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‘Whereabouts? Down by my place?’
‘Yes... Yes, that’s right.’
‘Okay, I’ll check that out.’
‘I’m coming...’ Laura grabbed hold of Cass’s jacket.
‘I need you to stay here so that we can bring him straight back to you when we find him. Join the group that’s searching the church buildings and keep your phone with you so I can call you. All right?’
Laura nodded. Jack knew that Cass was keeping her away from the river, and the reason didn’t bear thinking about.
‘Let go of me, then...’ Cass gently loosened Laura’s fingers from her jacket and turned, leaving her with Martin. Her face set suddenly in a mask of determination as she faced Jack.
‘I’ll get my bag...’ The heavy bag would slow him up but he might need it.
‘Thanks. If you give it to Chris, he’ll stay here with the car. He can get whatever we need down to us quickly.’
‘Okay. Makes sense.’
Jack fetched his bag and handed it over to a man standing by an SUV which was parked outside the church hall. Then he joined Cass’s group and they set off, moving quickly through the village and down the hill.
They passed the spot where the bridge had been washed away yesterday, and Cass stopped to scan the water. ‘I can’t see anything...’ She stiffened suddenly and pointed to a flash of blue and red in the branches of a partially submerged tree. The wind caught it and it flapped. Just a torn piece of plastic.
‘Where is he?’
The exclamation was all she allowed herself in the way of emotion. After surveying the river carefully, she started to walk again. They scaled a rocky outcrop which afforded a view across the land beyond it.
Nothing. Jack strained his eyes to see some sign of the boy. The house ahead of them must be Cass’s, stone-built and solid-looking, the extension at the back blending so well with the stonework at the front that it would be difficult to say for sure that it was modern if he didn’t already know. He hoped that Ben hadn’t got in there; the river had broken its banks and the place was surrounded by water.
‘Ben...’ Cass filled her lungs and shouted again. ‘Ben!’
She stilled suddenly, holding her hand out for quiet. Nothing. Just the relentless sound of the rain. Then she suddenly grabbed Jack’s arm. ‘Can you see something? Down there?’
Jack squinted
into the rain but all he could see was the swollen river, flanked on this side by twenty feet of muddy land. The river must have flooded up across it in the night and receded slightly this morning because he recognised part of the bridge sticking out of the quagmire.
She pulled a pair of binoculars from inside her coat and trained them down on to the mud. Then her breath caught. ‘Got him. He’s down by that bit of bridge. He’s covered in mud and it looks as if he’s up to his waist in it.’ She lowered the binoculars, feeling in her pocket. Jack squinted at the place she’d indicated and thought he saw movement.
Cass handed a set of keys to one of the other men in the group. ‘Joe, I’ve got a ladder in my garage and a couple of tarps. Can you guys go and find them, please?’
‘Okay. Anything else?’
‘Yeah, just pump out the water and clear up a bit while you’re there.’ A small twist of her lips and that wry joke was all she allowed herself in the way of regret.
She was off before Jack could say anything to her, scrambling down the other side of the ridge. The four men with them headed towards the house and Jack followed Cass, getting to the bottom before she did and catching her arm when she slipped in the mud.
‘Careful...’
‘Yeah, thanks.’ One moment. There was no time to tell her that he was sorry to see her house flooded, and no time for Cass to respond. But her brief smile told him that she knew and she’d deal with it later. Jack resolved to be there when she got around to doing that.
They set off, jogging towards Ben. Jack could see him now, covered in mud, sunk up to his waist, right next to the remains of the bridge. And, huddled next to him, wet through and perched on one of the stones, was a small black and white dog.
‘He must have seen the dog and tried to get out there to fetch him.’ Jack supposed that Scruffy was light enough to scamper across the mud, but the boy had sunk when he’d tried to follow him.
‘Yeah. Wonder how close we can get.’
Jack had been wondering that himself. It was likely that the ground all around Ben was completely waterlogged.
