The Family Lie

by P L Kane

  He didn’t even know what that meant. The correct manner to him would be to get a DI or a DS here and on the case, someone who spoke the same language he did and at something approaching the same speed. ‘Like what happened to mum?’ he said then. ‘How all that got cleared up?’

  Helen winced, her eye twitching. The death of her sister, so long ago, was obviously still a sore point for her. ‘There was nothing to clear up. Your mother died in a road accident.’

  Mitch shook his head. He knew that, had no idea where the last thing he’d said had come from. His mum had been out walking, was hit by a car that was out of control; ploughed her right into a tree. Both her and the guy driving the vehicle – who’d been found to be drinking, which explained some of his aunty’s hatred for it – had died. An accident, pure and simple. ‘I know. I’m sorry.’

  ‘That’s why you’re like him, Mitchel. Looking for conspiracies everywhere. Looking at the world a certain way.’

  He hung his head. ‘I dunno, I just feel … I can’t help feeling cheated, y’know? She was my mum.’

  Helen reached out and placed a hand on his arm, on his wrist. For a second he almost pulled away, recalling the way he’d been tugged down into that space where the hooded figures were. Then he relaxed. ‘And she was my sister. She might have been a little …’

  ‘What?’ he asked, looking up. Helen wouldn’t respond. ‘Please. I never really knew her properly, Aunty. I only have vague memories. Like how she smelled, of lavender. Her smile. It was a bit like yours, actually. I think.’

  Helen gave him one of those smiles now. Opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again.

  ‘Please,’ he begged her.

  ‘She could be a little … odd,’ Helen confessed.

  ‘How do you mean?’

  ‘Quirky, you know. Said she had … feelings about things sometimes before they happened, or what have you.’ Was his aunty telling him that his mother had her own version of his spider-sense? thought Mitch. Had her own version of a copper’s intuition? ‘Of course it was all nonsense, like what your sister claims she can do. But we loved her all the same.’

  No, he couldn’t see that going down well with Helen at all. Scientific Helen, who also trusted in religion and all that – the dichotomy – who you couldn’t swear in front of.

  ‘So, you didn’t believe her?’

  ‘How could I? It didn’t stop her death, did it? If she could … feel things about what was going to happen, wouldn’t she have got out of the way of that car? Seen it coming before it hit her? Before it killed her? Maybe if she’d actually had that kind of foresight, she’d still be with us, Mitchel.’ Helen began sobbing, the passing of her sister still quite raw for her, he guessed, regardless of how long ago it was. Yet Mitch still couldn’t help feeling jealous, because this woman had known his mother, had spent time with her. Grown up with her, here in Green Acres. She’d known her in a way he couldn’t possibly hope to.

  ‘Yeah, I suppose,’ said Mitch. He patted the hand that was still on his arm. ‘It’s okay. It’ll be all right.’

  Helen nodded, looked up at him with wet eyes. ‘So much pain, so much tragedy. Not just back then, but in the world today. I don’t have to tell you though, you’ve seen it for yourself.’

  He had, and there was. Mitch decided to change tack again, or rather bring it back to what he’d been talking about before. ‘My dad,’ he started.

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘He was looking into a few things before he died.’

  ‘Oh Mitch, he wasn’t in his right mind. We’ve told you that.’

  ‘Yeah, I know what you said – but actually some of it’s quite interesting. They connect a few dots. Those Commune people, for example. Cults.’

  Helen pulled her hand out from under his and jabbed a finger at him. ‘Now, you stay away from those people. They’re dangerous.’ It was more or less what Wilkinson had said.

  ‘In what way?’ Mitch asked, though he had a pretty good idea himself.

  ‘Just stay away from them, that’s all. If you know what’s good for you!’

  ‘Was that what you said to my father? And he ignored you?’

  ‘There are things that you don’t …’ Helen shook her head.

  ‘So tell me! You and Uncle Vince, even that farmer Granger. You’re all so worried about strangers coming in that—’

  ‘The strangers are already here,’ she butted in. ‘That’s half the problem. It’s what’s causing all this trouble.’ She waved a hand around as if to say that everything that was wrong in the region was down to the new arrivals, and the potential ones to come. ‘Everyone used to know everybody else here. It’s how it’s worked for centuries. The last time this happened, let’s just say it didn’t end very well.’

  ‘The last time … Are you talking about all that black magic stuff in the past? Witches? That was something else dad seemed to be doing research on.’ Was his aunty trying to draw a comparison between those people up at the Commune and the dark arts? Why not? Mitch thought to himself. How many cults were also linked to the occult? Hadn’t he just seen people in robes performing some kind of Satanic ritual in those caves? And although he had no actual proof it was the Commune, it was a pretty safe bet.

  ‘Hello, brother …’

  ‘Brothers!’

  Helen’s face crinkled up, the tears from before all but dried. ‘They were a plague on the area, Mitchel. If history teaches us nothing else, it’s that.’

  ‘So they deserved to be rounded up and killed, back then? Drowned in the lake or burned at the stake?’

  ‘No,’ she replied. ‘No, of course not! They certainly didn’t deserve that.’

  ‘But the people of Green Acres were glad when they were wiped out, right? That the witchfinders came in and got rid of them all?’

  ‘They were different times, Mitchel. That’s all.’

  Helen said nothing after that. What was there to say? She hadn’t been around back then, didn’t know how her ancestors had felt about the whole thing. Probably didn’t even care, it was so long ago as she said. Just equated more strangers coming into the region with that terrible period in history. But maybe his father, with all his conspiracies and sticking his nose into places he really shouldn’t have, had been on to something. His aunty looked at her watch. ‘My, is that the time? I really should be making tracks. Vince will be wondering where I’ve got to.’ She rose and he stood up as well. ‘It’s all right, lad. I can see myself out.’

  She opened her arms wide, giving him another one of those crippling bear hugs, before heading out into the hallway, calling back over her shoulder: ‘You just take care, young Mitch. All right?’

  Are you all right?

  Mitch had been starting to wonder, but the chat had actually done him quite a bit of good, in more ways than one. He was beginning to get some kind of handle on things, was starting to see the shape of this particular mystery; the edges of it at least. All that remained was to solve it.

  To finally see the light, where before there had only been blackness.

  Chapter 18

  Laying there, in the darkness, she wished she’d taken him up on his offer.

  Should have gone straight away after he’d made it, when they’d been walking along the beach. The day after she’d seen them. More monsters in Bella’s ‘living room’. Not just the one that night, but three or more. It wasn’t as if the space was that big anyway, not enough to accommodate too many of them. But the point was they shouldn’t have been there in the first place, in her home!

  Her sanctuary.

  Yet there they’d been, large as life. Standing there having ransacked the place apparently, her belongings everywhere. Standing and – as she’d come out of her bedroom again, after hearing the noises: the bangings, shuffling, the creaking – looking over at her as if there was just one of them. Thinking with one brain, acting as if with one body. But more this time: the first shadow monster had brought friends.

  And it had been the same s
tory again, rushing at her, pushing her back, exiting the caravan and leaving it in that state. Leaving her in such a state that she hadn’t been able to get back to sleep, hadn’t even tried. Who the hell were these people plaguing her? What did they want? To drive her crazy?

  The headaches were already doing that on their own, so painful at times they almost felled her more effectively than someone coming at her, attacking her.

  Bella should have reported it this time, should have let Ashley Watts report the first incident – when there had just been the one intruder – but instead she’d left it. Then, when he’d come to check up on her, she’d hid what had happened. Not let him come into the caravan and see the mess, though it was obvious what a mess she was personally. Whatever he must have thought of her, probably that all this had succeeded in driving her crackers. But still he’d offered, towards the end of that walk, could see the fix she was in.

  Had offered her a bed if she wanted one, at his place. Held up his hands quickly before she got the wrong idea. ‘I’ll take the couch. No funny business, honest.’

  That had made Bella laugh, at a time when she couldn’t imagine ever laughing again. She knew his intentions were honourable, Ashley was a good man. She’d known that for a long time now. It was the reason she’d asked for him in the first place at Golden Sands police station. However, as much as she’d appreciated the offer of a place to stay, she couldn’t accept it. Felt that she needed to stay in her caravan, to, what, protect it? Guard it against the monsters in case they returned – and for some reason she felt that this was almost inevitable – not that she’d been any good at that so far.

  If only she knew what all this was about, because it felt pretty personal. Like they were taking revenge for something, like it was connected to something in the past. Had she pissed someone off? Let’s face it, Bella had said to herself when she got back to the caravan site after saying goodbye to Watts and gearing herself up to tidy the place, you’ve pissed a lot of folk off in your time. Most unintentionally, like Robyn Adams – the woman Ashley was so hung up on – but some definitely on purpose. Bella liked to think she was a good person, she did her best to help people after all, but she was still only human. Yet, as hard as she searched her memories, she couldn’t think of anyone she’d hurt so much that they’d want to toy with her like this. So maybe it was somebody she’d accidentally hurt?

  Or perhaps it was just someone who didn’t like what she did, who she was? Some people didn’t need much more reason than that for violence today, sadly.

  Did it really matter? The consequences were the same. The lack of sleep, sitting and waiting to see if they’d come back – which they didn’t that night, thankfully – the loss of days as she wandered around the place like some kind of zombie. The nightmares when exhaustion finally claimed her, the messages her mind was trying to relay about the monsters. There’d been more than one from the start in the dream, hadn’t there, so had it really been so surprising when she’d seen them in reality? Prophetic somehow.

  And when she closed her eyes, they were there again. Standing round in a circle, mumbling, chanting something in a language she couldn’t understand – blocking out the departed who were attempting to get through to her.

  Hooded figures in the dream, standing around that flickering flame. Then the movement, the shuffling – the creaking – louder and louder, as they danced (was it dancing? It looked like dancing) around that fire. Waking up at the last minute, drenched in sweat – staring into the darkness and wishing that she wasn’t here dealing with all this on her own, that she’d gone to stay with Ashley when he’d made his kind offer.

  Especially tonight, when Bella had heard the noises again out in her caravan. Except when she’d scrambled out of bed this time, snatching up the cricket bat she’d bought for protection – she’d bloody well defend this place if it killed her! – and raced out into the main section of the van, there had been nobody there.

  Blinking, Bella had looked left and right, even behind her, in case someone had hidden in the loo; ready with that bat to clobber them this time. There was nobody there, nothing. Just her imagination, definitely a carry-over from the nightmare tonight.

  It was only as she’d looked up and faced forward again that she’d spotted it. The curtains she’d closed as night had fallen, the ones that ringed the bay window at the other end of the caravan, they were … glowing.

  No, not glowing. Flickering.

  Bella rubbed her eyes with her free hand, the one not currently holding her makeshift weapon, but the flickering didn’t go away. Not even a little bit. If anything, it was brighter. Couldn’t be the candles she’d lit in there when it got dark, she’d definitely blown all those out.

  She’d made her way through the kitchen, past the breakfast table, towards the sofa that hugged the semi-circle just below the bay windows. Bella skirted around the small coffee table in front, kneeling on the padded cushions, free hand out to pull the curtains. Opening a tear in them at any rate, so she could see what was causing the—

  But then she saw exactly what it was, and her mouth dropped open. Simultaneously, she dropped the bat, which bounced off the sofa and crashed into the coffee table.

  She saw the light in the darkness. Then wished more than anything in the world that Ashley Watts was present, or that she was with the policeman in his place, away from here.

  That she’d taken him up on his offer.

  Chapter 19

  It had come through the window only minutes after he’d returned.

  Mitch had barely had time to place the leftovers he’d brought back with him on the floor for Cat when it happened. More trouble!

  The crashing, banging, the smashing.

  It had been a decent evening up to that point, mostly. Mitch had done a bit more reading, then – remembering about Lucy again, and how he still hadn’t spoken to her since getting cut off – he’d wandered back over to The Plough. The one place he knew for sure had a phone he could use. He didn’t want to pester the neighbour anymore, and figured his aunty had probably had enough of him that day, so really it was the only option, seeing as he still hadn’t spotted a phone box in the village itself.

  So off he’d gone to the pub. It was still only afternoon, but Denise was already behind the bar – a shift change, which meant she wouldn’t be on that evening probably – and she greeted him with one of her warm smiles. ‘Hello stranger,’ she’d said and he couldn’t help flinching at that title, given the conversation with his aunty. But, he supposed, he was a stranger here regardless of whether he’d been born in Green Acres. That wasn’t what Denise was talking about, though. ‘Thought we might have seen you yesterday?’ Was that how it worked, you spent a night in here and it suddenly became your local? Somewhere you had to frequent every day? Having said that, Mitch had definitely developed a bit of a liking for the old Traditional real ale.

  As if reading his mind, Denise was already pouring a pint even as he stepped up to the counter. ‘Oh, hey. Yeah. I went out yesterday.’

  ‘Don’t blame you. Lovely weather, and they reckon it’s only going to get hotter.’

  He didn’t know why he felt he had to explain he’d been anywhere, but for some reason he did – and he thought for a moment she might have asked what he was doing last night. Like his aunty, her eyes kept flitting from his face to the bruise under his hairline.

  As it was, she asked, ‘You all right?’

  Mitch gave an uncertain nod. It wasn’t the first time he’d been asked that day, and he still wasn’t really sure he was. Felt better because he had a few more leads to go on in the case – was it really wrong he was beginning to think of what happened as his case? Wasn’t it dangerous to be that closely involved having known the victim? Having been related to him? They warned you about that in training; how it can cloud your judgement. How he was suddenly starting to think about ‘outsiders’ and ‘strangers’ himself, judging them. Who else was going to dig into this, though, if he didn’t?

>   But how did he actually feel? He turned the question back on Denise: ‘You?’

  ‘Bored. At a loose end,’ she told him as she lifted the pint and put it on the bar, dark liquid slopping over the sides. ‘Nothing new there, mind you.’ She looked him in the eyes, but he glanced away. Mitch knew what she was driving at, that she could use some company: the company of an old friend, perhaps. But he had a girlfriend at home – hoped he still had a girlfriend – and that was the real reason he’d come here in the first place.

  ‘Would you excuse me for a sec?’ he said. ‘I just need to …’ Mitch pointed at the payphone. Again, he had absolutely no idea why he was explaining himself to the barmaid. There was no real reason to, except to be polite.

  ‘’Course, sweetheart. I’ll still be here when you get back.’ Denise winked at him this time, another practised move, which did nothing to make him feel any more comfortable. Wouldn’t exactly put him at his ease when he was talking to Lucy.

  In the end he hadn’t been able to get hold of her anyway, couldn’t get an answer at the flat or on her mobile, so he’d just left an apologetic and somewhat garbled message, fuelled by guilt. There was nothing else he could do really, couldn’t give her a number to reach him. Definitely not this one, the last thing he needed was Denise taking messages for him here. He’d be lucky if Lucy ever spoke to him again.

  It was as he replaced the receiver that his sister had flashed through his mind, and he decided to try her at the hotel. Was this the right day for her ‘act’? He had no idea, but maybe he’d catch her – or at the very least could leave her a message. He was informed that she’d cried off her stage show this week, though. Wasn’t feeling very well, apparently. Mitch had told the lady at reception to pass on his best (it was all he could think of at the time; love didn’t sound right) and to say the next time she saw or spoke to her that he hoped she was feeling better.

  His big sister, and they felt about as close as those strangers his aunty and Denise had mentioned. He couldn’t help thinking now that Bella should have come. Then he wouldn’t be tackling all this on his own, would have backup of sorts. Then again, did he really want her anywhere near this? Mitch forgot sometimes that there was a world outside of the police and cases and tracking down bad guys. Bella hadn’t been exposed to any of that, as far as he knew. Probably for the best she was all the way over in Golden Sands right now.