Текст книги "The Lake House"

Автор книги: Helen Phifer

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Текущая страница: 19 (всего у книги 20 страниц)

Then he looked up and saw Megan standing by the open cellar door. He knew she was luring him down there, but he also knew that was where Annie was. He was torn between who to help first, but the old woman began to shuffle over to Will, so Jake ran after Megan. She was grinning at him, which made his blood boil. He lurched for her, but instead of catching hold of her arm he pushed her and she teetered on the top step before falling backwards in slow motion, her arms waving around in the air as she tumbled all the way down into the blackness at the bottom. As she hit the last concrete step a loud snap echoed around the cellar and Jake knew that she was dead, but he didn’t care. It was nothing more than she deserved.

He ran down the steps into the blackness and stopped when he saw Henry crouched on the floor with a semi-conscious Annie in his arms. Jake moved and Henry lifted the knife so he could see in the muted light. He looked over at Megan whose neck was bent at a strange angle with her unblinking eyes staring at something he’d never see. Realising she was dead, Henry cried out to her, then forced himself to take control. He looked at Jake, who was frozen to the floor, staring at something that was moving behind Henry. Henry didn’t dare look away from Jake in case he made a move. Henry bent down and tenderly kissed Annie, then raised his knife ready to slit her throat.

***

Cathy parked next to the van and they both ran towards the open kitchen door. She took in the scene that greeted her and paled at the sight of Will lying there bleeding out on the floor with the old woman whose house it was tied up, but trying her best to stop the bleeding. Kav scooped Martha from the floor, sitting her down on a chair.

‘Go find Annie. I’ve got this.’

Kav nodded then turned and ran for the cellar door. Before he got there the most terrible sound he’d ever heard filled the stairs and hall and he felt his bladder loosen. There was a human scream this time, which made his feet move as he took the stairs two at a time, ready to rip Henry Smith’s head off. But as he got to the bottom he didn’t understand what he was seeing. Henry Smith was fighting with something that looked like a giant man, only it wasn’t. Its sharp claws were slashing at his body, drawing blood.

Jake snapped into action, running to scoop Annie up in his arms and pull her away from whatever it was. Kav stood next to him. ‘What is that thing?’

‘I don’t know, but I think now’s the time to leave.’ Jake ran up the stairs first as fast as he could, with Annie thrown over his back.

Kav was pushing him, screaming, ‘Go, go, go.’ As Jake reached the landing he stumbled out into the light with her. Kav was halfway up. He couldn’t move. The thing had just drawn its long, sharp claws across Henry Smith’s throat and Henry collapsed towards it, the hot, coppery smell of blood filling the air. He looked over at Megan’s body, shrugged his shoulders and ran up behind Jake in case the thing came after him. He didn’t care that Henry and Megan might not be dead. He wasn’t about to risk his life to go and check on either of them. He slammed the cellar door shut and threw all the bolts across.

Annie clung on to Jake. ‘Is it over?’

He hugged her back tightly. ‘I think so.’

Then he carried her into the kitchen where she locked eyes with the ashen figure of Will on the floor and Cathy with a mound of blood-soaked towels in her hands, trying to stem the bleeding. Annie screamed and untangled herself from Jake’s arms. Still light-headed, she tripped and fell to the floor, crawling the last few feet to Will.

‘No. Please, Will, open your eyes. Please, you have to open your eyes, Will. Don’t you leave me here on my own.’ She cradled his head in her arms while Cathy was pressing down with all her strength on the wound in his side.

‘Please God, where’s the ambulance? Tell me there’s one on its way.’

Cathy nodded at her and they heard the sirens coming closer. Jake ran out down the gravel drive to the gateway to flag it down.

Annie bent down and kissed Will’s lips. ‘Come on, Will, it’s over. We did it. Henry’s dead. Open your eyes.’

Will’s eyes fluttered open; he took one look at his wife and smiled before losing consciousness once more. The paramedics rushed in and began to work on him. Jake took hold of Annie and pulled her away.

‘Come on, let the experts do their job.’

He pulled her close and held her while she sobbed.

Kav untied Miss Beckett. ‘Are you okay? Did they hurt you?’

‘I’m fine apart from a bruised head and a cold bottom; I hope that young man is going to be okay. What on earth were they thinking? I’ve never seen anything so horrific in my life as the way that young woman stuck that knife into him as if he was nothing.’

‘I don’t know. It’s hard to say what makes people behave like that, but at least they won’t be hurting anyone else.’

‘Why, where are they now?’

‘In your cellar.’

The fear on her face told Kav that this frail old woman knew something about whatever the thing down there was, and he sat down opposite her.

‘I saw something in the cellar, but to be truthful I have no idea what it was, except that it was absolutely terrifying. Do you know anything about it?’

She nodded her head. ‘You saw it and you’re still alive to tell the tale? You are a very lucky man, officer. I don’t know what it is but it has lived in the sewers and drains under this house for a very long time. It took my little brother in 1930 and we never saw him again. Tell me, did it hurt those two evil bastards? Pardon my language.’

‘The girl fell down the steps and broke her neck, but the man…’

Kav wasn’t sure what to say. He had a feeling he shouldn’t be saying anything, but the look on her face was imploring him to speak, so he did. Jake had also seen it, and he wasn’t sure if Annie had been conscious at the time, but that was three of them.

‘The man got into a fight with it. There was a lot of blood, but I think the creature may have killed him. I don’t know about whatever it was, because the last I saw of them they had collapsed in a heap of blood and gore.’

Martha crossed herself and held her hands together to say a prayer, and then she looked at him.

‘I have spent my entire life a prisoner in this house, terrified of that cellar and the thing that lived within it, yet I couldn’t sell up and move away. I couldn’t put another family through what I’ve been through. It wasn’t right. I hope to God that it’s dead so I may finish off my days without living in complete fear.’

‘Well, we’ll find out for sure in the next couple of hours. I’m afraid it’s going to be a long night for you, Miss Beckett. We will need to bring in an armed team of response officers to secure your cellar and remove the bodies. I think you might be best going to the hospital and getting checked out. At least you’ll be well away from it.’

‘That’s very kind of you, but I have to be here. I need to know if it has come to some harm, or whether it escaped.’

There was some noise as the paramedics decided they had stabilised Will enough to take him out to the waiting ambulance and blue-light him through to the nearest hospital, where the surgical team was on standby to take him into theatre. Annie insisted on going in the back of the ambulance with Will. The paramedics had told her she should follow with Jake, but she wasn’t having any of it. ‘I promise I won’t get in the way. I can’t leave him. He’d never leave me if it was the other way around.’

Jake helped her to get inside then jumped straight back out. ‘I’ll meet you up there, Annie.’ He slammed the doors and watched as it drove away, sirens and lights flashing.

Cathy looked at him. She was covered in Will’s blood. ‘Is it over, Jake?’

He nodded. ‘Yes, it’s over. We might finally be able to start living our lives again.’

‘What about Will?’

‘He’ll be fine. He’s probably going for the sympathy card. How many times have we had to watch him fretting over Annie? He’s probably getting his own back.’

Jake winked at her. Even though his stomach was a bag of nerves, he wouldn’t let her see just how scared he was for his friend. ‘Are you coming to the hospital?’

‘Not yet. I’d better wait for the troops to come and clear up this big, bloody mess we’ve made. I can’t leave Kav on his own to deal with it all. He’ll want to go to the hospital to see how Will is as soon as he can.’

‘Thanks, boss. I don’t know what we’d have done without you.’

She laughed. ‘Probably exactly the bloody same. You lot are giving me stomach ulcers, I’m telling you now. I want a nice peaceful life after this is all over. Try and get that into Annie’s head, will you, Jake?’

Kav walked outside. He wrapped an arm around her waist.

‘Now can you wonder why I was so desperate to ship her up to you? I was hoping that she wouldn’t get into too much trouble up here. Sorry about that.’

‘You crafty old bugger. Yes, I do understand, but I’ll tell you something; there’s something about Annie we all love, including the local psychos, and if you hadn’t sent her to me I wouldn’t have found out that you might just be the man of my dreams.’

Jake clapped. ‘Aw, I love a good love story. Right, I’m off. I want to make sure Will doesn’t flake out and leave me to deal with Annie on my own for the rest of my life. I love her, but I don’t need this much stress every few months.’

He winked at them and got into his car, switching on the blue lights so he could catch up with the ambulance. In fact, he’d give the bloody thing an escort to the hospital to make sure they all got there in one piece at the same time.

31 December 1931

It had been a whole year since Joe had gone into the cellar and never come back out. Martha had grown up more in the last twelve months than any young girl her age should have to. She had been watching for the monster, but that day in June had been the last she had seen of it.

The next day in the kitchen she’d heard Mary gossiping to Lucy about someone falling into the lake. No one could find the body, even though it hadn’t been long before the alarm had been raised. Martha didn’t say anything to them, but she knew they never would find the body of whoever had been so unfortunate. The body had been dragged through the maze of tunnels and sewers to wherever the monster lived and slept. Martha hoped, no prayed, that whatever it was had gone to sleep for a very long time like Arthur had told her.

Each night she would creep down and listen at the cellar door to see if she could hear it scurrying around on the cold, limestone floor, its sharp claws clickety-clacking as it tried its best to get into the house. The first few times, Martha had heard nothing but the pounding of her heart as the blood rushed around her body; the fear had been so strong. But when she listened night after night and there was nothing but silence, no scratching and no tinkling of the jack-in-the-box, she began to feel braver. She knew that the monster thing would kill her if it got the chance, but a part of her had died the night Joe had gone anyway, and she wondered if it would be so bad. At least she would be back with Joe and they could play together again. No child should have to feel as lonely as she had done this last year.

There was no party tonight like there had been every other year that she could remember. The staff had all been given the night off and Martha’s mother had taken to her room earlier, crying and sobbing. Her father had promised he would play a game of snakes and ladders with her, which would be nice, but he was obviously torn between comforting his wife and his daughter. Such a harsh life lesson on divided loyalties was another thing that no child should ever have to learn.

She had gone downstairs to listen at the cellar door because she could hear the muffled voices of her parents as they argued. She felt guilty because they were no doubt arguing about her. For a heart-stopping moment she thought she heard a scraping sound coming from the cellar below, but then the back door slammed shut, making her jump away from the door to see a windswept Davey come inside.

‘Good evening, miss, what are you doing down here all on your own?’

‘I was just…I was just listening.’

Davey nodded. ‘I see. And what were you listening for?’

‘I don’t really know. My brother, I suppose. You know what day it is, don’t you?’

‘I do indeed. That’s why I came back to see if you were all right. I could never forget what day it is, young Martha.’

She nodded her head. ‘Good. I’m glad you won’t forget and I’m glad that you came back. It’s so sad and lonely here now.’

‘I know. This isn’t the same house, is it?’

‘Davey, did you see it? I heard Father say that he sent you down into the tunnels to look for Joe and you were terrified. Was that because you saw the monster man?’

He knelt down so he was at eye level with her. ‘I’m not going to lie to you, Miss Martha, because you’re far too clever for that. I didn’t see it as I’m seeing you, but I saw something that was big and scary. It scared me so much I thought I was going to pee in my pants and I haven’t done that since I was…well, since I was younger than you.’

‘I saw it too. I saw it on the lawn one day as it was getting dusky. It was by the water’s edge and it was staring up at this house. I was scared, but I couldn’t look away from it. It had long pointed teeth and big black claws instead of fingers. I don’t want it to come and gobble me up like it did Joe.’

‘I don’t know what it is, Martha, but it’s not like you or me. It lives in the sewers that run along this side of the lake and somewhere down there it must have a place to live and sleep, because I haven’t heard sight or sound of it for months now, and trust me, I’ve been listening for it just like you have.’

‘Davey, do you think that it’s gone to sleep? Father’s friend said it probably has.’

‘I do. I think that you can sleep a bit easier now, miss. I was talking to some of the men in the…well, it doesn’t matter where it was, but they said that the last time someone went missing around here was that man who fell off his boat last summer. So I think that maybe it sleeps for an awful long time, just like those bears that hibernate in the big forests in America. So if it’s hibernating that means it’s forgetting all about coming round and sniffing in that cellar.’

‘I hope so. Thank you for telling me, Davey.’

‘Let’s just hope that neither you nor I are still here when it wakes up.’

Martha nodded her head. She didn’t think she would be here when it woke up, and if she was she would buy a gun and shoot it herself.

‘Davey, does my father know any of this?’

‘I’ve told him what I’ve told you, but I don’t know if he was listening to me the way you have. Those friends who came to visit told him a lot of things about it as well. That was why we painted those funny symbols around the house to protect us all. One day, Miss Martha, you might have to explain it all to him again, but for now he is in a world of hurt and pain. I know he tries his best, so you keep on being patient.’

‘I will, thank you.’

‘Now come on, miss, let’s go and play a game of snakes and ladders. I bet you can beat me with your eyes shut.’

Martha began to giggle. She tried to picture herself wearing a blindfold, playing a game, and that made her giggle even more. Just then her father appeared at the top of the stairs. He smiled to hear his daughter laughing.

‘You’re just in time, sir. Miss Martha was going to show me how to lose at snakes and ladders.’

‘That would be the two of us then, Davey, because she always manages to beat me as well.’ He ran down the rest of the stairs and scooped her up into his strong, safe arms and Martha let out a sigh. A look passed between the two men. They shared a terrible burden – of knowing that a monster lived in the sewers – and it was a secret that would bond them to each other until one or both of them died.

Epilogue

Will had been in surgery for four hours and they had removed his spleen and repaired his ruptured kidney. He’d had blood transfusions and was on strong painkillers, which made him do nothing but sleep. He’d woken up a couple of times to see Annie at his bedside. She was sporting a black eye, just for a change, and had butterfly stitches on the side of her head, but she was alive.

He’d thought he was going to die when Megan had buried that knife in his side. Will had never known pain like it, but a young girl’s voice had kept whispering in his ear that he had to stay and fight it. She had such a sweet voice. He remembered at one point asking her what she was called, and she told him Sophie. When Annie’s voice had taken over, telling him to stay with them, he had known that everything was going to be fine, give or take a hospital stay. He’d been so relieved to feel her stroking his head and talking to him, it had made him more determined that he wasn’t going to die at the hands of Megan and Henry. He opened his eyes and Annie was curled up on the reclining chair next to him reading a magazine. ‘Hey, beautiful, what are you reading?’

She jumped off the chair, throwing the magazine to one side, and bent to kiss his dried lips. ‘A baby magazine. It’s all that was left in the waiting room.’

He laughed. The door opened and in walked the doctor who had treated Will when he was first rushed in, and then Annie once Will had been stabilised.

‘I’ve got your blood results back, Annie. I don’t know if you want to discuss them now or somewhere private.’

Annie’s face paled and Will found himself crossing his fingers that it wasn’t anything bad, not after everything else.

‘You can tell me now. There’s nothing that we don’t share with each other.’

Will reached out for her hand and clasped her fingers tightly.

‘Well, I’m pleased to tell you that I know the reason you are having so many problems with your stomach and feeling off.’

He paused and she nodded. ‘I’m relieved to say that it’s nothing serious. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Congratulations, Annie. You’re pregnant.’

Annie stood up, then had to sit back down on Will’s bed again. She took one look at Will, who had the biggest smile on his face she’d ever seen, and she began to laugh.

‘Oh my God, I’m pregnant. We’re pregnant. Are you sure?’

The doctor shook her hand and then Will’s.

‘I most certainly am. I’ve arranged for you to have a scan to check everything’s okay after what you’ve been through, but I’m not worried at all. It’s just routine. We’ll be able to find out how far on you are.’

He began to walk towards the door, then stopped and turned to face them both.

‘Oh, the one piece of advice I insist you take is to stop chasing serial killers, at least until the baby is born.’ He winked at her and walked out of the room.

Annie looked at Will. ‘Are you angry?’

‘Angry – are you kidding me? It’s the best news I’ve ever heard. Apart from you saying that you’d marry me. I’ve never been so happy. Thank you, Annie.’

She bent down and kissed him. The colour had returned to his cheeks and he looked much more like the Will she knew. They both looked at each other and said simultaneously, ‘Oh my God, who’s going to tell Jake.’ Then they started to laugh.

CARINA™

ISBN: 978 1 474 03341 1

The Lake House

Copyright © 2015 Helen Phifer

Published in Great Britain (2015)

by Carina, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited, Eton House, 18–24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR

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