by Helen Phifer
She found the locker room and let the heavy bag drop to the floor. Across the hall was an office, which was empty. She went to look for the duty sergeant to introduce herself and couldn’t find whoever that was either. She could hear a raised voice coming from an office further up the corridor so she walked in that direction to see the sign which said Inspector on the door. Annie paused outside not wanting to intrude.
‘Yes I know Georgia darling, we did discuss you going to Chloe’s party tonight and what time did I tell you to be in for? There was a slight pause. ‘Yes I did say midnight but that was before you went out last night and got pissed out of your head and had to be brought home by one of my response officers. This alone tells me that you don’t give a shit about embarrassing me and secondly it proves that you can’t be trusted. Put it this way I’m grounding you for the good of your liver. Fifteen is far too young to have cirrhosis of the liver and I refuse to be the gossip of the station because you think you can drink every piss head under the table.’
Annie winced at the scream of ‘I hate you’ which echoed around the tiny office. The line went dead and the woman holding the phone growled. Annie coughed, knocked on the door and walked in. She didn’t know Inspector Hayes however she did know of her reputation as a hard woman to please and by all accounts a bit of a bitch. The woman looked up at Annie and grinned, ‘Bloody teenagers, they should come with a health warning. They are bad for your mental health and bank balance.’
‘Sorry, I wasn’t eavesdropping. I’m Annie Graham.’ She held out her hand and shook the Inspector’s.
‘Don’t worry, if you work here for more than a week you will know all about everyone’s home life, their horrible brats, miserable spouses and what we all drink down The Angel. One of the perils of working in a small station. On the plus side you won’t get hassled about your monthly submissions, moaned at about your arrest rate or told to do more traffic because at the glorious lakes we are all about the tourists and keeping everyone happy, so they keep coming back and spending more money.’
‘It sounds perfect to me; I’ve had enough of the other side of policing for a while. I need a change.’ Annie wondered how much Kav had filled the woman in on her gaudy life over the last year. If he had, she didn’t let on. She stood up and showed Annie to the small kitchen where the woman actually switched the kettle on and started to make two mugs of coffee. Regardless of her reputation Annie liked her; in fact she really liked her. The inspector poured the boiling water into the cups, added the milk and then opened the cupboard and pulled out a packet of chocolate biscuits.
‘I’m Cathy; you only need to bother with the inspector shit if the Superintendant or higher put in an appearance or if you are really crawling because you have messed up, but I doubt that. I’ve heard a lot of good things about you Annie and in case you are wondering I also know that you’ve had an even crappier past six months than I have. But that’s your business and you only have to talk about it if you feel you need to. I have an open door policy, if something is bothering you don’t bottle it up get it off your chest, because I’m telling you there will be days when the diva I brought into this world will do my tits in so much that if I don’t sound off at someone I might just go home and strangle the bitch.’ She winked and it all sounded wonderful to Annie. Taking their mugs of coffee and the packet of biscuits, Cathy gave her a quick tour of the building, explaining all the various bits and pieces, then they sat down in her office and had a good old catch up about what was happening down in Barrow.
Chapter 11
He walked into his office and stared at the board for Operation Ariel, it was beginning to fill up nicely. Although this one was a bit more rushed than the last one he’d decided there was no point hanging around, he’d made his mind up who his next angel was going to be. He didn’t want to rush it too much but he’d read on Facebook she was going out with some work colleagues for one of their birthdays and he realised it was the perfect opportunity. He’d spent two full days this week watching, following and stalking his victim. She was blonde and pretty and reminded him so much of his mother. The more he’d watched her he’d come to realise that she was quite a selfish person, which made her even more like his mother. He pinned the photos of the street she lived in and the flat above the hairdressers to the corkboard. He had printed out a small map of the streets surrounding and added that. He couldn’t gain access to her flat, he had no reason to go inside and she would recognise him if he tried. He didn’t think she would be very approachable unless she was drunk, because she was a naturally suspicious person. If he couldn’t get to her when she left the pub he would have to follow her back to her flat; he had checked there was no CCTV in the street. The shop on the corner had a camera but he knew for a fact that it didn’t work and when it did it only covered the shop’s entrance. He felt confident that even if she put up a fight and screamed he’d still be able to drag her into her own flat or his truck before any of the residents bothered to get out of their warm beds to see what was going on. He just hoped that if she did put up a fight she wouldn’t draw blood – he shuddered. He closed his computer. He’d been following the thread she had started about what to wear for tonight. He wasn’t actually friends with her but he was a friend of a friend which was almost as good. He could read any of the conversations the two of them had; the joys of the internet, it was a stalker’s paradise.
He set about checking his bag. Everything he needed was in there: gloves, duct tape, plastic bags, tie wraps, sheet of polythene. He took the small brown medicine bottle out of the fridge, inside were two finely crushed Flunitrazepam, more commonly known as Rohypnol tablets. They were his emergency backup. If all else failed he would drug her, slip them into a glass of the white wine she seemed to like so much. He could feel his nerve endings tingling at the thought of what he was going to do; it was the biggest rush ever. He’d chosen St Martha’s Church; they were all covered by the same priest. It looked as if the church was having the same funding crisis as almost everyone else; he’d been and chosen the grave two days ago. He’d had a walk around the church and grounds with a baseball cap and some dark sunglasses on, his camera around his neck. He looked like a typical tourist and he hadn’t seen anyone else while he’d been looking around which suited him just fine. He wanted to be there to see the priest’s face. He wasn’t sure if he would be the one to find her but one way or another two bodies in two church grounds would certainly make the priest a person of interest for the police to talk to. He would love to be around when that happened.
June 29th 1984
02:00
After they had finished their hot chocolates and both the children had started to yawn, Father John had shown Beth, Sophie and Sean up to one of the guest rooms, which had a huge double bed, big enough for all three of them to snuggle up together. If they needed to stay longer they could each have the rooms they had stayed in when he first found them. He left them to it and went to his own room. Beth hadn’t said as much but he knew it was the shadow man who had brought them to his door, terrified and shaking. He knelt at the foot of his bed and began to pray to God for all the help he could give him.
07:00
He opened his eyes and stared at the crucifix on the wall opposite his bed. Today was the day that he was going to go into that house and bless it from top to bottom. He looked at the alarm clock next to his bed, seven o’clock, but he couldn’t sleep even though he felt exhausted. All night he had tossed and turned, so many thoughts running through brain and he had kept listening out in case his unexpected visitors needed his help. He got up and pulled on his faded jeans and a black tee shirt. When he went to do the house blessing it would be in full priest ensemble, whilst he planned exactly what he was going to do and made everyone breakfast he could be plain old John. After a quick wash he ran his fingers through his thick, wavy black hair to calm it down a little. He needed a haircut but that wasn’t going to happen today. As he threw his head back to gargle some mouthwash he caught movement in t
he mirror and whipped around to see Sophie standing at the bathroom door. ‘Phew, Sophie you scared me. How are you this morning?’
‘He won’t leave me alone.’
John knew exactly who she meant but he had to hear her say it. ‘Who won’t leave you alone?’
‘The shadow man, even when I’m asleep he’s there – in my dreams.’
John walked over to her and crouched down to her level. ‘I know you are scared but you are also incredibly brave Sophie and you have to tell him to go away. I’m going to go to your house later and bless it with holy water from top to bottom.’
‘Will that make him go away?’
John looked at the pale face staring back at him. He didn’t want to lie to her and give her false hope but he couldn’t tell a nine year old girl that he might not be able to get rid of the scary shadow without help. ‘I hope so, I’m going to try my best but until I do I want you all to stay here with me. What do you think about that? My housekeeper Mrs Brown makes the best cakes, she will let you help her bake some when she comes at dinner time. Make sure you tell her which ones are your favourite. Come on lets go and get some breakfast, I’m starving.’
He took hold of her hand and led her to the stairs. Her fingers gripped his. They were so cold; the poor little thing was frozen even though it was summer.
In the kitchen John began to grill bacon and fry eggs, there was something therapeutic about cooking. He didn’t do fancy but he was good at the basics. He asked Sophie to get him the mushrooms from the fridge. She put them next to him and he passed her a knife which wasn’t very sharp and a dish. ‘Do you think you could help me and chop those up?’
She nodded and began concentrating on the task he’d just given her. John was trying to take her mind off the living nightmare she was constantly thinking about. Considering his stomach was a bag of nerves, he was starving and needed a full belly to help him decide what to do. Between them they made enough to feed a small army and he plated some up for Beth and Sean, placing it in the oven on a low light to keep it warm until they woke up. He didn’t think Sophie was going to eat any of hers but after tipping half a bottle of tomato sauce over her food she began to tuck in. She made a sandwich from the two slices of toast he’d put on her plate and she giggled as the warm butter dribbled down her chin. ‘Oops I’m such a messy eater, Mum always tells me that.’
John laughed, ‘Me too, I had no idea you could eat so much.’
‘That’s because I like it here, this house smells clean. I didn’t want to eat much in ours it smells dirty. Only Mum doesn’t really smell it, but I can and it makes me feel sick. I think Sean can as well but he doesn’t understand.’
John smiled, she was old way beyond her years and that was sad. He cast his mind back to when he was a teenager, a few years older than Sophie was now, and he’d felt exactly the same. At the time he thought his house smelled as if someone had died in it, as if there was something rotting that only he could smell because his mother never could.
‘I know exactly what you mean Sophie, I was the same only I had no-one who believed me and my mother didn’t understand. Every day I used to feel more and more tired, as if every little bit of energy was being sucked from my very soul. Just getting dressed for school used to be a real battle. I couldn’t concentrate in school and my teachers thought I’d been taking drugs.’
He stopped talking, Sophie was nine years old and here he was giving her a full and frank confession about his encounter with the shadow man when he was thirteen.
‘What did you tell them?’
‘Nothing I was too scared, I thought that I was going a little bit mad. I did try and tell my mother but she didn’t believe me and told me to stop telling fibs.’
‘My mum said that but I think she changed her mind last night when she saw him, he was standing in the corner of my bedroom. Grownups should realise that when children say they see people nobody else can it’s because we really can.’
‘What happened last night? I don’t think your mum will tell me everything, can you?’
Both John and Sophie pushed their breakfast plates to the side and were leaning with their arms on the table, heads bending towards each other.
‘What are you two up to?’
Beth’s voice made the pair of them jump and John had trouble trying to speak without his voice cracking. He felt overwhelmed, for the first time in twelve years he had faced his childhood monster. Beth wandered towards the table and picked up both of their plates, scraping what was left into the small, stainless steel bin.
Sophie looked across at her mum. ‘Tell Father John what you saw last night in my room.’
Beth, who was filling the sink with water, froze.
‘Please Mum, tell him you saw it, tell him you believe us.’
Beth turned around, a big wet tear glistened in the corner of her eye. ‘I don’t want to talk about it, we must have been dreaming.’
Sophie burst into tears and John didn’t know who to comfort first but then Beth rushed over to Sophie and wrapped her arms around her, hugging her tight. She took a deep breath and then told John why they ended up banging on the presbytery door at one o’clock in the morning.
After breakfast John left the kitchen and went into the library to sit at his paper-strewn desk. He began looking through his papers. He could bless the house without the Vatican’s permission but if he needed it to be exorcised then he would have to request permission and it could take weeks even months for it to be granted. He also knew they would need a whole lot more evidence than what he could give them at the moment. He opened a drawer and pulled out the scrapbook he’d been keeping since he was a teenager. In it he had cuttings from the papers about every haunted house or demonic possession. He knew that the shadow man was in between the two of them because he didn’t want to be Sophie, what he wanted was Sophie’s soul and this was where it was going to get complicated. He laughed to himself: Are you mad John? You are worrying about fighting a shadow man that you have no idea how to deal with. How did you escape him years ago? For the life of him he couldn’t remember exactly what it was he did to get rid of him, it was as if the memories were being blocked from his mind. He shivered, the room was much colder than it usually was and he wouldn’t be surprised if the entity was skulking around, listening. Maybe it was blocking his memories so he wouldn’t be able to fight it again. He knew he didn’t have much choice because Sophie looked exhausted, her skin was so pale and those black circles under her eyes made her look like an old woman and not a child. He needed to take action and quickly; picking up the telephone he began dialling the number for the local Bishop – Father Robert. John prayed he was back from visiting his sister because he needed to ask for his help.
Chapter 12
Laura raised the glass to her lips, draining the remaining drops of wine; she was more than merry, quite possibly drunk. Until she stood up and tried to walk in a straight line she couldn’t say for definite. One thing she did know was that she was starving, two cans of Slimfast and a banana didn’t really do much to fill you up. The man on the bar stool next to her smiled, he’d been chatting to her for the last thirty minutes. Don’t ask what about because she didn’t care, he was nice looking. He was broad shouldered and looked as if he worked out at the gym every day, at the moment he was the best looking shag in the pub. Will, Stu and the others were sitting behind her in a semicircle and she hoped Will was watching. She wanted him to intervene, drag her back to the stool next to him and tell her how sorry he was, he did like her. In reality he was completely ignoring her; he hadn’t spoken more than ten words to her since last week. She would have to go to plan B which was to make him jealous, prove to him she could have anyone she wanted and it was him who was missing out. She turned her head slightly to see if he was watching her but he was nodding his head at something Stu was whispering in his ear – losers, the pair of them. Muscle man offered her another drink and she didn’t refuse, this was Will’s last chance and then she was leaving w
ith muscle man and either taking him back to his place or hers. It didn’t matter as long as she left the pub with him and Will watched her leave. She bent and whispered in his ear. ‘Do you fancy going somewhere quiet for a coffee?’
The man nodded with a big grin on his face and she stood up from the bar stool, stumbling slightly. Muscle man, who had just told her he was called Ryan, caught her elbow, helping her to steady herself. She smiled at him then linked her arm through his, squeezing it tightly. Will nodded at her and then looked away, did his cheeks just flush? She hoped so; it would serve him right, he’d had his chance. Laura did actually feel bad for Annie; she hadn’t meant for her to catch them like she had but in Laura’s world all was fair in love and war. Ryan kept tight hold of her arm. They got outside the pub and walked down the street to the taxi rank. He gave his address and Laura wasn’t about to argue, it was easier for her to sneak away after what she hoped would be some hot sex with no strings attached. He was a real gentleman and helped her into the car. Once it drove off he leant over and kissed her and she hungrily kissed him back. The taxi stopped outside a large detached house, the only buildings nearby were a church and small primary school and she realised it was the presbytery.
‘Forgive me Father for I have sinned.’ She giggled and reached out to touch his groin; Ryan made the sign of the cross on her forehead and whispered, ‘No my child, you are about to sin – you haven’t yet.’
She got a fit of the giggles as they got out of the taxi. Ryan slipped the driver a ten pound note, then he took hold of her hand and led her towards the house which was all in darkness.
‘Are you really a priest?’
He shook his head, ‘No, but my uncle is. I live with him while I’m working down here, but we have the place to ourselves. He’s been asked to cover for a priest up in the Lakes so he’s staying there for a bit. We’ll be all on our own and you should see the size of my bed.’
