First Soul

by Keeley Smith

  “Oh my god!” Deyna exclaimed, lifting her hand to her mouth in shock.

  “What?” Stephen asked looking around them just in case there was another attack and she could see something.

  The air around them stilled. He listened, careful to pick out any other sound apart from the crashing of the water as it tumbled off the cliffs edge. He couldn’t hear anything. His heart settled down as he relaxed.

  He was going to be on edge for some time to come.

  “I remember now... my mother once told me this tale and I looked it up in the school library. They say you murdered your wife but I can’t remember what else the report said. If you loved her then you wouldn’t commit such a crime. You can’t murder the people you love...” Deyna trailed off.

  Stephen rolled his eyes. He loved Deyna but sometimes she couldn’t see the house for the trees.

  “I think you can, Deyna. I’ve seen stuff on the news about people murdering their own kids and everything. Once that button flips you can pretty much do anything.”

  As Stephen told Deyna this, he kept his eyes on Lester. He found that he constantly kept an eye out for a change in the ghost’s features. Right now Lester looked like he wanted to throw up, had he murdered his wife?

  Lester was already shaking his head like he’d heard the thought pass through his head. “I would never lay a finger on my darling Marie. We lived a good, happy life together. We ran our little shop and ignored Lee Turner. We lived in our own little bubble of married bliss but for years, Lee Turner goaded me. He couldn’t help himself, and I suppose I was an easy target. He could push the right buttons and he made it clear that he wanted Marie but she ignored him, much to his annoyance. Lee was the kind of man who was used to getting his own way so he started to goad me.

  “The episodes of irritation started with little things such as graffiti on my shop walls. Mean words that I could easily scrub off or paint over. I knew who it was but proving this to the local bobby was harder to do. Lee wasn’t satisfied with my reaction, so his efforts worsened. Bricks would often fly through my windows late at night, despite this, we brushed the dust off our shoulders and tried to continue as if nothing had happened. We were determined that he would not bother us.

  “I can’t state when he started wooing my wife, or when she finally caved under his spell, but I remember that one day some flowers had appeared in a vase. Fresh flowers that could have been there for weeks but I was busy with work I hadn’t noticed. I hadn’t given her the flowers and they weren’t ones she’d have picked up herself, they were too elaborate. I knew who had given them to her but I feared the answer if I asked the question. Hope is rather a dangerous thing. You’re young yet so you haven’t fallen so deeply in love with someone that the fear of losing them is worse than death itself. For a time I would rather ignore the gestures and believe that everything was fine.

  “I ignored these little gestures, flowers weren’t so bad. Over the following weeks I realised the flowers had turned to jewellery and elegant dresses. Ones she wore with great pride whilst around me. I knew she didn’t intend to hurt me, but it did. I know she wasn’t herself when she was around him.

  “It wasn’t until the early spring of 1974 that I started to see how Marie acted around Lee. In the beginning she’d dismissed his advances but it was quite obvious to me that she’d been swayed by the young romancer. Feeling like I had no other choice, I confronted her and told her to make her decision. As the words left my mouth I felt my heart crumble in my chest. I knew who she would pick but I couldn’t continue to live the lie when I knew she would turn to him for secret kisses.”

  “You should have fought for her,” Phillip said angrily.

  Stephen jumped upon hearing his angered comment. He hadn’t realised Phillip was awake. His skin was a little pale but his eyes glared with a heated anger which was sending a much needed blush into his pale cheeks. He was glad to see that Phillip was looking better.

  “Yes, maybe I should have. That is another of my regrets, I have many...” Lester shrugged his shoulders.

  “What happened next?” Deyna asked, eager to hear his story.

  “Marie moved out and went to live with her family. She told me that she didn’t feel right living with me whilst she harboured affections for another man.”

  Stephen felt stirrings of anger on behalf of Lester. He’d lost the woman he’d loved and his livelihood because someone had taken her as a trophy. He hated men that used women like that.

  “I continued to live above the shop,” Lester continued. “I made more of an effort to see Marie and we exchanged guilty kisses like we did in our first courting days. I felt like we had the spark back between us. I was wooing my own wife and I believed she was falling back in love with me.

  “It took a long time, lots of presents and affection to feel like Marie was mine again. I had asked if she was ready to move back in with me and she assured me she was. I can’t tell you how happy I was upon hearing those words. She was ready to move back in with me and start the family she had longed for before I’d been too busy with the shop. I would give her the family, no questions asked.”

  “Surely she should have told you this, spoken to you before going off with another man?” Deyna questioned angrily.

  Stephen knew that Deyna hated women who were afraid to just say what they wanted to say. She didn’t beat around the bush. Her tongue usually tripping over the words before her brain had got into gear.

  Lester shrugged his shoulders. “She was rather shy...”

  “Not too shy to have an affair with another man,” Deyna retorted. He watched Lester squirm uncomfortably.

  “Yes, I can understand why you are angry. I know you are angry for me and I thank you for that, but I loved her, every single perfection and fault.”

  Deyna shook her head, annoyed.

  Lester continued. “In the summer of 1975 I was stood at the window changing the display when I saw them walk into the square. His arm was slumped lazily around her shoulders. What hurt the most was the look on her face, the relaxed happiness. I knew then that she wasn’t going to remain loyal to me and my heart broke. I’d lost her and he’d won. I should never have given her the ultimatum. Lee’s smile was easy, smug, as he caught sight of me rooted to the spot with shock whilst I watched him take away my reason for living.”

  “Please tell me you smacked him in the face?” Stephen growled.

  Lester smiled. “I stormed out of my shop, fists curling at my sides ready to pummel them into his face. As I strode towards this man I thought of the effect he had on my wife, his blatant self love and his ignorance regarding how the men felt in Amblewood. I hated the way his words created a blush in her cheeks I hadn’t seen for some time. The way her eyes melted at the sight of him, everything added fuel to the already burning anger in my gut. It would have only been a little time before another male had confronted him, it just had to be me first.

  “Marie looked at me in shock and tried to reason with me. She tried to tell me she was confused but all I could see was the smile on Lee’s face. He’d won his prize, I didn’t know how long he would hold onto Marie before he pushed her away. That also gnawed at my gut, the fact that he would cast her aside. How a man could do that to a woman like Marie maddened me... so I pulled back my fist and hit him in the face. The crunch of bone as my knuckles broke his nose was more than satisfying, I can tell you.”

  “Yes!” Phillip whooped. “It’s about time!”

  “Of course, several shop owners had to break up our fight. Marie stood on the sidelines screaming for the both of us to stop. We were eventually pulled apart huffing and puffing whilst glaring at one another. She walked away. So fearing that I’d lost all, I shouted a few choice words at Lee-”

  “You told him you would murder him if you saw him again, didn’t you?” Stephen asked. He was sure those words had been used against him in court.

  “Yes, but they were words said in anger. I didn’t mean the
m. Lee turned away from me but not before I caught the smirk on those lips. Sickeningly he was being soothed by yet another woman in Amblewood, they just couldn’t see him for what he was.

  “I walked away that day with a black eye, a split lip and no girl. It hadn’t gone well for me.”

  They sat in silence neither one of them daring to break his train of thought.

  “I woke up in the early hours. I couldn’t sleep after hours of laying in the dark and thinking through the events of the afternoon. There was nothing I could do about the fight, I wasn’t a fighting man and the events had unsettled me but I didn’t regret it. I knew I’d lost her, but I refused to give in. I lived with hope and believed she would come back to me. I made my way down into the shop to keep my mind busy.

  “As the midnight blue was pushed aside by the infusion of pinks and yellows of the rising sun, I opened my blinds and saw the large pool of blood, too much to have come from one human being, or so I thought. I was so shocked at seeing that amount of blood, I just stood there, I don’t know for how long. I didn’t see the person or the face until I unlocked my door and stepped outside.

  “I knelt down beside the body unsure of what to do. There were more bodily fluids than I care to think about and the stench of death was unbearable, death permeated the air around me clinging to my clothes, my skin. I gagged and almost lost the contents of my stomach as it shot up into my throat, but I turned the body, I had to. I didn’t know what I was doing by touching the body but I’d hoped to help the person.

  “Lee Turner’s skin was pulled tight to his face, like death had sucked him dry. The colour of it was a pale blue. His eyes were covered with white clouds that seemed to glare accusingly up at me. I reeled back from the body feeling like I’d been slapped in the face as I wiped the blood from my hands down the front of my shirt, my lungs wouldn’t function as they gasped for fresh air. At that very moment the police came bounding into the square and caught me red handed.”

  “But you didn’t do it!” Deyna cried out.

  “Thank you for your vote of confidence,” Lester said and reached for Deyna’s hand brushing it lightly. She didn’t jump back from the icy touch. “I know you are very confident in my innocence but the police took one look at me and the body that lay at my feet and they came to their conclusion very quickly. It was case closed as far as they were concerned.”

  “What kind of police did you have? What evidence did they have?” Stephen asked, he had a very logical mind so finding the evidence was steps he would have taken.

  “The evidence was right in front of them,” Lester said simply.

  “Huh.” Stephen shook his head in disbelief as Lester continued.

  “I was arrested at the scene and taken in for questioning. It was routine for them but they had already deduced that I was the crazy, blood thirsty husband. I’d lost my wife to this Casanova and wild with jealousy, I’d killed Lee Turner. They had witnesses from the day before. All the residents stepped forward with their accounts of the fight-”

  “What did Marie say? Surely she stood up for you?”

  Stephen thought that was clever thinking on Deyna’s part.

  “Marie didn’t say anything.”

  “But she knew the truth, you didn’t murder him. You were set up!” Deyna shouted.

  “Marie couldn’t say anything...” Lester’s voice broke.

  Stephen felt the raw emotion grab his throat and tightened, cutting off oxygen.

  “The police found her body in my stock room.”

  Tears sprung into Deyna’s eyes. Marie had been murdered the same day as Turner. Things weren’t adding up, was it Stephen that could only see that?

  “One final sweep of a sharp knife across her lovely throat had ended her life. The police believed they had the man who’d killed his wife and her lover. They didn’t need to look any further.”

  With those words, Lester floated away from their silent group.

  j

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN