Chapter 45
Present
Rae stopped at the supermarket just as Mr Singh was closing for the evening. She had no idea what to feed puppies whose eyes had not yet opened, but she settled with Mrs Singh’s approval on baby formula which appeared to have every added vitamin under the sun listed on the back of the pack.
She knew instantly as she turned into the square that something was wrong. Hugh Gilmore’s garda-marked car was parked opposite the hotel with the blue light flashing.
‘What’s happened?’ She screamed, leaping from the car and racing towards him.
‘I’m sorry Rae.’ He pointed towards the hotel. Now she could see it for herself. The ground floor, on one end of the building, was on fire. Through the windows, she could see flames licking up the curtains, smoke billowing out through the cracked open window.
‘Oh, God.’ She looked back at the car. Strangely, before even thinking of the damage to the hotel, she thought about the puppies. She had planned to go inside immediately and make up the formula for them. Now what?
‘Rae, Rae, oh, God…’ Blythe came running towards her. ‘I had no idea.’ She looked devastated, bereft, but Rae couldn’t fully take in what she was saying because Blythe wasn’t making any sense. ‘My Siggy. My poor, poor Siggy. I’ll never forgive myself. I can’t take it. I really can’t.’
‘Rae.’ Danial stood next to Blythe for a moment, he took her arm, pulled her slightly aside. ‘I think Siggy is inside.’ It was a whisper and yet, Rae felt as if it was so loud it shook her to the core.
‘She can’t be, she went home earlier…’
‘Maybe, but I saw her come back,’ he said then.
‘Hugh. Did you tell Hugh?’
‘He says we must wait for the fire engine. Have you got your keys?’ he asked, but he didn’t wait for her to answer.
Instead, she watched as his eyes darted to her abandoned car and then, before she could say another word, he sprinted towards it.
In grim fascination, she watched him, not quite sure what he was doing and at the same time, on some level, knowing she should stop him.
He pulled the keys from the ignition. Sorted through them in an instant and then he was racing towards the front door of the hotel.
He was like lightning. She never knew anyone to move so fast.
‘Here son, come back, you can’t do that, there’s a protocol…’ Hugh was labouring after him. ‘What’s his name again?’ He looked back between Rae and Blythe.
‘Danial. He’s Danial,’ Rae said softly. Oh God. What was happening?
‘He’s going into the hotel?’ Blythe turned towards Rae as if somehow one of them might make more sense of what was happening, than the other.
‘What happened?’ Rae looked at Blythe now. ‘No. Don’t tell me. It doesn’t matter, none of it matters anymore,’ Rae said and she knew it was the truth. If the whole place burned to the ground, it would be a relief at this point. She started to cry.
‘It’s alright, it’ll be alright.’ Hugh put his arm around her and said softly, ‘The insurance will cover any damage and…’ Then Hugh’s radio blared, and he pulled away from her.
Rae could hear it, voices muffled across the static. The fire brigade was on their way. They would be here in less than fifteen minutes.
A lot could happen in fifteen minutes.
‘Rachel.’ It was Mrs Singh from the shop. She was probably the only person in the whole village who called Rae by her proper name. ‘I…’ She smiled sadly and then Rae saw, she was holding the puppies. ‘I can take them back to the shop, look after them for you, until you’re…’ Her words trailed off.
‘Oh, Mrs Singh, thank you so much.’ Rae put her face down to the little pups again. They were sleeping now.
‘It’s the least I can do, I’m not going to be much help here standing about like…’ She looked around and then Rae noticed that half the village had turned out and were standing in the square, staring fixedly at the hotel, their expressions horrified.
‘You’re welcome to stay with us, also, you know when…’ she said kindly. Rae thought for a moment, it was a strange thing how in the very worst of times, you only then saw the very best of people.
‘Thank you, Mrs Singh,’ Rae said, although she wasn’t even sure if the woman heard her above all the noise around them as the fire brigade had just arrived on the square and now there was so much rushing about that it was hard to focus on what you were thinking, much less saying.
‘Did a kid run inside?’ one of the firemen asked her.
‘Yes. Danial. He went in through the front door. He’s looking for my niece… I…’ She could hardly speak.
‘Siggy? Kip’s kid?’ he said, and she nodded then, because it was as much as she could manage. With that, he took off and Rae watched as they set to work unwinding hoses and getting to grips with putting out the flames.
Out of the corner of her eye, Rae spotted Melissa Val and Kip standing on the edge of the green. She walked over to them, her legs so shaky she wasn’t sure how she was managing to put one in front of the other.
‘You heard?’ she said when she reached them.
‘I’m so sorry, your lovely hotel.’ Melissa stuck out her arms and pulled Rae towards her.
‘No. No, Melissa, not that…’ She mumbled, pulling away from her new friend. She looked into Kip’s eyes and from there into Melissa’s. ‘It’s Danial and Siggy…’
‘God no, no, no,’ Kip said, and she watched as he seemed to crumble into half his usual size before her eyes.
‘What my Danial and Siggy, what is it?’
‘Danial went inside to save Siggy, Melissa, I’m so sorry. I should have stopped him, but he was so fast, he just ran…’ She couldn’t of course, because she’d been reeling. Everything about this was wrong. And now, she watched as Kip scooped up Melissa as she seemed to lose her balance.
‘I’m fine,’ Melissa said, although she clearly was not fine. Kip held onto her because it looked as if she’d completely lost her balance. ‘Oh, God, my head is swimming.’ She staggered backwards again in shock.
‘It’s going to be okay,’ Kip said and somehow, Rae knew, they had to believe him.
‘I’ll be fine in a minute. It’s my blood pressure, the shock…
’ Melissa was saying, but her eyes had flooded with tears.
And Rae couldn’t help but think, this was all wrong, standing here with Kip, supporting Melissa while Blythe stood a little away, a spectral version of her usual self, grimly mesmerised by the flames engulfing the hotel.