Page 69 of The Last One to See Him

Kate stands, pulling on her coat. ‘No, it’s fine. I was just leaving.’

Daniella Hess smiles. ‘Oh, please don’t let me interrupt if you haven’t finished.’

‘Oh, we’re finished,’ Rowan says, before Kate can respond.

Kate heads to the door. ‘I’ll see you at my usual appointment time on Friday,’ she says, walking out and closing the door.

Thomas is quiet this evening as they eat the pizza Kate hastily threw in the oven. She knows the cause of his silence – he was confused and disappointed when she’d changed the plan for this evening without warning and turned up at Ellis’s to collect him

‘I know you’re confused about me picking you up from Dad’s when you were meant to be staying with him,’ she says. ‘But…my plans changed and I didn’t need his help after all. And I think it’s better if you stay here on school nights. We’re a lot closer to school.’

The truth is, after her visit with Rowan being cut short, she couldn’t bear the thought of being away from Thomas, of him being with Ellis any more than necessary, so she’d rushed straight round there to take Thomas home.

‘It’s weird, Mum,’ Thomas says. ‘You’ve never done this stuff before. And now you’re picking me up early from playdates and from Dad’s.’ He pulls red pepper off his pizza. ‘Are you angry with Dad again?’

‘No, sweetheart. I’m not.’

Thomas scrunches his face; Kate knows he doesn’t believe her.

‘Will you just trust me?’ she says. ‘I want the best for you. Always.’

He nods, picking up a slice of pizza. And for the rest of the evening, he barely says another word.

Sometime in the night, Kate wakes with a start. Instinctively she knows something is wrong. Her body feels way too hot. Then everything comes into focus: the crackling sounds, the smoke drifting in beneath the door.

‘Thomas!’ she screams.

THIRTY-ONE

TUESDAY 4 FEBRUARY

Kate jumps out of bed, shoves her phone in her pyjama pocket and races to the bedroom door. The hallway is clogged with smoke, but shielding her face, she makes her way through it to Thomas’s room, screaming his name.

‘What’s happening?’ he asks, drowsy from sleep. And then he realises and jumps up.

‘Hurry, Thomas! Come with me!’

He’s screaming at her, trying to resist her hold, but she’s still stronger than him and manages to drag him back to her room. He tries to rush to the door, screaming, but she can’t make out any words; the roar of the fire is too loud. He’s trying to get out of the room. Panicking. And then she realises that Lula must have been in his room, where their cat always sleeps curled up on Thomas’s bed.

‘Thomas, I’m so sorry – we can’t go back to your room – we need to get out of here right now!’ They have only moments before the upstairs is consumed in flames.

He stares at her, horror in his huge eyes, frozen. ‘Come on,’ she says, pulling her duvet from the bed. ‘Do you think you can grab hold of this and use it to climb down onto the kitchen roof? I’ll hold it so you don’t fall. You have to trust me, okay?’

Thomas gives a barely detectable nod, but still doesn’t move.

‘Quick,’ Kate says, pushing him towards the window in the en suite. She closes the bathroom door.

Kate helps Thomas climb out, then she follows him through the window, dragging the duvet behind her. She dangles it down from the kitchen roof, leaning over so it’s as close to the ground as she can get it. ‘You need to hold onto this,’ Kate explains.

Her son stares blankly.

‘Thomas – listen! We need to hurry. Grab onto this and climb down.’

Finally he moves towards the edge of the roof, but Kate can tell he’s in shock. She helps him over the side and watches as he climbs down, clinging to the duvet.

‘Don’t let go!’ she shouts. ‘You’re nearly there.’ But she can see the fear and horror on Thomas’s face.

Once he’s safely at the bottom, Kate throws the duvet onto the ground then climbs over the edge, hanging down as far as she can before making the jump to the ground. Her body hits the pavement with a shocking thud; the duvet does little to lessen the impact.

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