Page 33 of Rescued Dreams

The teacher up front turned into the library. “According to the student’s friends, they climb into the ceiling from the top of this stack.” She stopped in the corner and pointed up at the ceiling, where a square panel had been slightly dislodged. “He had a math test and didn’t want to take it, so he snuck up there. One of the kids climbed up when he showed us, but he couldn’t get Ernie to respond.”

And no one had been able to get him back down.

“He didn’t answer? You’re sure he’s up there?”

Principal Wallace nodded. “The student saw him.”

Amelia was used to hearing a story more than once. If the details didn’t change in a way that aroused suspicion, they didn’t need the police. Assuming nothing criminal had occurred.

“Patterson, care to do the honors?” Ridge glanced around.

Amelia spotted a shoe print on the shelf about waist height, where the child had climbed up.

“I’ll give you a boost.” Ridge laced his gloved fingers together and held his hands out.

Amelia set her axe on top of the bookshelf. She grabbed Ridge’s shoulder and spotted Della and Izan entering the library, followed by a few kids. Amelia put her boot in Ridge’s hands and grasped the top shelf.

He lifted her up, and she wedged herself to sit up there by her axe.

Amelia pushed the panel aside and wiggled over to stick her head through the opening. “You said his name is Ernie Halstead?”

The principal nodded.

Ridge said, “Did you call his parents in?”

Amelia clicked on her helmet light and lifted up on her knees while Ridge took care of the particulars. She looked around in the ceiling and spotted a form. Clothing and the color of skin. He’d crawled pretty far through.

She scanned the area. They might need to go up a different panel, from another classroom. They could lower the kid down near where he lay now if they accessed from the other side of him.

She heard the teacher say, “His mother is an accountant across town. Her office said she’s out at a meeting, but they’re going to track her down. I wasn’t getting an answer on her cell phone. Mr. Halstead is an anesthesiologist. He’s in surgery and will be here as soon as he’s finished.”

Amelia got her elbows through the opening. “Ernie? I’m Amelia. I’m a firefighter. Can you hear me?”

The kid didn’t respond or move.

She spotted a flash of skin that had to be his forehead. Clammy, dotted with sweat. Knowing Ridge would hear her over the comms, she said, “We’ll need the med kit, but I wanna get him down where he’s at. Which might be the next room.”

“I’ll call for the ambulance,” Izan said.

Ridge continued talking in her ear. “You see him?”

“He’s unconscious.” Amelia knelt on the top of the bookshelf, her upper body through the opening.

She looked around so her helmet lights lit up the space between the drop ceiling and the roof. Barely three feet above her, a lattice of triangular openings in the beams spread a couple of feet apart presented a problem.

Amelia wiggled off her jacket and dropped it back through the opening.

She moved from the first beam to the next. Each beam stretched in front of her from left to right, trusses that held up the ceiling. Her turnout pants snagged on a metal plate with screws, depositing some of the material behind her.

“Ernie?” Amelia grabbed a truss with both hands and used the wood beams to brace her as she wiggled over a ceiling tile that definitely wouldn’t hold her weight.

The student didn’t move.

She wormed her way closer to him. “It’s hot up here,” she said in the comms channel. “We’re going to have to get him out before we can give him medical attention. He might be over the next classroom.”

She’d climbed up here close to the corner of the library. Now she was several feet beyond that wall. What was the next room? “Lieutenant?”

Ridge responded, “We’re in the next room. Knock on a tile.”