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‘What goes around comes around, Cass.’
‘Thank you. For today.’
He nodded. ‘Do it again tomorrow?’
‘No. You spend tomorrow with Ellie, and I’ll come here. I feel better about things, seeing how much difference we’ve made today.’
‘All right.’ Jack would have a quiet word with Martin and make sure that Cass wasn’t alone tomorrow. And maybe she was right. He’d asked for one day and she’d given it, and maybe that was enough for now.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THE WEEK HAD seen them slip back into their easy routine. Jack had been looking forward to the weekend, wondering if perhaps Cass might be persuaded to take some time off from her work at the house, for an outing with him and Ellie. And then, suddenly, nothing else existed. The phone call on Friday afternoon, from a parent of one of the kids from Ellie’s class, drove everything else from his head. Just the need to drive, to be there.
He could hear sirens in the distance, and he willed them on. Jack knew they were probably going in the same direction as he was, and if he couldn’t reach Ellie then someone had to. Anyone.
He took the turn into the small side road that led to the school and slammed on the brakes, narrowly avoiding a fire engine that was parked up ahead. Getting out of the car, he ran, not stopping to even close the driver’s door, let alone lock it.
‘Jack...Jack!’ He heard a woman’s voice and scanned the crowd. ‘Jack!’ The mothe
r of a little boy in Ellie’s reception class ran towards him.
‘Hannah.’ He caught her hand, then put his arm around her. ‘What’s happening?’
‘All the other kids are out. But the annexe...’ Hannah’s chest started to heave and Jack willed her to stay calm.
‘Sarah told me that part of the building had collapsed.’ Ethan had stayed home today with a bad cold, but Jack had dropped Ellie off at school this morning.
‘Yes. The ground’s so wet... The kids’ classroom looks okay from the outside, but they’re still in there.’
‘Okay. Hannah, they’ll get to them. The firefighters are trained for this; they know exactly what to do...’ Jack wasn’t sure whether he was trying to reassure Hannah or himself.
Stop. Look around. Assess the situation, then act. His own training came to the fore and Jack swallowed down his panic, the overwhelming need to have Ellie safe in his arms.
A pattern emerged from the chaos. A line of older children were leaving the main entrance of the school, shepherded by their teachers towards the sports field, which was some way from the building. There, children were being counted and checked, while a small group of parents waited anxiously.
He took Hannah’s hand, walking swiftly around the back of the building, trying to control the feeling that he just needed to sweep everything in front of him away and find Ellie. What had once been the school hall was now a pile of rubble and the two-storey annexe beyond it, which housed the reception classroom, was completely cut off.
‘They got the class on the ground floor out through the windows.’ Hannah was hiccupping the words out through her tears. ‘But Jamie and Ellie were upstairs. I saw her in the window, Jack.’
Jack looked up at the window, his heart leaping as he saw a small figure, climbing up on to the low, wide sill. Ellie. She was waving her hands above her head and seemed to be shouting.
‘Ellie...’ He roared her name, but in the general activity she didn’t hear. ‘Ellie!’
Someone held him back and he struggled free. The firefighters already had ladders up at the windows, and one of them climbed up. Jack saw Ellie walk along the windowsill towards him, reaching through the safety bars to press her hands against the glass.
They seemed to be talking. The firefighter called for quiet and a hush fell on the people below.
‘Good girl. We saw you. Get down from the window now, sweetie, and stand over there.’ The firefighter pointed into the classroom and Ellie obeyed him.
‘Good girl. That’s my good girl.’ Jack sent the whispered words up into the air, wondering if Ellie knew he was here for her. Praying that she did.
‘Why don’t they just break the windows?’ Hannah had her eyes fixed on the huge picture windows, which looked out on to the rolling countryside beyond.
‘Windows that size...if they break them they might hurt the kids.’ Jack shivered as he thought of shards of glass raining down on Ellie’s head.
‘Where’s the teacher...?’
Good question. The thought of fifteen four-and five-year-olds alone up there made his blood run cold.
