heartbeat. For a second they fell in unison, sounding ominous, like approaching soldiers in step, and she changed pace slightly… through the main door, into the corridor. A faint echo for ominous effect now: Elena could hear her own laboured breathing coming back to her, with the muted murmur of voices straining through the pale cream walls.
The classroom doors were all marked with types of tree: oak, ash, beech… Elena found Lorena’s classroom four along: elm. She didn’t want to hover by the small glass look-through and possibly gain the teacher’s attention too early — so she went a few yards past and sat on the nearest bench seat.
She pondered whether she’d planned everything okay. She’d chosen the regular weekly time when Nicola Ryall went to the hairdressers and then had a long lunch with her newly acquired charity-circle friends. Gin and tonic do-gooders whose nearest appreciation of the gritty reality of children starving was through a Catherine Cookson novel. Mrs Ryall would be indisposed two-and-a-half hours, maybe three, and normally kept her mobile off. Elena had tried just twenty minutes ago: it went straight into a ‘caller unavailable’ recorded message.
Then she’d phoned straight through to the school and, posing as Mrs Ryall, left a message that Lorena had to go to a dentist’s appointment at 1pm. ‘Our housekeeper will come and pick her up at lunchtime.’
Elena hoped and prayed she’d managed a reasonable proximity to Mrs Ryall’s voice; but then how many times in the year might Mrs Ryall phone and speak to the school? Maybe two or three at most. Mrs Truett, the school secretary, merely asked if Lorena would be back for class later in the afternoon, or the next day?
‘Tomorrow now, I think,’ Elena answered. ‘Though if she can make it back in time for the last lesson today, I’ll make sure she’s returned.’
From Mrs Truett’s reaction, nothing seemed to have jarred, be untoward. But what if someone else from the school was now looking out and knew what Mrs Ryall’s housekeeper looked like? Or what if they’d managed to raise Mrs Ryall on her mobile to check, or…
The ringing bell crashed into her thoughts. On impulse she stood up, looking out expectantly. A door at the far end was the first to open. A few children emerged with a teacher’s voice booming from beyond — but as the main mass appeared, the other doors too were opening and spilling out children. Within seconds, the corridor was awash with a cacophony of small voices and movement.
Eight or ten children had so far emerged from Elm. Elena moved closer to the door so that she could look out for Lorena, and as she picked her out she caught the teacher’s eye practically at the same time. A slight quizzical frown crossed Lorena’s face. She’d have to move in quick.
‘I’ve come to take Lorena to the dentist. Mrs Ryall phoned earlier.’
The teacher, a thirty-something redhead with a strained smile as she tried to bark some calm into the exiting class, looked between Elena and Lorena. ‘Nobody told me anything.’
‘Uh… it would have been only about forty minutes ago.’ Elena had affected a slight foreign lilt, the way some of her Cypriot relatives spoke English, to distinguish from her voice as Mrs Ryall on the phone. Instant domestic: speak with a foreign accent. She forced an apologetic smile, and Lorena finally picked up on the game and came across and took her hand. Elena swallowed hard against her hammering nerves. ‘Mrs Ryall forgot earlier.’
The teacher gave them one last look. ‘Okay, fine… I’ll-’ Then her attention was gone as she called out to two children jostling each other towards the back.
‘She’ll be back in tomorrow,’ Elena said, but the teacher only turned towards them briefly with another ‘That’s fine,’ before continuing her shepherding of the children’s exit.
Elena led Lorena out by the hand before the teacher had more time to think about it. Her mouth was dry, her legs leaden as they wended their way through the crowded corridor. She gripped Lorena’s hand tighter in re- assurance, but partly it was to quell the trembling in her own hand. The shrill voices echoing from the corridor walls seemed to merge with a solid pounding at her temples… only a few paces more to the main doors.
The call of ‘One minute!’ from behind barely broke through it all. It had to be repeated, ‘Hold on a minute!’ before she finally faltered her step and turned.
An older matronly woman approached, with Lorena’s teacher now alongside. Elena’s heart sank. She wasn’t going to get away with it after all. Someone had managed to raise Nicola Ryall on her mobile, or maybe this woman knew the Ryalls, knew full well that she wasn’t their housekeeper.
The matronly woman’s expression lifted slightly. ‘If Lorena’s not coming back later — she’ll need her satchel from her locker.’
‘Oh… of course.’ Elena smiled and patted Lorena’s shoulder. She recognized the voice from her earlier call: Mrs Truett, the school secretary. ‘Yes, go on.’
They stood as an awkward triangle for a moment as Lorena scurried off, a stream of children milling past them. Then Mrs Truett commented, ‘Nothing too serious, I hope.’
It took a second for the penny to drop. ‘Uh, uh… no. Hopefully just some fillings.’
Elena felt exposed standing in the corridor with all the children passing. Katine had a friend who went to this school. What if she came past and spotted her?
Elena silently screamed for Lorena to hurry and return. If the noise abated, Mrs Truett might well decide to pipe up again, and Elena wasn’t sure her nerves could take it. Already she could feel her blouse sticking to her spine with sweat, and her legs were close to crumpling.
Lorena appeared only seconds later, though already the numbers in the corridor were thinning. But at that moment another teacher came to talk to Mrs Truett, and with a quick wave and ‘Thanks!’, Elena made good her escape with Lorena.
Through the main doors, across the playground, a slight weave to avoid a group playing ball… through the entrance gates, into the car. Elena didn’t speak to Lorena throughout. Nor did she dare look back in case someone else was trying to attract her attention.
As they got in the car, Lorena asked, ‘Where are we going?’
But still Elena didn’t speak. She kept her eyes resolutely ahead until they were over five hundred yards down the road, well clear of the school. Only then did she finally let out a long breath and turn to Lorena.
‘I got your message, Lorena. So I’m going to help you. That is, if you want me to help you?’
‘Yes… of course.’ Lorena looked slightly puzzled. ‘That is why I called.’
Elena looked across sharply. ‘No, it’s more than that I need, Lorena. I could get into a lot of trouble for what I’m doing now. You’re going to be away from home two or maybe three days. The police will start looking for us, trying to track us down. This isn’t a game any more.’ But from the light in Lorena’s eyes at the mention of police and tracking, that was exactly what Lorena thought this suddenly was: an exciting game. ‘So I need to know for sure — cross your heart sure — that this is what you want.’
‘Yes, I’m sure. Sure, sure.’ Her clipped accent added vehemence.
‘Okay… okay.’ Elena’s eyes flickered to her rear-view mirror. No cars visible behind — but they were still too close to the school. Elena took the second turning on the left and went a half a mile down before stopping at the first pull-in by a farm gate. ‘But I can’t be seen to be abducting you, Lorena. So it has to be clear also to others that this is all totally of your own free will. Something that
Elena felt guilty watching Lorena’s consternation as she read. Only seconds with her out of Ryall’s clutches, and here she was acting like a big city lawyer with first thought to covering her back. But it was necessary if she hoped for any chance of avoiding a jail cell for this, and it might also help take some of the steam from the police pursuit of them.
‘Yes, it’s okay,’ Lorena said finally.
‘Are you sure?’ Elena pressed. Lorena was probably so relieved at being helped, that she’d have said yes to anything; but Elena didn’t want anything possibly guided by force or lack of choice: Lorena had had enough of that with Ryall.
‘Yes, I’m sure.’ Lorena smiled hesitantly. ‘Sure, sure.’
Elena took the cassette recorder from the back seat. There was a falter at one point and they had to re-do the last two sentences, but they were all wrapped within a couple of minutes.
Elena’s nerves had bristled with the two cars that had passed them in that time, and now she was keened sharply to traffic as she re-joined the main road, her eyes jumping to the rear-view mirror with every car that
