‘But Josh has fallen up a tree!’
Jo mouthed an apology to Laurie and squatted on her heels next to the child. ‘Which tree, Lisa? Has Josh fallen down?’
‘No. Up! Over the stream.’
None of that made any sense to Laurie, but it clearly did to Jo. She straightened up suddenly, looking around and waving to a couple to catch their attention.
‘Run to Mum and Dad, Lisa. Now, please.’
As Lisa scampered away, Jo’s face took on a look of urgent concern. ‘Would you fetch Ross, please, Laurie? I’m going to see what’s happened.’
Jo hurried away as fast as her heels would allow her on the grass. Laurie ran towards Ross, catching his arm to drag his attention away from the Marshalls.
‘Jo needs you. Something about a kid falling up a tree by the stream?’
‘What?’ Ross apparently knew what that meant too, and he set off at a run, leaving the Marshalls staring open-mouthed after him.
‘Sorry.’ Laurie shot them an apologetic look. ‘We’ll be back...’
She followed Ross. He’d overtaken Jo, who was now running barefoot, and Laurie set her gaze on his back and ran, feeling her hip complain as she picked up speed. That wasn’t important right now. Ross and Jo’s reactions had left no room for doubt that something was badly wrong, and that a child was in danger.
Ross skirted the corner of the school building and Laurie followed him. Up ahead she could see a small knot of children pressed against a plastic mesh fence that bordered the edge of the school playing field. And beyond that...
A little boy seemed to be hanging upside down from the branch of a huge tree that overhung a stream. He was screaming, a mixture of fear and pain in his voice.
Ross had already reached the fence and was clearing the children to one side, looking up at the plastic mesh, obviously wondering if he could clamber up it. But the fence was obviously designed to deter climbers and afforded no footholds. Laurie put on a spurt of speed, and as she reached him he was bending down to the children.
‘How did he get in?’
One little boy’s hand shot up. ‘He crawled under it. There.’
Ross looked round, and Laurie saw that the fence had been cut at the bottom. She might be able to wriggle through, but she doubted it. She bent down to try, but the hole was too small.
‘That’s not going to work...’
Ross knelt down, digging with his hands at one side of the hole, and uncovering a steel spike that was driven into the ground, holding the bottom of the fence down. That would do it. If they could just free a bit more, they could get under. She started to dig on the other side of the hole.
‘Steady. These are driven in pretty hard...’ He gripped the curved top of the spike and heaved, expelling a grunt of effort as it came free.
His words didn’t sting, the way they once would have. Laurie cleared the earth and found another spike, giving it a tentative pull. It was driven deep into the earth and it didn’t move.
‘Will you give this one a try?’
Ross grinned, but didn’t say anything. He heaved the spike up, and Laurie set about uncovering a third one.
‘Is that going to do it?’
Ross glanced at the fence. ‘One more, on the other side. See if you can find it while I get this one up.’
Laurie cleared more earth while Ross concentrated on getting the spikes out of the ground. Jo had arrived, barefoot and gasping for breath, and was speaking into her phone as she herded the children away from the fence.
‘Can you get under there?’ Ross pulled the fence up as far as it would go, and Laurie wriggled underneath it. He was a tighter fit, and she had to put all her weight into pulling the edge of the fence out of the way.
The boy had seen them coming and was quieter now. Either that or he was beginning to suffer the effect of inversion asphyxia, but that would be unusual unless he’d been hanging there for hours. There was a tangle of ropes hanging from a large tree branch that hung over the river, and one of his feet was caught up in it. Ross was quickly taking in the situation.
‘I’ll wade out and see if I can reach him.’
‘Yeah, okay. It looks as if I can get up the tree, but if the branch goes we’re in a whole world of trouble.’ The idea of the wide, heavy bough crashing down on top of both Ross and the boy didn’t bear thinking about.