Departures: Seven Stories from Heathrow

There was silence in the room.

Somewhere in the distance there was the clop-clop sound of horses’ hooves.

And then the man erupted.

‘Dead?’ he said, and the young woman physically recoiled at the word. ‘The dog – the dog is dead? Is that what you’re telling us, buddy? That the dog is actually dead?’

‘Yes.’ Tim half-shook his head. ‘Believe me, I know that this is distressing and shocking news . . .’

The man slumped back in his chair and stared up at Tim in disbelief. The young woman’s mouth was open and she seemed to be struggling to breathe.

‘You killed the dog,’ the man said. ‘You killed the dog!’

‘Finn,’ the young woman said, the sudden flash of anger choked with tears that welled just below the surface. ‘His name is – was – Finn. Please stop calling him the dog.’

The man was suddenly calm.

‘I’m going to sue you, little man,’ he said, jabbing a finger at Tim. ‘And I am going to sue the airline. And then I am going to sue everybody else. But first – I’m going to sue the damn airline. They flew him across with the cargo, right?’ the man demanded. ‘Checked him in with the damn cargo as if he was a bag of golf clubs.’

‘It is not the fault of the airline,’ Tim said. ‘They have strict rules about heating, lighting and ventilation for transporting dogs. And they follow them rigorously. That’s not the reason why Finn is dead.’

‘Who’s your boss?’ the man said. ‘I want to talk to your boss. I’m going to sue him too. Who is the man that runs this joint?’

‘That would be me,’ Tim said.

‘What are you, exactly?’ the man said.

‘I’m an Animal Health Inspector,’ Tim said.

The man laughed harshly.

‘Let me tell you, buddy – you’re doing a lousy job.’

Tim saw that the blue eyes were upon him.

‘Then, if the airlines are so careful, why did Finn die?’ she said.

Tim saw two things at once. That she was English, despite the mild, mid-Atlantic drawl that had been grafted on top. And that she was holding something.

A worn old dog lead with a silver name-tag. It moved through her long fingers like a rosary.

Tim sat down beside her so that she was now between him and the man. Tim could no longer see the man, only hear him. He appeared to be having a chat with himself.

‘I don’t believe this,’ the man was saying. ‘She loved that damn mutt.’

‘We get one hundred animals pass through here every day,’ Tim told her quietly. He wanted her to understand. He needed her to know. ‘Every animal that you can think of, and plenty you can’t. Racehorses and cheetahs and Komodo dragons. Poisonous scorpions and domestic pets. Animals that are shipped in and animals that are smuggled in and animals that hide in someone’s suitcase or in a crate of fruit. Ten thousand dogs a year. Six thousand cats. Ferrets . . .’ He paused, unsure of the latest statistics on ferrets. Then he ploughed on. ‘Ferrets galore. Thirty-five million fish. We accept every animal. And this – this now – this with you – what we are doing now – this is the absolute worst part of my job.’

The young woman nodded. ‘Okay,’ she said. Her face did look familiar. He thought perhaps he had seen it once in a dream. ‘But what happened to Finn?’

‘Finn was too heavily sedated,’ Tim said. ‘I’m sure that the vet who sedated him was trying to be kind – trying to spare Finn some of the distress of being transported from Los Angeles to London. But the cargo hold of an aircraft is pressurized at nine thousand feet and what would be a normal dose on land has three times the effect in the air – just as a glass of wine hits you harder on a plane than it does on the ground. It put too great a strain on his heart.’

The man stood up. He was jabbing angrily at some palm-held device and muttering something about a lawyer who was going to enjoy burying a loser like Tim.

‘That’s it?’ the young woman said. ‘Just that? It seems – I don’t know – such a banal reason for Finn to die.’

‘I’ve seen the handling report from the airline,’ Tim said. ‘I’ve checked the travelling container. And I’ve looked at all the paperwork. Your dog – Finn – was compliant with the pet travel scheme. He was up to date on all his shots, all of that . . .’ He looked down at the lead with the silver name-tag. He was not certain that he could look at the blue eyes for much longer. ‘You are – if I may say – clearly a loving and responsible owner. And this is a tragedy.’ He looked at the eyes for what he thought might be the last time. ‘But it’s not a mystery,’ he said. ‘The vet in LA over-sedated . . . Finn.’

The young woman was thinking.

‘Where is he now?’ she said.

‘The vet?’ the man said. ‘Probably on the golf course. I’m going to sue him, too.’