Page 9 of Heartbeat

“What? Oh, yeah, it was fine,” Roadie said, still thinking about what he’d done.

Outside, the sounds of distant sirens could be heard, and then the clerk’s phone rang. The clerk glanced down and then frowned. “Sorry, I need to take this,” he told Roadie, then answered. “Hello?”

Roadie was watching the man’s face, and when he saw him turn pale, his panic increased.

The clerk looked up. “Something happened at the school. They said something blew up. Do you want to leave your bill on the credit card you gave me?” he asked.

Roadie nodded.

The clerk hurriedly printed out a receipt, handed it to Roadie, and then grabbed the keys to the office.

“See yourself out, sir. I got kids at that school. I gotta go.”

“Yeah, right,” Roadie said, and took off like the devil was at his heels. This kept getting worse. He left the campgrounds heading east, away from Jubilee. Away from the site of the crash. As if his life depended on it.

He didn’t know why this was happening, but he knew he’d been set up. All he wanted to do was get back to Miami, pack up his shit, and leave. It was time to hit the road again.

Dani Pope’s first grade class had just finished lunch, and were on their way through the school building to the playground behind it, with Dani leading the way.

The day was cold, but the weather was clear, and the children were bouncing with glee as they exited.

Kit Arnold and her kindergarten class were already on the playground when Dani’s class came out, racing toward their favorite play areas. Some headed for swings, some for the big slide, and some began playing tag. It was a typical day.

Dani walked up to where Kit was standing, looked at her red nose and chapped lips, and grinned.

“At least it’s not snowing.”

Kit rolled her eyes. “No kidding. I swear, the older I get, the colder winter feels.”

Dani laughed. “Girl, you’re thirty-five. You’re not old enough to complain about age.”

Kit grinned, pulled a lip balm out of her pocket, and swiped it across her lips, then pulled the collar of her coat up around her neck.

“It’s Friday. What are you and Aaron doing tonight? Going out?” Kit asked.

“Shirley is cooking for us tonight. I have the best mother-in-law ever,” Dani said.

“Thank God mine lives in Virginia,” Kit said.

Dani just shook her head, listening absently as Kit rambled on, because she was watching the children. As she glanced up, she saw a helicopter coming in from the east. but thought nothing of it. Choppers came and went with some regularity here, usually dropping off guests at the hotels, and occasionally a medevac coming for a patient at the hospital or bringing one home.

Then she heard a screech and turned just in time to see two little boys rolling on the ground, fighting.

“I swear to my time,” Dani muttered. “It’s the twins again. I have never seen brothers so at odds with each other as those two are,” She took off running, leaving Kit behind.

She got to the boys, separated them, made each of them hold her hand as she began marching them back to the building. They were halfway across the playground when she heard a boom, like someone had just shot off a cannon. She looked around, and then looked up.

The chopper she’d seen a few moments earlier was ablaze and spiraling and spinning downward, leaving a trail of black smoke behind it.

Her heart stopped. From the falling trajectory of the burning chopper, the likelihood of it crashing into the school or playground was huge to likely.

She shouted at Kit and pointed upward, then shouted at the twins. “Run, boys! Run inside now!” and grabbed her walkie-talkie and keyed up the school secretary. “Justine! Ring the bell! Ring the bell to get the kids off the playground now! Start evacuating the school, and call the police. A chopper exploded in the air. It looks like it’s going to crash on top of us!”

Seconds later, the bell began to ring, and Kit and Dani were outside grabbing kids off of swings and slides and screaming at them to run into the school. At that point, it became a madhouse. Children were running and falling and stopping to help their friends, and some were frozen in fear and couldn’t move.

Dani was frantic, trying to get them all inside whenshe saw Lili Glass curled up in a little ball on the ground, covering her head with her arms. Dani swooped down and grabbed her on the run as Kit was herding the last of the children inside the building.

“Hold tight to me, baby,” Dani said, and felt Lili’s arms tighten around her neck. Just as they reached the door, Dani glanced back.

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