by Mina Carter
Imy frowned a little, then wriggled under the covers. Becky pulled her close and kissed her forehead. They didn’t talk anymore and Becky was soon asleep, not even getting round to switching the light off.
* * *
Ambling down to the kitchen as soon as she was showered and dressed, Becky found she could barely get in there to make herself some coffee. She had to have it black too; the four pint carton she had bought the day before was already empty. Her mother was presiding over the chaos, looking like she hadn’t even slept. Mrs Hanham and her family had gone. Judging from the chatter of voices coming from behind the kitchen, it sounded like the effigy was still there.
After finally managing to squeeze through to the kettle to make her coffee, Becky escaped into the parlour she had only got as far as looking at briefly on her first day. She crossed to an armchair and curled up in it, blowing her hot drink. She hoped today would be a bit less frantic, but somehow didn’t think it would be. Maybe she could escape the madness by exploring what was in the attic. Before she did though, she had to speak to Mr Kennet about the effigy. She also planned to ask him if he knew anything about her family that his grandfather might not think it seemly to divulge.
First, she was going to stock up on caffeine in peace.
Her mind began to wander as she wondered if there had been any developments overnight. Although she didn’t want details, she did want to know if the effigy could be moved yet.
With coffee inside her, Becky headed back to the kitchen, put her fingers between her lips, and let out a piercingly loud whistle. Everyone fell silent and looked round at her.
“Ok, I want a progress report. I don’t want speculations or theories, but straight facts about when I can get that bloody thing out of here.”
This was met with silence. Becky scanned the faces, searching for either Piran or Professor Seager. Finally, a rather sweet younger man who was edging a bit too close to nerd in appearance cleared his throat.
“The effigy can be moved out later today,” he said awkwardly.
“Good. I’m going to phone the solicitors in a few minutes and see if it can be removed from the property. I don’t care where it goes, as long as the museum in Wimborne has the right to display it whenever they want. So, you can squabble over it between yourselves.”
A slightly harassed looking woman raised her hand. “It should be in the County Museum,” she said a bit shyly.
“Fine. Whatever. I’ll speak to Mr Kennet shortly about it. But like I said, the museum in Wimborne has to have full access to it. It’s a local oddity, so they should have a say in what happens to it.”
With that, Becky retreated from the kitchen and went upstairs to find Imy sitting up in bed, studying her photos of the effigy on her laptop.
“Why are you looking at those again?” Becky asked her, not sure how she felt about her daughter’s apparent fascination with the thing.
“I’m just trying to see if there’s anything else odd about it.”
“And?”
“You mean apart from the fact a wax doll is watching people? Actually, I haven’t seen anything else strange.”
“I’m going to phone up and see if it can be removed. If you want to take any more pictures, you better get dressed and get on with it.”
Imy immediately put her laptop aside and ran from the room. A few minutes later she was back, dressed in jeans and a black hooded top. She had her camera in her hand.
Becky sighed. She would have to go down and make sure Imy was let into the secret room.
Leaving her daughter snapping pictures of not just the effigy, but also the coffin decorations, and even the walls, Becky wandered out the front door, seeking some peace in the garden to make her call.
“How can I help you, Ms Frippe?” Mr Kennet asked when his niece head put her through to him.
“I need to know if something can be removed from the property. It’s a wax effigy that was in a coffin in a hidden room behind the kitchen. There’s something very strange about it and I want it gone. There’s all sorts of experts crawling over the house at the minute, and I’d like them gone too.”
“Strange how?”
“My daughter took some pictures of it. Its eyes stare straight up at the ceiling when you look at it, but in the photos the eyes move. And yes I do know how barmy that sounds. There’s been lots of witnesses to it happening though, so it’s not just some kind of trick of the light. The point is, I don’t want it under the same roof as my daughter.”
“Ah.”
“Ah? What does ‘ah’ mean?” Did he know something about it?
“I’m not sure if you can remove it. Until the paperwork is resolved, you can’t really remove anything from the property. None of the fixtures or fittings, that is.”
Becky slumped. She really didn’t want to be told that.
“It should only take a couple of days to finalise everything. Just be patient and then the house and its contents are yours,” Mr Kennet told her soothingly.
“Damn!”
“Would you mind if I call on you today, Ms Frippe? I would like to see the effigy myself. It sounds very interesting.”
“Call me Becky. You can come and see it if you like, but you better bring some milk with you. This place has been Nerd Central all night and they’ve used all mine. Oh, and you better pick up a pack of cigarettes. I think I’m going to need them.”
Mr Kennet chuckled. “It sounds like you’ve been having quite a time of it, Becky. And please, call me Xander. I’ll be out as soon as I’ve finished up in the office for the morning.”
Becky didn’t want to go back indoors yet, so started to wander around the garden aimlessly. She wanted to have a smoke in peace. She wasn’t seeing any of her surroundings though. All she could see was the pictures of that damn doll looking straight at Imy.
Suddenly noticing what was in front of her, Becky realised she was looking at a police car coming along the drive. She frowned. She’d forgotten Heath had said he would call the station. Had anyone come out after she had gone to bed?
Shrugging, Becky started to cross to the car as it pulled to a halt. Out of it stepped Heath in his uniform. He placed his hat on and gave her a smile.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“I DON’T HAVE any fake corpses for you to be all heroic about today,” Becky called over with a chuckle.
“I should hope not. On per household is quite enough.” As he reached her, Heath leaned down to kiss her cheek, making her flush a bit. He really was good looking and Becky was sure he was interested in her. And who didn’t like a man in uniform? “How’s it going?”
“Buggered if I know. The nerd brigade is here in full force. I haven’t asked if they know any more about the doll thing or the satanic notebooks. To be honest, I don’t want to know. I’ve just spoken to the solicitor and he said I can’t remove any fixtures or fittings until the paperwork is done in a couple of days. Until then, I’m lumbered with Miss Freaky and the Nutters.”
“Sounds like a dodgy band,” he sniggered. “How’s your daughter coping?”
“Oh, she’s loving it; thinks it’s exciting. I have no idea what’s wrong with her.”
“At least she’s not scared,” he pointed out.
“I can’t believe I’ve only been here for two days. It feels like weeks already.”
“I don’t doubt that. So what’s next?”
“Xander, Mr Kennet, is coming out to see what all the fuss is about. Other than that, I was going to hide in the attic on the pretence of sorting it out.”
Heath chuckled. “Well, I’ve just popped in to make sure the nerds are behaving themselves. One of my colleagues dropped in a couple of times in the night, just to let them know we were aware of them being here. I’ll call in again after my shift, if you want some moral support.”
“That would be great. I feel like I’m drowning in crazy at the minute.” Becky looked up and smiled a bit. “I could cook, if I can get in the kitchen.”
“How abo
ut I bring Chinese with me?”
“Scared of my cooking?” she teased. “How come you aren’t married?”
“Oh, that’s a whole terrifying can of worms you really don’t want to open,” Heath warned with a laugh.
“Is that so? Well, there’s an incentive to pry further.”
He laughed loudly. “What have I done?”
Becky realised there was some serious flirting going on between them and she wasn’t sure how she felt about it. It wasn’t that she wasn’t interested, but now wasn’t really the time for it.
As if sensing a slight withdrawal, Heath took a step back. “I’ll just nip in and see if everyone is behaving. I’ll be back about six-thirty?”
Becky nodded, realising she was looking forward to it.
She followed Heath into the house, taking advantage of the parting in the nerds his uniform created. Her mother was no longer in the kitchen and Becky hoped she had gone to get some sleep.
“Everything under control here?” Heath asked of the room. There were a few mumbling assents. “Good. Don’t harass, Ms Frippe or I’ll be back to hand out a few cautions.”
Becky headed up to the attic. Imy seemed to have been sucked into Nerdville in the secret room and Brenda was crashed out on a bed, still fully dressed.
Starting with the first things she got to, Becky began opening doors and drawers in the furniture in the attic. She took out boxes and tins, quickly checking the contents to separate the papers from the nick-nacks, but she didn’t look into any of them further than that. The papers would need time so they could be gone through carefully. The nick-nacks could be sorted into what to keep and what to get rid of.
A shout up the stairs dragged her away from her sorting out. The book dealer had arrived.
“Ms Frippe? I’m Stuart Francis. You asked me to come and look at some books?”
“Mr Francis, it’s nice to meet you.” Becky held out her hand to him. His handshake was a little on the limp side and she withdrew hers quickly. “I’ll show you the library. You’ll have to work around all the other people. We had a bit of an unusual discovery and the boffins are studying it.”
“I heard about it. One of them asked what my specialty is. She seemed rather disappointed when I told her.” He smiled a bit.
“Come this way.” Becky showed him to the library. “I should tell you, the paperwork is still being sorted out, so I can’t actually sell anything yet. I would like to get a bit of an idea of what’s here though.”
“That’s not a problem. I would like to have first refusal on anything of value, if there is anything.”
“No problem. I don’t exactly know lots of book dealers.”
“Very few people do,” he commented a bit sarcastically.
“Here you go then,” Becky said as she opened the door. “Have a rummage. As far as I know, I’ll be keeping that pile of paperbacks, and I’ll probably hang on to some of the older editions of the classic literature. Other than that, I’m pretty much open. I will be getting second opinions on it all though, so don’t try ripping me off.”
Mr Francis raised an eyebrow at her. “Ms Frippe, I can assure you that is not the way I work.”
“Maybe not. Just so long as you don’t try to take me for an idiot.”
Leaving him alone in the library, Becky went back to the attic, sure she had made it clear she wouldn’t stand for any dodgy dealing over the books. She wouldn’t stand for it from anyone. Living with a builder for years had made her wary of the way some people conducted business. Jeff had never done more than take on a few cash in hand jobs, as far as she knew. There was no shortage of people out to make a fast buck though.
Moving on to a large sideboard type cabinet, Becky knelt on the floor and opened the first door. Inside, she found what looked like a complete set of crockery, right down to tureens still with their matching ladles. The pattern was a mixture of cobalt blue and iron red on white, accentuated with gold. She lifted a plate out and turned it over. Mason. She had the feeling that was a fairly good make.
Putting the plate back, she opened the other door. The cupboard was full of glasses. It wasn’t a set though. They looked old, some of them had frosted twists in the stems, and the shapes were different to modern glasses. Everything would have to be valued. Even if she didn’t sell, she’d need the value for the insurance.
Standing again, she pulled over one of the two drawers. It contained cutlery that she suspected had silver handles. She lifted a knife and studied it. Finding a hallmark, Becky put it back. In the other drawer she found all the serving paraphernalia: a carving set, cake slices, ladles, spoons, and several items she had no clue about at all. One or two of them looked more like instruments of torture than utensils.
It was almost like the entire sideboard had just been plonked up here with all its contents. She decided there was probably more in the attic than she could deal with in a month, so headed downstairs to find out if all the boffins had come to any conclusions about Miss Freaky yet.
Piran had reappeared. He apologised for not having been about earlier, explaining he’d had to make some arrangements to do with the museum.
“That’s okay. I wasn’t really in the mood for all this when I got up. How are things going?”
“Basically, nowhere. No one knows anything about the effigy. There has been a breakthrough with the notebooks you found though. Professor Seager has found a cryptologist who can probably decipher them”
“Do you want them for the museum? I’d prefer anything like that to stay local. You can’t have them yet, but it won’t be long until I can start getting rid of things.”
Piran smiled broadly. “They would make a wonderful addition, thank you. And thank you for making sure we have access to the coffin and effigy. I was told what you said to everyone about it.”
Becky just shrugged. All she really wanted to do was get shot of the thing, which she would do the second she could. “Anything else happened?”
“A lot of speculation and theories, but that’s all.”
“Keeps them busy, I guess,” she commented. “I was going to sort out some lunch, but I don’t know how many are here and if I have enough to feed them all.”
“Leave it to me. A friend has a little sandwich place in town. I’ll give her a call and see if she can cover it. They can all pay for their own.”
Smiling her gratitude, Becky was content to leave things there. She would have happily paid from the stash of money she’d found, but decided not to mention it.
Her next port of call was the library to check up on Mr Francis. He was lost in the study of a book.
Clearing her throat to get his attention, she asked, “Any of them any good?”
“Indeed, yes! You were correct about the Dickens volumes, although yours are in such good condition, I wouldn’t be surprised if they fetched even more than the last set I sold. This room is a treasure trove.”
“Oh, I forgot to tell you, there’s an inventory of all the books in the desk.” Becky crossed the room to get it out and handed it over. Mr Francis took it with his eyes wide.
“Wonderful!”
Much as Becky enjoyed reading, she doubted she could get so excited over dusty old tomes. They just didn’t rock her boat.
Leaving him to it, she went off in search of Imy.
“How you doing?” she asked when she found her daughter sitting cross-legged on the floor in the storeroom that led to the secret room. Her laptop was in front of her on the floor.
“Mum, I need to show you something,” she whispered. “I took some photos of the walls and they’ve shown something up that wasn’t visible with just the torches.”
Becky say beside her on the floor. “What is it?”
The girl turned her laptop a little. Nothing was obvious at first, but then Becky saw what looked like words. They were very faint but still there. Becky’s eyes went wide. “Bloody hell!” she breathed.
STAY IN HELL was scrawled large across the wall.
; “Exactly,” Imy responded. “There’s some other stuff too. I just didn’t know who to show.”
“An exorcist?” Becky suggested grimly. “Hang on, I’ll go and get Piran. He should see it first. By the way, Heath is bringing Chinese take-away for us all later. I doubt we’ll be able to get in the kitchen to cook, so it’s probably the best option.”
“Ooh, Mum! He definitely fancies you!”
“Imy, I’m not going to do anything about it, even if he does. I’ve got too much on my plate at the minute to worry about anything like that.”
Imy frowned. “Why? There’s nothing wrong with having a distraction.”
“Just leave it, honey. We’ll have dinner with him tonight, but don’t go getting your hopes up that I’ll be jumping into bed with him.” Becky eased Imy’s fair curls off her face. “I’ll go and get Piran. Don’t tell anyone about what you’ve found. Go through to the dining room and I’ll bring him there shortly.”
As Imy slipped away, Becky went to find Piran again. He was in the kitchen, deep in conversation with the woman who had suggested the coffin went to the County Museum. They seemed to be working out some dates.
Touching Piran’s shoulder lightly, Becky beckoned him away to whisper, “You need to see something my daughter found.”
“Of course, but why are you whispering?”
“Because I don’t want the rest of them bombarding her.”
Leading him to the dining room, Becky took a seat at the table beside her daughter, wondering what else had been found on the walls. Imy brought up the picture Becky had already seen first.
“Oh my God!” he exclaimed mildly.
“Not quite what I said,” Becky told him.
“That’s not all.” Imy brought up another picture. In this one, the words DEVILS SLUT had been sprawled across the plaster in red, though the colour was barely discernible. In the next photo, Becky saw the words DIE WHORE, and in the last, on the wooden wall between the secret room and the storeroom was SATANS DOXY.
“Looks like someone was pretty determined to get the message across,” Imy commented. “I’m guessing all this was aimed at whoever the effigy is of.”