Helen Black - A Place of Safety

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.

‘Maybe she was wrong,’ said Jack.

The boy shook his head and wheeled the gun back towards the boarders, his sights on the largest. The redhead.

‘This piece of shit does not deserve to live,’ he spat.

A stain spread across the redhead’s groin. ‘Don’t shoot me.’

‘Put the gun down,’ Jack shouted.

The boy shook his head again. Almost imperceptible, but Jack caught it. There was a shift. Conversation was at an end.

Jack watched the boy’s finger touch the trigger as if in slow motion. He knew what he had to do. He raised the gun in his own hand, conscious of its weight, its girth. He closed his eyes and discharged two rounds. When he let the light in, the boy lay on the ground. His shoulder gaped, blood and bone splattered over his overalls. An ugly wound, enough to disarm him, not fatal. But the boy didn’t move until Jack turned his lifeless head and saw the second wound, clean and perfect at the left-hand side of his temple.

‘Are you okay?’

Lilly stood in the doorway of her cottage, bewildered.

Penny Van Huysan stood in the dusky shadows and pushed her carefully highlighted hair behind her ears.

‘Are you okay?’ she repeated gently.

Penny was another Manor Park parent. She was girly, giggly and chichi. She knew what everyone’s husband did for a living and could spot a Christian Louboutin pump at two hundred yards—yet she chose to spend her time with Lilly rather than the other Yummy Mummies.

They had formed a bond during the Kelsey Brand case, when Lilly’s life imploded and Penny had proved an unlikely form of support. She was flanked by Luella, who had all Penny’s shallowness but none of her charm or compassion.

‘Lilly?’ said Penny. ‘Can you hear me?’

When Lilly didn’t reply Penny and Luella exchanged glances and ushered her inside.

‘Is Jack here?’ asked Penny.

Lilly shook her head.

Penny ran a glass of water and pushed Lilly into a chair. Lilly gulped it down. She hadn’t even realised she was thirsty.

‘He had to go back to the station, to explain what happened.’

‘And what did happen? People are saying a gang from the hostel tried to shoot everyone?’ said Luella.

‘No, no,’ said Lilly. ‘There were two, a boy and a girl, just kids.’

‘But there was a shooting?’ Luella asked.

Penny put her hand on Luella’s knee.

‘The headmaster specifically told us not to gossip about this.’

‘We’re not gossiping,’ said Luella.

‘He doesn’t want the press getting hold of this and descending on us.’

‘No one wants that,’ said Luella.

Lilly could see she was desperate to extract information. That was the only reason she had come.

‘Is Sam in bed?’ said Penny.

‘Yeah, he didn’t really see what happened, but he was shaken all the same,’ Lilly replied.

Luella persisted. ‘So what did happen?’

Penny frowned a warning but Luella waved her away.

‘We’ve a right to know.’

Lilly sighed. Luella would not be put off, so Lilly might as well fill her in before the school bongo drums went into overdrive.

‘Like I said, they were just kids.’

‘But they were armed,’ said Luella.

‘Yeah. Jack disarmed the girl, but the boy wouldn’t…’ She paused, unsure how to explain. ‘Jack had to shoot him.’

‘Dead?’ Luella almost screamed.

‘I don’t suppose Lilly took his pulse,’ said Penny.

Lilly smiled. ‘You’re right, I didn’t, but I’d say he was dead. The wound to his head was too serious to survive.’

‘Jack must have thought the situation was pretty grave,’ said Penny.

‘It was. The boy might have shot someone else,’ said Lilly.

Luella could barely contain herself. ‘Someone else! You mean he’d already killed someone?’

‘I don’t know. They took someone off in an ambulance.’

‘Who?’ asked Penny.

Lilly squeezed her eyes shut, picturing the boy, white and still on the stretcher. ‘A pupil. One of the boarders. Charlie Stanton.’

Silence fell on the three women as the enormity of what had happened at their children’s school sank in. At last, Luella stood up and dusted down her skirt. She had obviously processed the information.

‘I’m sure we’re all agreed that something must be done.’

‘The police are dealing with it,’ said Penny.

‘I mean about that hostel,’ said Luella.

Lilly was puzzled. ‘Whatever do you mean?’

Luella’s jaw was firm. ‘I mean we must get it closed down.’

Lilly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

‘It’s nothing to do with the hostel or the other people staying there,’ she said.

Luella’s eyes were glinting. ‘How can you say that when those animals went up to our school with the sole intention of murdering our children?’

‘That’s not how it was,’ said Lilly. ‘I don’t think the girl intended to hurt anyone.’

‘You’re being ridiculous,’ said Luella. ‘People don’t carry guns unless they mean to do some damage.’

Lilly looked to Penny for help but she shook her head. ‘It’s a fair point, Lilly. I mean, how would you have felt if Sam had been hit?’

‘I know what you’re saying, but you can’t lump the other residents together,’ said Lilly.

‘They sound dangerous,’ said Penny.

Lilly was shocked. She expected reactionary politics from Luella, but Penny?