Echoes of the Past

by Mailer, Deborah

  Lee’s mobile rang in her bag. “I’ll be a sec, Elsie.” A moment later, she was back at the counter.

  “Elsie, I’m sorry. I’ve got to go. Jess has had an accident.”

  “Goodness, is she all right?”

  “I don’t know. She thinks she may have broken her ankle.”

  “Well, all right, I can manage here. Let me know how she is.”

  Lee grabbed her jacket and ran out the door. She headed up to the lockup at Potters Lane to get her car. Ten minutes later, she arrived at Hill House farm. Jess was sitting on the grass with Gemma beside her. The front door of the house was lying open.

  “What have you done, Jess?”

  “I fell down the stairs.”

  Lee looked at the swollen ankle, there was no bruising, but it was very red.

  “Have you called your Dad?” she asked.

  The girls looked at each other. “No, I didn’t want to disturb him.”

  Lee knew something was going on. “What’s happened, I want the truth.”

  “We were just messing around, aunt Lee, and we fell down the stairs.”

  “We?”

  “Well, me.”

  “Come on; let’s get you to the doctor. And I am calling your Dad. I’ll drop you off Gemma.” Lee closed the front door and bundled Jess in to the blue mini. Dropping Gemma off on route, she took Jess to the surgery.

  Doctor Styles was well passed retirement. He had lived and worked in Coppersfield for as long as anyone could remember. Rather round, with grey hair and a penchant for boiled sweets, he had run his surgery the same way for nearly fifty years. Very informal. Doctor Styles still would make house calls, he would do his best to ensure you could always get an appointment, and every child got a sugar lump. The old man prodded and pressed at the offending ankle.

  “Wiggle your toes. Does this hurt? Bend your foot forward.” Jess did as he asked. “Well, there’s no bruising. That’s a good sign. I’m pretty sure it’s not broken. I think she has sprained it, if you want to go for an x-ray I can give you a letter to take through to the hospital. But to be honest, I think a tubei grip should do the job. And you will have to stay off it for a day or two. Let me see if I’ve got some crutches through here.” The old Doctor returned with a pair of worn crutches and a bandage. “Now, you should only need these for a couple of days, no more. If you still can’t walk you will have to have an x-ray.”

  “Thank you, Doctor.”

  Bandaged up, Jess made her way back to the car.

  “Your Dad is going to know something happened when you hobble in on crutches, Jess, why didn’t you want him to know?”

  Jess sat for a moment looking down at her bandaged foot. “Aunt Lee. We did something really stupid. Please don’t tell him, he will go ballistic.”

  Lee drove up the lane to the farmhouse. “What have you done?” She knew Jess, and it wouldn’t be that bad, she was a good kid. She pulled the mini into the drive and helped Jess out and up the path. At the front door, Jess hesitated. A feeling of dread washed over her at the thought of going back into the house. “Come on, I’ll get you on to the couch and make you some hot chocolate, then you can tell me what you’ve done.”

  Ten minutes later, Jess was on the couch with a cushion under her foot and a mug of hot chocolate on her lap. Lee was sitting across from her with a cup of coffee.

  “I called Elsie, she’s asking for you and I called your Dad, he’ll be home soon. Now tell me what you’ve done”

  “We used a Ouija board.” Jess blurted out.

  “What?” Lee couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

  “Don’t tell Dad. We were trying to contact Olivia; I just wanted to tell her I was sorry. I didn’t really think it would work. But Gemma got this board and we asked questions and it started saying things, most of it didn’t make sense until it told us to run. I got such a scare that we did run, and we fell down the stairs. I’m so sorry, Aunt Lee, please don’t tell Dad.”

  “Slow down. I won’t tell your Dad. Do you know how dangerous those things are? You don’t mess about with things like that Jess, believe me, I know. Now promise me you won’t touch one again.” Jess promised feeling a great weight being lifted just sharing this with her aunt.

  “Now, did you say you got a message?” Lee asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

  Jess nodded. “It said something about a box and that she was close.”

  “Who was close? Olivia?”

  “I think so. Then it just spelt out run, over and over again.”

  Lee knelt beside her at the couch. “It scared you, didn’t it?”

  Jess began to cry, nodding her head. Lee cuddled her and stroked the back of her hair.

  “What ever possessed you to do it, Jess, you’re smarter than that.”

  Jess looked up. “Aunt Lee, I haven’t told Dad. But I feel Olivia here. I even think I have seen her out of the corner of my eye. And when I look back, she is gone. I have terrible dreams about her. I feel as though she’s in my room. And I think she’s mad at me for making her meet me that day.”

  “Oh honey, come here. Olivia wouldn’t blame you for any of this. It isn’t your fault. The only person to blame here is the man that took her. The only reason you feel her is because you miss her, and you’re obviously feeling a little guilty, you have nothing to be guilty about, Jess. And I think the bad dreams are because you don’t know what really happened to her.” Lee spoke softly with a confidence she didn’t feel. She had been having bad dreams too. She also felt a presence, although she didn’t believe it was Olivia, she couldn’t help think about what Elsie had said that morning, about the whole village being strange just now.

  “Aunt Lee, you have to get the board out of my room before Dad gets home. If he finds it.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll get it.” Lee climbed the stairs to get the board. Jess was right. There was an ominous feeling in her bedroom. Lee paused for a second and looked round. This room had been Sarah’s, when they had been growing up here.

  If it were Sarah, she wouldn’t scare her own daughter, Lee thought. She dismissed the feeling and went down stairs to hide the board in her car, just in time, as Tom pulled into the drive.

  “She’s fine, Tom.”

  Tom went in to the living room, undoing his tie as he went.

  “I knew I should have stayed home this morning. Did you faint? What happened?”

  “She just lost her footing, Tom, that was all.”

  “I’m fine, Dad, it just hurts. Doctor Style has given me some Co-codamol. It’s not broken.”

  After Tom had calmed down, Lee made dinner. It was agreed that Lee would come over the next day and look after Jess while Tom was at work. Relief washed over Jess to know that she wouldn’t be in the house alone after all, especially now that walking was a bit of a challenge.

  “Dad, can I sleep here on the sofa tonight?”

  “Its all right, I can carry you upstairs.”

  Lee could see the fear on Jess’s face. “I would let her sleep on the couch tonight, Tom. If her foot gets sore she can watch some telly to take her mind off it, or hobble in and make a hot drink.”

  Tom gave it some thought, then agreed. Lee brought down her quilt and pillows and helped get her settled. Tom went into the study at the back of the house to try and catch up with work he had left today.

  “Do you want a coffee?” Lee said popping her head around the door.

  “Go ahead, if you’re making one.”

  Moments later Lee returned with the coffee.

  “How’s the case going?” Lee asked.

  Tom had opened files spread across the large desk in front of him.

  “Do you remember P.C south? The officer I replaced?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “Did you know he was looking in to the Susanna Wheeler case? Apparently, he had a photo of her with a man. He believed he was her killer.”

  Lee drew her eyebrows down as she handed Tom his coffee. “Why on earth woul
d he be looking into the Wheeler case, you said it had been left dormant for years? Do you have the photo?”

  The box.

  “That would be too easy. But not only that, there was nothing on her file. Normally if you’re looking into a cold case, you will put whatever information you find in the file to let other officers know it’s an active case again. It also allows your colleagues to pick up where you left off. But so far, I can find nothing. No one has updated this file since she disappeared in 1968. He was obviously working under the radar, but I don’t know why.”

  “So what can you do about it?” Lee was rubbing her temples as she spoke.

  The box.

  “Not a lot. I am however going to see Angela Harrison’s mum tomorrow. Is your head sore, Lee?” Tom asked.

  “It’s just starting, I’ll be fine once I take these.” Lee popped two Paracetamol on to her hand.

  The box!

  “I’ve not been able to find any leads on the girl that disappeared from Edinburgh, but Jenny Phillips, she disappeared after her shift on the London to Glasgow train in 1979. She was serving in the refreshment carriage. She was due to have a sleep over and then catch the same train back the following morning. She never made it to her Glasgow hotel. Now this may be nothing more than a coincidence, but she was last seen one year to the day that Angela Harrison disappeared.”

  “I thought you didn’t do coincidences, Tom?”

  “I don’t. Especially when you take into account this.” He turned the file toward Lee and pointed out a typed note.

  “So an anonymous caller gave a tip, that a passenger on the train had offered Jenny a job. Police suspected the tip came from her co-worker. Is this significant?”

  Tom looked at her for a moment. “When you consider that I was told yesterday by a friend of Susanna Wheeler, that Susanna had been offered a job by a mysterious stranger in the days leading up to her disappearance.”

  “You are joking. This is why they didn’t want to move you up here, Tom. You are really good at what you do. Wait a minute. Did you say you thought the three girls are connected to Angela Harrison?”

  Tom raised his eyebrows. “I’m not ruling anything out at this time. Tomorrow I want to do a Spec search, see if there were any other women reported missing over the years on or around the same time.”

  The box.

  “A Spec search?”

  “Yes, it will tell me what sort of crimes happened on that day, that is if the intelligence officer has been doing his job.”

  “My head is really starting to bang, Tom, I’m going to head off home.”

  The box.

  “Sure you’ll be all right?”

  Lee lifted her jacket and car keys. “I’ll be fine, too much excitement.” She smiled. “I’ll be back before you leave for work Tomorrow?”

  “That would be great, Lee, there’s just so much I can’t do from here.”

  Lee laughed. “You know we’re all holding bets as to how long you will last retired. I don’t think you’ll be able to cut it. You only started this to give yourself an excuse to stay on I bet.”

  “With retirement, I don’t have an option, I’ll cut it just fine, you wait and see.”

  The box.

  But the spectral whispers went unheard in the peaceful study.

  Tom worked in to the early hours after Lee had left. At 3am, he checked in on Jess. She was sound asleep with the television still on. He switched it off and went back to the study. The Christmas decorations still sat in the corner of the room, Tom had been planning to take them back up to the attic for almost three months now. He stretched his arms out to the side and leaned back until he heard the familiar crack in his lower spine. Might as well get some of it up stairs now, he thought. More keen to loosen up the tight muscles by moving than he was in actually putting anything away. He stacked a few of the boxes and carried them to the back of the house and climbed the back staircase to the upstairs hall.

  Tom?

  The grandmother clock ticked away the seconds as he climbed the second staircase to the attic. He kicked the door open with his foot and walked in to the darkness. He placed the boxes down in the first available space he could find. He looked around the crowded area. He made a mental note to clear it out when he retired. There where three generations of crap stored in it and he knew a lot of it could go.

  Tom?

  As he descended the stairs, a loud bang came from along the hall. Tom stood at the bottom of the attic staircase. One of the bedroom doors must have blown closed. That meant there was most likely a window left open. Tom went from room to room, making sure everything was locked up and secure. Satisfied of this he went back down stairs to retreat into his study.

  *****

  Anne and Scott Harrison were not as old as they looked. The loss of their only child over thirty years ago had taken its toll on both of them. The emptiness in the house had never been filled no matter what they did.

  Anne, had as usual, prepared the breakfast. Her husband sat silently reading the paper as he ate. The silence between them had been almost tangible at one time. Now, it was just accepted. She looked across the table at him. She knew she still loved him, but for some reason they had never got past this. They had never moved on. Maybe not knowing what had happened to her was the problem. Anne knew in her heart of hearts that her daughter was gone, but Scott had always held on to the belief that one day she would walk back through that door. The complete opposite positions they both took, meant that there was no compromise and so they never spoke about it, both locked in their own worlds.

  Anne tidied the living room. She wanted to make a good impression on the policeman that was coming. No one had mentioned her daughters case in so many years, this meant that at least one person had not forgotten her.

  The pain in her abdomen cut through her. For a moment, she was bent over waiting for it to pass. She knew what it was. She didn’t need to see Doctor Style. The cancer was back, this time it was in her bladder. No one knew. This was Anne’s secret. It was almost a relief to her, she knew she would finally know the truth, finally see her Angela again. As the pain passed, she straightened up and continued with her chores.

  *****

  Tom left Lee preparing pancakes for Jess who was still asleep on the sofa. He wanted to get an early start today. Parked the Jeep he walked across to Church street to meet with Mrs Harrison.

  Church Street was just across from the station, only a short walk away. Tom passed the old church. A beautiful design of tower, stained glass and very old brick. Built in 1379 and rebuilt in the seventeen hundreds the building was steeped in history, all of Coppersfield was. The sun bounced off the small brook that ran behind it, by the disused out buildings of the church that had once served as a youth hostel for young people travelling and touring the hillsides and lochs. Just a few houses down from the church was Angela Harrison’s old house.

  Tom rang the bell and a moment later, a woman answered. Mrs Harrison was painfully thin. Her skin had a yellow pallor to it. Her hair was positively white and wispy; a few strands escaping the clasp that pulled it tightly back from her ferret-like face. The woman gave Tom a surprisingly broad smile and then ushered him through the doorway. She led him into a small but neat living room at the front of the house.

  Tom looked around the room. It looked as though time had stood still in the room, nothing had changed in at least twenty years. Pictures of a beautiful blonde girl stood on almost every available surface in the room. Piercing blue eyes and a stunning smile, these pictures showed a girl full of life and fun. Mrs Harrison came into the room with a tray of tea. She put it down on the coffee table and sat down, indicating for Tom to do the same.

  “I’m so pleased you are looking into my Angela again. I was beginning to give up any hope of ever finding the truth about what had happened to her.” Mrs Harrison poured Tom a cup of black tea.

  “You understand, Mrs Harrison, I can’t make any promises. You know I may be retiring soon. I’m o
nly able to investigate up until then and unless I find new leads or evidence, I won’t have the backing of the force, or any of their resources. The case has been cold for a lot of years. I’m just having a look to see if I turn up anything new.”

  Anne Harrison looked at him. Tom could see that Angela had her mothers striking blue eyes.

  “Officer Hunter, no one has mentioned my daughters name in over twenty-five years. The fact that you care enough to even read her file means a lot to me. Now what can I do to help you?”

  Tom felt a sinking feeling in his heart for this woman. She had no hope of bringing her daughter home alive, all she wanted was to bring her home.

  “I have you and your husband’s statements already from the original file. I just want to get a better feel for Angela, as a person.”

  “Give me a moment.” Anne left the room to return momentarily with a small box. “This is some of the things that I found in her room, I gave it to the police at the time, but they were so busy with Patrick that they wouldn’t look anywhere else.” Anne handed it to Tom, it contained a small journal like diary, some photographs of her with Patrick and some with another girl that Tom recognized as Samantha and a couple of letters. He noticed a photo of her with an older man.

  “Can I ask who this is, Mrs Harrison?”

  Anne slipped a pair of glasses on and looked at the photo. “Oh, that’s Jim Watt. He was a very good friend to Angela.”

  Tom looked at the picture again. “He looks a lot older than her.”

  “Yes he was, he’s closer in years to me than he was to Angela, but they weren’t like that, he was just a friend. Jim had horses and Angela loved animals, so he would let her muck out the stables and in return, she could go horse ridding any time she wanted. He still lives on the farm at the top of the lane off Peel Street.”

  “Have you kept in touch with him over the years?”

  “Not really, he comes by on the anniversary of her disappearance, and we’ll have a chat about how much we miss her, but that is about it.”

  Tom took a note of the man’s name and address. “That is a great help, Mrs Harrison.” Tom stood to leave. “I will get Angela’s things back to you as soon as I have finished with them. Is your husband still here?” As Tom walked down the hall, he caught a glimpse of Mr Harrison in the kitchen.