“But you’re an old…”
She stopped herself just in time.
“I’m an old woman? You could say that, I’m sixty-eight. But I’ve still strength enough left in me, more’s the pity.”
Cash pulled up a chair and placed it beside Ruby. “Cash, I think we’d better ask – sorry, what’s your name?”
“Linda. My name’s Linda.”
“Cash, can you get Linda a seat too?”
“What?” Cash was incredulous. “You’ll be offering her tea next.”
“That’s not such a bad idea—”
“I don’t want tea,” Linda spat, struggling to her feet.
“Cash, help her.”
“I don’t want to touch her.”
“Cash!”
“All right, all right.”
If he was ungracious about helping her, she was equally as ungracious about accepting. She was sixty-eight but in the artificial light of the room, her face looked older. The lines on it were deeply engraved, around her eyes and mouth especially. Ruby knew without doubt hers had been a hard life. Even so, this wasn’t the time for lenience. This was a time for answers.
“You’re here about Gilmore Street aren’t you? About my involvement in it.”
“Is it true? Is he there?”
“Is who there?”
“Just tell me!”
Ruby grew equally as angry. “Linda, that’s just it, we don’t know who ‘he’ is! I presume you found out about Gilmore Street by reading the papers.”
“Of course that’s how!” Spittle flew from her mouth as she said it.
Cash leant into Ruby. “This is getting us nowhere. Let me call the police, and get her locked up. You’ve got to get to the hospital, check for concussion.”
“Cash, please! This is more important than bloody concussion.”
“Which could of course be the concussion speaking.”
“Please… give me more time.” She turned back to Linda. “Did you ever live at Gilmore Street? Who were you, a Fowler or a Dolan?”
When she remained mute, Ruby repeated the question. Still she refused to reply.
“Linda!” The desperation in her voice was not lost on any of them. Ruby made an effort to calm down and began to calculate instead. If she was sixty-eight, she’d have been born in the 1940s and was therefore more likely to be a Dolan. “You’re Linda Dolan aren’t you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, that’s not my name.”
“Then what is it? Help me!”
“I want to stop you not help you!”
“Tell me who you are, who he is.”
“The past should stay buried.”
“But it’s not though is it? It’s coming full circle!”
For a moment Ruby thought Linda would leap out of her chair and attack her again, with bare hands this time, but thankfully she remained seated. Just as Ruby suspected they’d have to goad the spirit of Gilmore Street to get anywhere with information, she knew she’d have to do the same with Linda. But there was one thing she wanted Linda to clarify first.
“Why did you decide to attack me in particular? I’m not the only psychic who’s been called into Gilmore Street.” There’d been a whole host of them after her. “If you haven’t already killed the rest of them off that is.”
“You were the first though, weren’t you, the one who got the ball rolling. And that article you were in recently, you sounded so smug.”
“Smug? In what way?”
“You said it wasn’t that man who’d lived there for so many years – what’s his name? Benjamin, that’s it. You said it was someone else, that you’d find out who he was come hell and high water, you’d expose him.”
She was referring to Robin’s report. Ruby had said words to that effect but not quite so dramatically, there was certainly no hell or high water involved. It was Linda who had skewed facts this time, read into it what she wanted.
A thought occurred to her. “Did you ever try and contact me by phone?” She saw Linda’s eyes flicker, move to the right slightly. “You did, didn’t you? You called several times, but never spoke to me, you always put the phone down.” A ruse she’d blamed Ellie for. Exhaling, she questioned her again. “Linda, are you afraid that if I expose him, I expose you?” Trying to quash her frustration at her maintained silence, she added, “You did something to him didn’t you? You hurt him.”
That got a reaction. “The bastard deserved what he got!”
Seizing the moment, Ruby continued. “When did you live there? I don’t recall there being a record of a Linda at Gilmore Street. In fact, now I come to think of it, I’m sure there wasn’t. I’m certain in fact.” God, she wished her head wasn’t pounding so much. She was beginning to feel sick too and little wonder. But she needed to hang on, to remember a few more facts. “The house was owned by the Dolans from the late 1940s. Were they your parents or your aunt and uncle, something like that? They lived there until the late sixties when Benjamin Hamilton bought it. At first we thought Ben was the grounded spirit but we don’t think that now, but it’s somebody with a strong connection. Somebody to do with you.”
Linda was breathing heavily now, kept swallowing.
“What did you do to him? Did you kill him? Dispose of the body?”
“No!” the woman burst out, “I didn’t kill him.” She then seemed to falter. “At least… I don’t think so. I don’t know what happened to him.” She shook her head as though a bolt of lightning had shot through it. “And there’s no way I’d have been able to dispose of him as you put it. I wouldn’t have been able to lift him, to drag him anywhere, how could I? He was a big man, a slug of a man.”
Ruby’s breath caught in her throat.
“Ruby!” Cash said, noticing. She couldn’t put him off much longer. She had to hurry.
“What did you say, what did you just call him?”
Linda too was surprised by Ruby’s reaction. “I called him a slug, because that’s what he was, fat and lazy, sitting in front of the telly all the time. I hated him. I still hate him. If he’s stuck in Gilmore Street, leave him to rot.”
“Ruby, we have to get you to hospital. We’ve got to get you checked out.”
“I know, Cash, I know we have. But we can’t let her out of our sight.”
“Ruby, you’re delirious.”
“No, I’m not. I’m honestly not.”
A soul divided?
Ruby’s mind began to work furiously. “We can’t take her with us to the hospital, there’ll be too many questions. I haven’t got time for questions. Call Theo, Ness and Corinna, they’ll have to drop what they’re doing and come here, right now, take her back to my flat. Stand guard.” She’d never seen Cash look so bemused. Quickly she tried to explain. “Cash, I think I know what happened, the entire sequence of events. Linda has to come with us to Gilmore Street. His reaction to her will confirm his identity.”
Before Cash could comment, Linda shot to her feet.
“No! I’m not going back. You can’t make me.”
Ruby sat up straight and fixed Linda with what she hoped was a steely glare. “I can make you. What you’ve done, it counts as attempted murder in the eyes of the law.”
“Murder? I wasn’t going to kill you. I just wanted to warn you off!”
“But it’s your word against mine and believe me, I can fabricate the truth as much as anyone.”
Cash stepped up to the mark. “She’s also got me as a witness remember. I saw what you tried to do.”
“No,” Linda’s voice was a whimper this time. “I can’t do it, I can’t.”
Ruby remained resolute.
“I’m sorry, but we all have to face our demons at some point.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Luckily, it was as quiet at the hospital as it was on the streets of Lewes, so Ruby got seen to within the hour – another miracle. After a basic neurological exam to assess her hearing, speech, coordination and balance, including the ‘finger-nos
e-finger’ test, Ruby was given the all clear but told to return if symptoms persist.
“Problems to look out for,” the nurse told her, “include confusion, vomiting, seizures or fits of any kind and loss of memory. Basically, what you need now is rest. Avoid doing anything strenuous for the next twenty-four hours.”
Chance would be a fine thing.
Before travelling to the hospital, she’d given Theo, Ness and Corinna the key to her flat, and told them to take a now compliant Linda there, to keep an eye on her until she returned, when she’d explain all. And now she was back, with several pairs of expectant eyes trained on her, Linda’s included.
Whilst Ness rushed off to make tea for everyone, Ruby settled herself on the sofa. Everyone looked tired: she and Linda in particular no doubt. She’d have to explain her theory as succinctly as possible. No mean feat when she was still trying to piece it all together herself. But hopefully, as a team, they’d be able to make sense of it. Ness re-entered the room with a tray, which she set down before selecting a cup and offering it to their ‘guest’. As it had been at her office, Linda’s refusal was vehement.
“I don’t touch tea.”
“Oh, water then?”
“Nothing, I don’t want nothing.”
As Ness offered the cup to Corinna instead, Ruby decided to get cracking.
“We need to know the name of the man you lived with in Gilmore Street. And don’t muck around with us, not at this stage. Just tell us straight. You know as well as we do that Gilmore Street isn’t going away, and if it’s him, neither is he – yet. It seems Benjamin was able to put up with him and we have a theory as to why. In life the spirit was a misogynist, it’s not men he attacks. Regarding the Gordons, it’s Samantha and her daughter that have come under fire, Samantha’s husband and son haven’t suffered to the same extent. The reason why his spirit’s grounded needs to come out into the open where it can be dealt with. If you know it, tell us. For both your sakes.”
Glancing nervously at those who sat round her, Linda, to her credit, didn’t hesitate. “His name was Quinn, Quinn O’Brien. And he was evil.”
“Evil?” Theo queried. “That’s a harsh word.”
Linda was adamant. “It’s the right word to describe him.”
“Okay,” Ruby seized back control, “so it’s Quinn that haunts Gilmore Street, not Benjamin.” His was a name she hadn’t come across when researching the house either. “Or at least it’s very likely it’s him. And this woman, Linda… O’Brien?”
“No! I ditched that name a long time ago. I’m a Banks.”
“Banks,” Ruby repeated. “Linda Banks was abused by him.”
Linda’s head snapped towards her. “How’d you know that?”
“Yes how, Ruby?” Ness looked surprised too.
“I have another theory and it’s to do with Ellie.”
“Ellie?” Ness questioned.
“I’m afraid so.”
“Who’s Ellie?” Linda was curious too. As for Theo, she remarked whether they’d better have a conversation in private before they continued.
“I understand your concern, Theo, but no,” Ruby decided. “Linda’s an integral part of this now. But before I go any further I want you to tell us, in your own words what happened to you both in Gilmore Street. After that I’ll explain my theory and who Ellie is.”
Linda was shaking visibly.
Ness noticed and sided with Theo. “Ruby, I’m not sure this is a good idea.”
But it was Linda who answered her. “She’s right. I need to tell you, I need to tell someone. There might even be relief in it. I’ve lived in silence for a long time, in hatred and in fear. I’ve lost myself. I don’t know who I am anymore. As for what I’ve become, that attack on you…” She hung her head. “I did my best to run, to hide, I tried to forget. But every day’s a nightmare because every day memories haunt me. I damned Quinn to hell but I’m damned too.”
Ness was visibly touched by her words. She leant towards Linda and placed a hand on her arm; a simple gesture – a kind gesture. One of solidarity.
Linda eyed Ness, her gaze hard at first but then it softened. The gesture she’d made had had an effect. Ruby wondered if it was the first time anyone had touched the older woman in years, or had been allowed to. It was hard to believe but she suspected it was true. Linda continued speaking.
“When I first saw Quinn, it was like I couldn’t breathe. His eyes, those gypsy eyes. I was transfixed by them. He was staring at me and I stared back. I fell in love with him the minute I saw him – the boy from the fair.”
“The fair?” There was a frown on Ness’s face as she said it.
“That’s right, that’s where I met him. He was Irish, came from Dublin, he’d been in England for a few years. Came over at the start of the sixties, when he was fifteen. He wanted to escape his family, said they were no good. Hated to talk about them, grew anxious if I asked for details. I only ever did that in the early days, and I learnt quick enough not to press him. Even so, it made me wonder in what way he’d suffered at their hands.”
“Whether he was also abused you mean?” Ruby posed the question.
“Abused? He must have been, tortured in fact, because Quinn knew how to dish it out. Whoever he’d learnt from, he’d learnt well. Sometimes I try and remember if there’d been early warnings signs, but it doesn’t matter how hard I rack my brain, I can’t recall. I was too blinded by him.”
“He was controlling though wasn’t he?” Ruby replied, remembering what Ellie had said. “He asked you to run away with him. He knew your parents disapproved of your relationship, that they’d stop you from marrying him.”
Linda was aghast. “That’s right, that’s right. But how’d you know all that? Is it through Ellie? Who is this girl? How does she know about me? I… he was controlling, yes, but I mistook that for strength. I was young, naïve, not even twenty, what did I know of boys, of the world? But I was soon to learn. A baptism of fire. He wouldn’t even let me tell my parents where we’d gone, said it would spoil it, that they’d spoil it. All I left was a note telling them not to worry, that I’d be in touch. I don’t know if they ever tried to find me. I don’t think so. What I’d done, it must have been so disappointing for them. I was their only daughter you see and they wanted things for me, good things. I never saw them again. They’re dead now.”
“Never?” Corinna was shocked. “Not even after you’d left Quinn?”
“After I’d left Quinn? I couldn’t! I was a monster by then, the same as him, they wouldn’t recognise me. I didn’t even recognise myself.” One hand came up to rub at her temple. “The things I’ve done. Oh, God, the things I’ve done.”
“If this is too distressing for you, Linda,” Theo interrupted, “we can always stop, get some rest, carry on tomorrow.”
Linda refused. “No, if I don’t say this now, I never will. I hate him! But then again I hate myself. I don’t know which one of us I hate the most. He turned, the minute we set foot in Gilmore Street he turned. He said he’d got us a palace, that I’d love it. Wouldn’t let me see it before I’d said ‘I do’. What a joke! It was no palace. It was empty, it was dirty and it hadn’t seen a lick of paint in years. When I saw it I couldn’t hide how disgusted I was. As soon as he closed the door of that hovel, he started. ‘You’re never satisfied are you?’ he said. ‘Always disappointed, in the wedding, in the house, in me, and everything I’ve done for you. You think you’re better than me, don’t you, with your posh parents, the house you grew up in, your education. You think I’m scum. Irish scum.’”
“The man had an inferiority complex,” remarked Theo.
Linda didn’t disagree. “And then he hit me – that’s right, on our wedding day, not even an hour after we’d exchanged vows, he hit me, cut my lip and blacked my eye. And I knew… I knew that was the start of it, that there was worse to come, much worse. Why I didn’t leave then, return to my parents, I don’t know. I was just so embarrassed, I think, and scared… I was sc
ared. He imprisoned me, in that house that was so old fashioned and so different to the house I’d grown up in, that I was used to. It was drab and it was dreary. There were things that crawled in the night; that covered the walls. I tried to clean it. I did my best. But it was like him – rotten. I got resentful. How dare he bring me here? How dare he hit me? I missed my parents!”
Listening to her, Ruby was puzzled. “I don’t understand, when were you at Gilmore Street? There’s no record of you being tenants.”
“A friend of a friend owned the house, that’s what Quinn told me, another Irishman.”
“Yes, yes,” concurred Theo, “Dolan is an Irish name.”
“I don’t know what the deal was, Quinn took care of all that. All I know is that the owners had left, this friend of his was starting a job elsewhere. They were selling the house but meanwhile they wanted rent for it, a peppercorn rent Quinn said and little wonder the state it was in. We were there for several months, the best part of a year I suppose, although it seemed like so much longer. During that time Quinn grew fat, he’d left his job when we came down from the midlands, told me he’d easily pick up another. But he didn’t, just a bit of casual every now and then. We survived on cheap food, bread, potatoes, tinned stuff; it was all so bland. And then he’d hit me for that too, as though it were my fault. But how was it my fault? I could have got a job, supported us, but I wasn’t allowed anywhere by myself. I could only go out with him and even then it was rarely, but when we did, I used to think maybe I could make a break for it, when he wasn’t looking. Take off, escape. But he was always looking, that’s the trouble. And my hand… he used to hold on to it so tight I thought my bones would break.”
“What about the other residents in the street?” Cash asked. “Weren’t they curious about you at all? Didn’t they come knocking?”
Linda cocked her head to one side. “I used to wonder about that too. Didn’t our neighbours want to know about the newcomers? About me in particular, I must have looked a fright, I was so shocked and bewildered. I was so thin. Hardly a picture of marital bliss. But people only see what they want to see don’t they and nobody saw me. I’d become invisible.”
44 Gilmore Street Page 24
