Текст книги "The Lake House"
Автор книги: Helen Phifer
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Текущая страница: 4 (всего у книги 20 страниц)
Chapter Four
When Annie got into the station she passed the sergeant’s office and heard Inspector Cathy Hayes muttering on the phone to someone. She carried on to the small changing room and hung her jacket up, zipping herself into her body armour and taking hold of her belt. She walked through into the office and was surprised to see an older man sitting at Jake’s desk. Looking at his collar number she saw it began with a seven, which meant he was a special constable and, judging by the sheen of sweat on his brow and the way he kept tapping his foot, a very new one at that.
‘Hi, I’m Annie. Is this your first day?’
He nodded, then jumped up and held out his even sweatier palm.
‘Morning, I’m George and yes it is.’
She shook his hand. ‘Don’t worry about it. You will be fine. It’s a good job you didn’t start yesterday. Have you heard about the severed head my colleague Jake found?’
His face turned white.
‘Oops sorry, I guess you hadn’t. Don’t worry. Things like that don’t happen very often around here.’
She didn’t add that this was unless he had to work with her, and then it might be a whole different ballgame. She’d terrified the poor guy enough in the space of two minutes. He’d be making a quick exit and never coming back if she told him how in the last two years she had been stalked by a serial killer who had abducted her and tried to kill her down in the cellar of an abandoned mansion, which had once belonged to none other than Jack the Ripper. Thankfully she had overcome Henry Smith to live to tell another tale.
Then there was her run-in with a nine-year-old ghost called Sophie and the evil Shadow Man who wouldn’t let her go to the light because he collected souls. Annie had fought him with the help of her now good friend Father John, and together they had managed to banish him to the darkness for good and set Sophie free. Last but by no means least was her run-in with Betsy Baker, the woman who, in 1732, had lived in Apple Tree Cottage, which was now Annie’s home. Betsy had poisoned her mother, then set her sights on the most eligible widower in town, killing his children and parents so she could have him and his house all to herself. Betsy had made Annie’s life hell when she and Will started renovating the cottage, giving Annie terrible nightmares and almost killing her in a car crash. Annie had been in a coma and watched the tragedy of Betsy Baker unfold while she was unconscious. Betsy had been hanged for her crimes by a group of angry villagers and buried in her own front garden in an unconsecrated grave.
Jake had helped Annie to dig her up and, enlisting the services of Father John, they had moved her skeleton to the safety of his church in Bowness where he’d dug a grave and finally given her a proper burial. Yes, it was probably best not to share this information with him so freely.
Cathy walked in and smiled at Annie as if she was about to eat her, which didn’t bode well for either her or George.
‘Morning, PC Ashworth. You drew the short straw. You’re answering any jobs that come in while your lovely colleagues conduct the inquiries regarding that poor bugger’s head we found yesterday. And you, George, I’m afraid drew an even shorter straw by having to work with our Annie here. She’s a walking disaster so I’m relying on you to keep her on the straight and narrow.’
He vigorously nodded his head. ‘I can try, ma’am.’
‘Rule one, George: none of this ma’am bullshit. It makes me sound like I’m your great-aunt. Call me Cathy unless you’ve really screwed up and need to crawl. Annie, I don’t want you getting involved in our severed head case unless it’s life or death. The last thing I want is to be getting indigestion worrying about where you are every hour. Just keep clear of it. Jake was in full agreement and said he’s happy to do your share of the door knocking, and we’ve brought in every PCSO from Barrow and Ulverston anyway so there are plenty of staff to do what needs to be done.’
Annie knew better than to argue with Cathy and she was quite relieved. She hated endless door knocking and leaflet delivering. Cathy threw the van keys at her.
‘Take George and give him the rundown on the area. Show him the best places to get some dinner and a brew.’
‘Yes, boss.’
Cathy grinned at them. ‘And if you both manage to keep out of mischief I’ll be one very happy woman. I’m on my way to see what the troops are up to, so play nice.’
Annie sat down behind the desk opposite George. ‘Let me just log on to my computer and see what’s been going on in the world of Bowness since I finished work last night – in case there are any jobs that need following up on – and then we’ll go out on mobile patrol.’
Annie’s radio began to ring.
‘Oh and can you bring me back some dinner? I ate my packed lunch before I’d had chance to log on to the computer this morning. Cheers.’
‘Yes, boss.’
George was smiling at her. ‘She seems okay then for a big boss.’
‘Yes, she is as long as you’re behaving…no, she is. She’s great and has been brilliant with me since I moved up here.’
She stopped herself again from giving him the rundown on her life. She didn’t know the man at all so until she did the less said the better. Her radio crackled and the voice on the other end called her number.
‘Can you attend Beckett House on Windermere Road, please. It’s a grade two. Elderly woman reporting the man who came to unblock her drains has come to some harm. She thinks he has disappeared in her cellar and may have come to some harm down there. She can’t go down to see if he’s okay because she’s not good on her legs.’
‘Roger, I’m on my way. Can you show me in seven zero and I also have…’ – she tilted her head to read the epaulettes on his shoulders – ‘…I also have 7993 with me.’
She stood up and George followed her as she strode outside to the van.
‘What’s a grade two again?’
‘It means it’s important but not as important as a grade one, which is an emergency response. There’s two-hour time limit on getting to the job.’
‘Oh, so no blue lights and sirens this time?’
‘No, sorry. Not this time. Anyway be thankful – it’s not very good driving through the twisty back roads around here at top speed, and it’s dangerous.’
‘Yes, it must be. I just wondered what it was like, you know.’
She did know. When she first joined she’d loved it when Jake had been her tutor and would answer emergency calls, then drive like a maniac to get to the job first so they could deal with it. It was an adrenaline rush like no other, but as the years passed she began to realise that most of the jobs were the same people with the same problems, which weren’t really that much of an emergency. The excitement had slowly passed and the dread of being stuck in custody all night with the same idiots took its place.
She decided that George wasn’t so bad and she would do her best not to give him a hard time.
She turned into the overgrown drive at Beckett House. She had been here to do inquiries when there was a missing man a few months back and all the sheds and outhouses had to be searched. The grey slate house, with its huge black and white painted windows and doors, would have been lovely in its day and George began to mumble about how the other half lived. The elderly woman who lived there was waiting for them on the front step and she looked distraught. Annie jumped out of the van.
‘Hello, Miss Beckett, what’s the problem?’
‘Hello, dear, I’m afraid I have some very bad news and it’s entirely my fault. I should have stopped him from going down there on his own. I knew all along it was a very bad idea.’
Annie gently took hold of her arm to guide her back inside and George followed behind. The old woman led them to the kitchen, which smelt of home-made shortbread and stewed tea.
‘Why don’t you sit down, Miss Beckett, and I’ll make us a fresh pot of tea, then you can tell me all about it?’
‘Would you, dear, or would you rather go and search the cellar first? Although I think it’s far too late for him.’
George was looking at Annie, inquiring whether Miss Beckett was as mad as a box of frogs or just delusional, and she shook her head.
‘I need you to tell me from the beginning what’s happened. This is George. It’s his first day as a special constable and he’s going to make the tea, aren’t you, George?’
‘Yes, yes, of course I will.’
He picked the still-warm teapot up from the centre of the table and tipped the contents into the sink. He then began making a fresh pot.
‘There was a terrible smell and I knew it was coming from the cellar. It’s been around for a few days but this morning it was really bad and I couldn’t stand it so I looked in the phonebook and rang the number from the first plumber’s advert that I saw. They sent two men out and that was all right because it has to be two, you see. You’re much safer in a pair. But they couldn’t see what the blockage was and they didn’t have the right tools. Well, they left and one of those Irish men… What’s the word you use for them now instead of gypsies?’
‘Travellers.’
‘Yes, I’m positive he was one of them. Well, he knocked on my door ten minutes later and, you know, he looked a bit of a rogue and had forced his way inside before I knew it, but he didn’t threaten me. Well, he offered to sort the drains out for me and I was desperate, you have to understand. The smell was horrific.’
Annie smiled at the woman who looked so frail that a strong wind would blow her over.
‘You’re doing really well, Miss Beckett. What happened then?’
‘Well, he went into the cellar but the lights had gone out. I told him he shouldn’t but he laughed and told me that he wasn’t afraid of the dark. I gave him a torch, then I came back in here and it was then that I heard the music, the old music of the wind-up jack-in-the-box that belonged to my brother, Joe. I just knew something bad had happened. I shouted to him but the only thing I heard was a muffled scream and it sounded like it was a long way away.’
George was standing behind the woman rolling his eyes and Annie actually wanted to tell him to grow up, but she didn’t. The poor woman obviously thought something had happened; she may have dementia, for all she knew, or she might be telling the truth.
‘Did you notice if this man had a car or a van? Maybe he decided to leave and didn’t tell you?’
‘No, he didn’t have any vehicle that I could see. He walked up the drive. I know because I watched him from the kitchen window.’
‘Well, in that case I think the best thing to do would be for George and I to go down into your cellar and have a look around, and then we’ll search the rest of your house from top to bottom, if that’s okay with you?’
‘That would be wonderful, thank you.’
George placed the teapot back down on the table and waited for Annie’s instructions.
‘Right, do you want to show us where the cellar is so we can give it a quick check?’
‘I don’t know if I should let a young thing like you go down there. It’s such a dangerous place; it always has been.’
There was something in the woman’s eyes that looked straight through Annie’s and said quite clearly, ‘I’m not talking rubbish; this is all true.’ And Annie knew then that she believed her. She nodded her head.
‘It’s okay. I promise I understand. I’ve dealt with a lot of things that were slightly unusual the last couple of years and I know how to look after myself because I’ve had to. Anyway, I have George here to help, so please don’t worry about me.’
They followed her along the corridor to where the cellar door was situated and Annie felt her stomach do a full-length flip. The hairs on the back of her neck and arms stood on end and she felt a cold chill run through her bones. Martha stared at her.
‘You feel it, don’t you? You know it’s not right. It’s never been right since the day this house was built. I’ve been stuck here my whole life waiting for my brother, Joe, to come back and making sure that whatever it is that lives down there can’t get out.’
Annie looked at the number of bolts and padlocks on the heavy wooden door and wanted to slide them all back in place, lock the cellar up tight and leave Beckett House right now. But she couldn’t leave this poor old woman to deal with whatever it was hiding down there on her own. She wished that Jake was here. Even though he hated anything like this, just his sheer size and muscles always made her feel a whole lot better. George, who was looking bemused, was an inch shorter than her with a bit of a paunch, and didn’t instil the same sense of security. She wondered if she should ask for Jake to come and back her up because, technically, she was on her own and this man she couldn’t find might be up in the bedrooms right now, stealing the family heirlooms.
Annie pulled her thick, black leather gloves from her pocket and slid them on; then she took the torch from her body armour and pressed the button to switch it on. George fumbled to get his out of the loop he’d tied it to so that he wouldn’t lose it, but he managed to get it out and did the same. She said a quick prayer for whoever might be listening to protect them both from evil, and then she worked loose the bolts that were still fastened. Pulling the door back, she reached for the light-pull and tugged it. Watery light filled the cellar steps and she noticed the old woman, who was shaking, let out a small sigh and relax her shoulders. Taking this as a good sign she shouted, ‘Hello, it’s the police. Is there anyone down there?’
They were greeted by silence. Annie nodded for George to follow her. He didn’t look quite so bemused now. She shouted again and again but beyond the underlying feeling that something bad had happened down there, there was nothing. When she got to the bottom she stood on the last step and shone her torch around, even though there was a light on, because it didn’t reach the dark corners. She knew what horrors could lurk in dark corners because she’d seen them for herself. The vast cellar looked empty. There were boxes and shelves filled to the brim with all sorts of stuff but they were all pushed against a wall and there was nowhere for this man to be hiding.
She bent down and, with one gloved hand, picked up the torch that had been abandoned on the floor and switched it off. There was a smell underneath the damp and she tried to place it, but she couldn’t. Although every sense was on heightened alert, she didn’t feel as if there was anything in here right now. But it definitely felt as if something had been here. It had left an echo of itself. She stepped down and began heading to the very far corner where the big, iron drain cover was pushed to one side. So someone had been down here, because she was pretty sure Martha Beckett wouldn’t have been able to lift it. There was also a big damp patch next to it, along with an assortment of tools that looked older than she did.
She walked across to the hole, wondering if the man had fallen into it and hurt himself. As her shadow blocked out the light and she stood over it a sense of dread settled over her. It was so strong she felt her own knees go weak. There was movement at the bottom of it and she forced herself to shine the torch down to see what it was that was scaring her so much. Whatever it was moved fast as the light filled the hole. If she’d blinked she would have missed it. George, who had followed her, was standing behind her peering over her shoulder.
‘Did you see that? What was it?’
Annie felt better knowing he’d seen whatever it was, but it wasn’t their missing man – it was on all fours. If someone had fallen into that hole they wouldn’t be hiding from them, they’d be screaming to be helped out.
‘I don’t know, maybe a rat.’
‘Some big rat – it was bloody huge.’
Annie didn’t say anything else. She knew that it wasn’t a rat and she knew that it wasn’t the missing man. What she did know was that whatever it was knew that she had been looking for it, and that really scared her. She stepped back away from the hole. A fear inside her of falling down it and coming face to face with whatever it was made her break out in a cold sweat.
‘Come on, he’s not down here. Help me pull the cover back over. It’s dangerous leaving it open like that. Anyone could fall in.’
Or anything could get out. But she didn’t say that aloud.
‘I think our man decided to cut his losses and run when he saw how deep the hole was and that it might be full of rats. I bet he’s long gone and it wouldn’t surprise me if her purse or the family silverware are missing.’
The cover was heavy and it was hard lifting it up. Between them they managed to shove it back in place as best as they could. Annie cringed at something sticky on her gloves and led the way back upstairs. She shone the torch onto the back of the door and wondered what the symbols meant that had been carved into the wood. George whispered, ‘Are they devil-worshipping signs?’
She shook her head and lowered her voice. ‘No, I don’t think so but I can’t say for sure. Come on, let’s get out of here.’
She stepped into the hall, closely followed by George, and they slammed the door shut. Annie slid all the padlocks across before making her way back down to the kitchen.
‘There’s nobody down there now, Miss Beckett, although we can tell that he was down there because there are some tools near to the drain and the cover was off, but I think he’s decided to call it a day and left. Do you have anywhere I can wash my hands?’
‘Oh dear, I was afraid that was what you would say. Yes, just down the opposite end of the corridor there is a washroom tucked under the stairs.’
‘Thank you. I’ll just wash my hands and then we’ll do a search of your house to make sure he’s not hiding anywhere.’
She walked along to the washroom, desperate to wash whatever the black gunge was from her gloved fingers. Using her elbow to press the light switch she went inside and turned the tap on, letting it run for a moment to get hot. As she held her gloved fingers under the tap she gasped to see the water had turned blood red. Tugging the gloves from her fingers she lifted her hands to examine them and make sure she hadn’t cut herself on the rusty drain cover, but they were fine, and the water was now running clear. Picking up the soap she scrubbed it against her skin and then let her hands stay under the hot water until it began to scald her. There was a towel next to her and she dried her hands on it. The mirror above the sink had steamed up and she rubbed at it with the corner of the towel so she could see herself, but what she saw looking back at her made her scream so loud that George came running down the corridor and hammered on the door.
‘It’s okay. I’m okay. Sorry about that. There was a massive spider.’
‘Oh, just checking. You gave us a fright.’
Annie didn’t look in the mirror again for fear of seeing the grey, gaunt face with the huge red eyes and row of razor-sharp teeth staring back at her again. Her heart palpitating, she wondered if somehow that sweet old woman had at one time summoned a demon to her house, because she couldn’t think of any other way to describe the monster she had seen staring at her from the mirror. She turned around in the small space, relieved that she was alone, and made her way back to the kitchen. Miss Beckett looked at her but didn’t say anything.
‘Right, we need to check the rest of the house if that’s okay with you, and then we’ll have that cup of tea.’
The old woman nodded, but she knew full well that they wouldn’t find that young man anywhere upstairs, although she wished they would. She didn’t even care if he had been up there and stolen the antiques. It would be better for her to know he was still breathing and alive than to lie in bed at night wondering exactly what it was that had taken him. She went back to the cellar door to continue snapping all the padlocks shut while Annie and George went upstairs.
They started on the third floor, which was the attic. The staircase that led up to it was a proper staircase and not a ladder like Annie had been expecting. There were two huge rooms, which were separated by a small landing in the middle. Both of them had bits of junk in them. One was full of old suitcases and the biggest, dustiest Christmas tree she had ever seen, but there was nothing to suggest he was hiding up here. There was a small door that led underneath the eaves, but it was bolted from the outside and Annie sensed that whatever was behind it had nothing to do with them. She turned around and George grabbed her arm.
‘What about in there? He could be hiding in that little room.’
‘He could, but unless he’s Alice in Wonderland or can shut bolts across from inside a room then I somehow doubt it.’
His cheeks flared red and she felt mean. ‘But apart from that, yes, he could have been. Well spotted.’
They went back down the stairs and onto the huge landing. There were seven bedrooms and a separate bathroom and toilet. Annie started on one side and he started on the other. Most of the rooms were empty. There were only two that were still fully furnished – one that was clearly Miss Beckett’s with its pale pink, rose-covered, faded wallpaper. It was at the far end, away from the staircase, and the one next to hers was a little boy’s room, which hadn’t been used for a very long time. But it was spotless. Even though the things in there were old-fashioned and probably worth a bit of money to a toy collector, it was clean and tidy. There wasn’t a speck of dust on anything and the bed was made, ready for whoever’s room it was to climb into. George walked in and whistled.
‘Man, what a room; it’s like something from a museum. The stuff in here must be worth a fortune; all the toys are in mint condition and valuable collectors’ items.’
He began to look around, getting excited at the pristine Corgi cars, while Annie felt a huge sense of loss that was so consuming it made her want to curl up and cry. Something awful had happened to the little boy whose bedroom this was. She was careful not to touch anything because she didn’t want her psychic sixth sense to pick up on it and let her know exactly what. It was too heartbreaking.
‘Come on, he’s not in here and we have no business being in here.’
George put down the tin car he was admiring and nodded his head, then followed her out of the door, which she closed.
‘Well, he’s not here; he must have decided to leave. I just hope he isn’t planning on coming back later to rob her.’
Annie nodded in agreement. She couldn’t tell him what she really thought because he would think she was nuts. They checked the last room together and went down to the kitchen where Martha had made a fresh pot of tea.
‘You didn’t find him?’
It wasn’t a question; it was more a statement of fact.
‘No, we didn’t and it doesn’t look as if anything is missing. You will need to check yourself and let me know if there is. Can I ask you if you have any help – a cook or maybe a cleaner? This is a big house for you to look after by yourself.’
‘Yes, thank you, I have a wonderful housekeeper called Dawn who comes in two days a week to help me. So what are we to do then? I know you might not believe me but I know in my heart that he went down into that cellar and never came out.’
George’s mobile phone began to ring and he apologised and walked out into the hall to answer it.
Martha lowered her voice. ‘Your friend might think I’m ready to be committed to the insane asylum but you know I’m speaking the truth, don’t you, dear? You sensed it. I could tell.’
‘Yes, I did sense something and I also thought that I saw something moving down in the drain, but it was so fast I didn’t actually see what it was. I believe you, I really do, but I have to go by the evidence and there isn’t any at the moment to say that this man has come to some harm, or even to prove that he was here. If his family report him missing then we can come back with a search team and go down into the drains, but at this moment in time I can’t say for sure that he has.’
‘What you mean, young lady, is that you have no proof that he was ever here and that I might be imagining the whole thing.’
‘To be blunt, Miss Beckett: yes. I do believe you, though, and whatever you do you mustn’t go down into that cellar on your own.’
Martha chuckled. ‘Officer, the only reason I’ve lived to this ripe old age is because I never go down into that cellar. I’ve only ever been in there once when I was a child. I was scared beyond belief and I never went back down. But thank you for your concern. I suppose we will have to wait and see if this young man’s family or friends report him missing. What will happen, then, if someone reports that they saw him coming into this house but he never came out?’
‘Then we’ll send a search team in.’
‘And will this search team be told that something dwells in the drains underneath my cellar that has a taste for human flesh? I will not be responsible for anyone going down there.’
‘If it comes to that, then yes, I will tell them myself.’
Martha nodded. ‘Thank you. You’ve been much more accommodating than I ever imagined. You have a gift, don’t you? That isn’t always a blessing, but you use it wisely and I can tell that you help those who need it. I hope you can find it in your heart to help me when the time comes.’
Annie’s radio crackled, breaking the silence as the control room shouted at her again to go to a burglary at the rugby club. She stood up.
‘There’s no need to see us out. We can manage. But can I just tell you to make sure you keep everything locked up and secure? I know that he seemed like an okay kind of man, even though he was cold-calling, but you can’t be too sure. He may try to come back later and burgle the house.’
Martha smiled. ‘Oh I always keep everything locked up, but it’s not to keep the burglars out, it’s to keep whatever is in this house in.’
Annie nodded at her and felt her whole body shiver at the thought of having to live here alone, terrified by something you’ve never seen.
They got into the van and Annie reversed. Sticking her arm out of the window she waved and then set off to go back through town to the rugby club.
George sighed. ‘Oh my God, do you deal with nutty people like that all the time? I mean, at one point, when we were down in that cellar, I could almost have bought her story and my heart was beating ten to the dozen, but it just seems a bit too farfetched for my liking.’
‘I don’t think she was nuts. I think she’s a scared, vulnerable old woman. I also wouldn’t be surprised if we get a phone call from her tomorrow to say her house has been broken into. It sounds to me as if he was checking it out and will be back later.’
‘What does that go down as then – you know, when you update control?’
‘Suspicious incident, then I’ll have to submit an intelligence report and a vulnerable adult form. The next job will probably be a bit more standard. You can be the officer in charge if you like.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘It means you get to run the case, take the statements, request CSI. See how you feel when you get there.’
Annie hoped he felt like saying yes because she couldn’t stop thinking about that face she’d seen in the mirror and the blood on her fingers. It was unlike anything she’d ever seen before. Did things that look part human but are clearly not live in drains and sewers? Was that even possible or was her imagination on overdrive after the severed head yesterday? She didn’t know, but either way she suspected that Miss Martha Beckett and Beckett House would be seeing a lot more of her in the near future.
31 December 1930
Joseph loved playing hide-and-seek. It was his favourite game and he was lucky enough to live in a house big enough to play a really good game of it. Sometimes it took his sister ages to come and find him, although he hated it if she took too long because he got bored. Today was one of those days where he was bored. He had no idea what she was doing, but if she didn’t come soon he was giving up and playing something else. Then he heard her footsteps running up the first staircase and stifled a giggle. She hated the attic and would go mad with him for hiding in here although she hated the cellar even more. She said the attic was full of spiders and the cellar was full of rats. A right proper girl she was and he sometimes wished that he had a brother to play with, but then he would remember that she was only five so he shouldn’t complain. He was nine so he was almost grown up compared to her. She began to call his name so she must be fed up of playing. Joe had tucked himself away at the back of the small cupboard in the attic. The door was tiny and only really big enough for a child to go in, and he wondered quite a lot why it was there and what purpose it served. It was one of those questions he always meant to ask his father but he would forget about it until the next time he saw it. His father was hardly around anyway. He was always at work at the amusement park. Joe wished he could go there more often with him, but his mother always said it wasn’t a place a child should be spending time in unless it was for a fun day out.
‘I give in, Joe. I can’t find you and if you’re hiding in the attic I’m not coming up there anyway. I told you I wasn’t.’
His mother began to call them and he scrambled out of his hiding place as he heard Martha clattering back down the stairs. For a small child she had feet like an elephant. He hit his head on the doorframe and rubbed it with his hand to take away the sting. Slamming the door shut he ran out of the room and down the steep attic stairs to the landing below, then down the next set of stairs and straight into the dining room where he’d last seen his mother bossing Lucy, their housemaid, around while she was trying to set the table for tonight. He barged through the door and straight into Lucy.
‘Careful, Master Beckett, you’ll do yourself an injury rushing around at that speed.’
‘Sorry, Lucy.’
His mother nodded her head with approval at his manners although he could tell she was a little displeased with him. He looked down and saw the black marks on his clean white shirt and realised why.
