Into the Fire

by Pam Harvey

  ‘How does he feel about leaving the place?’

  Harry gave a short laugh. ‘You know Dad—as long as his horses are safe, he doesn’t really care about anything else. He only goes into the house to eat and sleep and then I have to drag him in. If the place burnt down, he’d sleep in the paddock with the horses.’

  ‘What about you, then?’ Mr Mac put a hand on Harry’s shoulder.

  Harry shrugged. ‘Julie and I have got our house in town. If the old home burnt, I’d be a bit sad but since Mum died, Dad’s neglected it. He’d get a lot of insurance money—maybe it’d be a good thing if the whole lot did go up in smoke!’

  The men laughed but Angus got the feeling that they didn’t really mean it. Losing your whole house in a bushfire? Angus shifted his gaze to his home. It wasn’t much to look at but it was the only home he’d ever known. He couldn’t stand the thought of it burning to the ground. No amount of insurance money would make up for it.

  ‘I’m going back to the racecourse,’ Angus’ dad was saying.

  ‘Take me with you, Dad. George and Harry are here if things go wrong.’

  Mr Mac looked at his son. ‘I guess there’s no stopping you, is there?’ Angus shook his head. His dad ruffled his hair. ‘We’ll take the truck and see what needs doing. Back soon, Harry.’

  Angus climbed into the passenger seat. He waved at Harry as they drove off but Harry was walking over to his father. George was wheeling a barrow full of hay towards his horses. They had come over to the fence and were standing impatiently waiting to be fed. ‘Looks like they’ve been here forever, Dad.’

  ‘Yeah! Amazing what a bit of hay can do.’

  That was all they said until they reached the racecourse. The smoke there was thicker than ever, and at the entrance gates a police car with flashing lights blocked the way. Mr Mac pulled up beside it.

  ‘Hello, Colin,’ the constable said. ‘Have you got any horses here?’

  ‘No,’ said Mr Mac. ‘I’ve just taken four of George Butler’s to our place. Are there any more to go?’

  ‘I’ll check.’ The police officer walked over to his car radio and came back a moment later. ‘There are still seven horses to take out to safe paddocks on the other side of town. If you take your truck in, it’ll make the job quicker. I’d say they’ll be evacuating in ten or 15 minutes. That wind’s strong.’ He looked over at Angus. ‘I don’t know about taking your son in, though.’

  ‘I’ll be okay,’ Angus said quickly. ‘I can help with the horses.’

  ‘He’s pretty good with them, Dan,’ Mr Mac explained. ‘He’s sensible too.’

  ‘Okay, but stick with your dad.’ The police officer waved them through.

  They drove to the back of the racecourse, where George’s horses had been. Most of the people had gone—hopefully with their horses, thought Angus.

  ‘Stay here,’ said Mr Mac. ‘I’ll just check.’

  Angus watched his father clamber out of the truck and run behind the first lot of stables. From where he sat, he couldn’t see any horses. One truck rumbled past, its load hidden behind high, dark windows. Angus started to relax. It looked like they weren’t needed and all the horses were safe.

  A man appeared from the stables Mr Mac had passed. Angus recognised Alan Hopcroft, a friend of his father’s. He leaned out of his window and called to him. ‘Mr Hopcroft! Dad’s gone down to check the stables at the back.’

  ‘I think they’re all out, but it’s been a bit of a rush,’ said Alan. ‘We’ve had trainers and strappers going everywhere. It’s worth a last-minute look.’

  ‘Do you know whether Kenny Jones got all his horses out? When I went to catch George’s black mare, I saw one horse left in his stables.’

  Alan frowned. ‘Kenny Jones had an injured horse—it cut its leg—and he left pretty quickly. His strapper was meant to check but he was very upset about the injury. I didn’t see him go back for a last look.’

  Angus opened the truck door and got out. ‘Then the horse I saw earlier could still be there.’

  ‘Alan!’ Mr MacDonald was running towards them. ‘Are all the horses out that you know of?’

  ‘Did you check Kenny Jones’ stables?’

  ‘No.’ Mr MacDonald stopped alongside his son, puffing. ‘I did the others.’ He pointed.

  ‘I saw a horse there, Dad. Mr Hopcroft’s not sure that Kenny Jones got them all out.’

  Mr MacDonald ran a hand through his hair. ‘One last look then we’d better go.’

  Angus looked around at the buildings in front of them. The smoke was yellow and covered the area like a toxic blanket, but he couldn’t see any flames. ‘I’ll come with you.’

  ‘No.’ Mr MacDonald reached for his son and put a firm hand on his shoulder. ‘You get the ramp down on the truck, Angus. We’ll be back in a few minutes.’ He ran off, Alan following.

  Angus got out of the truck to put the back down. The ramp was hard to get loose and he had to hit the bolt with his fist to move it. He finally got the incline lowered then glanced at his watch. His dad and Alan had been gone for almost five minutes. No one else was around. The smoke swirled around him, making him cough. It was definitely thicker—and getting increasingly hard to see even the stables. Angus tried to make out the shape of his father or Alan or even the missing horse, but there was nothing.

  Another long minute passed. Angus went over to the cabin of the truck and climbed in. Twelve months ago, when he could at last reach the pedals, his dad had begun to teach him how to drive. It was handy to be able to drive the farm ute around the paddocks with feed or tools. The old truck was familiar to him. He turned the key in the ignition and put the engine into neutral, making sure the handbrake was firmly on, and sat there, staring again into the haze.

  It was another two minutes before he saw anything. By then, a police car was cruising towards him and a man was calling over the car’s announcement system for everyone to move out. Its lights flashed eerily in the dullness.

  Suddenly a man ran out of the smoke, hunched over, with his hand covering his mouth. Angus jumped out of the truck and ran towards him. It was Alan Hopcroft.

  ‘Where’s Dad?’ Angus started to run in the direction Alan had come from but the man caught his arm.

  ‘Don’t go in there, Angus! The fire’s caught on.’ Alan fell to his knees, letting Angus go, and coughed violently.

  ‘But where’s Dad?’ Angus bent down to his father’s friend and waited until his coughing had subsided.

  ‘He’s trapped in the stable. We have to get help. It’s too smoky. I couldn’t open—’ Alan started coughing again.

  Angus looked up. The police car had gone out of sight. A slow-moving ambulance came into view and started to come towards them. Alan raised a weak hand to signal them over. ‘We’ll have to wait for help.’

  ‘But the fire’s coming! It might be too late!’

  ‘Angus!’ Alan Hopcroft’s voice was hoarse and his chest heaved as if he couldn’t quite get enough oxygen.

  ‘I’m going to get Dad.’ As soon as Angus was sure that the ambulance had spotted Alan, he headed for the burning stables, running as fast as he could despite his sore knee. He vaguely heard someone calling out behind him but took no notice. He had to find his father.

  CHAPTER 7

  There was nothing to do at the community centre except wait. Although there were lots of other kids there, no one was in the mood for socialising and families remained huddled in their own little groups. Hannah, Ling and Sean stayed slouched against the wall. Sean pulled the gyroscope out of his backpack and spun it on the floor. Hannah watched the door in case Gabby turned up. Ling had her head bowed, deep in thought.

  ‘Tell me again about the exhibition,’ Hannah said suddenly.

  Ling kept her head down. ‘What about it?’

  ‘You said the brooch was priceless. Wasn’t it from a royal burial site or something?’

  ‘Yes. It’s one of only five ancient burial sites ever uncovered. Many Viking royals and
important people were pushed out to sea on burning boats; very few were buried. So this brooch is unusual. And to think it might have belonged to one of the early kings of Denmark.’

  Hannah was silent for a minute. ‘And everyone knew that it was valuable?’

  ‘Oh, yes. Well, so were all the other things on display. I guess the brooch is worth more because it’s so old, but everything was locked up in cases.’

  ‘But they were allowed to be on exhibition in the Teasdale library.’

  ‘Only because Mrs Hastings was involved in the Royal Society of Ancient Diggings. At least, that’s what I heard her say to someone. Otherwise the exhibition would never have made it to Teasdale.’

  Hannah nodded.

  ‘We could get the security tape,’ Sean said, fiddling with his model. He looked up excitedly. ‘I know how to take it out. Dad showed me when he was installing the unit. All you have to do—’

  ‘They would have done that already, Sean,’ Hannah said. Her brother shrugged his shoulders.

  ‘They might not have had time. I could go and get it, Han,’ he persisted.

  Hannah shook her head. ‘No, Sean. It’s too dangerous for you to leave the centre.’

  Ling cast her eyes around. Even though the centre was full of people, it was relatively quiet. People were talking in hushed tones to each other; some of the little kids were crying. Otherwise, it was like a school assembly when the headmaster was speaking. ‘Where do you think Gabby is, Hannah?’ Ling said, even though she knew Hannah couldn’t know any more than she could.

  ‘Let’s have a think about that.’ Hannah shuffled closer to Ling. ‘She was at the exhibition with you, right?’

  ‘Yeah, but—’

  ‘And then she wasn’t. So when did you last see her? Exactly?’

  Ling pulled her hair from her neck and piled it on top of her head. It was getting hotter in the centre. The air conditioner didn’t seem to be working very well. ‘Okay,’ she said, ‘we were sitting in the library and Mrs Hastings was going to unveil the brooch. Gabby wanted to leave because it was so hot. She must have stood up but I can’t really remember. Then the SES officer came in and told us we had to leave. That’s when I first noticed she was gone.’

  ‘Trust Gabby not to want to listen.’

  Ling gave a small smile then she shook her head. ‘That’s when it was discovered that the brooch was missing. Everything seemed to happen at once.’

  Hannah sat up and looked around the room. ‘Someone who was there in the library must have seen her go. Do you see anyone familiar here?’

  Ling quickly scanned the room. She only came to Teasdale during school holidays and didn’t know many people. The faces in the room all looked unfamiliar. ‘I would have noticed if she’d gone out the main entrance. Is there another door out of the library?’

  ‘There’s another exit but it goes into the collections section.’ Hannah frowned. ‘It’s usually locked because you have to make an appointment with the reference librarian to look in there. I went in once with Dad looking for old land titles when he was going to buy the hotel.’

  ‘Why would Gabby go in there?’ asked Sean.

  Hannah shrugged. ‘I bet she was looking for a way out that didn’t look too obvious. She would have had to turn back, though. Or else she’s still in there.’

  ‘The SES would have checked out the whole library, wouldn’t they?’ asked Ling anxiously.

  ‘You’d think so. But maybe the door was locked so they didn’t bother.’

  ‘I could go and look, Hannah.’

  ‘No, Sean. No way. Not on your own. Mum would kill me if anything happened to you.’

  ‘Nothing would happen, Han. I’ve gone to the library before on my own, and you know it.’

  ‘Yes, but not on a Total Fire Ban day, with bushfires surrounding us and Mum and Dad unable to get back into town.’

  ‘Not to mention the fact that everyone’s been told to come to the community centre,’ Ling added. She bit her lip. ‘Maybe something’s happened to Gabby and she didn’t hear them call out.’

  ‘Wait here, guys.’ Hannah patted Ling’s shoulder, stood up and walked quickly to the woman at the front desk. ‘Excuse me,’ she said. ‘We think we know where our friend is. She’s still in the library.’

  The woman looked up distractedly. ‘And you are?’

  ‘Hannah Williams. Can we go and check the library?’

  ‘I’m sorry, but you can’t leave here on your own.’ The woman looked down at a list in front of her. ‘We have notified the police to alert your parents that you are here. So, no, you can’t go to the library. The SES and the local police have searched the library thoroughly and there is no one there. What’s your friend’s name?’

  ‘Gabby Hunter.’

  ‘Well, I’ll certainly check for you. What’s her address?’ The woman looked up at Hannah as she told her and gave her a tired smile. ‘It’s okay. The fire isn’t near the town centre. She may have just gone home.’

  Hannah gave a worried shrug and went back to Ling. ‘They won’t let us out. And they said they’ve checked the library.’

  ‘What do we do now?’ Ling looked pale.

  Hannah gave her a rough pat on the shoulder. ‘We’ll go and check anyway—if we can find a way out that isn’t too obvious.’ Hannah looked around. ‘Where’s Sean?’

  Ling pointed. ‘He found a friend from school and he’s gone over to chat with him.’

  Hannah looked at her brother, who was talking excitedly with his friend and spinning the gyroscope in front of them. The other boy’s father gave Hannah a wave and a thumbs-up signal. She waved back. ‘Looks like we don’t have to worry about him now.’

  A woman carrying ice-cold bottles of water and trays of sandwiches came around to the girls. They helped themselves and smiled at the woman as she went on to the next group of people. Hannah took a swig of her water and put the bottle down. She looked towards the main entrance, where something seemed to be happening. A harsh light flicked on.

  ‘It’s a news reporter,’ Ling said, standing up. ‘Let’s go check it out.’

  Hannah followed, a few paces behind.

  Most of the crowd had settled into their own space and so it didn’t take long for the girls to get to the entrance. A news reporter was chatting to one of the officials, and a man with an enormous camera resting on his shoulder stood alongside another man holding a coil of black cable and a microphone.

  ‘Fifteen seconds to live,’ the man with the cable called, adjusting his headphones.

  ‘Looks like we’re going to be on national news,’ Ling said.

  ‘Four, three…’ The man holding the cords counted down the last two numbers with his fingers.

  ‘This is Stephanie King reporting from the community centre in Teasdale, where most of the residents have gathered. In the last two hours the fire has changed direction and is now threatening the northwest section of the town. Firefighters are desperately hoping that the cool change, forecast for later today, comes in time to save houses and buildings on the outer edge of the town.

  ‘And in further bad news for Teasdale, a valuable artefact has been stolen during or just before the opening of the National Museum’s travelling Hidden Treasures exhibition at the local library. Emergency officials had to evacuate guests from the library when news came through of the wind change. It was only then that staff at the library realised that a rare gold brooch had gone missing. We’re hoping to get Patricia Hastings, the head librarian and the person who organised the exhibition, to talk with us soon.’

  Ling swung around, suddenly aware that she was standing alone.

  ‘Oh, no,’ she sighed. She looked in the direction of the officials, who were engrossed in the live broadcast happening alongside them. Hannah would have been able to slip out unnoticed. As the reporter continued, Ling edged closer to the door then quietly ducked out.

  ‘Hannah?’ she called, spying her friend running across the road. Hannah paused and waited for L
ing to catch up to her.

  ‘Sorry, Ling. It was a good chance to escape. No one was watching the door.’

  ‘Don’t worry, I’m getting used to it. First Gabby and now you. But this time, I’m not going to be left behind.’ Ling could feel the intense heat from the road as they scurried across to the shade of the path opposite.

  ‘The place is spooky,’ Ling said, as they turned left.

  ‘The place is deserted,’ Hannah retorted, shivering despite the sweltering heat. ‘I should have taken that water bottle.’

  ‘Here,’ said Ling, offering hers. Hannah’s face was flushed. ‘Slow down, Hannah. A few more minutes isn’t going to make any difference. This is not the sort of weather to be running around in.’

  ‘Yes, you’re right.’ Hannah paused to take a long drink from Ling’s water bottle. ‘Sorry,’ she muttered, handing back the almost empty bottle.

  ‘It’s okay, there’ll be taps around. The water just won’t be as cold.’

  They arrived at the library without anybody noticing them.

  ‘Gabby?’ Hannah called, pushing at the main doors.

  ‘Locked,’ Ling muttered. ‘Are there any other entrances?’

  ‘No, but hang on…’

  ‘Hannah? Where are you going?’ Ling watched her friend disappear behind some bushes to the left of the entrance. Sighing, she followed Hannah to the side of the building.

  ‘Amy,’ Hannah said, kneeling down in front of a metal grill.

  ‘Amy?’

  ‘She’s one of the librarians here. She leaves me new releases every now and again. It’s our special secret.’ Ling knew how much Hannah loved books and wasn’t surprised that she had some kind of special relationship with one of the librarians.

  ‘I don’t get it,’ Ling said, bending down to help Hannah remove the grill.

  ‘I collect the books from behind this grill here,’ Hannah panted, suddenly falling backwards, the air vent in her hand. ‘Look!’

  Ling peered into the space where the grill had come away. A small red tub was sitting on the floor. Inside it were two books. ‘No way,’ she gasped. ‘She’s got you Twilight.’