‘Get . . . phone . . .’ Milly took a breath and tried to get the words out. She couldn’t. Her heart was racketing in her chest and she kept seeing that fireball, the charred remains of the Jet Ranger dropping into the lake. She clutched a hand to her heart, tried to steady herself. ‘Get an ambulance. And the fire brigade,’ she managed to get out, her voice quivering. Her face was bleached of all colour. ‘Dad’s helicopter. It’s crashed.’

There was only one electric buggy, and that was already down at the helipad. So after he’d called the ambulance and the police, Harlan ran, and so did Milly. They were joined by Terry Barton and Jill, then by Belle. Then Nipper showed up, and Ludo and Paul and Peter. They all went full-pelt over the lawns and down past the orchard and then to the lake.

In the centre of it, smoking, hissing, metal popping as it cooled in the brackish water, crackling as the electrics shorted out, was the wreckage of the Jet Ranger. Inside, there were two blackened, twisted things. Formless. Not human. Not recognizable as such, anyway. Charlie and Nula.

When Milly saw the things inside the ruined aircraft, she started to scream. Nipper and Ludo started forward, about to wade in, but Terry stopped them.

‘It ain’t safe,’ he said. ‘The thing might blow again.’

Ludo and Nipper stumbled to a halt. Everyone took a pace back, away from the water.

Harlan turned a furious face on his father’s right-hand man. Milly was shrieking her head off. ‘My parents are in there!’ Harlan roared.

‘There’s nothing to be done,’ said Terry. He looked pale, haggard. ‘We got to wait for the fire brigade.’

‘What the fuck happened?’ demanded Harlan. ‘Christ, Milly, will you shut up?’

Milly was wailing in anguish, her eyes locked on the downed craft. Belle stepped forward and enfolded Milly in a hug. ‘Shush honey, shush,’ she said unsteadily, and Milly’s screams died to wrenching sobs.

Harlan looked over at Terry. ‘You’re supposed to stop things like this happening.’

It was Jill who spoke up in her husband’s defence. ‘How could he stop that?’ she demanded. ‘The damned thing crashed. How could Terry have stopped that?’

Away in the distance, there came the blare of a siren. It was coming closer.

‘Help’s nearly here,’ said Belle to a shuddering Milly. But she looked again at the downed aircraft and thought that this situation was already beyond help.

Charlie and Nula Stone were, without a doubt, dead.

94

Only a couple of months since they’d buried Beezer, and here they were again. But not burying, not this time. Cremating. ‘Poor fuckers were cremated anyway,’ said Ludo loudly, and Harlan told him to shut the fuck up and show some respect, but he was smiling – smiling – as he did so.