Barging In Read Online Free

having a sneaky cigarette, but there was no sign of him. Sighing, he headed back inside. He’d catch him later. Or maybe just wait until this evening and hit a pub where he could guarantee the guys would be into other guys.
    A pillar blocked his view of the bar, but Dan picked up a familiar sound. A rich voice, low but bristling with restrained fury. Fury he’d had directed at him only an hour or two previously.
    “What do you mean? You’ve got other notices up there. What exactly is it that makes mine unsuitable?”
    Dan couldn’t hear the landlord’s reply, but Robin’s response certainly carried. “Well fuck you, then, you arrogant cunt!”
    Dan stepped around the pillar just in time to see Robin storming out the door, slamming it shut behind him so that the glass rattled in the panes. A piece of paper fluttered to the ground, and Dan picked it up, burning with curiosity. At the top, in careful lettering, handwritten yet set out like type, it said: Missing: have you seen Morris? There was a photograph of a cat underneath. Morris had a huge mane around his serene face, the white nose and bib striking against the dark tabby markings of his body. A beautiful creature—and enormous too—but what really caught Dan’s attention was the pair of arms encircling him. The head of the figure might have been cropped out of the photo, but there was no mistaking those tattooed arms. At the bottom of the page there was a plea for anyone with information on the whereabouts of Morris to call Robin on his mobile.
    So this was the mysterious missing “he”! Dan folded up the notice and slipped it into his jacket pocket. Turning to the grim-faced landlord, he gave a smile. “I don’t know, some people,” he offered, shaking his head.
    “They should know better than to try and put their notices up in here. I won’t have it. I’ve told them before. They’re not getting any favours from me after they drive away my summer trade by mooring their scummy boats outside and letting their dogs run wild. Probably one of them that ate his precious cat.”
    “No, Nige, it was probably one of the other vagrants. They either ate it or stole it and sold it on. Them pedigree cats are worth a few bob, you know.” The old man at the bar leaned towards Dan with a conspiratorial leer. “That lot are bad news, you know. Better steer clear of ’em, if I were you. Nice young lad like you could get led astray.”
    The mocking laughter followed Dan out of the pub as he made a dash for the fresh air. He ran up the steps to the towpath and looked in both directions, but there was no sign of Robin. Bugger. Still, he had his mobile number, which wasn’t bad work considering they hadn’t exactly hit it off. He meandered back to the Faerie Queen ,pondering the tensions he’d just witnessed between the boaters and the local community. There was a story here. He was sure of it.
    Now he just needed to get an insider’s account of what was going on.
     
     
    Dan waited until early evening but then couldn’t contain his impatience any longer. He cycled out to Mel’s boat, relieved to see the lights on inside and her flower-bedecked bicycle resting on the roof. Although the boat was a couple of feet wider than his narrowboat, it was much shorter. He found it hard to imagine how anyone could contain their whole life in such a tiny space.
    “You going to stand out there all day or come on in to the warm?”
    Dan grinned at Mel, who had stuck her head out of the hatch on the side of her boat. “Wasn’t sure if I was meant to knock on the side or if I should climb onto the deck and knock on the door.”
    “Either way’s fine with me, sweetie. We don’t stand on ceremony around here. Just hop onboard.”
    But before Dan had a chance to climb up, Robin pushed his way out of the doors and onto the deck. He gave Dan a curt nod of recognition. “I’ll be off, then,” he called back to Mel.
    “No, sweetie, you should stay. Get to know Dan.”
    Robin