The Problem

CHAPTER 38

CHARLIE

Walking to the hospital, I try my best to keep calm and not get too in my head. I remember Dana putting me as her emergency contact only recently because of this case. She has gotten really stressed and didn't want to lose her children.

When we walk in, I head to the reception and say her name to the nurse.

She types it up and frowns, "No one's came in here with that name. I'll go and check with our emergency list, one second."

Laura looks at me, "Is there any chance that this could be a set up?"

"I don't know."

The nurse comes back, "We don't have that name in this hospital. May I ask who contacted you?"

"It was an unknown number, a male."

She shrugs, "We only have the female nurses on the desk right now. Unless it was one of the paramedics but even then, we haven't had that name."

My blood starts boiling, then my phone vibrates. Checking it, I see an alert from the house. It's a security alert, an intruder alert?

Grabbing Laura, we leave the hospital and so I try to call Dana. But there's no answer, "I'm taking you to your mums. Stay there while I head to the house. We've just had an intruder alert."

Her brows raise, "At least call Mark to meet you there! Or let me dad come with you!"

"Fine."

As soon as we get to her parents, her dad hops in and Laura leaves after giving me a kiss and telling me to stay safe. The drive to our house is only an extra five minutes away but my palms are sweaty. As we get closer, I can see fire engines and lights everywhere.

"What the hell?!"

Laura's dad gasps, "You're house!"

We park up and I leap out, running towards the gate. An officer stops me as I was firefighters taming the fire which is roaring inside.

"Who are you?"

"I own this house! What the fuck has happened?"

The officer, who is over six foot and rough looking then pulls me aside. We wait for him to speak anxiously.

"We got a call about a break in from one of your neighbour about half an hour ago. When we got here, we watched someone drive away then the house was on fire. We got the reg number and have someone tracking it. Unfortunately when my partner tried to chase him, the car disappeared at a junction. The firefighters got here about a few minutes later and have been on it since."

I sigh, "So what am I meant to do next?!"

"For now, I'd suggest you wait till they are done then they will inform you with the best advice. I understand that you are unhappy right now but we will do whatever we can to find who did this. Has anything happened recently which could have caused this?"

"We got a phone call about an hour ago..."

LAURA

Rubbing my stomach, my mum passes me the cup of tea and sits beside me. We haven't heard from them at all which is worrying me.

"It's going to be okay, try not to stress too much."

"How am I going to try and do that? Charlie could be hurt! And dad!"

"But you and the baby are priority right now. If you're stressed, the baby will know and feel it. You know that."

I take a deep breath but then my phone starts to ring with a number I don't recognise. Answering it, I am shocked by the voice.