Secret of the Shadows

by Cathy MacPhail

  For all my wonderful

  children and grandchildren

  Contents

  He was walking ahead of me ...

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Meet Cathy MacPhail

  Questions from Cathy’s fans!

  Read on for a spine-tingling taster of another story

  Also by Cathy MacPhail

  He was walking ahead of me, Ben Kincaid, this boy whose life I had changed. Still young, as he was when I saw him, day after day, sitting at the back of the class. In my dream, he was turning back to me and smiling.

  ‘Thank you, Tyler,’ he was saying.

  And gathering round him others came, figures emerging from a mist, their hands reaching out to me, softly pleading. ‘Help me, Tyler.’ They knew my name. They all knew my name. I could hear the tears in their whispers.

  And in that moment the dream became something more, something to fear. How could I help them, all these dead people?

  I woke up. Glad to be awake.

  I dreamed of Ben Kincaid often. Ben Kincaid, the boy who had asked for my help from beyond the grave. I had stepped back into his time and changed the past. Did all the people in my dreams want me to do the same for them? But I wasn’t sure I could I do it again? Change the past? It was the question that haunted my dreams . . .

  Could I do it again?

  Chapter 1

  ‘It’s such a lovely little house, Mum. I wish Gran could have had more time in it.’

  We stood outside the shore-side bungalow, me and Mum, looking around at the white painted bay windows, the rock garden and the honeysuckle crawling over the front door. From here, there was a spectacular view down the river as it opened out to the Irish sea. Mille Failte, the wooden sign above the door read. The house had been called that long before Gran had bought it. Mille Failte, Gaelic for a thousand welcomes, and the name suited it. It was a picture postcard house, sitting there on a finger of land on the edge of a wild, rocky coastline. Even wilder today, with the wind lifting the sand, sending it rising like a mist along the shore, and the white-crested waves crashing against the rocks. Gran and her sister, my aunt Belle, had bought it between them so they could spend their old age here together. That dream had been shattered when Gran died of a heart attack.

  Aunt Belle was my over the top American aunt, who had sailed off to New York when she was sixteen. She too had dreamed of living here. Home for her was still Scotland. ‘The old country’, she called it. But now, with Gran gone, Aunt Belle had decided to put the house up for sale and she was coming over for the summer to see to it.

  Mum opened the front door. ‘Are you sure you don’t mind staying here with Aunt Belle?’

  Mum and Dad had already booked their trip to Australia when Aunt Belle had suggested flying over from New York. But I hadn’t fancied the long flight, and was only too happy to spend the time here with this favourite aunt of mine, helping her sort the house out.

  ‘’Course I don’t,’ I assured Mum. ‘She’s such a laugh. And I certainly don’t want to spend the summer on my own with our Steven.’

  Steven, my dippy brother, had just started his apprenticeship as a motor mechanic. All he ever wanted to do was talk about cars.

  Mum looked dismayed. ‘That’s my big worry – leaving him in the house on his own. He’ll have parties every night, I just know it.’

  ‘Our Steven? Are you joking? He’ll have a ball. He’ll be able to watch his rubbish car chase programmes with no one complaining about them.’

  I wasn’t sure that was true. As soon as his pals knew he had an ‘empty’ as we call it (a house with no parents in it), they would descend in their hordes. But I couldn’t tell her that. It would only worry her more.

  The hallway was dark when we stepped inside. Not even a beam of sunlight managed to struggle through the stained-glass window over the heavy wooden front door. All the rooms were closed up and there was a musty smell in the air.

  Mum sniffed. ‘Needs a good spring cleaning,’ she said. ‘It’s been empty for too long.’

  A family called Forbes had rented it a few months after Gran died, but they had left just a few weeks later.

  ‘Why did the tenants leave, Mum?’ I asked. ‘Weren’t they supposed to be here for a year?’

  Mum nodded. ‘Yes, it was his job or something. He was called away.’

  ‘Lucky for us they did leave.’ I laughed. ‘Or me and Aunt Belle wouldn’t have anywhere to stay.’

  Mum opened the door of the front room. It was dark in there too. The blinds were closed tight and there were white sheets thrown over the chairs and the sofa. Mum pulled one of the sheets back and revealed Gran’s favourite blue armchair.

  It must have brought back memories for my mum. She sat down and began to cry softly.

  ‘She used to love sitting here, reading her morning paper, watching the river. She said it was the nearest thing to heaven she could imagine.’

  I took Mum’s hand, trying to comfort her. ‘She was happy here, those last few months. That’s all you have to remember.’

  Mum shook her head. ‘I’m not so sure. Something was bothering her before she died. Now I’ll never know what it was.’

  I’ll go back in time and ask her, I almost said, but Mum wouldn’t have understood. She didn’t know what I had done for Ben Kincaid. No one knew, or ever could know. Not even my friends, Jazz and Aisha or Callum and Adam, or the lovely Mac. None of them would ever know.

  I took off my jacket and hung it on the back of a chair. I drew up the blinds and pushed open the windows. The wind tugged at them with such force they flew wide apart. I let out a yell and Mum hurried towards me. It took both of us a lot of effort to haul them shut again.

  ‘You can’t avoid the wind here,’ she said.

  But with the wind came that wonderful smell of the sea and I breathed it deep into my lungs.

  ‘It’s going to be so healthy living here. I’m going to go for a jog on that beach every day.’

  That made Mum smile. ‘If you can drag yourself out of bed before noon.’ She wiped her eyes. ‘The beds will need changing. But we’ll leave the bedrooms till last. Get the rest of the house sorted first, eh?’

  ‘Aunt Belle can sleep in Gran’s old room,’ I said. ‘It’s got the en suite. I’ll sleep in the other one. It’s just as nice as the other anyway.’

  How was I to know then, nothing could have been further from the truth.

  Chapter 2

  We switched on the radio and sang along with the music as we worked, vacuuming the carpets, dusting and polishing, and in between songs we had a chance to talk too. Mum was so looking forward to catching up with her sister and her husband, out in Australia. Her and Dad had never been there before. The two couples planned to go on a road trip
together.

  Opposite the living room was a small dining room. It was hardly ever used. I would have had a desk and lots of books in there instead of the oval dining table and high-backed chairs that Gran had picked. It too had a bay window looking up towards the village. We tackled this room next, shifting the chairs and the table so we could vacuum properly. Then we finished the main bathroom off the hall, and the kitchen before we decided to start on the two bedrooms.

  ‘I’ll do Gran’s room,’ Mum said. She picked up the fresh sheets we had brought.

  ‘Are you sure you’ll be OK?’ I asked her. The room would bring back more memories. So much of Gran was still there.

  Mum patted my arm. ‘Of course I will.’

  The hallway lay in a T shape. At one end was Gran’s room and at the other end, next to the kitchen, was the room where I would sleep.

  It was dark in here too. Even when I opened the blinds not much light came in. It was a typical Scottish summer’s day – windy and wet. The kind of day when lamps are never switched off. I left the door open so some light from the hallway could spill in. I could still hear the music from the radio, and my mum humming happily in Gran’s room.

  This room would be bright on a sunny day, I thought, with its apple green curtains and duvet cover, and the matching armchair in the corner. There was a tall lamp leaning over the chair and I imagined myself curled up there, reading a book. I was going to like it here, I decided. At least I would when it warmed up. I shivered and started pulling the sheets from the bed.

  I hadn’t felt cold in the rest of the house, but in here there was a distinct chill. I called out. ‘Mum, this room’s freezing!’

  I opened the door and went into the hall. ‘See – it’s warmer here.’ I was talking to myself. Mum couldn’t hear me over the music, and I shrugged and went back into the bedroom.

  I changed the bed, then bundled up the bedclothes. I opened the door and walked down the hall to Gran’s room.

  ‘It’s freezing in my room,’ I told Mum.

  Gran’s room, on the other hand, was bright and yellow, and warm too. There must be a draught coming from somewhere.’

  ‘Well, we could put the central heating on. Or maybe get you a heater.’

  I dumped the sheets into the bag we’d brought for dirty laundry, then took the polish and cloth and walked back to my bedroom.

  The door was closed. Hadn’t I left it open? And it kept closing. I called back to Mum. ‘Something wrong with this door too. It won’t stay open.’

  She didn’t answer me again. Too busy singing along to an old Beatles track.

  I had only just stepped into the room when the door swung closed again.

  If I wanted to keep it open, I’d have to wedge it with something. I looked around the room and a movement at the window caught my eye. There was a spider crawling up the glass.

  If there is one thing I hate, it’s spiders. And this was a big one, a big summer spider, its hairy legs stretching across the glass.

  And then, I watched as it was joined by another, and then another. They must have been coming from behind the chest beneath the window.

  I stepped back. Within moments, there was an army of spiders covering the glass, shutting out what little light there was, plunging the room into darkness. I had never seen so many spiders.

  I screamed, ‘Mum!’ I ran for the door, yanked it open.

  She had heard me, was already in the hall.

  ‘What is the matter?’

  I pointed to the room. ‘It’s full of spiders. They’re everywhere. We’ll have to get someone in to get rid of them.’ I pulled her along. ‘You go in first. There’s hundreds of them.’

  She stepped inside and looked around. ‘Come here, Tyler.’

  I followed her warily inside.

  The spiders were gone. The window was bright and clear. There was a break in the clouds and even the pale yellow sun seemed to be making an effort to beam into the room.

  ‘But they were there.’ I pointed at the window. ‘There must be a nest of them behind that chest.’

  Mum looked behind the chest, then she dragged it clear of the window. Nothing. The wall beneath the window was freshly painted white. ‘You and that imagination of yours, Tyler.’ And she laughed. But I couldn’t even smile. All I could think of was, where had all the spiders gone?

  She helped me vacuum and dust the room and after a while, we left.

  But I should have known then. The door that wouldn’t stay open, the cold in that room, the spiders. I should have realised something evil was there in that house. But I didn’t. Instead, I went with Aunt Belle to stay there for the summer, and moved into a nightmare.

  Chapter 3

  The first day

  Aunt Belle arrived the next day. We could make her out a mile off as she came through customs, waving frantically, with her permed blonde hair, her perfect make-up and her long, painted nails. ‘Hi there! Hi there!’ she was shouting as she pushed through the crowd. As if anyone could miss her. She descended upon us in a mist of perfume, kissing each of us in turn and leaving great scarlet lips on our cheeks. Dad looked embarrassed, but Mum and I couldn’t stop laughing.

  ‘It’s so nice to be here,’ she kept saying, and Mum said she wished she wasn’t going to Australia now.

  ‘Nonsense,’ Aunt Belle said. ‘You’ll have a wonderful time. It’s been too long since you’ve seen your sister. Sisters are important,’ she said wistfully, remembering her sister, my gran. Then she hugged me again and planted another red kiss on my face. ‘And Tyler and I are going to have a great time, isn’t that right, honey?’

  That night we all went out for dinner. Aunt Belle charmed us all. I hadn’t seen her since Gran’s funeral, and then, the fun had gone out of her. It was back now. She assured Steven how handsome he was, and that was all the compliment Steven needed to have him eating out of her hand. At last someone was agreeing with him. He thought he was pretty handsome too. And I knew that it pleased Mum and Dad to see how well my aunt and I got on. It would make them feel better about leaving us.

  Aunt Belle and I saw Mum and Dad off at the airport the following morning, before we headed down the coast to Mille Failte. Dad had insisted Aunt Belle use his car while she was here, but I was more than a bit wary of Aunt Belle’s driving.

  ‘What’s this stick here for?’ she asked, and when I told her it was the gear stick she scowled. ‘You mean it isn’t an automatic?’ She kept forgetting it wasn’t, and the car jerked and bumped all the way. Indicating was something else she just couldn’t get the hang of and she kept bawling at other drivers who got in her way. I was sure we were never going to make it to the house alive.

  But at last we did. Mille Failte was situated at the far end of a small village on the coast, just twenty-five miles from where we lived. It was right at the mouth of the River Clyde before it opens out to the Irish Sea, distant hills on the other side of the river. On a good day, the island of Arran was just visible in the distance. The village had one main street with a line of fine houses on one side of the road and the shore on the other. We passed the caravan park and then the Riverside Grill on the shore-side before we came to the single-track road that led to the bungalow. I hadn’t realised before how isolated it was.

  ‘Didn’t it bother you and Gran it was so far away from the main road, on its own out here?’

  Aunt Belle brushed that notion aside. ‘It’s not so far away. A good fifteen-minute walk is all and you’re back on the main road. And bothered? In this little village? A crime wave here is when two five-year-olds have a fight in the school playground.’ She had a laugh that bubbled and it made me laugh too. ‘No, honey, for us the remoteness only added to its appeal.’ She grew silent as we drew near the house, and I knew she was remembering Gran, just as Mum had.

  She cried when she stepped into the house. Her tears upset me too. It wasn’t like Aunt Belle to cry. She was usually so much fun. Gran used to say Aunt Belle had never grown up. I just think she never
wants to grow old. She loves being with young people, maybe that’s why she and I get on so well.

  I let her cry. I made her a cup of tea and took it into the front room and found her sitting in Gran’s blue armchair.

  Finally, she sniffed and said, ‘Your gran wouldn’t have wanted me to cry too much. It’s just we had so many plans, your gran and I.’

  ‘You could still come here and live. Not bother selling the house. Wouldn’t you like to do that?’

  She shook her head. ‘Not without your gran. It wouldn’t be the same. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be. Some things aren’t, you know. It’s made me realise I really am an American now. A New Yorker.’ She reached out and touched my hand. ‘But you and I are going to have a lovely time here this summer, I’m looking forward to it.’

  I thought she might cry again when I carried her case into Gran’s bedroom, but her crying was done. ‘We both wanted this room, you know. We decided to toss for it. Can you imagine? I think your gran cheated. Used a two-headed coin! She said she should have the en suite anyway, because she was older than me.’ She still laughed at the memory.

  Aunt Belle felt the cold in my room too, as soon as we entered it. ‘It wasn’t cold like this when I slept here. I was only here for a couple of nights, of course. But I think you’re right, Tyler, there’s a draught coming from somewhere. We’ll call someone tomorrow, get it sorted.’

  I was going to tell her about the spiders, but it sounded silly now. I still couldn’t explain where they had gone. All my imagination. While she gushed over the view from the window, I dragged the chest to the bottom of my bed. I would feel a lot better if the space under that window was clear.

  Mum had filled the fridge and the freezer with food for us, but Aunt Belle decided that on our first night we should have dinner at the Riverside Grill.

  It was late when we came back in, but still light. I got into my cosy jammies, and Aunt Belle appeared in the living room wearing a glamorous, purple silk dressing gown and high-heeled slippers. She was also carrying a dummy head with a blonde wig on it.