Jack rolled his eyes. Of course, after all that, he wouldn’t even get to be the one to tell them.

23. Alexa

They were all crowded together, hanging out of the window now, watching the fire engine motoring up their street. Rokeby Close was a long road, and number 49 was in the very middle. There were a few trees lining the pavements – big, ancient, lumbering things with thick papery trunks – urban oaks, peeling and unhealthy. The fire engine looked comically large for their street, the cars lining the road like toys.

‘Wait, is it stopping here?’ Ellen was leaning so far out of the skylight that her voice sounded far away. ‘Is it coming for us?’

Ben was doing the same. ‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘But it’s certainly coming this way.’ He took a deep breath, and cupped his mouth. ‘HEY! UP HERE!’

Alexa couldn’t fit into the frame, so tried instead to wave at the fire engine over their shoulders.

‘Oh my God, it is,’ Ellen said. ‘It’s stopping right outside the house.’ It parked up and three firemen tumbled from the truck, dressed in T-shirts and fireproof trousers and, of course, the familiar sunshine-yellow helmets. One of them slapped the other on the shoulder. They closed the doors of the fire truck. The third fireman was carrying what looked like an axe. Alexa felt a powerful rush of relief.

Jack started to say something. ‘Yes, well, I’ve sort of been expecting them –’

But before he could go any further, Ben interrupted. ‘HEY!’ he hollered again, at the top of his voice. ‘WE’RE UP HERE!!’

Alexa looked at Jack, quizzically. He appeared to quail a little under her scrutiny and, instead of finishing what he had to say, concerned himself with peering out of the window at the fire engine too.

The firemen had clocked the four of them.

One of them gave the housemates a wave. ‘WE’LL BE WITH YOU IN A SECOND!’

‘THANKS!’ Ellen shouted. ‘Look at them,’ she breathed.

They watched as two of the men paused on the front path. Suddenly, there was a loud crack that they could all hear from the top floor.

‘Oh my God. The front door,’ Ellen moaned. ‘They must have smashed the front door down. We are definitely not getting the security deposit back now.’

‘Yes, but we’re also being rescued,’ Ben pointed out. ‘How else were they going to get in – wait for the locksmith, who’s never coming?’ He stepped back from the skylight. ‘Christ, imagine being so stacked that you could smash a door down with your shoulder.’ He appraised his own biceps.

They did not have time to imagine this as, almost immediately, they heard the stomping of heavy boots on the main staircase, and then the narrower stairs that led up to the attic itself.