The Beast of Bridge Road
Nicola was woken suddenly by a loud clattering noise from outside. She turned to her husband to see if he had heard it too, but was annoyed to see that he still slept soundly. “Typical!” She muttered to herself.
After a couple of minutes, during which there were no other noises, she settled back down to try and get back to sleep. As she pulled the duvet up, there was another noise. With the duvet held still in mid movement, so as not to make a noise which might drown out another from outside, she listened intently. The noise occurred again. It sounded like tin drums banging together and rolling, and she knew that there were drums like that stacked next to the refuse bin at the side of the house.
Nicola shook her husband, and in a loud whisper, urged him to wake up. “ROB…..ROB….someone is trying to break in.”
“What?” He slurred sleepily as he tried to pull the covers back, “Don’t be silly, who would….”
He was stopped by another recurrence of the noise. They both now listened, and sure enough, the rolling drum noise came again.
“That’s those empty bitumen tins by our bin!” Said Rob in a loud whisper.
“I know! Call the police.” Urged his wife.
“I’ll just go and see first.” He replied, “It’s probably just a cat!”
Nicola protested, pointing out how dangerous that might be, but Rob would not be dissuaded. He put on his dressing gown and made for the door.
“At least take something to defend yourself with.” She continued. He nodded back to her and called in the spare room for a golf club from his bag. He didn’t think it odd to consider three clubs and then select a four iron. How do you select a club that’s right to bash a burglar?
He stopped at the window that over looked the side of the house where the tin drums were, and peered out. He could not see any of the side path with the window closed, so he opened it cautiously and tried again. Slowly moving forward and looking down
He couldn’t make out any detail. The path, dustbin and tins were lost in the darkness.
He went downstairs and out of the front door. A neighbour was there, also in his dressing gown. He had called the police having heard the noises too.
“I’ll go and look.” Announced Rob, “It’s just a cat or the wind I’m sure.” Then strode off purposefully.
“There have been some strange noises coming from there.” Cautioned the neighbour. Rob stopped and turned, then more hesitantly, asked, “Errm, what sort of noises Martin?”
“Oh, weird.”
“Like a cat?” Rob asked, hopefully.
“Nnnnot like a cat!” Considered Martin.
“Errm, like a burglar?” Enquired a slightly less brave Rob, as he backed away from the side of his house.
“No, not really.” Came the reply.
The bravery came back a little. “Well I’ll, errr, go and check it out!” He edged towards the darkness that lay between his house and the fence. He was just thinking that he could return to the house and put the side light on, when a growling noise came from near his dustbin. Rob froze for a moment, and then, because the growling persisted, he scrabbled away, half fell over the corner of the path and caught up with Martin at the gate where they fought over the hook in their hurry to get to 'safety'. When the growling subsided they were cowering behind a parked car, wide eyed and afraid.
“We should call a zoo or something!” Came a new voice. It was Maeve, Martins wife, she had come out to see what was going on and had heard the growling too.
“Yes,” replied Rob, “or wait for the police, they will know who to call and...” He was cut off by hearing Nicola coming out of the front door, which wasn't far from where the growling noises had come from. Rob darted towards her, urging her to come away. As he got nearer he thought it best not to go any further and frantically gestured to her to come this way, while in a loud whisper that would easily have been heard by anything in the alley, called, “Come away....get away from the bins....come over here - QUICKLY!”
Nicola did move in the direction indicated, but not as quickly as Rob would have liked. As she sleepily wandered and looked back to try to catch a glimpse of the unseen hazard, she eventually came into range of Robs grasping arms and was yanked to the shelter of the parked car.
“What is it?” She managed to get out, and added, “Hi Maeve, Martin.” With a half-hearted wave. They nodded back.
“There's.....something in the side alley.” Explained Rob. “By the bins!” He continued but couldn't quite say what he was trying to get across.
“Some...thing?” quizzed Nicola.
“It sort of....growls!” Answered Maeve, and clawed the air with her fingers as if that explained growling. It had a bad effect on the group who all looked at the space where she had clawed with quiet horror. There was another, gut churning growl from the alley and the four be-dressing-gowned neighbours cowered down further behind the car.
“GOOD EVENING!” Came a voice from behind them and they all leapt in shock.
“Get down!” They all hissed as they grabbed the owner of the voice and pulled him down too. It was a young police constable who had responded to their call. His colleague was not far behind but she was not aware that her partner had been pulled into the shadows, so was looking about rather confused. The male PC stood to let her know where he was, but didn't even manage to blurt out a whole word before he was dragged back down again. The female PC was rather suspicious of this and began radioing headquarters for urgent back-up. After some calling and shushing and standing, followed by urgent dragging back down, the six of them were all entrenched behind the car.
“WPC Millington!” Started the female officer, “WHAT-is-going on?”
“There are noises...from over there!” Whispered Rob, “...and keep your voices down!”
The PCs both drew breath to speak but the other three were all holding fingers to pursed lips and so they moderated their responses.
WPC Millington whispered, “What is going on?” There was a confusion of whispering as the four tried to explain the noises, and compete with each other to be heard, but most importantly, stay quiet.
“Shush!” Said the male PC, and when quiet was restored, continued, “PC Percy...” There were brief sniggers followed by apologies and they settled back down.
“PC Percy...” re-iterated the officer, but the growl came again and stopped him short. The six hunched down, their wide eyes glinting.
When it subsided after a few seconds, the PCs asked in unison, “WHAT was that?”
There was much shuffling and shrugging of shoulders and then Rob offered, “We don't know. It's in the alley to the side of our house.....by the dustbins.” There came a louder but shorter growl come snort to underline this, and more cowering from the group.
“I will take a look!” Said WPC Millington and held up her torch as if it was a weapon that no growling beast could stand up to. There were protests but she was soon opening the gate and heading cautiously up the path.
She had got half way along the path, watched by five pairs of wide eyes peering over a car, when all hell broke loose.
There were wailing sirens and screeching tyres as at least four police cars arrived randomly from nowhere. Doors were flung open and slammed shut and a loud hailer was switched on followed by orders bellowed, but not understood. The four neighbours covered their heads with their arms in frustration at the noise but the two PCs quickly made it understood that quiet was definitely the preferred state of sound at this time. WPC Millington glanced back to the alley and, seeing no change in the situation, began to return to the road with the same caution she had used to get half way up the path.
Eight officers watched from behind their cars with suspicious intrigue. They were joined by more and more neighbours who were coming out to see what the commotion was. Dressing gowns of all shades were being tied and adjusted and the hum of the inquisitive throng grew.
WPC Millington raised her hands and gestured to keep the noise down. She was having limited success when the loud hailer spoke out, “IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU ALL REMAIN QUIET!” The six who had heard the growl shrank behind the car, and upon seeing this, loudhailer PC looked guilty and mouthed an apology to them. The crowd fell remarkably quiet for quite a few seconds but eventually curiosity took over and people began asking, though in hushed tones, what was happening.
PC Percy and WPC Millington found the most senior officer present and they sat in one of the police cars to explain the known facts.
A few moments later they all emerged and the three seemed to have clear duties to perform. The senior officer began instructing officers to move people back and form a cordon, WPC Millington was radioing HQ to ascertain who should be called to deal with a potentially dangerous animal and PC Percy took Rob, Nicola, Maeve and Martin to one side and began to quiz them on all the facts running up to the present.
It was during this gentle rearrangement that the whole crowd got its first listen to the sound of the beast. The long, guttural, resonant growl filled the night air and made all other sounds stop. Neighbours who had been protesting at being moved back were now backing away willingly. Officers were checking on their batons and WPC Millington’s tone on the radio became more urgent.
With the crowd now split between those 'up' the street behind two police cars and those 'down' the street behind another two police cars, the senior officer strode over to the car by the gate and gestured for WPC Millington and PC Percy to join him.
“Have we got expert assistance on its way?” He barked.
“Yes sir!” Answered WPC Millington.
After nodding his approval he continued, “Have we any more idea what we might be dealing with here?”
“No sir!” Replied PC Percy, and referring to his notebook, continued, “There was a clattering of empty bitumen tins at around 2:15 hours followed by repeat clattering’s at about 2:17 and 2:18. The male householder residing at number 45 and going by the name of Mr Martin Podmore phoned the station at approximately 2:18 hours upon hearing, 'a weird growling and grunting from the side alley of next door...'”
“Yes, yes, very good Percy, but has anyone actually seen the...beast?”
“No sir!”
The senior officer took out his torch and his baton and began his way along the path towards the alley. He was almost tip-toeing along, baton raised in his right hand and torch scanning the darkness from his left. He got to the point where the torch was beginning to cast some light onto the wheelie bin when the growl came again. He was back at the car before the growl subsided, and after a moment to compose himself stated, “We should wait for the experts to arrive!”
“Yes sir, of course sir.” Came the replies.
There came the sound of a diesel engine and some commotion from one of the crowd cordons. One of the police cars was moved to allow a tiger striped land rover through, which continued up the road and pulled up by the three officers at the gate.
If they were expecting a rugged, safari suited big game hunter with an elephant gun, they were to be disappointed. From the driver’s side struggled a short balding man wearing a gillet in the colours of, and bearing the logo of, the local zoo. He was having a great deal of trouble with his glasses and gave the impression of a man dragged out of bed far too early. From the other side sloped a skinny teenager with acne and a similar, but not nearly so worn zoo gillet.
“Where's this tiger then?” Asked the older man without giving any hint of believing that there was one.
“We have not ascertained the species of...or indeed the nature of....the... err beast in question.” Was the senior officer’s reply. He was desperate to find a better word than beast, but it eluded him.
“Right.” Continued the zoo man, “Well, we have no reports of missing animals, my name is Croft by the way, we have someone checking the zoo as we speak, errm Bill Croft that is, head keeper at City Zoo and this is my son err my assistant David, it would be very strange if it was a ti....”
The growl came again and everyone stopped, cowered slightly and listened. It lingered on for around ten seconds this time and then there was a snort and it stopped. Bill Croft considered what he had heard for some moments. Everyone was hanging on his words as he declared, “Never heard anything like that before....big, I think! ....Sounds big!”
The crowd seemed to worry at this and Sergeant Harris responded, “But it probably just sounds big because of...the night? Sound carries more at night? Doesn't it Millington?”
“Yes sir, it does.”
“What er - what's the layout round there?” Asked the zoo man. PC Percy hurried off to fetch Rob and he talked through the arrangement of walls, gates and bins at the side of his house.
“OK!” Said the zoo man. He was clearly enjoying being the centre of attention and played up to it, “We're going in!” He grabbed a net, a powerful lamp and a dart gun from the back of the land rover. “We're going to need some help though.” He directed towards Sergeant Harris in a more subdued tone.
Some minutes later WPC Millington and PC Percy were holding the net across the alley while Bill Croft crouched in the garden with the dart gun and David and Rob went in the front door and made their way up to the window that over looked the side of the house.
The side window opened and David peered out. He shone the lamp and began scanning the alley below. The growl came again and was accompanied by the clatter of tins. Everyone braced themselves, especially WPC Millington, PC Percy and Bill Croft. The lamp beam continued to scan for its target as the growling stopped and was replaced by other sounds that weren't nearly so loud or resonant. There was a first hint of movement in the alley and everyone held their breath. It was large, around six feet tall, it lurched towards the net and it began to take form in the light. It was mainly white with some black markings maybe. The sounds it made now were more of a supernatural moan. Presently it reached the net and began flailing, there was a clap as Bill Croft shot at it with a tranquilising dart but missed. The beast flailed some more and the net was wrapped round it to try to contain it. Bill frantically tried to reload the dart rifle. The beast continued to flail and moan, then a woman from the upper crowd forced her way through and marched up to where the beast lay, indistinguishable inside the net.
“That's my Justin that is! He must have got the wrong house. He's only been back from Uni for a day, been out with his mates...” The net was peeled off and sure enough there lay a drunken student with a sign hung round his neck saying 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUSTIN'.
Sergeant Harris was the first to articulate what everyone was thinking, “But...the growling?”
David and Rob were back outside now and the assistant zoo man went to the alley and grabbed a bitumen tin. He put his head in it and made a snoring noise. Many people automatically recoiled at the growl until they realised what had caused it. Then everyone, without exception, burst into relieved sighs and smiles.
A sixth police car worked its way through the large crowd and pulled up behind the tiger striped land rover. Out stepped the local police commissioner and surveyed the scene. He took in the large crowd, the five police cars, eleven police officers, the land rover and two zoo men, the rifle, the net and the one drunken student with a sign round his neck, and beckoned to his Sergeant, “Harris, a word please!”
The End
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