‘I need to talk to the students,’ Cam said. ‘We have to evacuate the site and I need their help.’
‘What’s happened?’
Cam glanced at Pearson who gave a quick shake of his head. ‘I can’t go into it at the moment. It’s an emergency and we need to get everybody off site.’
Leena’s dark eyes narrowed in suspicion. ‘Who’s this?’ she asked, looking at Pearson, then back to the headteacher. ‘Looks like police to me.’
Christ, she’s shrewd. ‘Leena, this is DI Pearson. He’s helping with the evacuation.’
‘DI? Must be something serious.’
‘It is bloody serious!’ Cam snapped and was gratified to see the woman flinch. ‘We need to get all the kids and staff down to the theatre as soon as possible. I don’t have time to explain but I need to get a message to every classroom.’ He waved the handful of A4 sheets in her face and pushed the door open.
‘Mr Raynor, may I have a word with year twelve, please?’
Jack Raynor scowled across the room. An imposing figure with the physique of a rugby player whose best matches were behind him, Raynor crossed huge arms that were bulging out of his tightly rolled-up shirt sleeves. ‘Mr Cleaver. To what do I owe the honour of this interruption?’
A few students lowered their heads, whether in embarrassment or to hide their sniggers Cam didn’t know or care. ‘We have a… situation,’ Cam said, marching to the front of the room. ‘I need everybody to co-operate.’
That had grabbed their attention; the sniggerers were sitting up straight, all attention on their headteacher. A few eyes slid off him and drifted to Pearson who was standing next to Raynor, his head obscuring that of James Stewart on the screen behind him.
Cam surveyed the rows of students. He recognised quite a few but others seemed unfamiliar and there were a handful in the front row that he was sure he’d never seen before. That was one of the pleasures and one of the pitfalls of his job. As headteacher he didn’t spend any time in the classroom; he’d asked the cover manager to make sure that he was never needed even in the direst emergency and now, looking at nearly a hundred expectant pairs of eyes he knew why.
He’d lost it.
He wasn’t sure what it was, but it was the feeling he used to get when he stood in front of a class and knew that he could inspire them to learn.
‘Right, year twelve, I need you all to listen carefully. A situation has come to my attention this morning that requires an immediate evacuation of the school.’
There was a hum of concern as speculation started to brew.
‘Hey,’ Pearson clapped his hands. ‘You’ve been asked to listen to your headteacher. This is a serious situation and we need to get you moving quickly.’
He nodded at Cam to continue.
‘I can’t give you the details, but I do need your help. I need to get a message to every classroom in the school, to every teacher and every member of our support staff. It’s imperative that you all follow my instructions to the letter.’ Cam emphasised ‘my’ to try to re-establish his authority, hardly able to believe that the detective had undermined him in front of his students.
He felt Raynor shift next to him and he knew that the man would be desperate to ask questions. Cam prayed that professionalism would override curiosity and that any awkward queries could wait until the students had been dispatched.
‘I need you to pair up,’ Cam continued. ‘Each pair needs to collect a note and I’ll tell you which room to go to.’
A few students started to get to their feet, but Cam waved them back down, the sheaf of papers in his right hand fluttering like a caged bird.
‘Not yet!’ He knew he was shouting but he couldn’t afford to lose control of the situation. If he had to yell, he’d yell himself hoarse to save his son.
‘We need to do this methodically. Listen. I’ll give each row an area of the school to cover. You’ve all been here long enough to know how many rooms there are and where each one is. I also need to send some of you to the main hall with Mr Raynor. There are two half-year groups in there that need to be told to leave. I’m relying on you to make sure every member of staff and every student is off site within the next twenty minutes.’
He was frightening them. Two girls in the front row had gone pale and a few others of both genders had angry red flashes across their cheeks and looked like they might get up and shout at him, or each other.
‘I don’t want anybody leaving here until they’ve been allocated a room to visit. The person at the window end of each row is in charge of making sure that everybody on their row knows where they’re going. When you’ve delivered your message, you’re to accompany the class teacher and the class down to the theatre in town. I’ve made arrangements for it to be opened by the time we get there.’
A flurry of waved hands followed his final statement.
‘No! I know you’ll all want to ask questions and I know some of you are worried. I’m not going to give any additional information except to say that the safety of everybody in school depends on this going smoothly. I’ll send a member of the leadership team to the theatre as soon as possible to explain what’s happening. If you follow my instructions, you won’t be in any danger, but this is a time-sensitive issue.’ He was making it up as he went along but he needed to keep talking so there was no room for speculation or rebellion. This had to be done and done quickly.
Cam gave instructions to Jack Raynor to allocate the science block and two other areas to the students and handed him half of the A4 sheets before making his
