‘Jess, if he thinks she’s still at the hospital…he could come. Just make sure the place is locked. I’ll check the house and be right with you. Ten minutes. But lock the place, Jess.’
‘It already is locked.’
‘You’re sure?’
‘Y-yes.’
‘That’s something, then. But Jess, be careful.’
He hung up, a worried man.
So what was Jess supposed to do now?
Go calmly to bed?
Jess had been wide awake before. Now she was so alert that every noise was magnified a thousand times.
The place was locked. Only staff had keys.
It was a rambling building. If Barry broke a window on the far side-on the hospital side…
The policeman would be here within ten minutes and Barry Simmons would surely only break a window to gain access to the women’s ward. If he found his wife gone…
Jessie’s ears strained. There was something banging over in the other wing. A gentle thumping that was so soft that it had been in the background and she hadn’t heard it.
An intermittent thumping. Like a French window banging gently in the wind.
It shouldn’t be open. The nurses were under strict instructions to leave the place locked.
But Niall had been back this afternoon.
Niall, whom a woman would be mad to trust…
She would go mad by herself here with a window open so close. Jessie bit her lip in indecision.
This was stupid. Barry Simmons was no threat to her. Even if he broke in he didn’t want Jess. He was angry with his wife. There was no need to think that the man was intent on violence to anyone other than Ethel.
‘So lock the window,’ Jess told herself harshly. ‘Before you go nuts.’
She opened the door out into the corridor and stepped out into the darkened hospital.
It was definitely one of the French windows banging.
Out here she could hear it clearly. It was a wonder that she hadn’t heard it earlier in the night-but maybe the wind had only just risen.
She walked slowly down the corridor, nervous despite herself. The light switches were near the nurses’ station. Jess flicked them and the place lit up.
The light should have reassured her. Instead, it did no such thing.
It increased her sense of urgency.
There was a smell…
Petrol.
The hospital reeked of petrol.
Dear heaven…
Jess flung open the door into the women’s ward. This was where the sound had come from. The French windows were open wide and, as she watched, the breeze caught them and swung them gently closed with the thump she had heard.
If the place smelled of petrol…
The smell was unmistakable. She should get out. Jess walked quickly over to the windows and out onto the verandah.
There was nothing here.
So why the smell?
She frowned. She had to be right. The smell couldn’t be from a small container. It was stronger in different places-and there were dark, damp patches on the floor.
Even out here on the verandah there were damp splotches-and the lock on the French windows was splintered and broken.
Barry must have been here…
Maybe he still was. If he’d poured petrol around the place…There was only one reason why he’d do that.
To set fire to the building…
There was no fire yet. Maybe he’d put the petrol down and changed his mind. Discovered that his wife wasn’t here.
But if a spark ignited the petrol…the place would go up like a bomb.
Jessie’s heart froze in fear.
Her animals-Wilfred and tiny Wobble-were still inside.
Things-buildings and contents-could be replaced but not her wallaby and wombat. Jessie looked frantically back into the hospital, her mind racing.
From out here it looked safe-normal-but there was no ignoring that smell. She wasn’t going back through the corridors. If the petrol caught she’d be trapped.
She’d go around. Break a window from the outside and get back into her flat that way. Even if she was imagining the smell…
A light cut through the night, lighting the verandah where she stood. Jessie turned to face it. A car was screeching to a halt in the car park and a dark figure emerged.
It wasn’t the police sergeant. Jess could pick this profile anywhere.
Niall Mountmarche…
Niall could obviously see Jess on the verandah and Jess could discern relief in the way his shoulders sagged.
Sergeant Russell must have phoned him…
Why, for heaven’s sake? What use was Niall Mountmarche, except to upset her still further? Jess didn’t want Niall. She wanted only to concentrate on her animals.
What help was he?
Jess turned again toward the broken French doors. Not that way, she told herself fiercely, blocking out Niall’s presence. Don’t be stupid, Jess…You’ll have to go around the verandah…
She took one step forward toward the verandah steps-and the world exploded around her in a brilliant, molten rush of engulfing flames.
She woke to damp earth and dazzling light.
Someone was pushing her face into the grass. Jess had a mouthful of the stuff and it was threatening to choke her.
There was a weight on top of her, bearing her down.
Blind panic took over.
Frantically Jess fought against the weight and, instead of being pushed down, the weight rolled aside and she was being pulled into strong, fierce arms.
‘Lie still, you little termagant. Dear God, Jess…’
‘Let me go…Let me go…’
She could see Niall’s face above her now, glowing in reflected flame. There was soot on his jaw and his forehead-black grime, deeply embedded-and Niall’s eyes were dark slits.
‘Jess, you’re burned. Hurt. Lie still.’
‘I’m not burned…’ Jessie’s face was tingling. She put a hand to her forehead and felt singed hair. ‘I’m not…’
‘The explosion knocked you out on the verandah. I got you off just before the roof came down.’ Niall’s arms held her close and she could feel a shudder run the length of his body. ‘Dear God, if I hadn’t been here…’
‘B-Barry…’ Jessie’s voice was a choked whisper. ‘It must have been Barry…’
‘He’s torched the place.’ Niall was using his body to shield her from the worst heat. Now he shaded his face with one hand to try to see. They were lying full length on the lawn and the heat was sweeping over them in waves. ‘God knows where he is. Jess, there’s no one else inside, is there? Think.’
‘No…No one…’
Yes, there was…
