Fear was a storm under his skin, an unceasing list of catastrophic what-ifs in his mind. Luke wanted to force Jamie’s intentions out of Amanda. He stood up and approached her, his hands blunted into fists.
‘Fire engines?’ he demanded.
A frightened look from Jenna worked its way past his fury and stopped him in his tracks.
‘Is Jamie headed over to my house?’
Amanda simply smiled.
‘Fuck. Nathan’s off school today. Anything happens to him and I’ll—’
‘He’s not at school?’ Amanda asked. Then her face fell as Luke’s increased state of agitation provided her with an answer. ‘We didn’t…’
‘Didn’t what?’
Amanda’s arms were wide in supplication. Her face long, and eyes contrite.
‘God.’ Amanda jumped to her feet. ‘The boy’s at school, no?’
‘What’s happening, Amanda?’ Luke demanded. ‘What’s Jamie up to?’
‘I’ll phone him,’ she said, looking around. ‘Shit. Where’s my phone?’
‘Fire engines,’ Luke said. ‘You mentioned fire engines. Why?’
‘Shit,’ Amanda said as she pushed past Luke and moved into the kitchen. ‘How long have you been here?’ she asked as she plucked her phone from the work surface.
‘About thirty minutes or so,’ Jenna said as she followed Amanda and Luke. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Is that long enough to get from here to yours?’ Amanda asked Luke, her face white with concern.
With a lead weight in his gut and shortening breath Luke worked out what Amanda was getting at. He pushed his hands under his arms and held them tight as she dialled Jamie and waited.
Then. The unmistakeable sound of a phone ringing somewhere in the house. It was faint, but it had clearly started when Amanda dialled the number. She followed the sound, Luke and Jenna behind her. It sounded stronger in the conservatory. It was coming from just outside the window.
‘Shit,’ Amanda said.
‘What?’ Luke demanded. ‘What?’
Without answering, Amanda exited the conservatory, took a left, and there under the window was Jamie’s phone.
‘He must have doubled back,’ Amanda said.
‘What do you mean?’ Luke asked.
Jenna wore a look of sharp comprehension. ‘He must have been squatting behind that wall, listening to everything we said.’ She looked up at the open window.
Amanda’s open mouth was all Luke needed for his anxiety to soar. ‘You have to stop him,’ she said.
Luke ran from the house, followed by a wordless Jenna and they jumped in the car. Even before she had her seatbelt fastened Luke pulled away from the kerb. Ignoring the screech of brakes and blasts of a horn as a car nearly crashed into the back of them, Luke pushed his foot down on the accelerator. The light at the end of the street was about to change. He drove straight through.
‘Luke,’ Jenna admonished a little breathlessly. ‘If we crash we’re not going to be of help to anyone.’
‘There,’ he said gesturing towards his phone that was sitting in a compartment above the gear stick. ‘Phone Ken for me.’
He was now behind a black estate car. It was being driven exactly at the speed limit.
‘For Chrissakes,’ Luke shouted. Beeped his horn. Drove as close to the car as he could. ‘Move,’ he shouted. The road ahead was suddenly clear. No oncoming traffic. Luke overtook, the owner flashing his lights in annoyance. Two hundred yards ahead, another set of lights were changing.
Amber.
He sped up.
Red.
He had to jump on his brakes, and with them screaming in protest and his forehead inches away from the windscreen, he managed to stop at the crossing, where an old woman paused in her journey across to shoot him the finger, while mouthing, ‘Arsehole.’
‘Luke,’ Jenna shouted. Her voice broke through the panic of his thoughts. ‘We can’t help Nathan if we crash the car.’
‘Jesus.’ Luke drummed on the steering wheel as he waited for the lights to change. A little of Jenna’s good sense leaked through to him. He took a breath. The light changed. He took off. Turned right, but was forced to slow down by the sheer volume of traffic he was now in the middle of.
He looked at the clock on the dashboard: 11:45. Just before lunch break. Workers and the city’s schoolkids would be at their stations. That might mean the motorway would be relatively quiet.
‘Phone Ken for me will you?’ he repeated, and told her his passcode.
She keyed it in, found Ken’s name under contacts and dialled.
It rang out unanswered, then switched to his answering service.
‘Ken’s a nightmare with his mobile,’ Luke said. ‘Try again.’
She did. With the same result.
‘Shit.’
‘Try the motorway?’ Jenna asked. ‘Might be better at this time of day?’
‘Just what I was thinking.’ Luke studied the road ahead. If he turned at the next lights, just a hundred yards beyond that was a ramp down onto the M8, the main arterial route that sliced across the city.
Just minutes later they were on the motorway, and Luke felt his hopes lift as he put his foot down and felt the car respond. They were now only about fifteen minutes away from his house and coasting at fifty miles an hour. The exit he had been aiming for appeared ahead. Soon he was off the motorway and moving closer to home.
Another ten minutes, his forehead almost pressed against the windscreen in his willingness to get home, and with his heart about to burst out of his chest with worry, he turned the corner into the top of his street.
His worst fears were all but confirmed. There was a wall of flashing lights. A fire engine, a pair of ambulances and a couple of police cars all added to the visual din. A police car was parked across the street to stop passage through the area where the emergency services vehicles were working.
Luke jumped on his brakes and flew out of the car.
‘Move your car.’ A policeman approached him. Stern. Pointing. ‘You’re causing an obstruction.’
‘That’s my…’ Luke said, fighting to be heard above the clamour, fear stealing any volume from his voice. ‘My house.’
‘I won’t tell you again, sir. Emergency vehicles need access. You have to move.’ The officer moved closer to Luke.
‘You’re not hearing me, man,’ Luke attempted again, as he tried to move past the policeman.
‘Luke.’ Jenna was in his ear. ‘Give me your keys. I’ll move the car.’
A fresh blare of noise, and an ambulance with its lights churning left the throng and moved towards them. The driver pressed down hard on his horn, his mouth moving fast, his intent and frustration clear.
‘Luke. Your keys,’ Jenna insisted.
‘Who’s in that ambulance? Officer – who’s in that ambulance?’
‘If you don’t move your car and let this ambulance out this second I’m going to have to arrest you.’
‘Luke,’ Jenna shouted, then reached for his hand. Dumbfounded, Luke glanced down. His car keys. The weight of them. How did they…?
Jenna plucked them out of his grip, ran to the car and reversed it out of the way.
The ambulance scorched past them.
Luke’s anxiety made him unable to sequence events. All he could think about was the ambulance leaving quickly; it could only mean whoever was inside was in a bad way.
‘Nathan,’ he shouted into the distance.
Faces surrounded him. Mouths moving.
Maybe it wasn’t Nathan inside that ambulance. He turned back to the throng of vehicles around his house and made to move towards it. Hope stirred in him that his son was fine. He’s being attended to right now by some friendly ambulance technician, charming the last pound coin out of him. Surely?
Anything else was unthinkable.
‘I need to…’ he said to the officer.
Jenna reached them. ‘It’s his house,’ she shouted. ‘His son.’
The officer’s demeanour changed instantly. ‘Right,’ he said. ‘Why didn’t you say so? Come with me.’
In his urgency Luke didn’t hear what the man said, he simply read the change in body language and ran past him towards the house, his pulse thundering in his ears, his breath ragged, and his eyes searching for any sight of his little boy.
A pair of firemen were holding a hose and aiming it at his roof. Another pair were aiming their hose at his front door. He saw more smoke than flames, and part of his mind filed that away as a good sign. But where was Nathan? The house could burn to the ground for all he cared, as long as his boy was alive and well.
The policeman caught up with him. ‘Sir,’ he said, and the seriousness of his expression almost whipped the strength from Luke’s thighs. ‘Your boy’s safe. If you just come with me.’
Luke opened his mouth, but nothing came out other than a squeak of worry. He coughed. Once. Twice. ‘He’s safe?’ he asked, struggling to breathe.
Jenna had caught up with him. She reached out and gripped his arm. ‘He’s trying to tell you, Luke. Nathan’s safe.’
The cop nodded at Jenna and then turned to Luke. ‘The ambulance just here…’
‘He’s in an ambulance?’
‘And he’s absolutely fine. A wee bit shaken, but he’s a right wee trooper. If you just…’
Luke moved towards the ambulance.
‘Nathan,’ Luke shouted as he ran.
‘Daddy?’ came the high-pitched query.
‘Nathan?’
The front door of the ambulance opened, and a little body jumped out and into Luke’s arms.
‘Oh my God,’ Luke said, faint with relief. ‘You’re okay?’ He held Nathan out from his body, searching for any sign of damage, and apart from a dirty face, there was none. He pulled the boy back into a hug.
‘I’m never letting you out of my sight ever again.’
After a moment, Nathan kicked his legs a little in protest. ‘Daddy, I can’t breathe.’
‘Sorry, buddy.’ Luke relaxed his grip, and pressed his lips against the warm square of the boy’s forehead.
‘Daddy, Jamie saved us. He kicked the door down and saved us. And he saved Tritops.’
Tritops was Nathan’s favourite dinosaur.
‘Jamie saved Tritops as well?’
‘Yes, he was very brave.’ Nathan nodded his head slowly to emphasise just how brave he thought Jamie was.
Luke didn’t have the heart to voice his certainty that Jamie had set the fire in the first place. But what made him spring into action and try to save everybody afterwards? Did he think the house was empty, and then see some movement?
A paramedic came over to them. ‘He’s a wee star,’ the man in green said. ‘I’ve just been showing him how the lights flash.’
‘Oh aye?’ Luke looked around himself, remembering an ambulance had just sped off. ‘Ken. My friend Ken was with him. Is he…?’
‘He’s in the back of this one,’ the medic said. ‘We’re just patching him up. Then we’ll take him to the hospital for further tests, but he should be fine. C’mon and I’ll take you to him. But you should know your other friend is in a bad way. Smoke inhalation.’
‘Other friend?’ Jenna asked.
‘He got the boy out, then he ran back into the building to help Ken here, but he collapsed.’ His expression was grave. ‘He’s in the ambulance that took off earlier.’
The paramedic led them to the back of the ambulance and opened the door. Inside he saw Ken sitting up on a gurney, bandages over his hands. His face was smeared with smoke and ash, the skin around his eyes was red with inflammation, and the eyes themselves were dull with pain.
‘Hey man.’ Luke put a hand on his shoulder. ‘How you feeling?’
‘Been worse,’ Ken replied in a croak.
‘What the hell happened?’
‘Not sure,’ Ken said. He paused, slightly breathless. ‘We were upstairs in the wee man’s room, having a nap. Something woke me up. There was a crash at the door, and I smelt burning. I went out into the hall and saw all these flames. It was fucking scary, man. So I got a bath towel, soaked it, and covered Nathan. And that was enough time for the fire to grow even stronger. The smoke.’ Ken shook his head. ‘Never seen so much smoke. I couldn’t see a bloody thing. Got completely disorientated.’ He swallowed, and judging by his expression it was painful. ‘But your man, Jamie, burst through, ran up the stairs and helped us both outside. Nathan was going on about his dinosaurs melting so Jamie went back in.’
‘He did?’ Jenna asked in disbelief.
‘I know. Nutter, but he said if Nathan wanted his dinosaurs then he’d get them for him. From what I saw he barely made it back out alive.’
‘Aye, the medic just told me he’s in a bad way.’
Something in Luke’s voice made Ken study his friend’s eyes. ‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’
‘It’s a bit of a coincidence that he’s there when my house goes up in flames, eh?’
‘Nathan told me he saw your friend Jamie from the window while I was sleeping,’ Ken replied.
‘Do you think…’ Jenna began ‘…he started it, thinking the house was empty. Then when he saw you two were inside he realised what a mistake he’d made and jumped in to save you.’
‘He set the house on fire, and then he saved our lives,’ Ken said. ‘How do you make sense of that?’
A middle-aged woman approached them, dark suit, black hair pulled back from her face. Her eyes were trained on Luke, and he sensed straight away that she was a cop. He’d seen enough of them in his time to recognise one at twenty paces.
‘Mr Forrest?’ She studied Luke. ‘You’re the owner of the house?’
‘I am,’ he replied.
‘Mind if I have a word in private?’
‘Of course,’ he replied.
Luke asked Nathan to stay with Jenna and Ken for a moment, and the woman guided him a few feet away from the ambulance.
‘You okay?’ she asked, her human face showing briefly.
‘A bit shocked,’ Luke answered. ‘But Nathan’s alive and well, and that’s all that really matters.’
‘Absolutely,’ she agreed, then, as if an internal switch had been applied she was back in police mode. ‘The chief fire officer says that early indications show the fire was started deliberately. Do you have any idea who would want to set your house on fire?’
Luke nodded grimly, crossed his arms, set his eyes in the direction the other ambulance had sped off in, thought about Jamie trying to atone for his mistake, causing himself serious damage in the process, and he prayed, despite everything, that the young man would survive.