Secret of the Shadows

by Cathy MacPhail

  I leaned over him. ‘Paul?’ I looked into his eyes, but there was no recognition there. Whatever terror they were seeing was blocking everything else from his view.

  Why had he gone into that room? And in the same instant I thought it, I remembered what I’d said about there being more information on my laptop. My laptop was on the bed in that room. Had he thought he would be safe to step in, just for a moment, get the laptop and go back into the safety of my aunt’s room? I could understand why he thought he’d be safe. It had been broad daylight. But Sister Kelly had been too quick for him. As soon as he was inside, the door had slammed shut behind him, the room darkened, and she had come out of the shadows.

  He was still breathing at least, his chest rising and falling steadily, but no matter how I tried to shake him back into consciousness his eyelids didn’t flicker.

  My finger trembled as I punched in 999, and told them I needed an ambulance fast. Then I slumped to the floor beside Paul, as if I could protect him from anything that might come at him through that door.

  The ambulance arrived and I had no explanation for what had happened to Paul. All I said was that I’d left him with my aunt and came back to find him like this. A police car pulled up behind the ambulance and Sergeant Ross stepped from it.

  ‘I thought that 999 call was from this address,’ he said. He explained to the paramedics, as if I wasn’t there, that I had been at the hospital earlier. ‘An unexplained accident.’ I could almost see the inverted commas.

  And now, another unexplained accident. The paramedics looked at me, looked at my arm.

  I couldn’t stop myself from babbling out. ‘It was Sister Kelly. She haunts this house. She did it all.’ I regretted it as soon as I spoke. Now they would think I was crazy.

  Sergeant Ross let out a long sigh. ‘You’re saying a ghost did all this?’

  The paramedics shared a knowing smile. ‘You should hear some of the things teenagers tell us. Ghosts, vampires, zombies. You name it, we’ve heard it.’

  Sergeant Ross looked into my aunt’s room. ‘Your aunt doesn’t look so good, does she?’

  ‘I’ve been trying to get a doctor all day.’

  And then a terrible thought came to me. Did Sergeant Ross think all of this was my doing? If they thought at the hospital I had been self-harming because I wanted attention, it wasn’t a giant leap to believe that to get more attention I had done something to Paul, to my aunt.

  ‘What’s wrong with him?’ I asked as they were getting ready to carry Paul out to the ambulance.

  ‘We’ll have a better idea when we get him to the hospital,’ one of them told me.

  ‘Do you know where the boy lives?’ Sergeant Ross asked me. ‘We’ll have to inform his parents.’

  I gave him the address. ‘He has a mobile. His home number might be there,’ I added.

  Sergeant Ross fumbled in Paul’s pocket and took out the phone. He looked at me. ‘I’m also calling a doctor to have a look at your aunt.’

  And for a second my heart lifted. At last, a doctor was coming to see Aunt Belle.

  Chapter 30

  ‘So, the truth now. What exactly happened here?’ Sergeant Ross and I sat in the front room as we waited for the doctor. ‘And please, no more of this, “It was Sister Kelly’s ghost who did it.”’

  What was the point of telling the truth? ‘I had an accident with the knife,’ I sighed. ‘I was making a sandwich. Paul arrived just when it happened and he insisted I go to the hospital. He said he’d stay here with my aunt and when I came back he was like . . . how you saw him.’

  There, I thought, did he prefer that version? Was that more acceptable?

  ‘You found him lying in the hall?’

  ‘He was in the other bedroom.’

  ‘So, why didn’t you just leave him there. Why drag him into the hall?’

  Well, I wasn’t going to lie about that. I looked straight at him. ‘I don’t like that room.’

  His face creased into a smile. ‘That will be the haunted room then?’ He stood up. ‘Mind if I go in? I’ve always wanted to see a ghost.’

  ‘You can laugh, but you’ll see, the door won’t stay open . . . and it’s ice cold in there.’

  He pushed open the door and I stood back as he stepped inside.

  I waited for the door to swing shut. Then he’d see. He’d know I was telling the truth.

  The door stayed open.

  ‘Doesn’t feel cold to me at all,’ he said. He turned to me.

  ‘She’s sly,’ I murmured.

  ‘A sly ghost?’

  He came back into the hall. ‘So you dragged him out here.’

  ‘Paul’s parents will tell you there’s something in this house. Paul’s mother saw something in that room too.’

  ‘Oh, I will be talking to them,’ he said, as if it was a warning.

  After that, we sat in stony silence until the doctor arrived.

  Doctor Gordon looked every inch the country doctor, from an old-fashioned tweed suit, to the doctor’s bag he carried.

  ‘Right, let’s see what we have here,’ he said as I led him into Aunt Belle’s room.

  I began to babble again. ‘At first she thought it was just jet lag, and then we thought maybe she’d caught a bug.’

  At that point Sergeant Ross bent and whispered something in Doctor Gordon’s ear. No doubt something about me. Then the doctor asked me to leave so he could have a proper look at my aunt.

  A few minutes later, he came out of the room. ‘What have you been giving her?’

  ‘Just a vitamin drink I got from Mrs De Luca at the village shop.’

  ‘Could you show it to me, please?’ he said.

  I took him into the kitchen and lifted the bottle from the shelf. He sniffed at it. ‘Did you put anything else in it when you gave it to her?’

  I looked from him to Sergeant Ross. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. ‘Are you honestly suggesting I put something in my aunt’s vitamin drink?’

  The doctor shrugged. ‘I only asked a question.’

  Had something been added to that vitamin drink? If it had, I knew who would have done that.

  ‘Maybe your ghost added something, eh?’ Sergeant Ross said as if he could read my mind.

  I turned on him. ‘You can’t believe I did anything to my aunt!’

  Yet even as I said it I was remembering Mrs De Luca’s comment about my obsession with people dying. Remembering the estate agent’s startled look when Aunt Belle joked that I was trying to poison her because I was her sole heir. The police would find all that out. Guilt was closing around me.

  ‘I’m admitting your aunt to hospital,’ Doctor Gordon said.

  I slumped against the wall with relief. At last she would be getting out of this house.

  ‘Can I go to the hospital with her?’

  ‘Of course,’ the sergeant said. And it was quite clear to me that he wasn’t planning to let me out of his sight.

  While we waited for the ambulance, I gathered up clothes and toiletries for my aunt, hoping they would notice how caring I was. But when I glanced at them, the doctor was handing the bottle with my aunt’s vitamin drink to the sergeant, and he slipped it into a bag. I felt suddenly faint. I was in so much trouble, and I’d done nothing wrong.

  The doctor came back into the bedroom and lifted the photo of Gran and Aunt Belle on the bedside table. ‘Is this your grandmother?’ he asked.

  I stood beside him. Gran looked so happy, smiling, arm in arm with her sister. ‘Yes. Her and my aunt Belle are sisters. Did you know her?’

  ‘Not exactly know. Mrs Crawford, wasn’t it? I was the one who put her in hospital when she had the heart attack. She was a nice lady.’

  How I wished she was here now to help me.

  I almost missed what he said next I was thinking of her so hard. ‘I really think it was that fall that brought on her heart attack.’

  I stopped, my hands halfway to Aunt Belle’s bag. ‘What did you say? What fall?’

&
nbsp; ‘I think it was the day before she died, she fell down the cellar steps. When I finally saw her, all she could say, over and over, was “the cellar”. It wasn’t a bad fall. She was only bruised. But she seemed quite shaken and I think if she hadn’t had that fall, she probably wouldn’t have had the heart attack.’

  Chapter 31

  There was no time to think about what Doctor Gordon had said. Too much was happening too quickly. Right at that moment the ambulance came for Aunt Belle. I was allowed – although I was sure by the look that passed between Doctor Gordon and Sergeant Ross, allowed reluctantly – to travel in the ambulance with my aunt. Sergeant Ross would probably have preferred me to travel in the police car. The paramedic kept his eye on me as I sat clutching Aunt Belle’s hand.

  She’ll be all right now, I said to myself. She was out of that house, she’d be all right now.

  Worse was to come when we reached the hospital. Paul’s mother was waiting there at the entrance. As soon as she saw me she flew at me, such a rage within her. ‘You did this to my boy! You! ’

  One of the medics tried to hold her back. She pushed him aside. ‘Did she tell you she came to my house? She lured my son to that house of hers. Now he’s in a coma. He might not live, and if he dies . . .’ Again, she sprang at me.

  Though I was afraid, here at least was my witness. Here was someone who could tell them there was something in the house. Something evil.

  Sergeant Ross had just arrived. I grabbed his arm. ‘She’ll tell you.’ I pleaded with him to listen. ‘They were renting our house, and they just packed up one day and left. Something terrified her. She can tell you. The house is haunted.’ I turned my eyes to her. ‘You know it is. Tell him!’

  She stared at me. Silenced.

  ‘Is this true Mrs Forbes?’ Sergeant Ross asked her.

  She hesitated for only a moment. ‘Of course it’s not true. Haven’t you heard about her lies?’ She looked back to me, venom filled her eyes. ‘I found out about you, Tyler Lawless.’ She spat out my name as if she was swearing. ‘You claimed you saw the ghost of your teacher when you were in your last school. Caused nothing but trouble – and now, you’re at it again.’

  I would never be allowed to forget that. Never.

  A nurse ran up to us then. ‘Do you realise you’re in a hospital? I can’t have you screaming like this.’

  Mrs Forbes’ eyes never left me. ‘Blame her!’ Her finger jabbed against me. ‘She’s the only something evil in that house.’

  I had no one here who knew me, who could vouch for me. No one who knew the kind of person I was. I was in a strange town, with no family around me, or friends. Now, I didn’t even have Aunt Belle.

  Mrs Forbes was led off, crying. I would have felt sorry for her if I hadn’t seen so much hate in her eyes. A policewoman came over.

  ‘This is PC Glinn,’ Sergeant Ross said. ‘She’ll stay with you.’

  I felt as if I was in custody already.

  PC Glinn smiled. ‘Call me Valerie,’ she said, and she sat with me while Aunt Belle was examined and finally moved to a room in one of the wards. I couldn’t think of anything except her and Paul. Was she going to be all right? Was Paul?

  ‘We’ll get in touch with your parents,’ Valerie said, breaking into my thoughts.

  ‘I don’t want you to do that.’

  She shrugged. ‘I’m afraid we have no choice.’

  As I walked into the room where Aunt Belle lay, I knew she was no longer asleep. She was burning up now, in a high fever. Unconscious.

  I wasn’t left alone with her. Valerie sat in the room with me. Me on one side of the bed, her on the other. When I reached to take Aunt Belle’s hand in mine, I saw her tense. And when Aunt Belle stirred and I lifted a glass of water to wet her lips, Valerie reached across and took it from me. ‘I’ll see to that,’ she said.

  I curled up in a chair in the corner and tried not to cry. They thought I might harm her, even here. And tomorrow they were going to phone Mum and Dad. I couldn’t hold back the tears then, and I sobbed. Valerie looked over at me, offered me a tissue, but little sympathy. She’d probably seen too much evil masquerading behind tears.

  I had changed the past once – why couldn’t I do it this time?

  Because I didn’t know how! And I didn’t know what thing in the past to change? I’d thought at first I’d been meant to save Eleanor. Hadn’t she asked me to help her? I was meant to save her so she could go on to expose Sister Kelly. But how was I supposed to do that?

  What was the good of having a power if you didn’t know how to use it?

  And what if I wasn’t meant to save Eleanor at all?

  Maybe I was meant to help Paul?

  Or my aunt Belle?

  How was I ever going to bring Sister Kelly to justice? Who was going to believe a stroppy teenager with a history of telling tall tales?

  I was useless. Useless.

  The person I really wanted to save was my gran. Aunt Belle had said I shouldn’t change the past of those who had died natural deaths. Like Gran. How could I stop her having a heart attack?

  Impossible.

  I sat up in the chair. Looked across at Valerie. She was busy reading her magazine.

  Impossible . . . unless . . .

  My mind was racing. The doctor’s words came back to me.

  If she hadn’t had that fall, she probably wouldn’t have had the heart attack.

  She fell in the cellar.

  Why did she go down there? One answer came to me. Sister Kelly.

  And what made her fall? Again only one answer. Sister Kelly.

  Gran was one of the ‘unlawfully dead’.

  And in that instant I knew what I had to do – and how to do it.

  If I could stop my gran from falling in the cellar, she wouldn’t have the heart attack. She’d still be alive. Her house wouldn’t have been rented out. I’d never have met the Forbes. Paul wouldn’t be in a coma and Aunt Belle wouldn’t be in this hospital.

  I could change everything, and then Gran and I could expose the truth about who Sister Kelly really was.

  I would have my gran back.

  My gran, alive again. The thought of it made my heart leap.

  All I had to do was get out of this hospital. And go down into that cellar again.

  Chapter 32

  I got to my feet and Valerie looked up from her magazine. ‘Can I go to the toilet?’ I asked.

  She couldn’t stop me, I knew that. After all, I wasn’t under arrest and she was only there to watch me when I was with Aunt Belle. After a moment, she nodded. ‘Yes, of course.’

  To my horror she stood up as if she was ready to come with me. ‘I can go on my own!’ Did I say it too quickly? Luckily she took it as genuine teenage embarrassment.

  ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going with you.’

  What she did was almost as bad. She stood at the door of Aunt Belle’s room and watched me as I walked to the female toilet at the end of the corridor. I was convinced she planned to stay there till I came out. But I had to get out of this hospital.

  There wasn’t even a window I could open in the toilet, even if I did have the nerve to leap from the second floor to the ground. I stood for a moment, thinking. I looked around. What there was, hanging on a hook on the wall, was a blue hospital gown, and a Zimmer frame in the corner. A disguise. But could I carry it off?

  I had no choice. The gown almost came to my ankles, and I pulled my hair back and bent my shoulders like a sick patient. I took a deep breath and, pushing the Zimmer in front of me, I hobbled out of the toilet.

  I didn’t glance back. I imagined Valerie standing there, seeing the blue-gowned patient edging her way down the corridor.

  My breath came in short gasps. I was waiting for her to shout after me, call my name. I expected at any second to hear her footsteps running behind me. I kept shuffling forward, trying not to rush. Sick people can’t rush. Step by step I was getting closer to the door.

  And still she didn’t come.
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  I turned the corner at last. Out of her sight, I shoved the Zimmer aside, pulled off the gown and began to run. I took the stairs, and on the ground floor, made sure no one was about before I began walking to the automatic doors. I didn’t start running again until I was outside, heading for the taxi rank. To my relief, one taxi was there. I was in the back seat in a second.

  ‘You sound as if you should be in the hospital, not leaving it,’ the taxi driver said when he heard my heavy breathing.

  I told him where I wanted to go and then I sat back and watched the night settle over the shore.

  I had to get to the house before Valerie realised I wouldn’t be coming back and raised the alarm. I pictured her checking her watch, beginning to wonder what was keeping me. Going down to the toilet, pushing open the door, calling my name.

  And then what?

  I mean, I wasn’t a hardened criminal – there wouldn’t be a full-scale alert out for me. Perhaps just a call on her mobile to alert Sergeant Ross.

  Yet when I heard a police siren coming behind us, I stiffened. Afraid it was me they were after.

  The taxi driver pulled into the side of the road to let them pass. He laughed. ‘Late for their tea break probably.’

  I tried to laugh too, but it sounded more like hysteria.

  ‘Visiting somebody at the hospital then?’ he asked me. ‘My aunt,’ I said. ‘But she’s going to be fine. Now,’ I added softly. And when I changed the past . . . she would never have been sick at all.

  I was afraid. More afraid than I’d ever been in my life. But I was excited too.

  Me. Tyler Lawless. I could change the past.

  And bring back my gran.

  That thought alone made any danger, any terror worthwhile.

  We turned off the road and up the track to the house. It lay in darkness. Waiting. Waiting for me. The moon glinted silver on the river.

  ‘Beautiful setting,’ the driver said as I paid him. ‘It must be a pleasure living here.’

  ‘It will be,’ I said, and I could see his puzzled frown.

  I took a deep breath as I put the key in the door. I opened it wide and stepped inside.