A Place Of Safety Read Online Free PDF

regain his footing from the recoil of the gun and the panic that had clearly grabbed him. A kid was down. One of the boarders.
    Someone screamed, then someone else, and soon the air was teeming with the horrified cries of parents surging from the sidelines towards their boys.
    ‘Stop,’ the boy screamed, but they ignored him and swarmed forward.
    The boy pointed his weapon towards them. ‘Stop.’
    ‘Everyone stay still,’ Jack shouted.
    One of the dads reached out to his son, caked in mud and weeping.
    ‘I said be still. Now.’
    Everyone froze. Silence fell, punctuated only by the muffled sobs of the injured boy.
    Jack opened his arms, his palms to the sky, and approached the girl.
    ‘I’m the police,’ he said. ‘Put down the gun.’
    She panted hard. Her body convulsed. Her arms could barely hold up the gun, yet she kept it trained on a boy in the crowd. His eyes were wide in his freckled face. Not so arrogant now.
    ‘Put down the gun,’ Jack said.
    She shook her head.
    Jack held out his hand. ‘Please.’
    He laid his hand under the gun and wondered if he was about to die.
    He held his breath.
    She dropped it into his palm.
    Slowly, very slowly, Jack turned towards the other assailant. ‘And you too, son.’
    The boy laughed. It was harsh. ‘Do you know what they did?’
    Jack glanced towards the group of boarders. ‘Why don’t you put the gun down and tell me?’
    ‘She knows,’ said the boy, pointing the gun at Lilly.
    Jack heard the sharp intake of her breath and terror coursed through him.
    ‘But she said nothing would be done.’ He looked at Lilly with pure venom. ‘That the police would do nothing.’
    Jack inched between the gun and Lilly until his chest was in the firing line.
    ‘Maybe she was wrong,’ said Jack.
    The boy shook his head and wheeled the gun back towards the boarders, his sights on the largest. The redhead.
    ‘This piece of shit does not deserve to live,’ he spat.
    A stain spread across the redhead’s groin. ‘Don’t shoot me.’
    ‘Put the gun down,’ Jack shouted.
    The boy shook his head again. Almost imperceptible, but Jack caught it. There was a shift. Conversation was at an end.
    Jack watched the boy’s finger touch the trigger as if in slow motion. He knew what he had to do. He raised the gun in his own hand, conscious of its weight, its girth. He closed his eyes and discharged two rounds. When he let the light in, the boy lay on the ground. His shoulder gaped, blood and bone splattered over his overalls. An ugly wound, enough to disarm him, not fatal. But the boy didn’t move until Jack turned his lifeless head and saw the second wound, clean and perfect at the left-hand side of his temple.
    ‘Are you okay?’
    Lilly stood in the doorway of her cottage, bewildered.
    Penny Van Huysan stood in the dusky shadows and pushed her carefully highlighted hair behind her ears.
    ‘Are you okay?’ she repeated gently.
    Penny was another Manor Park parent. She was girly, giggly and chichi. She knew what everyone’s husband did for a living and could spot a Christian Louboutin pump at two hundred yards—yet she chose to spend her time with Lilly rather than the other Yummy Mummies.
    They had formed a bond during the Kelsey Brand case, when Lilly’s life imploded and Penny had proved an unlikely form of support. She was flanked by Luella, who had all Penny’s shallowness but none of her charm or compassion.
    ‘Lilly?’ said Penny. ‘Can you hear me?’
    When Lilly didn’t reply Penny and Luella exchanged glances and ushered her inside.
    ‘Is Jack here?’ asked Penny.
    Lilly shook her head.
    Penny ran a glass of water and pushed Lilly into a chair. Lilly gulped it down. She hadn’t even realised she was thirsty.
    ‘He had to go back to the station, to explain what happened.’
    ‘And what did happen? People are saying a gang from the hostel tried to shoot everyone?’ said Luella.
    ‘No, no,’ said Lilly. ‘There were two, a boy and a girl, just