The Babysitter(5)

A breakin, Mark wondered, or a window popping? The latter, he suspected.

‘I smelled smoke,’ she said, swiping at her nose again. ‘I didn’t know what to do. I shouted and screamed but no one came. I tried to get to out, but I couldn’t, and I got scared and—’

‘Hey, hey, slow down,’ Mark urged her, as the words tumbled from her mouth in a garbled, hiccupping rush.

‘I didn’t know what to do,’ she repeated, choking back a sob. ‘I was going to wake Mummy and Daddy, but… but…’

‘Was there smoke on the landing, Grace?’

‘Yes,’ she sobbed. ‘And fire. I couldn’t get past it. I couldn’t get through it. I didn’t know what to do.’

So she ran. What else was there to do but fucking burn, Mark thought furiously.

‘I left them,’ she said, the sheer anguish in her voice cutting him to the core.

‘You had no choice,’ he told her firmly.

‘My sister. She was screaming. I couldn’t save her.’ It came out little more than a whisper.

Useless. Feeling powerless as the girl’s gaze hit the ground again, Mark ran a hand over his neck. Stuff protocol, he thought, getting to his feet, as she began to cry in earnest. It wasn’t a criminal offence to hold a child while she broke her bloody heart, was it? Briefly, he hesitated, and then reached out to wrap an arm around her as another sob escaped her throat.

The girl, obviously in need of physical contact, moved towards him in an instant, her arms around him, her face pressed hard into his torso. Fresh, heart-wrenching sobs now wracking her frail shoulders, and Mark tried to soothe her, stroking her hair, offering her banal words of comfort.

‘It wasn’t your fault, Grace,’ he said throatily, but she only cried harder.

She was glued to him like a limpet when Lisa appeared, running towards them, to Mark’s huge relief.

‘The ambulance has arrived,’ she said, casting Mark a warning glance as she slowed her run to a walk.

Reading the look, Mark shrugged helplessly. Lisa was right, of course. This definitely wouldn’t be listed as appropriate behaviour in the child protection and safeguard manual, but what else was he supposed to have done? ‘Grace,’ he said softly, ‘you need to go with Lisa now. Just to the hospital,’ he added quickly, as her startled gaze shot to his. ‘I’ll be in trouble with my superior officers if I don’t ensure you get adequate medical attention.’

Again, the girl scanned his eyes, a new fear in her own.

‘It will be all right, Grace.’ Mark tried to reassure her, his heart sinking as he realised it was utter bullshit. Things wouldn’t be all right for this child ever again. How could they be? ‘I’ll check up on you as soon as I can, okay?’

‘Promise?’ she asked uncertainly.

It meant he would get back home later than he wanted to, but… ‘Promise.’

She seemed to accept that, giving him a small nod. ‘I’m frightened,’ she said tremulously, causing Mark’s heart to constrict afresh.

‘Don’t be,’ he said, making sure to hold her gaze now. ‘You can always contact me if you need to, Grace. I’ll always be there if you need someone to talk to or to protect you. That’s an absolute promise.’





One





MELISSA





PRESENT





‘Mark!’ Hoisting their six-week-old baby girl higher in the crook of her arm whilst simultaneously hanging onto their wriggling seven-year-old, Melissa called frantically after her husband, who’d set off at a run towards the burned-out cottage diagonally opposite their own. The fire was doused now, fire officers wearily reeling in hoses, but it couldn’t be safe to go near the property yet.

‘Mark, come back!’ she shouted, and he hesitated for a split second, obviously debating his options before deciding on access to the back of the cottage via the garden gate. And then he was off, the distressed mewl of a cat driving him to instinctively react, as he tended to.

Oh God, what was he doing? Melissa held her breath as he scaled the back gate and disappeared over it, then her heart lurched violently in her chest as their daughter tore her hand from her own and made a determined dash to go after him. ‘Poppy!’ she screamed.

‘It’s all right. I’ve got her.’ Moving faster than Melissa, their neighbour, the owner of the property that had caught fire in the night, went after her, sweeping Poppy up into her arms.

The fire officers had cordoned off the lane, and Melissa would have caught her before she’d gone far, but even so… Her world had gone off kilter for a nauseating few seconds. ‘Thank you.’ Her heart rate returning to somewhere near normal, Melissa smiled gratefully at the woman as she walked back towards her. She’d moved in just before Evie had been born. Melissa had meant to pop over and see her, but then, with a new baby to care for and her business beginning to take off, providing she could fulfil her orders, she hadn’t managed to make time. She should have. She was clearly the kind of person you would hope to have as a neighbour.



* * *



‘I want to go with Daddy,’ Poppy whimpered, kneading her eyes tiredly with her knuckles. ‘I’m frightened.’