The House on Widows Hill Page 5

  ‘Of course,’ said Arthur.

  Tom gave him a hard look. ‘You’ve had the keys all this time, while we’ve been standing around in the cold?’

  ‘I was given strict instructions to wait outside until these two turned up,’ said Arthur. ‘Apparently, they have influence. Which is something else I’d like to know about …’

  ‘Open the door,’ I said.

  He sniffed loudly, fumbled a ring of heavy metal keys out of his back pocket and used the largest to open the front door. The lock mechanism turned freely, but when Arthur tried to throw the door open dramatically, it wouldn’t budge. He had to throw his whole weight against the door just to get it moving. The hinges didn’t make a sound when the door finally swung back, and just as Dennis had described in the taxi, there was nothing beyond the door but darkness. A gloom so complete that even my more-than-human eyes couldn’t make anything out. The door finally eased to a halt, but none of us made any move to enter Harrow House.

  ‘There’s something particularly disturbing about a darkness without even the slightest trace of light in it,’ Lynn said quietly. ‘It makes me think of being buried, or at the bottom of the ocean where the light cannot reach, or trapped in a night that goes on for ever because the sun never comes up.’

  ‘Save the spooky chat for your clients,’ said Arthur. ‘Of course it’s dark in there; I haven’t turned the lights on yet.’

  But for all his brave words, he still didn’t move from where he was. Freddie produced a torch and sent its narrow beam flashing down the hallway. The light didn’t travel far, but just its presence was enough to take away the dark’s power.

  ‘Always come prepared, as the actress should have said to the bishop,’ Freddie said cheerfully.

  I stepped into the hall, and Penny was quickly there beside me. Freddie moved in on my other side, flashing her torch’s beam back and forth. Tom, Lynn and Arthur took their time bringing up the rear. The sound of our footsteps on the bare wooden floorboards seemed strangely flat, as though the sound itself was being suppressed by the sheer weight of the atmosphere.

  ‘Hah!’ Arthur said loudly. ‘Let there be light!’

  There was a sudden blaze of cold cheerless light from a chandelier halfway down the hall. Some of the bulbs didn’t seem to be working, but there were enough to illuminate most of the long hallway. Freddie turned off her torch.

  Arthur moved away from the light switch by the door, rubbing his hands together briskly. ‘I was told there would be light, but no heat. No one’s tried to fire up the ancient boiler in ages. And none of the windows have been opened for even longer than that, so expect things to be a bit on the stuffy side.’ He smiled briefly. ‘You’re not seeing the house at its best, but then no one ever does.’

  The oppressive atmosphere was stronger now we were inside: a definite feeling of dread, and horror, and fear of the unknown. None of which usually bothered me, but to my surprise I found I was having to fight down an urge to just turn around and leave. As though some inner voice was yelling at me to get out while I still could.

  Without saying anything, Penny slipped her hand into mine. I held on to it tightly.

  The air in the hallway was cold and still, and it smelled bad. Of damp and dust, and a definite suggestion of old things that hadn’t been disturbed in far too long. I looked around at Team Ghost. They were all wrinkling their noses and shifting their feet unhappily, and I couldn’t help noticing that we’d all come to a halt just a few feet inside the door.

  There wasn’t much to see in the hall. A few pieces of furniture, under covers thick with accumulated dust. Paintings lined both walls – the usual idyllic country views and hunting scenes. And a set of bare wooden stairs, leading up to the next floor. Nothing worrying, let alone threatening; nothing at all to justify what we were feeling. I gestured at the bare floorboards stretching away before us.

  ‘Look at the thick layer of dust on the floor,’ I said steadily. ‘No one has walked down this hall in a very long time.’

  ‘No one living,’ said Lynn.

  ‘That’s the spirit!’ Freddie said cheerfully. Tom gave her a pained look.

  ‘I was told there were caretakers who came in here on a regular basis?’ said Penny.

  ‘So was I,’ said Arthur. He sounded a little subdued. ‘But it’s as if no one’s been in here for years.’

  ‘Come on!’ Tom said sharply. ‘Let’s get this show on the road, and let the dog see the rabbit. Before we all spook ourselves into nervous breakdowns.’

  He opened one of the suitcases he’d brought in with him and sorted quickly through a variety of scientific instruments. Most of which looked as if they’d been cobbled together by someone who wasn’t entirely sure what he was doing.

  ‘Are you planning to measure the ghosts here?’ I said politely.

  ‘Everything in the world can be measured,’ Tom said firmly, not looking round from what he was doing. ‘And if it can be measured, it can be understood. That’s what science does.’

  ‘Not everything can be understood,’ said Lynn. ‘The world is full of forces and mysteries beyond human comprehension.’

  Tom ignored her, refusing to rise to the bait. He straightened up, pointed some kind of scanner down the hallway and then ostentatiously studied the resulting reading.

  ‘What are you doing?’ said Penny, just to show she was taking an interest.

  ‘Checking for heat sources,’ said Tom. ‘I’m not picking up anything from anywhere in this house, apart from us …’ He looked round at the group. ‘It’s important to establish the background situation as soon as possible, so I can look for what stands out. And I do like to make sure that there aren’t any people in the vicinity who shouldn’t be here. There are some dubious types who like to fake phenomena, for all kinds of reasons.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Arthur, not looking at anyone in particular, ‘there are, aren’t there?’

  ‘Those aren’t standard cameras,’ I said, peering into the open suitcase.

  ‘Well spotted,’ said Tom, smiling for the first time. ‘I believe in covering all the bases, so I have wall cameras for surveillance, including infrared and ultraviolet, along with microphones that can pick up sounds well beyond the range of the human ear. I’ve even got a few ex-military motion-trackers, though don’t ask me where I got them.’

  Arthur looked as if he really wanted to, but a quick glance round the group persuaded him this wasn’t the moment.

  ‘You can buy all kinds of ghost-hunting gear on line,’ Tom said expansively. ‘But most of it is far too specialized for its own good. Too much information just gets in the way, distracting you from what really matters.’ He tapped the side of his head solemnly. ‘Eyes and ears, people; keep them open.’

  Lynn decided that Tom had hogged the spotlight long enough. She stepped away from the group and struck a dramatic pose.

  ‘Human senses can be far more sensitive than anything science can come up with,’ she said grandly. ‘We are all of us surrounded by images from the past, by layers of history stretching back into uncounted Time. All we have to do is open ourselves to them. There are always voices calling out to us for help, from lost souls unable to rest, if only we would listen.’ And then she broke off suddenly and looked sharply about her. ‘What was that?’

  ‘What was what?’ I said politely.

  ‘I heard something.’ Lynn frowned, and I thought she seemed honestly surprised, but she quickly resumed her professional air. ‘Something in this house just reached out to me … But it wasn’t like anything I’ve ever encountered before.’

  ‘What did it sound like?’ said Penny.

  ‘Like someone calling my name …’ Lynn shrugged, almost angrily. ‘I don’t know.’

  Tom produced a second scanner from his suitcase, fiddled quickly with the settings and then turned it on Lynn, before pointing it at the end of the hall.

  ‘I’m not picking up anything,’ he said flatly. ‘All readings are in the green, all systems a
re nominal. Nothing out of the ordinary.’

  ‘Something’s here,’ said Lynn. And something in her voice held all of us where we were.

  ‘Look,’ said Tom. ‘We can’t just hang around here; we need to choose a base of operations, so I can arrange for full surveillance coverage.’

  ‘And preferably somewhere with enough room for me to lay down some heavy-duty protections,’ said Freddie. ‘Walking into a haunted house without them is like skinny-dipping in a pool packed with rabid alligators.’

  ‘Do alligators get rabies?’ said Arthur.

  ‘You want to find out the hard way?’ said Freddie.

  Lynn was rubbing at her forehead with both hands, as though troubled by a sudden headache or new and disturbing thoughts. She glared down the hallway, concentrating hard, listening for something the rest of us couldn’t hear.

  ‘This house is so full of old emotions it’s broadcasting like a radio station,’ she said finally. ‘I’m getting death, and suffering, and a sense of things lost; old memories, rising up out of deep Time …’

  ‘You sound like a wine critic,’ said Penny.

  Everyone managed some kind of smile. Except for Lynn, who looked around at Team Ghost and realized she’d lost her audience. She shrugged tiredly.

  ‘Believe me or not,’ she said. ‘It doesn’t matter. You’ll see. Bad things happened here, and I think some of them are still happening.’

  ‘Nothing supernatural has ever happened in this house,’ I said firmly. ‘The official reports were very clear.’

  ‘It’s the things that don’t make it into official records that can do the most damage,’ said Freddie.

  ‘What kind of things?’ said Penny.

  Freddie didn’t answer for a moment. She was too busy peering around and checking out the shadows to make sure they weren’t getting up to anything she wouldn’t approve of. She seemed to have lost some of her exuberance. As though the infamous Harrow House wasn’t what she’d expected.

  ‘It nearly always comes down to family secrets,’ she said finally. ‘Everything from incest to infanticide, and all kinds of physical and emotional abuse. You’d be surprised what people got away with, back in Victorian times. It was only a crime if it got reported.’ She broke off, cocking her head on one side. ‘What was that? Did any of you hear that?’

  We all looked at each other and then listened hard. The hallway was so quiet I could hear everyone breathing, but nothing else.

  ‘What did you hear?’ said Lynn.

  ‘A voice,’ Freddie said slowly. ‘But I couldn’t understand anything it was saying.’

  ‘Wonderful,’ said Arthur. ‘Only in the house five minutes and already you’re hearing voices. Come on, people! Buildings like this are always going to be full of odd noises. It’s just … the structure settling. Our entry into the hall probably changed the balance, or something.’

  He went striding off down the hallway to make it clear the house wasn’t getting to him, and then stopped and looked back when he realized no one else was going with him.

  ‘This is just an empty old house!’ he said loudly. ‘Whoever buys this antiquated shit-hole should just tear it down and replace it with something modern. And comfortable. That would put an end to all the stories.’ He stopped abruptly and shuddered. ‘Damn, it’s getting draughty in here. Will someone please shut the front door?’

  We looked back and found the front door was already closed. Everyone stood very still.

  ‘Who was the last person in?’ said Tom.

  ‘That would be me,’ Arthur said slowly. ‘And I didn’t shut it. So who did?’

  There was a general shaking of heads.

  ‘Maybe it’s specially weighted to close itself,’ I said.

  There was a lot of relieved nodding as Team Ghost decided they liked the sound of that.

  ‘But then where did the draft come from?’ said Penny.

  To my surprise, Arthur actually looked pleased that something was happening. He started searching through his pockets.

  ‘This is more like it! Strange happenings, with reasonable explanations. Maybe there is a story here, after all.’

  He looked searchingly at everyone, checking their responses to the situation, like any good reporter. Lynn was frowning, lost in her own thoughts. She didn’t seem at all happy that things were happening in Harrow House without asking her permission. Tom was checking one set of readings after another and shaking his head, as though his scanners were insisting on telling him things he didn’t want to hear. Freddie had got her enthusiasm back and was looking eagerly in every direction, ready to go charging off and check out every shadowed nook and cranny – and then poke them with a stick to see what would happen.

  I hadn’t heard any voice or seen anything out of the ordinary. And I still thought the unpleasant atmosphere was most probably being generated by our own minds. Penny looked ready to take her cue from me, so I smiled reassuringly at her and she smiled back.

  Arthur produced a small recording device from his back pocket, turned it on and thrust it into my face.

  ‘You said the potential buyer of this house had security connections, Mr Jones. What did you mean by that?’

  ‘I never said any such thing,’ I said calmly. ‘And neither should you. Now get that thing away from me. I don’t do interviews.’

  ‘He really doesn’t,’ said Penny.

  ‘And why is that?’ said Arthur, scowling at me challengingly.

  ‘Because I have this regrettable tendency to take recording devices away from annoying reporters and stick them up their …’

  ‘All right!’ said Arthur. ‘No need to get unpleasant!’

  And then he stopped and scowled unhappily at his device. He shook it hard and slapped it a few times.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Penny said sweetly.

  ‘The little light isn’t on,’ said Arthur. ‘Which I think means the damn thing isn’t working.’

  Tom immediately hurried over, irresistibly drawn to any problem with technology. He took the device away from Arthur and studied it quickly.

  ‘I can’t see anything obviously wrong … Did you remember to check the batteries before you set out?’

  ‘Of course I did!’ said Arthur. ‘For a reporter, that’s like an actor checking his flies before he goes on stage.’

  Tom shrugged and handed the device back to him. ‘Maybe you should just take notes instead.’

  ‘Excellent idea!’ boomed Freddie. ‘Don’t worry, Arthur; I can teach you shorthand. And probably a few other things, too.’

  She winked at him roguishly, and he stared back at her.

  ‘That is sexual harassment.’

  ‘Only if you do it right,’ said Freddie.

  Arthur started to smile and then remembered he was in a bad mood. He put the device back in his pocket.

  ‘It could be the house,’ said Lynn.

  We all stopped and looked at her.

  ‘What could be the house?’ said Tom.

  ‘Something in this place could be interfering with all of your devices,’ said Lynn. ‘The dead sometimes don’t take kindly to being eavesdropped on. Which is ironic, if you think about it. We need to talk to this house. Make it clear we come in peace, and that we’re ready to show proper respect for whatever may be here.’

  ‘Oh, please!’ said Arthur.

  ‘Can we get a move on?’ Freddie said loudly. ‘It took me a long time to get permission to enter the legendary Harrow House, and since we only have the one night to solve a mystery that goes back centuries, I don’t feel like wasting time. So either the rest of you get the lead out of your socks or I’m off. If there are things here to be seen and heard, I want to see and hear them.’

  ‘Aren’t you even a little bit scared?’ said Penny. ‘Isn’t the atmosphere getting to you at all?’

  ‘Oh, yes,’ Freddie said easily. ‘But you can’t let things like that bother you. Most haunted settings have a tendency to reflect back whatever emotions you bring in
with you. Which is why your best defence in situations like this is a positive attitude. Try to see ghosts as just friends you haven’t met yet.’

  ‘What if they’re not interested in being friends?’ said Arthur.

  Freddie grinned at him. ‘Then let a smile be your armour. Because ghosts can stand anything except being laughed at.’

  ‘You really don’t give a damn, do you?’ Arthur said admiringly.

  ‘You have to go after what you want in this world,’ said Freddie. She shot him a sly look. ‘What do you want out of life, Arthur? Maybe I could help you get it.’

  Arthur actually blushed. Freddie’s grin broadened as she turned away to face Tom.

  ‘Come on; pack up your toys and we’ll go set up a base of operations. Let’s get this investigation started!’

  ‘Suits me,’ said Tom. He dropped the scanners back into his case and snapped it shut with a flourish. ‘Listen up, people; once we’ve found somewhere suitable, no one is to go wandering off on their own. I don’t want my readings confused by unauthorized input.’

  ‘But isn’t that what an investigation is?’ said Arthur, just to show he’d recovered his self-composure. ‘Going everywhere and checking everything, to make sure it is what you think it is?’

  ‘Science works best when you control all the variables,’ said Tom.

  ‘Boring!’ Freddie said loudly.

  ‘What do you think is in this house?’ Penny quickly asked Freddie.

  ‘Haven’t the faintest,’ she said cheerfully. ‘I’ve read all the books on Harrow House, most of which are no better than they should be, and worked my way through most of the original reports in the local press … But none of them can agree on what’s wrong with this place. Of course, Bath is no stranger to the weird stuff – everything from ghosts to the Beast of Brassknocker Hill and UFOs.’

  ‘Really?’ I said.

  ‘There was a time, back in the seventies, when you couldn’t look up at the sky without something looking back at you,’ Freddie said solemnly. ‘There was even some talk about a Somerset triangle. Of course, you can’t believe everything you read in the papers.’

  She dropped a wink to Arthur, and he actually smiled back at her.