The Ghost House

by Helen Phifer

  The tightness that had been gripping his chest the last few days subsided a little. ‘She drives a red mini with a black soft top, it has two racing stripes on the bonnet and the registration is similar to ANN 1E.’

  The officer stood abruptly. ‘If you could just bear with me, sir, I’ll go and make some enquiries. It won’t take long.’

  Sally left the interview room and ran straight around to the CID office, bursting through the door with such force it nearly knocked Will, who was standing on the other side, off his feet.

  ‘Jesus, Sal, what are you trying to do? Finish me off.’

  ‘Sorry, Will, there’s a strange guy in interview A. He came in to ask us to trace a woman from a spiritualist church he met last week, reckons she’s in grave danger.’

  ‘Bollocks, it sounds like just the job for you, Sal. I’m up to my neck in it with missing and dead girls and all that.’

  She cut him off. ‘Will, he just gave me a description of Annie Graham’s car and number plate, it’s a private one she bought herself last year.’

  Will felt the pie and chips he’d eaten earlier try to force their way back up. He pushed past Sally and dashed around to the interview room: it was empty. He went out into the front office. There were two girls sitting glaring at each other but no one else. He went out onto the front street to look around but it was mid-afternoon and it was busy plus he didn’t have a clue what the man looked like.

  ‘Shit, shit, shit.’

  Both girls looked his way and grinned. Sally was holding the internal door open for Will to get back in.

  ‘I only left him for a minute, he can’t have got far.’

  ‘I need you to get the CCTV from the front office and get CSI to print the pictures out; this could be our guy. We need to identify him and fast. It’s a bit of a coincidence we have one missing girl, one dead girl and he comes in to find out where one of our officers lives.’

  ‘Will, he said he feared for her safety, that she was in grave danger. He seemed like a decent guy, just a bit strange.’

  ‘Yeah, well, so did Ted Bundy and he killed at least twenty-eight women.’

  They both walked around to the front office where Lena had rewound the CCTV footage of the man sitting on the chairs. She paused it and Will screwed up his eyes.

  ‘Nope, never seen him before in my life. But we need to find him and quick.’ He began dialling Annie’s number but it went straight to voicemail again and he had to stop himself from throwing his phone at the wall and smashing it into pieces: it was bloody useless.

  Derek was back at his car. As soon as the officer had left the room his phone had began to vibrate in his pocket and he knew it was Annie. Not wanting to waste any more of the nice police woman’s time he had left the station and walked back to the car park, oblivious to the world around him he listened to the voicemail. Her voice was so quiet he had to concentrate to hear what she said. A chill went through his body. Whatever it was had started.

  Chapter 21

  Alice knew the house from the outside was a decaying wreck. The exterior looked unloved, making the house look sad. Inside, however, was a different story. There was an atmosphere building more and more each day. It was as if an unseen electrical charge was running throughout it. The shadows that walked the house were getting blacker, denser. Noises could be heard, if you had the inclination, and they came from the cellar.

  Upstairs Alice’s solitary white mist wandered the corridors, trying her best to console the recently departed soul of the girl who had been taken from her life so abruptly and without reason. Alice had to make Annie see what was going on in here. When she had first come into the house Alice had felt such a strong connection to her. She had tried her best to show her how the house used to be: in the schoolroom she had placed her diary which had been hidden for over a hundred years in plain view. Alice wasn’t strong enough to stop the monster a second time around and it tormented her that evil was so much stronger than good. All Alice had ever wanted from her life was to be happy and to help others. Instead she had married a maniac, a killer. When she had found the strength to put an end to his murderous ways it had plagued her mind for the rest of her life and she had never truly found the happiness she deserved.

  Deep inside, Alice had known from the very beginning that there had been something wrong with Edward. She had loved him so completely but it hadn’t been enough for him. She knew that he had planned everything to within an inch of his life. In the days after his death things had become much clearer to her. The dawning realisation that he had used her because she had been left half of the estate caused her great pain. Instead of turning against her he had fooled her for his gain. She realised that Lady Hannah had not fallen but that her loving son Edward had pushed her to her death. He had engineered the downfall of everyone. Alice had nothing but regrets for her lifetime but hopefully she would be able to change things this time. There was no way she would let Edward loose to torment and kill again and again; he had to be stopped.

  Annie was so much like Alice but she had no idea what was at stake. It would be her that would put an end to it all for good. Alice felt herself draining. It was strange, she had never thought about ghosts when she was alive but here she was trapped in the house where she had died for ever with Edward’s evil spirit always lurking around. He kept to the cellar, in the shadows, rarely summoning up the courage to come upstairs into the light. He liked to dwell in the dark, reliving his evil deeds. Alice wasn’t afraid of him anymore but he made her uncomfortable and she would disappear as far as possible when she sensed him nearby. He had a thing for the woman as well: he lurked and watched her. She supposed that if she felt connected to her then he was bound to feel threatened by her. Alice had managed to stop him from doing any real harm to her but it was exhausting and she needed help. She needed someone to come and banish Edward for good and send his soul to hell where he belonged. He should not be roaming around causing heartache and havoc. If her connection to Edward was finally severed maybe she would be reunited with Alfie. Alice sighed and her image faded as a whisper of air rippled through the house.

  Chapter 22

  Annie got back to the farmhouse, her stupid phone had no signal and she desperately wanted to hear Will’s voice, anybody’s voice would do – even Jake. She needed someone to tell her she wasn’t going mad, not just yet. All her life she believed that things happen for a reason, she just needed to know what that reason was at this moment in time. She was tempted to ring Ben but he’d get worried and come home and, selfishly, she didn’t want him to. It wasn’t like he could actually do anything about it.

  Going into the kitchen she heaved off the wellies then, taking the milk out of the fridge, she made herself a mug of hot chocolate: it was comfort food weather out there. Her plan was to find one of the Mars bars she’d hidden for emergencies at the back of the cupboard, take the diary and read it until she finished it. See if there were any clues in it as to what was happening and maybe Derek would ring back and she would be able to put an end to it all and live happily ever after. As she sank into the sofa her phone began to ring. She answered and wasn’t disappointed to hear Will’s voice.

  ‘It’s me, I’m just ringing to make sure you’re OK.’

  ‘I think so why?’

  ‘I’m worried about you. Bad things are happening. The girl who went missing last night, her body was found this morning; I’ve just left the post mortem. And you know all about Jenna so I think our guy has a thing for the Abbey. No brownie points for guessing who is up there on her own.’

  Annie decided to come clean and tell him about what had been going on. ‘Will, something strange is happening up here but it’s nothing to do with those girls and I don’t know how to explain it without sounding like I’ve lost the plot. I’ll tell you more when you get a chance to come up but I’ve been trying to get in touch with some medium bloke I met a few nights ago.’

  ‘Is he called Derek Edmondson?’

  ‘How do you know tha
t?’

  ‘He came into the station earlier asking Sally to check on you and to pass a message on.’

  ‘How did he know who I was? He doesn’t know my name. Oh wait, he might, I left him a voicemail earlier.’

  ‘He described your car and registration. Look, I need to find him, Annie. It’s a bit of a coincidence that he is from out of town and we suddenly have a maniac on the loose killing girls. Do me a favour, will you? Please come into town, I’ll meet you outside the station and take you to my house or Jake’s, if you prefer. If you’re too stubborn to do that then lock the doors, check the house and wait for me or Jake to come to you. Whatever you do don’t answer the door to anyone. Personally I’d prefer it if you came to stay at mine for a bit, until we catch this guy.’

  ‘I can’t leave, Will. I have to look after Tess and the chickens; I need to be here. I’ll be fine. I’ll stay inside and if I so much as see a dog walker heading this way I’ll ring you.’

  Will sighed. ‘You are so stubborn, you know that, don’t you. I’ll be up as soon as I can but it could be a while yet.’

  ‘Yes, I am stubborn but if it’s any consolation I can’t wait to see you.’

  ‘Don’t go outside, I mean it. And lock up.’

  She ended the call with a smile on her face. Little did Will know but she doubted things could get any worse. She systematically checked every door and window, the nagging doubt that it wouldn’t make one bit of difference to whatever she was experiencing at the back of her mind. In fact, she was scared she might be locking whatever it was in with her. Upstairs was freezing cold, just as downstairs had been this morning and she shivered. Aw come on Annie, What you need is a doctor’s appointment, the sooner the better. But just in case she filled her holdall with everything she might need in an emergency and dragged it down the stairs, shoving it into a cupboard at the bottom. Even after this morning it still felt safer down here because if anything happened up there it would be much harder to escape. There was a lock on the stair door and she slipped the bolt across.

  In the kitchen she searched the drawers for a torch and found two. She tested them, making sure they worked. There was no way she was getting caught out again. She tucked one under a cushion on the sofa and placed the other one on the coffee table and then she took a box of light bulbs from the pantry and set about flicking switches and changing any bulbs that didn’t work. When the whole of the downstairs was bathed in light she felt much better. She thought about going out to the shed to fetch a couple of hammers just in case, or was that going over the top? It was better to use a household item than a knife if you ever had to, that’s what she told all those battered women she dealt with on a daily basis. It would stand up much better in court – self-defence, your honour. But she didn’t care, she wouldn’t be bitten twice: if she needed to use a knife she would. There was also the heavy brass poker by the fire if she had to defend herself from whoever was killing around here. It occurred to her that she would probably be fine because at the ripe old age of thirty-two she was out of the age bracket for the victims by at least ten years.

  Sitting down she picked up her hot chocolate, which was no longer hot, and put it back down. She decided to wait for Will to arrive and then find the biggest wine glass in the cupboard and fill it to the brim.

  Tess began to bark and she jumped up to peer out of the window. Like a knight in shining armour there was Derek walking along the path towards her car. She was not sure how she knew it but she felt it inside her that he was one of the good guys and he was probably too old to go around killing and running rings around the police. Besides what choice did she have, she didn’t know any other mediums who were willing to help her. In fact, she didn’t know any at all. Ignoring all Will’s earlier advice she unlocked the door and stepped outside.

  ‘Hiya, you got my message then? How did you know where to find me?’

  Derek walked forward and held out his hand. ‘To be honest, I’m not entirely sure. Can we please start again? Derek Edmondson. I think I’m very pleased to meet you. And you are?’

  ‘Annie Graham.’ She reached out and took hold of his hand, shaking it as if they were old friends.

  ‘I can’t really explain but after I listened to your message I got an urge to come for a walk in these woods – it happens sometimes – so I did and here I am. I saw the car through the trees and ventured up the path.’

  Annie was amazed but grateful that he had found her. She invited him in. ‘Would you like a cup of tea?’

  ‘I would love one, thank you. There are some things we need to clear up. Do you want to tell me exactly what has been happening from start to finish?’

  ‘Where do I start?’ She filled him in on everything that had happened. ‘To be frank with you I think I’m losing my mind. I have a head injury and I think the doctors haven’t realised just how serious the brain damage is.’

  Derek laughed. ‘Aha that would explain it then. Sometimes a serious head injury can result in an awakening of the dormant part of your mind, which is far more susceptible to things which happen on a different level. A lot of folk call it a sixth sense.’

  For the first time in days Annie’s shoulders relaxed and she breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Oh thank God for that. It all started when I walked into the empty mansion not too far away from here. When I walked inside I had the most amazing feeling of déjà vu. I felt as if I had lived there a very long time ago. This morning I woke up to a freezing cold room and a huge black mass in the kitchen which formed into the shape of a man. I feel as if I’m being watched all the time and sometimes it feels alright but others it feels damn right scary.’

  ‘Oh dear, that’s not good, that’s not good at all. Did the black mass speak or do anything?’

  ‘Well, it tried to open the door I was holding but then an orb of brilliant white light appeared and a woman’s voice told it to leave so it growled at her but it went. I think I know who this woman is but then sometimes I feel as if I am this woman from the past. I’m confused and you’re the first person I’ve told about this in case they put me in a straightjacket and cart me away.’

  Derek smiled and his crinkly green eyes lit up. ‘No, my dear, you’re not going mad. It sounds as if you are experiencing a variety of things all of which are proven to be in existence, although I have never met anyone who in such a short space of time has seen so much. Welcome to the world of a psychic. Now sometimes it can be a gift, which will stay with you for the rest of your life: I have been speaking to dead people since I was nine years old. Or it can be a temporary thing. Whichever it is your life won’t be quite the same again, I can guarantee that.’

  Annie wanted to believe every word that he said, it all made so much sense, but the cynical part of her thought he was talking a load of rubbish. She was tempted to tell him about the diary but a voice inside her head told her different. It’s for your eyes only. When the time is right you may do as you wish but for now keep it close to your heart.

  Derek was watching her. ‘Keep what close to your heart?’

  ‘You heard that as well?’

  He nodded and began to explain about the wonders of being gifted. For the next thirty minutes Annie listened to him transfixed until, from the corner of her eye, she saw a streak of luminous yellow walking through the trees towards the path. Jake was waving at her. She turned to face Derek and watched the colour drain from his face at the sight of the big, burly policeman.

  He stood up. ‘Well, it was nice to meet you properly this time. I think I should get going now I’ve taken up enough of your time.’

  ‘I know that he looks scary but honestly he’s a big pussy cat and my best friend who has been sent to check on me.’

  Derek relaxed a little as Jake walked into the kitchen.

  ‘Knock, knock. Did you know your new BF Will has sent me up here to be your personal bodyguard until he finishes work? Mind you, I’m not complaining as long as you get the kettle on: I’m dying of thirst and starving. Have you got any food
you can cook that you won’t burn until it’s unfit for human consumption?’

  Annie laughed. She was so glad to see Jake and threw her arms around him. He hugged her back, squeezing far too tight but she didn’t care it; felt safe and warm.

  Derek walked towards the door. ‘I should get going now. We could meet up at the church tomorrow if you’re free and try to do a session together. It may help to get to the bottom of everything.’

  Annie didn’t dare look at Jake. She thanked Derek and shook his hand again. ‘I’ll ring you in the morning and let you know.’

  He walked out into the courtyard. ‘I’ll look forward to it and please don’t hesitate to ring if you need to speak to me. Be careful, Annie.’

  She watched him walk along the path and disappear into the trees. Jake’s loud laughter filled the kitchen and filtered out of the door. She went back inside to see him doubled over.

  ‘What’s so funny?’

  His face turning many shades of red, he spluttered, ‘Who was that? Why would you even want to go to a church and what did he mean by a session? I don’t think Will would be too impressed if you’re having sessions with strange old men so soon into your relationship, especially in churches. Annie, I’m shocked. What has got into you?’

  She shoved him hard in the chest. ‘I’m not going to a church to have sex with him, you moron. Oh forget it, I can’t explain it to you, you’d never understand: it’s complicated.’

  ‘Why don’t you try me. It’s not like I have anything else to do but babysit you all afternoon and I could do with a good laugh.’

  Chapter 23

  He was obsessed with the woman from the farm. He couldn’t get her out of his head: day and night she was in there. It didn’t help that she looked a little bit like Julie, the only woman he had got close to marrying until his mother had messed that up as well. She had been such a quiet pretty thing and he had loved her so much. Unable to buy a house of their own she had moved in with him and his mother, but had to sleep in the spare room because his mother wouldn’t let anything sinful go on under her roof. His mother had picked and picked until she had worn Julie down to a nervous wreck and then she left him. She just packed her bags and left: no note or anything, not even a goodbye. He had first thought about killing his mother that night. His heartbreak got so bad he couldn’t function for months.