The Life You Left. Carmel Harrington

Art finished. ‘I’m sorry. I just can’t get my head around it all. She was my friend.’

      ‘That’s understandable.’ Sarah said with sympathy, wiping her own tears and this time, she moved to him and gently patted his arm in reassurance. ‘Do the kids know?’ The thought of Tommy and Katie having to deal with this was unbearable to her.

      ‘Not yet. We’re going to have an assembly in the morning to talk to them all. But we wanted to give the parents the option of telling them at home tonight first of all. It might be better if they are with you when they hear of it. We’ll have counsellors in the school all day tomorrow, it’s all organised. They can help the kids talk through how they feel.’

      She couldn’t take it in. A murder in her village and not only that, it was Katie’s teacher. This had to be the murder that Edward told her to prepare for. She needed to lean on Ella’s buggy for support once again.

      When the kids came out she gave them both an extra big hug. ‘Come on you two, let’s go home.’ Pushing Ella in her buggy, the four of them set off. When they arrived at home, James’s car was outside the house.

      ‘Hey you guys!’ he shouted to them all. Tommy practically knocked him down as he jumped into his arms. He hero-worshipped his Uncle James.

      ‘You’ve heard?’ James asked quietly.

      Sarah nodded and quickly glanced at the kids, letting James know that they didn’t know anything yet.

      James squeezed his sister’s shoulder. ‘Come on, kids, let’s go in and grab some juice.’

      Sarah went up to her bedroom to splash some water on her face. She needed to compose herself before she spoke to the children. How do you tell young children that their teacher has been murdered?

      Looking into her bedroom mirror, she felt like she’d aged decades in the past month, but her reflection hadn’t changed. She still looked the same old Sarah, sandy blonde hair with blue eyes. Edward appeared in the mirror, standing right behind her. A few days ago this would have made her scream with fright. Now, she welcomed his calming presence.

      ‘So Rachel is the young woman you talked about?’ Sarah said to him. He nodded in response, the pain she felt reflected in his eyes.

      ‘You never said it would be someone I knew. She was only twenty-four for God’s sake, a mere child herself!’

      ‘I know.’ Edward replied.

      ‘Where was her guardian angel? Why didn’t they save her?’ Sarah hissed at Edward.

      ‘It doesn’t work like that. We can’t stop that kind of force. We can’t stop death. Her angel did her best to warn her. She tried to make Rachel listen to her intuition that something wasn’t right. But she ignored it. But I promise you she was with Rachel right up till she died. And she’s still watching over her now.’ Edward had tears in his eyes.

      ‘How can I tell Katie? She loved Ms Finch. She’s making her Holy Communion this year and Ms Finch was helping her prepare for it. She’ll be devastated. Only last night she was practising her Communion walk.’ Sarah smiled sadly at the memory. Katie with her hands clasped in prayer, walking solemnly from one end of the hall to other.

      ‘Give me strength Edward, help me tell the children.’ Sarah pleaded.

      ‘They will be fine, as long as they have you Sarah. I’ll be right here by your side. Always am and always will be.’

      Sarah took a deep breath, trying to stop the tears from flowing that were prickling her eyes. ‘I still don’t know what I’m supposed to do to help. I don’t feel any different than I did a few days ago, except I can see and talk to you again.’

      ‘Just be prepared Sarah, take note of any strange things you can see in your mind’s eye. Trust your instincts because you have a great gift. You will see things that others won’t and I’m certain you will be able to help with Rachel Finch’s murder.’

      Sarah thought for a second about the dreams she’d been having lately. Were they the start of her gift? They didn’t make any sense and she really couldn’t see how she was supposed to help based on what she had dreamt. But she didn’t have the time to look into it now. Her priority right this minute was her children. Only they weren’t just hers; she needed her husband more than ever right now.

      She picked up her phone and quickly dialled Paul’s number. It went straight to voicemail. She took a deep breath and left a message.

      ‘I need you. The children need you. Please baby, call me. I’m begging you. Whatever is wrong, I can help make it better. Together we can get through anything. Remember? That’s what we always said. Once we are together, we can do anything. I love you…’ She hit end on the phone call quickly, before the tears overtook her. Lying down on their bed, she pulled the covers over herself, suddenly cold, her eyes never leaving the phone, willing it to ring.

      James was making Spaghetti Bolognese for their dinner when Sarah came downstairs ten minutes later. Ella was in her highchair, swinging her dolly by its leg around in the air, giggling at how clever she was. Every now and then she’d let out a high pitched scream which resulted in everyone around her laughing. The children were watching SpongeBob on TV.

      ‘Thanks James. You are a starbar!’ She shouted to her brother, as she walked through the kitchen. ‘Thought you had a date tonight?’

      ‘I do, but I’ve cancelled. This is more important. When I heard on the grapevine that a schoolteacher from here had been murdered, I thought I’d better get here quick.’

      ‘This is losing-my-fecking-mind-freaky.’

      James nodded in return. He knew the feeling; he felt the exact same way.

      ‘You know when Art first told me about Rachel, I got such a shock I didn’t think about Edward’s prophecy at all. And then it struck me and I nearly passed out. It was one thing having Edward telling me something would happen, but to actually be faced with it, it’s too much.

      James squeezed his sister’s hand. He didn’t know what to say.

      ‘Try not to think about that yet.’ James said. ‘I was talking to one of the lads in Wexford Gardaí station and they will be doing an autopsy today, so we’ll know more after that. No word on forensics yet either.’

      ‘How’s her dog?’ Sarah asked.

      ‘What dog?’ James answered in surprise.

      ‘I don’t know.’ Sarah answered looking confused. ‘A dog just popped into my mind. He looked pretty sick. I think he was Rachel’s dog.’

      They were both silent for a few minutes.

      ‘Ok. It’s going to take a while for me to get used to this.’ James said quietly. ‘I’m going to call my mate in the station and see if there was a dog.’ He punched a number into his iPhone and walked away.

      A few minutes later he was back. ‘Well, there was a dog.’ He said with his eyes nearly popping out of his head.

      ‘Oh feck.’ Sarah said.

      ‘Yep, feck.’ He echoed.

      ‘All I know so far about the murder is that she was on Ballyaislinn beach. The fact that her dog was with her indicates to me that she was taking him for a walk probably. Whether it was a random act of violence or premeditated they don’t know yet. Remember Roger, my mate from school, the guard? Well he’s on the case and will keep me posted.’

      ‘You never said how the dog was?’ Sarah asked again.

      ‘He died a few hours ago.’

      They both were silent again.

      The sound of the Bolognese sauce bubbling broke the silence. ‘Oh, you doing a Jamie Oliver?’ Sarah said nodding at James and the chopping board.

      James bowed as he answered, ‘But of course. No chance of a bit of parmesan lurking in that