A Place of Safety

Lilly spluttered. ‘Definitely not.’

‘What then?’

Lilly pretended to appraise him with an earnest eye. ‘Fly fishing?’

‘Go on with you, woman,’ he said, pushing her away with one hand and pulling her back with the other. ‘I’m too sporty for that.’

‘Sporty?’

Jack flexed a non-existent bicep. ‘Pure muscle.’

‘From lifting pints,’ said Lilly.

She was about to make another remark when she again caught sight of the couple in overalls. They had stopped about one hundred metres away and were deep in conversation, heads bent together. Their hair was the same dark chestnut, thick and shiny, dancing in the wind. Suddenly the man pulled the woman into his arms. Not like lovers, but proprietorial, like a father with his daughter. Or a brother and his younger sister. He embraced her tightly, as if he were holding the pieces of her together. In turn she surrendered to him, wishing to be engulfed.

When the woman turned her head to the side, Lilly saw she was very young, very beautiful, and very, very frightened.

Jack felt the electric current of tension ride through Lilly’s body.

‘Are you okay?’

‘I don’t know,’ she said.

He followed her eye-line to a couple of teenagers moving towards them. The girl was striking, with creamy skin and almond-shaped eyes. He noticed the boy too, his face grabbing Jack’s attention with its complete lack of expression.

‘Do you know them?’ he asked.

Lilly nodded. ‘From the hostel.’

‘What are they doing here?’

‘I don’t know.’

But she did know.

Maybe they had got a job at the school? It made sense, didn’t it? They lived nearby and anyone could cut grass, sweep up leaves.

‘She swallowed her alarm and waved in their direction. Artan.’

He didn’t look up, but whispered something to the girl and kissed her cheek. Then he strode off, not towards Lilly but over to the group of noisy boarders. The girl stumbled after him.

Jack looked from Lilly to the couple and back again.

‘Speak to me, Lilly. What’s going on?’

She looked into his eyes, her own shining with fear. ‘Something very bad.’

They ran towards the couple until they were almost upon them. Only then did Lilly see the gun.

The shot rang out, incongrously clear in the graphite sky.

Jack quickly assessed the situation. The girl had a gun, which she held out at arm’s length, both hands shaking around the handle. The boy held his above his head and whirled around, trying to regain his footing from the recoil of the gun and the panic that had clearly grabbed him. A kid was down. One of the boarders.

Someone screamed, then someone else, and soon the air was teeming with the horrified cries of parents surging from the sidelines towards their boys.

‘Stop,’ the boy screamed, but they ignored him and swarmed forward.

The boy pointed his weapon towards them. ‘Stop.’

‘Everyone stay still,’ Jack shouted.

One of the dads reached out to his son, caked in mud and weeping.

‘I said be still. Now.’

Everyone froze. Silence fell, punctuated only by the muffled sobs of the injured boy.

Jack opened his arms, his palms to the sky, and approached the girl.

‘I’m the police,’ he said. ‘Put down the gun.’

She panted hard. Her body convulsed. Her arms could barely hold up the gun, yet she kept it trained on a boy in the crowd. His eyes were wide in his freckled face. Not so arrogant now.

‘Put down the gun,’ Jack said.

She shook her head.

Jack held out his hand. ‘Please.’

He laid his hand under the gun and wondered if he was about to die.

He held his breath.

She dropped it into his palm.

Slowly, very slowly, Jack turned towards the other assailant. ‘And you too, son.’

The boy laughed. It was harsh. ‘Do you know what they did?’

Jack glanced towards the group of boarders. ‘Why don’t you put the gun down and tell me?’

‘She knows,’ said the boy, pointing the gun at Lilly.

Jack heard the sharp intake of her breath and terror coursed through him.

‘But she said nothing would be done.’ He looked at Lilly with pure venom. ‘That the police would do nothing.’

Jack inched between the gun and Lilly until his chest was in the firing line.