Dead Dog in the Still of the Night Read Online Free Page B

fist.
    Fury flashed in Primo’s eyes at the sound of Maddie’s fist pounding on the roof. He gave her a piercing stare and accelerated wildly, spinning the steering wheel to full lock to the left and dropping the clutch. The tiny red car kicked and bucked out its rear end, narrowly missing Maddie, who jumped back in sudden fright.
    ‘You’re crazy!’ Maddie yelled.
    Primo didn’t hear her; he was focused on getting the car back under control. The rear tyres were slipping on the gravel, the passenger side door waved back and forth and finally bent back against its hinges, creaking under the strain as it hyperextended.
    Too tense to regain a straight line, Primo’s instinct was to overcorrect. He lost what little control he still had over the car, sending it sliding sideways over a low gutter, the passenger door slamming shut just as the car sideswiped a concrete bollard. Bouncing off the post, Primo’s hands jerked off the steering wheel, leaving him with no other option than to apply the brakes and handbrake simultaneously.
    It took a few moments, but the car came to a halt. Primo sat forward in the driver’s seat as though he were about to leap through the windscreen head first.
    And then there was silence, deep and angry and torn at the edges by the searing echo in Primo’s head of the car careering sideways into the concrete bollard.
    ‘Primo!’
    Maddie’s voice pierced his ears as he sat clutching the steering wheel, staring wide-eyed directly ahead.
    ‘Primo!’
    Primo looked at Maddie but didn’t see her. Bewildered, he opened his mouth in mute dismay.
    ‘You are crazy!’ Maddie snapped. ‘You could have run me over. You could have killed me even.’
    The sound of his own voice saying ‘I didn’t mean to’ was a heavy thing that wrapped itself slowly around Primo and forced him from the car to stand beside Maddie, but he was unable to embrace her.
    Instead, he went around to the passenger side. The bollard had smacked the door inward, and the paint work had peeled off like a huge knife gash had torn flesh from bone.
    There was a noise, like an animal struggling against a snare, raw and guttural.
    ‘Primo?’ Maddie’s voice was brittle, and for some reason it set Primo off.
    ‘I’m dead!’ he sobbed, his hands patting the damaged flank of the car. ‘I’m dead!’ Primo turned in a tight circle, hands over both ears as if to erase what had just happened.
    ‘I could have been that concrete post!’ Maddie said forcefully. ‘It could have been me you ran into.’ She approached him, her arms out, palms up. ‘Look at me, I’m shaking.’
    Primo turned and gave her a brutal shove that almost toppled her.
    ‘It’s your fault!’ he yelled. ‘I took the car out for you! To celebrate getting my licence.’
    As though it might undo the damage, Primo started rubbing the dented metal, stroking and patting and cajoling.
    ‘Are you serious?’ Maddie screamed. ‘Are you right in the head?’ She picked up a small rock at her feet and tossed it at Primo. He didn’t flinch when it rebounded off his back. ‘I don’t believe this!’
    Primo closed his eyes and batted his fists against his forehead.
    ‘This is an original Bambino,’ he whispered. ‘This car is a 1962 Fiat 500D. It’s been sitting in our garage since before I was born.’ Primo looked at Maddie as though that might explain everything about the significance of the little car in his family’s life.
    ‘It’s a car. Your dad’s car, sure, but a car, ’ she said, making no effort to hide her disgust. ‘You could have run me over with that thing.’
    ‘Thing?’ he cried indignantly. ‘Didn’t you hear what I just told you? It’s a classic. My dad probably saved months, years, to get it.’ He shook his head and stepped back to better look at the damage. ‘I’m dead.’
    ‘It’s just a dent, Primo. Dents can be taken out. Even I know that.’ Her smile not quite right, Maddie looked down the length of the car. ‘You can