Page 11 of Heartbeat

Wiley was just coming out of booking when he heard the dispatch and raced to the patrol car where his partner, Doug Leedy, was waiting.

“Floor it,” Wiley said. “Aaron’s wife teaches there.”

“Shit,” Doug said, and sped out of the parking lot, running hot all the way.

Sean had just finished the security system installation in Amalie’s office, and was running a check on it to make sure it was live, when the chopper crashed. The explosion was so startling that Amalie screamed.

“What was that?” she cried.

“I don’t know,” Sean said, and ran out of the building. Within seconds, he began hearing police and ambulance sirens, but when he saw two fire trucks flying out of town, he knew it was bad. And then he saw the location of the smoke. “Oh shit. Oh no. The school!” he said, and ran back inside.

“I think something happened at the elementary school,” Sean said. “My brother’s wife teaches there. I need to make sure they’re okay.”

“Go! Go! Do what you need to do! Your things will be safe here,” Amalie said.

Sean grabbed his coat, dropped his phone in the pocket, and pulled out his keys. He took one look at Amalie and then ran.

Amalie’s heart was pounding. She couldn’t think about children and fire without remembering her own horror of being trapped in a burning car. Her knees were buckling as she dropped into her chair.

“Please God, please. Please don’t let that school be on fire,” she prayed, then covered her face and cried.

There were already officers on the scene and in the act of putting up roadblocks when Aaron and Bob Yancy arrived.Seeing the school building still in one piece was a blessing. But the fire behind the building was obviously close, and the first thing he thought was,what the hell happened, and how many windows blew out? Were there injuries? Was Dani safe? Were her students safe? Aaron had to check on her first.

“Yancy, there will be parents swarming here within minutes. Looks like the principal has evacuated children to the football field across the street. The roadblocks are up. I’ll join you at the field as soon as I know if Dani is out of the building.”

“Got it,” Yancy said. “Go. Make sure Dani’s okay. We’ve got this.”

It wasn’t what he’d been ordered to do, but there was no way in hell Aaron was going to stand outside this building wondering if his wife was still alive and in one piece. He called her phone, but she didn’t answer; then he saw the principal coming back across the street on the run.

“Mrs. Lowery. Is everybody out of the building?”

She immediately recognized Dani Pope’s husband. “Your Dani and Maisy Eggert are still inside with thirteen children.”

“I’ll find them,” Aaron said, and turned and ran.

The secretary was just coming out of the building when Aaron reached the front entrance.

“Where’s Dani? Where are the other children?”

She was shaking so hard she could barely speak.

“I just spoke with her. They took shelter in a classroom on the north side. All of the windows on the south side blew out. There’s glass everywhere, and some ceilingtiles came down. They’re trying to make their way to the main hallway that leads to this entrance, but the building is full of black smoke.”

“Which way do I go once I reach the place where the halls intersect?”

“Left. Go left, and watch where you walk,” she said.

Aaron started inside, when he heard someone shouting and turned to look. It was Wiley and his partner, with Sean not far behind.

“Follow me,” Aaron shouted, and headed into the building, then stopped.

The thick black smoke and the scent of burning chemicals were funneling into the building from the wreck. He turned around and ran back to the front entrance and propped both doors wide open.

Now that it had a place to go, the smoke came billowing out.

“Shit, Aaron. I can barely see where we’re going,” Wiley said, as he entered the lobby.

“I’ve been in the building enough with Dani to be familiar with the layout. Stay with me,” Aaron said, and began walking and shouting Dani’s name. “Dani! Dani! It’s me, Aaron. Can you hear me?”

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