The House on Widows Hill

by Simon R. Green

  The sheer conviction in her voice was enough to make Freddie stop and turn to look at me.

  ‘Why would Ishmael want to kill Arthur?’ said Tom. ‘He had never even met him before tonight.’

  ‘How can we be sure of that?’ said Lynn. ‘He’s security; who knows what a really good reporter might have discovered, which Ishmael couldn’t afford for anyone else to know!’

  Penny smiled at me. ‘She’s very good, isn’t she?’

  ‘Very good at what she does,’ I said.

  Lynn pressed on quickly, not wanting to lose the advantage. ‘What do we know about either of them, really? They say they’re security; but that could mean anything. We’ve all at least heard of each other, but Ishmael Jones … That doesn’t even sound like a real name! He’s already admitted he stole Arthur’s keys, while the body was still warm, so he could keep us trapped in this awful place.’

  ‘I still don’t see why he’d want to kill Arthur,’ said Tom.

  ‘Then ask him!’ said Lynn. ‘Make him tell you!’

  ‘No,’ said Freddie, and everyone turned to look at her. She stared coldly at Lynn. ‘It’s not him. It was you.’

  Lynn stared at her, shaken by Freddie’s flat refusal to accept anything she’d said. ‘Why won’t you believe me?’

  ‘Because you’ve been lying ever since you got here,’ said Freddie. ‘Little Miss Fake.’

  ‘That’s not true!’ said Lynn. ‘I’ve been feeling all kinds of things, ever since I entered this house.’

  ‘Nothing the rest of us didn’t feel,’ Freddie said remorselessly. She turned to me. ‘I don’t know what you got up to while you were away, but you put a stop to what’s been happening in this house. And you never once believed that the house killed Arthur. So given a choice between believing you and believing Lynn … well, it’s no choice at all, really.’

  Lynn bolted for the open door, catching everyone by surprise. She moved quickly, but I was always going to be faster. I grabbed her by the shoulder and threw her back so hard she fell to the floor. She scrabbled up on to her feet, her face suddenly cold and dangerous. She started forward again, and when I went to stop her, she threw a handful of powder into my face. I squeezed my eyes shut instinctively, and she darted past me. But Freddie was already there, blocking her way to the door. I forced my eyes open just in time to see Lynn throw herself at Freddie, and Freddie punch Lynn in the face. Lynn’s head snapped back, and she was already unconscious before she hit the floor. Freddie scowled down at her.

  ‘That was for my Arthur.’

  Penny was quickly there before me, scrubbing the powder off my face with a handkerchief.

  ‘Are you all right, Ishmael? Did the powder get in your eyes? Did you breathe any of it?’

  ‘I’m fine,’ I said. ‘I think you have to swallow it for it to do you any harm.’

  The stuff had no effect on me because I don’t suffer from all of humanity’s weaknesses, but the others didn’t need to know that. I nodded to Freddie.

  ‘Nicely handled.’

  ‘She deserved it,’ said Freddie. She looked at me steadily. ‘Can you promise me she’ll be properly punished for what she did?’

  ‘I can’t be personally involved,’ I said carefully, ‘because of who I work for. But I can make sure she’s handed over to the proper authorities, along with all the evidence needed to convict her.’

  Freddie was already shaking her head. ‘That’s not good enough. Put her on trial? Can’t you just see Lynn in front of a jury? Without you there to back up the evidence, she’d find some way to discredit it. She’d know all the right things to say to charm a jury and wrap them round her little finger. She would get away with murder, and I won’t stand for that. Oh, look … I do believe Lynn has died while we’ve been talking.’

  I looked quickly at Lynn. She wasn’t moving or breathing. I knelt down on the floor beside her and checked for vital signs, but there weren’t any. Her eyes stared sightlessly out of the dark makeup, and her black lips were stretched in a silent scream. I got to my feet again and looked steadily at Freddie.

  ‘Aren’t you going to try CPR or something?’ said Tom.

  ‘No point,’ I said, not taking my eyes off Freddie. ‘She’s dead. And not a mark on her to show why.’

  ‘How very strange,’ said Freddie. ‘Perhaps she died of fright.’

  ‘You killed her!’ said Tom.

  ‘All I did was knock her on her arse,’ said Freddie. ‘Unless you think I killed her with my witchy powers.’ She looked at me calmly. ‘I think you’d be better off describing her death as natural causes, in your official report. Don’t you, Mr Jones?’

  ‘Why not?’ I said. ‘What’s one more mystery in Harrow House?’

  Freddie nodded. ‘I liked Arthur. I really liked him.’

  EIGHT

  A Few Last Revelations

  In the morning, an unmarked ambulance arrived to take away Arthur’s and Lynn’s bodies. All part of the Organization’s regular clean-up service. The local authorities would be informed later and told what the Organization decided they needed to know. As Tom and Freddie stood outside the front door of Harrow House with Penny and me, one of the stretcher bearers paused to murmur in my ear that they’d quietly wiped all of Tom’s recordings, so there wouldn’t be any evidence of my involvement. I nodded my thanks. Tom didn’t notice.

  Freddie watched them carry Arthur away, down the long gravel path and into the shadows of the overgrown garden. Only when he was completely out of sight did she turn round to look at the house.

  ‘I’d hate to think some part of him might still be in there,’ she said. ‘The last ghost haunting Harrow House. That would be too much of an irony.’

  ‘Trust me,’ I said. ‘There are no ghosts in Harrow House.’

  Freddie searched my face and then nodded slowly. ‘My sister Flossie will be here soon to pick me up. And lecture me, as usual, about wasting my life on this nonsense. Maybe she’s right.’

  ‘What will you do next?’ Penny said politely.

  ‘I’m giving up the whole white witch thing,’ Freddie said flatly. ‘I went too far at the end, though I can’t bring myself to regret it. But I don’t think I can afford to be tempted again. So … just a local historian from now on. Goodbye, Ishmael Jones and Penny Belcourt, or whoever you really are.’

  She strode off down the gravel path and didn’t look back once.

  Tom cleared his throat awkwardly. ‘I suppose I’d better be going too. The taxi I booked should be waiting. Are you sure there’s no treasure here – maybe hidden away somewhere, still waiting to be found?’

  ‘Positive,’ I said.

  ‘Ah, well,’ said Tom. ‘That’s the story of my life, right there.’

  He insisted on shaking my hand and Penny’s, before picking up his suitcases and walking off down the path. Penny and I stood together outside the empty house, enjoying the quiet morning. The garden seemed very peaceful in the rising light, and even the darkest shadows were completely still.

  ‘I’ve been thinking,’ said Penny.

  ‘Good for you,’ I said.

  ‘That AI in the cellar dated all the way back to Victorian times. What were your people doing, visiting Earth all those years ago? I mean, I always assumed your ship crashing here was just an accident, but what if your people have been coming and going for centuries? What if they have some particular reason to be interested in humanity?’

  ‘If I ever knew the answer to that, it’s just one of the many things I’ve forgotten,’ I said. ‘Something else for me to ask the other survivor … Hold it. Someone’s coming.’

  Penny looked into the garden, straining her eyes against the shadows. ‘I can’t see anyone.’

  ‘I heard the gates open,’ I said. ‘And then footsteps on the gravel path, heading our way.’

  ‘You and your weird senses.’

  ‘They do come in handy from time to time.’

  ‘It could be the Colonel, turning up at last,’ said Penn
y. ‘Come to thank us for helping out at such short notice, and to tell us he’s provided a lift back to our hotel, I hope.’

  ‘It’s not the Colonel,’ I said.

  ‘How can you be sure?’

  ‘I know his footsteps,’ I said. ‘This is a much heavier man.’

  ‘Alien,’ Penny said fondly.

  Mr Whisper finally emerged on to the open path – large as life and twice as impressive. He was still wearing his smart pinstripe suit, white leather gloves and yellow silk cravat. His dark shaven head gleamed in the early morning light. When he eventually joined us, his voice was the same harsh murmur.

  ‘A very good morning to you both. Isn’t it an absolutely splendid day? I thought I would make the journey in person, to thank you for your valuable assistance in this most delicate of matters.’

  ‘The house isn’t haunted,’ I said.

  ‘Was it ever?’ said Whisper.

  ‘Yes and no,’ I said. ‘You’ll get all the details in our official report.’

  I still hadn’t decided exactly how much I was going to tell the Organization.

  ‘The point is,’ Penny said quickly, ‘it’s now perfectly safe for the buyer to go ahead. There’s nothing about Harrow House that should concern him, or that might attract outside attention.’

  ‘Excellent news,’ said Whisper. ‘I’ll have the Colonel contact you as soon as he’s free, Mr Jones, so the Organization can help you locate your missing person. And someone will be here soon, Ms Belcourt, to take the two of you back to your hotel.’

  ‘I hope the buyer will be very happy here,’ Penny said politely. ‘A house like this has a lot of potential.’

  ‘Though the cellar will need some repair work,’ I said.

  ‘It’s a marvellous old house,’ said Whisper. ‘I’m sure I’ll be very happy here.’

  He bestowed one last beaming smile on us and then turned and walked away, disappearing back down the gravel path and into the shadows.

  Penny looked at me. ‘He was the buyer all along? Why didn’t he tell us?’

  ‘Because the Organization always likes to hold its secrets close to its chest,’ I said. ‘And perhaps because Mr Whisper didn’t want us to know, in case things didn’t work out well.’

  ‘I think it all worked out very well, considering,’ said Penny.

  ‘We couldn’t save Arthur,’ I said.

  ‘We found his murderer,’ said Penny. ‘Sometimes you have to settle for that.’

  ‘And at least now we finally know someone high up in the Organization,’ I said.

  ‘What good does that do us?’ said Penny.

  ‘We know someone important, who owes us a favour,’ I said patiently. ‘And favours are currency in our line of work.’

  ‘But can we trust him?’ said Penny. ‘The Organization keeps secrets from us, just as we keep secrets from them; it’s not exactly the best foundation for group hugs and mutual support, is it?’

  ‘I don’t trust anyone,’ I said. ‘Apart from you, obviously.’

  ‘Nice save, space boy.’

  ‘You’re welcome, spy girl. You don’t have to trust someone to make a deal. You just have to make sure the end result is in everyone’s best interests.’

  Penny looked at me sharply. ‘We’ve discussed the possibility that the other crash survivor could be someone who’s already a part of your life. Keeping a watchful eye on you, for reasons of their own. Well, who’d be in a better position to do that than someone high up in the Organization?’

  ‘You mean Mr Whisper?’

  ‘Maybe all of this was just his way of introducing himself,’ said Penny. ‘Why else would he show up here in person?’

  ‘So … I could be putting him in charge of trying to find himself,’ I said. ‘Interesting.’

  ‘Well?’ said Penny.

  ‘Well, what?’ I said politely.

  ‘What are you going to do about it?’

  ‘Nothing,’ I said. ‘It’s just a theory.’

  ‘But he sent you to investigate a house that contained AI built by your people! That has to mean something!’

  I shook my head. ‘I think I’d be able to tell if he was like me.’

  ‘You’ve had a lot of experience when it comes to hiding your true nature from the world,’ said Penny. ‘Maybe he has, too.’

  ‘There is one way to be sure,’ I said.

  ‘What?’ said Penny.

  ‘I could always punch him on the nose and see if he bleeds golden, like me.’

  ‘I can see that going wrong in all kinds of ways,’ said Penny.

  I grinned at her. ‘That’s why I thought I’d leave it as a last resort.’

  Penny slipped her arm through mine, and we stood together, looking out at the garden. I didn’t feel in any particular hurry to go anywhere. It was a very lovely day.

  ‘Something else did occur to me,’ said Penny. ‘Given that you were the only one who could see and hear Arthur, is it possible that what you were seeing wasn’t actually his ghost at all, but just an image put in your mind by the AI? To bring you to it, so you could talk directly?’

  I thought about it and then smiled.

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘I don’t believe that.’