‘Bodies are brought here, wrapped in blankets. Before we arrived, the police were cleaning them to get identification from the parents. We’ve managed to get the coroner’s permission to treat the bodies without post mortems, thank God. We’ve set up a couple of stations in the vestry and a couple more in the other chapel down the road. We wash them, get them identified, treat and coffin them. Then they’re moved to the other chapel.’ Jimmy still has his hand on William’s shoulder, but he’s talking to a spot on the ground a few feet ahead of them. William tries to concentrate; there won’t be time for questions later. ‘Our biggest challenge is the slurry. It’s like tar and all you’ve got is soap and cold water. Just do the best you can.’ Jimmy rakes a hand through his red hair. ‘Now listen, William – it is William, isn’t it?’ William nods again. ‘The help we can give these people is not complicated. We do our job. We do it well, we do it quickly and we leave. We’re not priests, or friends or family. We’re embalmers. Keep your head down and your heart hard. That’s your kindness.’ He squeezes William’s shoulder. ‘Got it?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘One other thing.’

‘Yes, sir?’ William wants to get on with it. If he doesn’t start soon, the desire to run might overwhelm him.

‘There’s a concern that more slag might come down. Especially if this rain carries on. If you hear the alarm, you get the hell out. Understand?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Right then, let’s go to it.’

They return to the chapel entrance, watched intently by the line of women.

In the chapel gloom, William can just make out cocooned shapes; on the pews, upstairs and downstairs. Compared to the lofty, stained-glassed majesty of his chorister chapel it seems ludicrous that this simple building can even share the same name. They could have as many embalming stations as they wanted in there, and the choir could still practise without getting in the way.

‘The bodies recovered first were relatively intact and most of those have been identified, embalmed and coffined,’ Jimmy says. ‘Now it’s getting harder. That forty-foot pile of slag hit the school at one hell of a speed, so they’re not just covered in it. You can imagine, with that sort of impact …’

William glances round at the blanketed bundles, guessing there must be over fifty. ‘How many more to be rescued?’

‘Don’t know exactly’ – Jimmy walks through to the vestry and William follows – ‘but there were a hundred and sixteen children missing overall, plus adults.’