The Remarkables (The Remarkable Owen Johnson, part 1) by A. D. Elliott Read Free Book Online Page A

and Owen surveyed the damage that she had just caused by driving a large estate car into a garage door.
    “Well that was unexpected, ” Mrs Argyle commented.
    Not t o Owen it wasn’t, his day being far from humdrum thus far.
    “Well we can’t drive that now ,” she declared, giving the concertinaed front wing an assessing kick. It quivered in response for a moment, before clattering onto the floor in defeat. Mrs Argyle shrugged. “I suppose we’d better make a dash for it on foot.”
    Owen stared at the car in disbelief; it was a good half a metre shorter than it was a minute ago and had now also undressed itself of its other front wing.
    “Come on then slow coach!” Mrs Argyle called out cheerfully. Owen trotted after her, who by now was halfway down their street. “Where are we going?” Owen asked.
    “Somewhere far away and sharpish ,” she replied, her head darting from side to side. At the end of the road she motioned for him to stop behind her, and peered around the hedge on the corner. “All clear.” Again she made a hand signal, this time for Owen to follow her. She’d clearly been watching too many old war films as she was behaving as if she was about to storm an enemy stronghold.
    “Where are we going?” Owen repeated.
    “You’ve asked me that.” Mrs Argyle looked directly at him but kept walking. “Is your head bothering you?”
    “My head?” replied Owen incred ulously. “My head is the least of my worries. What’s bothering me is: who was that man and where is my dad?!”
    Mrs Argyle shrug ged her shoulders unhelpfully. This rather annoyed Owen as it was pretty clear she was more aware of what was occurring today than she was letting on. “I don’t know exactly where your father is. But what with all the bother over the years from that wretched plant of his, we had an agreement that if you or your brother were ever in danger I’d take you away somewhere safe, like we used to in the past, remember?”
    Owen did indeed remember. He must have been about seven or eight when they first started building the plant. There was anger from local residents who didn’t want the landscape ruined or their air and water polluted, but that was usually confined to council meetings and angry letters to the local newspaper.
    But some of the protestors targeted those who worked at the plant, including Owen’s dad and Katie’s parents. Both families had bricks thrown through their car windows and threats of violence delivered to their houses. On one occasion Owen and Jack had spent the entire summer holidays away with Mrs Argyle because of the frequency of attacks.
    Mrs Argyle took the crumpled note out of her pocket and looked at it again, before tucking it away once more. “Was there any sign of a struggle when you first got home?” she asked.
    “Not that I could tell. But he left the door open and that’s really unlike him, as is leaving his car. Has he been kidnapped or something?”
    Mrs Argyle frowned briefly, but resumed smiling shortly after. “More likely that he got a taxi or left by foot.” She patted him on the shoulder reassuredly. It had no effect whatsoever.
    “ We should still go to the police though, tell them about that man in the kitchen,” Owen suggested.
    “ And tell them what? There was no sign of a struggle, so they won’t start a search for your father. We’ll call his work in a bit, he’s probably there. And as for that man, he was likely to have been a burglar who we scared off, and I don’t fancy spending an afternoon in a police station explaining why I gave him a thick ear.”
    Owen stopped in his trac ks. “A thick ear?!  You did more than that! You knocked him back without even laying a finger on him, and you did the same to me! It’s a good job that sofa was there!” Although his head was spinning, his thoughts did seem to be starting to settle. “And it was you that stopped me from hitting the ground earlier.” He was starting to feel scared of this