Chapter 52
Kate answered her phone. ‘Layla – I can’t hear you. What’s all that noise in the background?’ She thought they’d finished rehearsals and were on their way home.
‘What?’ Kate’s eyes went wide. ‘The theatre is on fire? Oh, god! Where’s George and Andy? At the art and craft shop? Oh, thank god. But is anyone inside the theatre? You don’t know? I’ll be right there.’
Claire said, ‘Did you just say the theatre is on fire?’
‘That’s what Layla said, Mum.’
‘Oh, god! Is Bridie there, in the theatre?’
‘Mum, I don’t know, Layla was hysterical. I could barely hear her. I thought they’d all finished rehearsals.’
Rufus walked into the kitchen, catching the word rehearsals. He raised his eyebrows. ‘Is there something you’re not telling me? Did Bridie get a job back in London?’
Kate exchanged a glance with her mum. ‘Mum – I need your car.’
‘I’m coming with you,’ said Claire, rushing after her out of the kitchen. They both grabbed their coats so quickly they nearly knocked the coat stand over.
Rufus stood in the kitchen doorway with a cup of tea, looking from one to the other. ‘What on earth is going on?’
‘There’s no time to explain, Rufus,’ Claire replied.
‘Then I’m coming with you.’
‘No!’
‘No?’ Rufus looked at his wife in astonishment. ‘I think I am.’
Kate was already out of the door, getting into the car on the driveway as Claire rushed outside. Kate opened the window and shouted, ‘Get in the car!’
‘Dad is coming too.’
‘Oh, god!’ said Kate, realising that Bridie would not be happy – although after what she’d heard from Layla, that was the least of their concerns.
Kate didn’t care about the theatre; all she wanted to know was that her sister was okay.
If they had all just left the rehearsals when the fire broke out, she wouldn’t put it past Bridie to run back in and try and save her precious theatre.
But it wasn’t worth her losing her life over.
With that thought, Kate intended to put her foot down and get to Aldeburgh as fast as she could.
‘Where did you say we’re going?’ Rufus asked from the front door.
Kate shouted, ‘Just get in the car – if you’re coming.’
‘Okey dokey.’
He seemed to take an age, getting his coat on and then strolling to the car as though they were going for a leisurely jaunt on a Sunday afternoon.
Kate had had the impulse to leave him behind, but if something had happened to Bridie …
She didn’t want to think about that.
She exchanged a glance with her mum, who was sitting beside her. They seemed to share a silent understanding that now was not the time to tell her dad what they’d all been keeping from him. He’d find out soon enough.
As soon as he was in the car, Kate put her foot down and skidded out of the driveway on to the road through the village, kicking up gravel in her wake.
‘Slow down!’ Rufus barked from the back seat, holding on for dear life. ‘This is not how you were taught to drive!’
Kate did slow down through the village. It was a single-track road, and anybody could be out cycling or walking their dog.
Rufus said, ‘Now, will you please tell me where we are all off to in such a hurry?’
Claire turned in her seat to look at him. ‘The Little Theatre by the Sea.’
‘The Little Theatre by the Sea? Why on earth are we going to that old dilapidated theatre?’
Bridie ran along the promenade, her friends following behind, Mabel and Marjorie trying their best to keep up.
Mabel shouted, ‘We’ll meet you there.’
Bridie could see two fire engines up ahead parked on the promenade outside the theatre, and worse still, as she neared there was the distinct smell of acrid smoke.
Bridie shouted out, ‘Oh, no, no, no!’ There was already a crowd gathering. She could see firefighters up ahead barring bystanders from getting any closer to the theatre.
One of the fire crew spotted Bridie and her entourage running down the promenade towards them. He held out his arms. ‘Stop!’
‘Please let me through. I own that theatre.’
‘I don’t care if you own the whole town, nobody is getting any closer.’
‘I need to know what’s going on – how bad is it?’
There was an ambulance there too. She cast her glance at her friends. Mabel and Marjorie were still purposefully marching down the promenade.
Bridie eyed them all. ‘We didn’t leave anybody behind in the theatre, did we, when rehearsals finished?’
Oliver shook his head. ‘No, I made sure everyone had left before you locked up.’
‘Everyone who was there for the rehearsal,’ Bridie said.
Oliver looked at her. They both knew what she meant. He cocked his head in the direction of the ambulance. ‘You know what they say about people who play with fire …’
They’re going to get burned, thought Bridie. ‘Please, don’t say that.’ She cast her gaze over to the ambulance too.
‘Sorry,’ Oliver apologised. ‘I’m just so angry. I can’t believe Jack would take it this far …’
Bridie couldn’t believe it either – but the proof was right in front of them; her theatre was on fire.
‘There was no one in the theatre, apart from the saboteur,’ said Mabel breathlessly as she muscled her way in to the front.
‘The what?’ the fire officer turned a surprised gaze on Mabel.
‘The person who has been trying to sabotage the theatre.’
‘Are you saying you think the fire was started deliberately?’
Bridie suddenly wondered if Jack had gone there himself, rather than sending someone else, determined to put an end to the theatre.
Her anxiety was rising. As much as she wanted Jack to have his comeuppance for doing this, she didn’t want it like this – for something to have happened to him.
She might have acknowledged now that she wasn’t in love with him, if she ever had been, but they still had a history; he was her friend, and despite everything, she still had it in her heart to forgive him. She just wanted him to be all right.
‘Did you find a guy inside?’ she asked, her heart thudding in her chest.
‘Yeah, how did you know?’
Bridie exchanged a glance with Oliver.
The fireman said, ‘He was already here, called the fire brigade, and did just what we told him not to, which was go inside a burning building.’
‘Did you just say he called the fire brigade?’ Bridie asked.
‘Yes, and he told us there was somebody else still in the building.’
‘His accomplice,’ Mabel said.
Bridie said, ‘This doesn’t make sense. Why would he call you?’
‘To put out the fire, obviously,’ said the fireman, ‘but first we had to go in and rescue him, and the other person who was inside, who he was trying to rescue. That’s why we tell people on no account go into a burning building.
You’re just going to make our life harder and potentially become another casualty. ’
Bridie was not enjoying what felt like a lecture from the fireman. All this wasn’t her fault.
‘Mind you, if it wasn’t for him, the whole place would have been burned to the ground, and that would have been the end of the theatre.’
‘This guy,’ said Oliver, ‘Can you describe him?’
‘I can do better than that. He’s sitting over there.’ He pointed to an ambulance with its doors wide open.
Oliver exchanged a glance with Bridie. They peered past the fireman to the inside of the ambulance.
‘It’s Jack!’ Oliver and Bridie announced together.
Bridie had the impulse to rush over and check he was all right. Oliver must have guessed. He reached out and placed a gentle hand on her arm, shaking his head.
‘Damn foolish thing to do, go into a burning building,’ the fireman continued. ‘But he saved the day.’
‘Who – him?’ said Bridie.
‘As I said, it’s lucky he called the fire brigade and we managed to contain it to that one room. Smells a bit smoky in there, I’m afraid.’
‘Do you hear that?’ said Reggie, slapping his thigh. ‘The theatre is saved. Praise the heavens. Hallelujah!’
Bridie did not feel like praising the heavens. What was Jack’s game? She pointed and said adamantly, ‘He started it.’
The fireman turned on his heel to where she was pointing. As soon as he saw Jack, he turned back. ‘He did not start it, I can assure you.’
Bridie narrowed her eyes. ‘How do you know?’
‘It was the woman he saved.’ He motioned at an older lady, perhaps her parents’ age. She was also sitting in the back of the ambulance, a hospital blanket over her shoulders.
‘She told us that she’d been heating a kettle on a two-ring gas hob, and the naked flame set alight a curtain hung across the room. If it wasn’t for that guy hearing her cries for help – she’d be a goner for sure, and so would your theatre.’
Bridie stared at the ambulance. ‘Who is she?’
‘She hasn’t spoken, but the hero of the hour thinks she’s your squatter.’
‘My … what?’