1 Chapter 1

Other Books 1: Kevin

THE BLOODY CAR WOULDN’Tstart again. Kevin kicked the tyre with extreme prejudice as he slammed the driver’s door and went round to peer under the bonnet. It was probably the battery, but knowing that didn’t leave him any better off, as there was no-one else left in the car park to beg a jump start from. On the other hand...he leaned his weight on the front of the engine compartment and hung his head in thought...it had been turning over. So maybe not the battery...maybe the...the...erm, fuel pump? Something to do with the fuel combusting and the engine actually starting, because it had been making that coughing noise which was the battery turning the starter over.

Well. Good to know. Nothing like having an elderly and temperamental vehicle to get a crash course in mechanical theory, even if he couldn’t do anything about it practically.

Blast and double blast. He’d have to ring the garage and Pete, his ex, would nag him to sack the old girl off and they’d have an uncomfortable conversation about it because he’d had the car longer than he’d been with Pete and was more attached to it.

But it was gone six and the garage was shut. And he made a habit of not ringing Pete at home these days. Too awkward.

He stood up, sighing, and let the bonnet drop closed, then turned and leaned against it.

He shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and tilted his head back, looking up the valley at the crows dancing and rolling in the breeze over the castle ruins.

Fuck. What a shitty end to a shitty week. He’d come down to the beach for a walk to clear his head after his shift at the RSPCA. He’d been assisting in an operation with a cat that had come in as a cruelty case and the whole thing had made him feel sick to his stomach. The cat would be fine. But he’d spent six hours tamping down generalised rage at people who inflicted pain on animals and he wanted to blow it all away in the wind from the sea rather than take it home with him.

Well, he’d get that now. He was going to have to walk home along the cliff path and then ring Pete in the morning. Luckily he didn’t have to go into work. He sighed. Pete was going to have a field day with this tomorrow. And Kevin should probably start to think about changing the car. Or at least getting a new engine for her.

He patted the bonnet absently as he straightened up and turned to go round the side and get his things off the back seat. Poor old girl.

“Can I help?” said a voice behind him.

He swung round, startled. He hadn’t noticed the tall man standing there, screwing the top back onto a water bottle he’d clearly just finished filling from the tap outside the public toilets at the edge of the car park.

He had a sizeable pack at his feet and had the healthy, outdoorsy look of a walker, clad in woolly hat and hiking gear.

Kevin stared at him for a moment and then opened his mouth and took a breath to politely decline. But before he could, the man said, “I’m a mechanic.”

Kevin shut his mouth again and examined him more closely, head tilted on one side. He looked like he was ex army, maybe?

“Thanks,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s fixable. Fuel pump, something like that, I reckon.”

The man nodded. “Sounded like it might be,” he said. “It was turning over. Can you ring the garage?”

Kevin shook his head. “Not this late and not from here. No signal. And he shuts at six anyway. I’ll have to walk home and ring him in the morning.”

The man pulled a face and nodded. “Is it far?” he asked.

Kevin shook his head. “Three miles or so if I go along the coast path. I should have just gone straight there.” He sighed. “But it was a shit day at work and I didn’t want to take it home with me.”

He rubbed his hands over his face and scuffed the toe of his shoe in the dirt of the car park, sighing.

“I’m on shanks pony, too,” the hiker said. “Which way are you going?”

Kevin nodded along the path to the west. “That way,” he said. “You?”

“The same. I was hoping to make the next little cove on the map this evening and set up there overnight.”

He was wild-camping then. Against the law, strictly speaking, but people did do it. And he looked like one of the more responsible ones. Kevin looked him over and took in the good-quality, well looked after boots, the comfortable utility trousers, the sensible waterproof.