The Ghost House (21 page)

Henry stopped the car outside his house. He looked at Mike who was leant over and slurring his words.

‘Nice house, I always wanted a house with a garage but she wanted a conservatory. I think if I’d had a garage things would have been a lot different.’

Henry frowned, not wanting to enquire as to how a garage would make any difference to someone’s marriage. But he nodded as if he agreed. Four pints of Stella had topped up whatever the loser had been drinking the night before. He had listened to him ramble on for the last hour, plying him with drink because Henry didn’t know if he could overpower Mike unless he was drunk. The tales he had told him had made him wonder just how violent the man was and he felt sorry for the woman who was married to him. He couldn’t afford to have him turning up at the farm and spoiling everything so he’d come up with a plan.

Henry stepped out of the car and made his way down the garden path with Mike following behind. He opened the door expecting to be greeted by his mother’s voice, instead he was greeted by silence. Mike tripped over the door and pushed into his back.

‘Right, my man, where is that Jack Daniel’s you were on about? I need to pee first though.’

Henry pointed up the stairs. ‘Straight up, second door on the right.’

Mike walked up the stairs and Henry went into the kitchen. He could hear him moving around in the bathroom above him and took the hammer from out of the drawer. He thought about using the knife but it didn’t seem right: that was for his girls. A couple of smacks over the head with the hammer would do the trick. He hadn’t killed anyone with a hammer before so it was basically guesswork. His fingers closed around the shaft. The idiot upstairs was taking far too long; he hoped he wasn’t being sick, Henry hated sick. He decided to go upstairs and see what he was doing.

Mike came out of the bathroom and fell against a door across the hall. As it opened so did his mouth. Staring back at him from the wall were lots of pictures: he knew that smile, he knew those dimples. He stepped inside the room his eyes following a line of pictures up to the ceiling and it was then that his legs began to tremble and he lifted his hand to his mouth. On the ceiling above the bed was a life-size picture of Annie, her black curly hair peeking out from underneath the blue woollen hat she wore when it was raining.

Mike’s beer-soaked brain was trying to make sense of what was going on when the hammer connected with the back of his head. The first blow knocked him to his knees and the room began to swim. Mike winced at the taste of the stale lager and bile, which filled his mouth. The second blow was so hard it shattered his skull and a shard of it embedded itself into his brain, killing him instantly.

At the exact moment of Mike’s death Annie felt a cold shiver go down her spine. She was driving back to the farm and trying to act as if everything was normal when really it was getting worse by the minute. She didn’t know what to do.

When she got back she went straight into the house and locked up. The sky outside was growing darker, it looked as if another shower was on its way. Annie took out her phone and stood in the middle of the kitchen where she sometimes got a signal if she was lucky. She rang Will but it went straight to voicemail. She tried Derek but his was the same. She needed to do something so she began cleaning the kitchen, anything to keep her mind occupied. She contemplated ringing Jake but he was such a drama queen he would send a patrol car flying up to make sure she was OK and technically she was, she just didn’t know what was going on.

As Will walked past the sergeant’s office he heard Kav call his name. ‘Will, I think you should know, I’ve just taken a call from Carlisle bail hostel. Mike Graham left yesterday and hasn’t been seen since. Jake informed me that you have taken it upon yourself to keep an eye on our Annie, which is very gentlemanly of you, so I thought you should know. Do you want me to tell her or will you?’

‘Jesus. They only just decide to tell us this now, a day later. I’ll ring her. Leave it with me.’

‘I don’t think he’d have the balls to go near her, not after his last ordeal before he got to custody. Mind you, he was a bit of a fighter but no match for me and Jake.’

‘I hope you’re right Kav, I really do.’

Will left the station. He needed to go home and shower before the profiler arrived. He tried Annie again but still no joy so he left her a message. He’d really wanted to speak to her and hear her voice but he would keep trying.

Henry found it mildly disturbing that death didn’t bother him anymore. He added the body count up on his fingers and he was up to four; five once he had the woman from the farm. He knew she would be the challenge. There was no way she would go down without a fight, not like the others. For some reason he knew that she was the one that could bring it all tumbling down and somewhere inside him a tiny part wanted her to. He hadn’t wanted any of this in the first place but he wasn’t strong enough to fight against whatever it was that was driving him.

He looked down at the body on his bedroom floor. It didn’t matter anymore, there was no point in hiding it. If by some miracle he killed the woman without getting caught he would think about what to do with the mounting number of bodies in his house.

He was washing the blood from his hands when the doorbell rang, followed by a loud
thud, thud
on the door. He froze and waited a minute but whoever it was banged even harder on the glass. Stripping off his bloodstained shirt he dropped it into the washing basket, then splashing cold water over his hair and face he grabbed a towel and jogged down the stairs. Through the glass in the door he could see the outline of a huge police officer. The fluorescent yellow jacket filled the doorway.
It’s over, Henry
.

Forcing himself to breathe slowly he opened the door. ‘Sorry, officer, I was just getting out of the shower. Is there anything wrong?’

‘Sorry to disturb you, sir, we had a call from a – ‘ He looked down at the name in his notebook ‘ – a Mrs Edith Wright. She is concerned about the welfare of your mother. She claims she hasn’t seen her for a couple of days and it’s very unlike her.’

‘I’m sorry, officer, you’ve been misled and your time wasted. My aunt, who lives in Blackpool, was rushed to hospital. She has no family of her own so my mother has gone to visit her. I drove her to the station myself. Would you like to come in while I ring her and you can speak to her? But whatever you do don’t tell her I haven’t hoovered or polished.’ He winked at Jake.

‘Have you spoken to her today, sir?’

‘About an hour ago. She rang to say she would be staying on a few more days.’

‘That’s fine. As long as you’re not worried about her it’s not a problem. Would you mind signing my notebook to say I’ve spoken with you and you’re happy with everything?’

Henry turned to the side to wipe the sweat from the palm of his hand and noticed his mother’s handbag on the floor by the side of the chair. His palms began to sweat even more and his stomach clenched so hard he thought he was going to throw up.

The copper looked at him. ‘Everything all right? You don’t look very well?’

Henry shook his head, signed the book and handed it back. ‘Too much beer and a dodgy curry.’

Jake gave him a look of sympathy. ‘Thanks for your time. I’ll let Mrs Wright know that everything’s fine. Take care.’

Henry stayed at the door to make sure he walked out of the gate and got back into the police car. He waved at him and shut the front door. He made it to the living room then fell onto the sofa, shutting his eyes as the room began to spin before it all went black.

Jake drove back to the station. It was almost finishing time. That guy had been a bit odd but he wasn’t going to argue with him. He should know the whereabouts of his own mother and he didn’t seem a bit concerned. Jake updated the control room operator that everything was in order and that he’d update the informant himself. He went into the parade room and sat at the last empty desk. Picking up the phone he rang the number on the log and told the woman who called it in what he had found out.

‘Did you go inside and check the house, officer?’

‘No, I didn’t. I believe that Mrs Smith’s son had no reason to lie to me, therefore I had insufficient grounds to enter the property.’

‘Well, young man, I don’t know any woman who would leave town without their handbag. I saw it there when I peered through the window. It’s still in the same place it was on Wednesday.’

Jake thought she had a point but it was five minutes past his finishing time and women normally had a lot more than one handbag. Plus Alex was cooking and they were going to open the expensive bottle of wine Annie had bought him for his birthday.

‘Look, Mrs Wright, if you don’t get in touch with your friend by tomorrow night I will go back and search the house myself.’

This calmed her down a little. ‘Thank you, but I’m telling you something isn’t right with this lot. I can feel it in my bones.’

Jake agreed with her.

Will made it back to the station in record time. Smelling of coffee and Chanel aftershave, he ignored the wolf whistle from Claire and Sally who were on their way out of the back yard and dashed inside. He didn’t want to miss the arrival of the profiler. As he walked past the front office the clerk, who he’d never seen before, asked him if he knew who DS Ashworth was. She blushed when he said me and grinned.

‘There’s a Grace Marshall waiting for you.’

For the first time in a couple of days Annie faded from his mind as he thought about catching Emma Harvey’s killer and bringing Jenna White home. He opened the door onto a bustling reception area, which was full of people that could have quite easily made the guest list for Jeremy Kyle. They all turned to look at him, hoping it was their name he was going to shout so they wouldn’t be sitting there for hours. He surveyed the faces and settled on the twenty-something woman holding a briefcase on her lap: she was either Grace Marshall or someone’s brief. He said her name and she moved so fast he almost missed it. She was obviously glad to be moving away from the kid next to her who was scratching at her head so much Will was surprised she still had some hair.

Grace followed him through the door and once it had closed and the members of public couldn’t hear him he spoke. ‘It’s a good job I didn’t take too long or you would have got yourself a head full of nits.’

She tried to frown but smiled instead. ‘Well, DS Ashworth, I would have passed them onto you for making me wait so long.’

He laughed and led the way around to his office. ‘Welcome to hell, well sort of, it’s not that bad when girls are not being murdered or going missing.’

‘I was born and bred here, sergeant. I left to go to University then got a job working in a psychiatric unit in Salford with some of the more – how should I put it? – undesirable members of the public.’

Will held out his hand. ‘Let’s call a truce. I’m so glad you were able to come at such short notice. Things are happening which are out of our control and we need all the help we can get. There is one condition, though. Please call me Will: I hate all the DS crap.’

She held out her hand and shook his with the tightest grip he’d ever felt from a woman. They both grinned at each other.

‘Phew, I’m glad that’s over with. Come on, I’ll sort you out a desk and anything else that you might need. In fact, I can go one better than that, I can give you your own personal assistant.’ He opened the office door and watched everyone stare at the new girl. Laura smiled at them then bent her head to continue typing. Will looked at Stu who was staring at Grace with an awestruck expression.
Bugger, I can’t let Stu work with her he’ll drool all over her
. He guided her over to his desk making the introductions as he went around the office. He paused when he got to Laura.

‘Grace, Laura will assist you with anything you need if I get called away.’

Laura blushed but didn’t seem too bothered by the babysitting duty.

Grace walked over to the whiteboards opening her briefcase to search for a pen and notepad.

‘I’ll be fine for a couple of hours. I need to see everything you have up to now: case files, pictures, pathology reports, the whole lot. And then I’ll need to go and visit the crime scenes.’

‘Laura will sort that out for you. I just need to make a couple of calls.’ He needed to see who he could send to keep an eye on Annie. She might think she was tough enough but he didn’t think she was a match for the mad man of the Abbey.

Henry found himself walking along the path to the woods. He couldn’t remember how he had got this far but he headed towards the farmhouse. As he got close to the gate he could hear vacuuming inside so he jogged over to the hay barn and walked in, taking up his position in front of the window. He could see her flitting from room to room having a cleaning frenzy. It was tempting to go and knock on the door but he didn’t think she would open it for him. He supposed he could try the missing dog routine one last time but if she phoned the police it would be over before it began.

While he sat dithering over what to do another man strolled up towards the gate. He hadn’t seen this one before. How many men can one woman know? He watched, puzzled, as to who this one could be. He didn’t know if he had the strength for many more murders in him, he was kind of all murdered out.

She had plenty of male friends but he hadn’t seen any of the female kind. He wondered if she was lonely. He’d spent most of his life on his own and look where it had got him. The sound of the kitchen door being unbolted pushed all thoughts from his head. He watched as the man entered the house. He was quite old and he didn’t think he would be much trouble in a fight. He listened for the sound of the bolt going across and smiled when it didn’t. That was a very good sign: exactly what he had been waiting for. He stood and stretched. Five minutes and it would be chaos over there.

Annie was glad Derek was here. She felt like she was on the verge of breaking down she was so worn out with it all.

‘I got your message and came straight here. I’ve been thinking about the best way to get to the bottom of this and the only thing I can think of is doing a séance in the house. That way I can get a feel for the place, ask some questions and hopefully get some answers. What do you think?’

Her mouth went dry and she couldn’t get her tongue to move. ‘I don’t think I really want to. I don’t like the thought of messing with anything like that, Derek, but do I have much choice?’

He peered outside. It was mid-afternoon and if the rain didn’t start again it would be light for a couple of hours yet. Derek didn’t want to be in that house in the dark either. ‘No. I think we should do it now.’

Annie grabbed her jacket and the key for the house off the hook. ‘Come on, if I think about it too hard I’ll chicken out. Is there anything we need like a cross, holy water or maybe a couple of silver bullets?’

‘A couple of cloves of garlic if you have them.’

The colour drained from her face which stopped Derek from laughing out loud. ‘I’m sorry, Annie, I was joking. I didn’t realise you were being serious.’

She let out a huge sigh of relief. ‘Phew, good because I’m proper scared, my hands are shaking.’

He smiled and patted her arm. ‘Well, then you’re in luck because as it goes I’m one of the best in the business. We’ll get this sorted out and put those ghosts to rest and have you back in time for tea. How does that sound?’

‘Bloody wonderful, Derek. In fact, it would be amazing.’

She pulled her trainers on her feet just in case she needed to run.

‘Ready when you are. I always did have a secret fantasy about being a Ghostbuster.’ She winked at him but her voice trembled. Stepping outside she was followed by Derek who was followed by Tess. Annie ushered Tess back inside and locked up. Should she phone Will? She decided not to. It was time to take control of her life.

They set off towards the old house.

Henry had known his patience would pay off. He watched as they headed into the woods in the direction of the house. Perfect. He couldn’t ask for anything more. He would give them a head start and follow them. The woods were so peaceful not even a bird was chirping. Thank God it wasn’t the school holidays because then they would be full of screaming kids.

Edith could not settle. It wasn’t right. In all the years she had been friends with Gladys she had never even mentioned having a sister, she may have said a distant relative but not a sister. Henry had looked different as well. When he opened the door his appearance had shocked her. He hadn’t shaved for days and there were dark circles under his even darker eyes. Gladys had said she was worried about him and she could understand why.

Turning off her television Edith stood up. As she stretched the bones in her knees creaked. Shuffling over to the phone she rang Gladys again: it rang and rang, Edith knew she couldn’t stand back and not do anything. Not when her friend might need her help. She knew where the spare key for Gladys’s house was hidden so she phoned a taxi. She would ask the driver to wait for her while she checked the house. Never one to shy away from a fight in her younger days she knew that even if Henry was inside she was going in regardless. What was the worst that could happen? He might call the police but tough. If all policemen were as nice as the one she spoke to earlier it would brighten up her day.