Page 32

THIRTY-ONE

TUESDAY 4 FEbrUARY

Kate jumps out of bed, shoves her phone in her pyjama pocket and races to the bedroom door. The hallway is clogged with smoke, but shielding her face, she makes her way through it to Thomas’s room, screaming his name.

‘What’s happening?’ he asks, drowsy from sleep. And then he realises and jumps up.

‘Hurry, Thomas! Come with me!’

He’s screaming at her, trying to resist her hold, but she’s still stronger than him and manages to drag him back to her room. He tries to rush to the door, screaming, but she can’t make out any words; the roar of the fire is too loud. He’s trying to get out of the room. Panicking. And then she realises that Lula must have been in his room, where their cat always sleeps curled up on Thomas’s bed.

‘Thomas, I’m so sorry – we can’t go back to your room – we need to get out of here right now!’ They have only moments before the upstairs is consumed in flames.

He stares at her, horror in his huge eyes, frozen. ‘Come on,’ she says, pulling her duvet from the bed. ‘Do you think you can grab hold of this and use it to climb down onto the kitchen roof? I’ll hold it so you don’t fall. You have to trust me, okay?’

Thomas gives a barely detectable nod, but still doesn’t move.

‘Quick,’ Kate says, pushing him towards the window in the en suite. She closes the bathroom door.

Kate helps Thomas climb out, then she follows him through the window, dragging the duvet behind her. She dangles it down from the kitchen roof, leaning over so it’s as close to the ground as she can get it. ‘You need to hold onto this,’ Kate explains.

Her son stares blankly.

‘Thomas – listen! We need to hurry. Grab onto this and climb down.’

Finally he moves towards the edge of the roof, but Kate can tell he’s in shock. She helps him over the side and watches as he climbs down, clinging to the duvet.

‘Don’t let go!’ she shouts. ‘You’re nearly there.’ But she can see the fear and horror on Thomas’s face.

Once he’s safely at the bottom, Kate throws the duvet onto the ground then climbs over the edge, hanging down as far as she can before making the jump to the ground. Her body hits the pavement with a shocking thud; the duvet does little to lessen the impact.

Thomas rushes over to her but doesn’t say anything, he just stares up at the house, consumed with flickering orange flames.

‘Lula might have gone outside,’ Kate assures him. ‘She sometimes likes to go out all night, doesn’t she?’ Kate has to believe this – she can’t bear the thought that Lula is still in there. She calls Lula’s name and scans the garden but there’s no sign of her. Then, as Kate stares up at the house, contemplating whether she could try and look for her, Lula crawls out from the bush at the back of the garden.

Kate rushes over to her and picks her up, handing her to Thomas, who still doesn’t speak. ‘We need to go round the front,’ Kate says, pulling out her phone and calling 999.

Liv Cross, the neighbour across the road rushes over to them and wraps them in blankets. ‘The fire brigade is on the way. I woke up to get some water and saw the fire so called straight away.’

Through spluttered coughs, Kate manages to thank her. Then she turns to Thomas, pulling him towards her. ‘Are you okay?’

He nods. ‘But…but Dex…’

‘Dex? What do you mean?’

Thomas stares at her. ‘He…he ran away. And came here. I let him in. You were in the bath. He said he didn’t want to go home so I said he could stay over. But I didn’t see him in my room just now. He…must have gone to the bathroom.’ Tears stream down his face.

Kate’s stares at her son, then back at the house. ‘He was there tonight? In our house?’

Thomas nods.

‘Oh, Jesus!’ Kate feels in her pyjama pockets for her phone. She calls Harper, watching as flames engulf the house.

‘Why are you calling?’

‘Harper – is Dex with you?’

‘What? Of course he is. What the hell is this?’

‘Go and check on him. Thomas said he ran away and was sleeping in Thomas’s room. But the house is on fire and he couldn’t see Dex anywhere. I managed to escape with Thomas, but he’s saying Dex is in there!’

Harper gasps and Kate hears running footsteps. ‘He’s not in bed!’ Harper screams. ‘He’s in your house! Get my son out of there!’

Kate pushes the phone into Thomas’s hand. ‘Stay on the call with Harper.’ And then she rushes to Liv. ‘Can you wet this blanket for me? It needs to be soaking. Please hurry!’

‘What? Why?’

‘I think Thomas’s friend is in there!’

Liv rushes into her house, returning with the sodden blanket. Kate drapes it over her head, then races towards the house.

‘Mum!’ Thomas screams. ‘No!’

Kate rushes around to the back of the house, and that’s when she sees a figure on the kitchen roof. It’s Dexter, screaming for help. ‘Don’t move! I’m coming.’

Kate checks all the windows and the door, but the downstairs is a furnace of orange flames. There’s no way she’ll be able to get in there. She scans the garden, her eyes fixing on the shed. Rushing towards it, she’s relieved to find it open. She hauls out the ladder and drags it over to the house. She positions it against the wall and climbs up to Dex.

‘I’ll hold the ladder while you get down,’ she says. ‘Go!’

He makes his way down the ladder, as sirens sound in the distance, and Kate follows, knowing that she’ll never forget the look of fear in Dex’s eyes just now.

Back in the street, an ambulance has arrived, as well as the fire engine, and Harper’s car pulls up, stopping right in the middle of the road. She jumps out, running towards Kate and the boys.

‘Dexter!’ she screams, hugging him tightly.

‘I’m sorry, Mum. I’m so sorry for running away.’

‘It doesn’t matter. All that matters is you’re safe. And Thomas.’ Harper kisses the top of his head. ‘Stay here a minute, I just need to talk to Kate.

‘Thank you,’ Harper says. ‘No words are enough. Thomas told me you…you went back to save my son.’

Kate nods, and turns to the paramedic standing near them. ‘Are the boys okay?’

‘We’ll need to get them checked at the hospital, but hopefully neither of them inhaled enough smoked to do any major damage. We’ll just give then a quick check here, though, first.’

‘Okay, thanks.’

Harper pulls her aside as the paramedics check the boys over.

‘You could have died,’ Harper says. ‘But you still went to save my son.’

‘There was no way I was going to let Dex die in there.’

‘You didn’t even know for sure he was in there.’

‘I had to see. I acted on instinct.’

‘I don’t know what to say. I…’

‘Did you do that to my house?’ Kate asks.

‘No!’ Harper protests. ‘I had nothing to do with this. I would never do anything like that.’

Kate shakes her head. ‘And I’m supposed to believe that after everything you’ve done? Tell me the truth, Harper. And all that other stuff.’

‘I would never put your son in danger.’

‘He wasn’t supposed to be there,’ Kate says, her voice almost a whisper.

‘What?’

‘Thomas was meant to be staying with Ellis tonight. I changed my mind at the last minute and went to get him. I was supposed to be alone in the house. Did you know?’

‘How…how would I know that?’

They’re interrupted by the paramedic who’s finished checking the boys. ‘We need to get you all to the hospital now.’

Kate’s relieved to be pulled away from Harper – however she feels about the woman now, she will sort through it once she knows for sure that Thomas is okay.

She’s had no choice but to call Ellis. All of her belongings went up in flames, and all she has on her is her phone and pyjamas. But at least Thomas is okay; tonight could have ended differently. And now Ellis stands beside her in the hospital, hugging them both, clinging on to them as if he’s already lost them. ‘What happened?’ he asks, speaking into her hair. ‘How did the fire start?’

Kate pulls away. ‘I don’t know. But it wasn’t an accident. No way.’

Ellis stares at her, horror scrawled on his face. ‘But…then who would do something like this?’

‘I don’t know. But everything’s gone. All our things. Clothes. There’s nothing left.’

He pulls her closer. ‘Those things don’t matter. You and Thomas are okay – that’s what’s important.’

For now. Someone tried to kill me, and what if they succeed next time?

‘We’ll sort out new things,’ Ellis says. ‘Don’t think about that now. And you’re both coming to stay with me of course. For as long as you need.’

Kate’s already realised this is her only option. ‘It won’t be for long,’ she says. ‘Just until I can sort somewhere for us to rent until the insurance money comes through.’

‘You don’t need to rent somewhere,’ Ellis insists. ‘You and Thomas will stay with me as long as you need. And Lula, of course. You’ve got a home with me, Kate. Always.’

Kate’s too fraught to say any more. ‘Can we just go now?’ she says. ‘We need to get Lula from Liv’s house.’ Kate shudders at the thought of going back to their road, seeing the remains of the house she’d loved so much. All those years of memories also burned to the ground. She turns to Thomas, who’s barely said a word since they got to the hospital. ‘Are you okay?’

He nods, and stares at the shiny white floor.

In the corridor, Harper is waiting, holding two gigantic carrier bags. ‘These are for you,’ she says, handing them to Kate. We’re about the same size and you’ll need some clothes.’ She looks down at the slippers Kate’s wearing, offered to her by Liv. ‘There are shoes in there too. And some of Dexter’s school uniform for Thomas.’

Kate stares at the bags, her body unable to move, to take anything from this woman.

‘Thanks,’ Ellis says, reaching for them.

Harper nods and turns away, heading back to where Dexter is waiting for her. Kate resists the urge to go after her, to question her again about the fire.

‘Come on,’ Ellis says, watching Harper walk away. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

With sinking dread in the pit of her stomach, Kate takes Thomas’s arm and they head outside.

They get in the car and when she turns to watch Ellis climb in, she sees that he’s smiling.