from the cab and was on his knees beside her. Charlie had died instantly and Luke, knowing this, removed his anorak and laid it over his face.
An ambulance was on its way, she told him. So were the gardai and the fire brigade. He nodded, too stunned to respond. She took him in her arms and was washed in his tears.
‘Jack saw everything,’ she whispered. ‘I have to go back to him.’
She left him weeping over Charlie’s body and ran towards the house. Thankfully, Jack was not standing at the window but her relief was short-lived when she was unable to enter the bedroom. He must have collapsed – she refused to think of a worse scenario – and his body was on the floor.
When she thumped on the door and called his name, he gave a low moan. ‘Jack, can you hear me?’ she shouted.
He moaned again and the door gave way slightly.
‘Are you able to move even a little bit more?’ she asked.
She heard a dragging noise, accompanied by more moans. At least he had some mobility and enough consciousness to understand her. She squeezed through the narrow space that opened up and found him breathing heavily as he continued to drag himself across the floor. He must have been trying to leave his bedroom when he collapsed. No bones had been broken in his fall but his breathing alarmed her, as did his low blood pressure. To her relief, he was able to stand unsteadily and rest on his bed until the second ambulance arrived.
‘I heard him… I always hear him…’ She managed to decipher his croaking words.
‘Hush, hush,’ she said. ‘Save your energy. The ambulance is here. You’re going to be all right, Jack.’
He was still muttering to himself when she ran downstairs to open the front door. He quietened down when the paramedics entered his bedroom. They were grim and efficient, no joking this time, though it was the same team as before. The reality of Charlie’s death lay heavily on everyone. Jack’s phone lay on the floor. She checked the last phone call he had received then shoved it into her pocket.
Victor had already arrived in his jeep. He must have heard the crash from his house and was insisting on accompanying his uncle to hospital. Emma, the paramedic with the buzz haircut, was arguing with him. She understood his distress but the only person who could accompany Jack in the ambulance was his nurse. Her formidable tone silenced his protests but his distress was apparent as Emma stood aside for Sophy to mount the steps.
She held Jack’s hands as the ambulance hurtled along the country road. Victor followed closely behind. The second ambulance with Charlie’s body, watched over by Luke, had no need to rush.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Isobel
A piper walked slowly along Upper Main Street at the head of the funeral procession. The swirling, lonely wail of his pipes reminded Isobel of her grandmother’s funeral. Those walking behind the piper carried Charlie’s coffin on their shoulders. It was comforting to know that it had been woven by those who loved him from the reeds she had discovered in the boathouse. One of the bearers was Tina Bracken, Kelly’s mother. Today, she was a mourner, not an undertaker. Kelly, walking behind the wicker coffin, kept her hand on it the whole time. She had shaved off her hair. Her eyes looked enormous and her ears reminded Isobel of pixies.
Maddie had had a shaving-off-her-hair party before she started chemo. Isobel remembered how her father had gently run the clippers across her scalp.
The urge to cry swept over her. She should be used to those sudden waves by now yet they always took her by surprise. Was her father also remembering? He stared straight ahead and his bleak expression reminded her of the first time he came to Clonmoore. A Saturday Dad who wanted to make everything all right again.
Kelly Bracken had not been on the school bus for the last three mornings. Isobel took no pleasure at having the seat to herself. She knew what the pupils were whispering. It was the same accusation that Victor made when he came to Hyland Hall after Charlie died. He called her father a murderer. It was all his fault that the wall collapsed. He said that Charlie’s blood was on her father’s hands because he had not followed health and safety regulations. Isobel had listened outside the music room to him shouting at her mother and accusing her of