the other two dogs in. As she trod the sodden earth below, she felt a bit of damp oozing through the tear in the side of her old work boot. Her tangled blond ponytail had begun to come loose and her straggly hair blew into her mouth and stuck to her face. She zipped up the body warmer underneath her coat and shivered.
Glancing back and forth, trees at the one end, fast-moving building works at the other, she called out again. This time louder. ‘Lola, come to Mummy. Lola.’ In the distance she could hear the clattering of tools being carried in the wind.
She dredged through the turned-over earth that would at some point resemble a lush flower bed and she spotted her little mischievous dog in the distance barking and wagging its tail. ‘Lola you little shit, come here now.’ That dog was going to get obedience lessons sooner rather than later. ‘Come on, Lola. Don’t make Mummy tread in all this.’ Tracy frowned as she took another step. It was no use hoping that the dog would come to her. ‘Come on, girl.’
The dog began to yap and run around in a circle. It’s long body catching up with its front legs, little tail wagging away.
‘Bloody hell.’ Tracy persevered through the sludge until she reached the most exclusive row of three detached houses on the estate. She glanced up at the roofs on two of the houses that still needed some work. Plastic sheeting rattled as the breeze picked up and a gust of dried leaves whipped into the air. ‘Lola. Come here now.’ Tracy removed her hair band and retied the stray strands away from her face.
The little dog looked like it was laughing as it refused to obey her command. Stepping past a pile of roof tiles, she hurried to the dog as it yapped at the fence.
‘Get here now.’ She reached down and clipped the lead to the dog’s collar. ‘You naughty girl.’ She leaned forward and the dog licked her nose. Tracy couldn’t be angry for too long. She stroked the dog’s head and began to pull it back towards the Portakabin, but the dog refused to budge as it continued to bark at the fence.
Something wasn’t right. She knew her newest member of the pack was a handful, but she and Fred hadn’t seen her acting like this before. ‘What is it, girl.’ One squelching step after another led her to the low fence. She peered over. There was nothing