Cold Justice (Willis/Carter #4)(114)

‘Still moving forward, guv,’ she replied, though she was barely audible. ‘The space is pretty small.’

Inside the stack, Willis shone her hand-held torch forward in the darkness and saw the edges of the straw walls widening in front of her.

‘Samuel?’ she called.

‘Mommy?’ came a reply in the dark, muffled heat and dust. Willis paused as she listened to a rumble around her and stayed absolutely still as a dust cloud enveloped her.

‘Eb?’ Carter called into the tunnel but he could see it had collapsed inside.

‘Guv?’ Willis waited for the rumbling sound to stop and then she called back down the tunnel. There was no reply. ‘Guv?’ she called again, and her voice went flat and nowhere. There didn’t seem to be any air left. She felt each breath burn her lungs with dust and heat. She waited in the dark for a minute and then pulled herself onwards into a space two bales wide. It was wide enough for her to turn onto her stomach and pull herself up onto her elbows before her head touched straw.

‘Samuel? Good boy.’ She found him. He was strapped into a car seat. There was a bottle of water next to him. She picked it up and gave him a drink as she shone the torch over his face to see how he was. He was covered in dust and snorting as he drank.

‘Hello, Samuel, your mummy’s waiting for you but you’re going to have to be a very good boy for me, okay?’

‘Eb, can you hear me?’ Carter spoke into his radio. ‘Eb, are you okay?’

‘We’re here, guv. Samuel is in good condition. Tell Lauren and Toby he’s all right. He’s strapped into a car seat so I think he’ll have a good chance if this collapses.’

‘You can’t come out the way you went in, now.’

‘Okay.’ She shone her torch around the space. ‘I can see where the tunnel continues,’ she radioed back. ‘Are we sure that’s the way out?’

‘Wait. I’ll move to the exit and you listen for me calling.’

He called out her name.

‘I can hear you – just,’ said Willis over her radio.

‘Can you follow the noise?’

‘I don’t know. It seems to be coming from further inside the barn, I’m not sure if I want to risk it.’

‘Cam?’ Carter turned to ask him, ‘Does the tunnel come straight out?’

‘No, it goes around in a semicircle then it rises to the next level before it comes out here.’

‘Is there any other exit at the back maybe?’

‘No.’

‘There’s no choice, Eb. That’s the only way out. It bends and then it rises and then you’re out. It’s fifteen feet, at the most.’ Carter looked at Cam for confirmation. He shook his head. He wasn’t sure. ‘We think,’ Carter added.

‘Okay, I understand.’ Willis inched towards the gap, sliding her body as she pushed the car seat and Samuel forward inch by inch. She felt the walls around her start to groan and slide. She stopped.

‘Not sure whether I can make it through that gap, guv, I risk bringing the place down if I try and force the car seat through.’

‘You have to, Eb. This way is the only way out for you both. It’s still clear, for now. You have to move fast.’ Carter turned to Pascoe. ‘Have the paramedics stand by. Get the fire brigade out here, anyone who will be able to help shift these bales if this thing collapses.’

Jeanie held on to Ebony’s rope.

‘I can try and push Samuel through if you can coax him through your end,’ said Willis into her radio. ‘But I’ll have to take him out of the seat. He’s very scared, but if Lauren calls him and I push him from this end I think he can make it.’

Carter looked at Lauren; she nodded.

Willis was so cramped now that she couldn’t raise her head, only lie on her side as she unstrapped Samuel.

‘Samuel? You want to see Mommy? Mommy and Daddy? Do you think you can squeeze through like a clever little wiggly worm?’

‘Little worm?’ His voice was cracked and sore with the dust.

‘Yes, listen, Samuel, who is that?’

Lauren’s voice came through calling him. ‘Mommy’s here, my darling. I’m waiting for you. Come to me.’

‘Mommy?’

‘Yes, she’s waiting for you, Samuel.’

Willis managed to ease him out of his chair and push it to one side as she pushed him forward.

‘Keep calling,’ she said into the radio.

Toby and Lauren took it in turns to call, and Willis watched Samuel as he crawled forward and through the gap. She moved with him and shone her torch for him to see. When she could go no further into the gap, which was the size of a cereal packet, she continued talking to Samuel, encouraging him to keep moving. She spoke into her radio.

‘He’s coming to the raised bit now, I think. I can’t move any further forward. He won’t be able to get up there on his own. Can you try and reach in and get him out your end?’

Carter reached his arm into the tunnel and felt nothing. He looked at everyone. Finally, he assessed Toby’s chances.

‘Toby, you’re the thinnest, the tallest. Get in there as far as you can and try and get him.’

Toby moved inside and was lodged waist-deep into the tunnel when they heard the bales groan as he pushed harder to reach Samuel. He let out a muffled yell and Carter and Pascoe dragged him out. He was holding Samuel in his arms.