The Winter House

by P. R. Black

  ‘You reckon we can get the Christmas tree up?’

  He grinned. ‘Christmas tree, fairy, the whole lot.’

  ‘Jesus. We’ve even got our own fire this year.’

  ‘Our own roaring fire,’ he countered. ‘And Jesus is what it’s all about.’

  She stared at the house’s weird lineaments, almost otherworldly from that angle. ‘How many lifetimes would we have had to live to be able to buy a place like this?’

  ‘Dozens.’ He got up abruptly, clattering the dish into the little sink. He squirted some washing-up liquid and rinsed it out quickly.

  She frowned at his broad back. No. Sorry, love. Good deflection effort, but I’m not leaving it there. ‘Are you sure everything’s all right?’

  ‘Yeah, just… Got a couple of things to sort out.’

  She laid a hand on his back. He flinched. Vonny got the bigger shock from this exchange. ‘Seth… C’mon, darlin’.’

  ‘C’mon what?’

  ‘You’re hiding something. Or being economical with the truth. Or lying, just a teensy bit. Which is probably the same thing. You’ve lost a bit of your sparkle. Nine times out of ten, it’s you cracking jokes, and me telling you to shut up. What’s wrong?’

  ‘Nothing. Just annoyed at the kid taking those pictures of us. I should learn to close my trap. It was my fault. Mr Comedy with the stupid comments.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it. You’re right, too – it gets more attention for us. You had that bit right. Didn’t Susie say she’d sell the story to some nationals, or one or two of the agencies?’

  ‘So she says. I just want rid of the bloody car, now. I’m off to get rid of it.’ He snatched on his jacket, not meeting her gaze. Vonny folded her arms, not moving out of his way. He towered over her, but she somehow still managed to look down at him, frowning, mouth downturned.

  This was hardly ferocious – that face couldn’t strike terror into anyone, no matter how hard she tried – but that was all it took for him to fold. The massive shoulders sagged. His head lowered. His voice trembled. ‘There’s some trouble back home.’

  ‘What kind of trouble?’

  ‘Jake… he’s gotten himself into a pickle. Local scumbags. Mum says he’s gone wrong.’

  Vonny had a picture of Seth’s younger brother, sat at a table, wearing the grey flannel trousers and laser-beam-red pullover of his secondary school, still a size too big for him. Books open, pen scuttling over his notes. Beautifully mannered and shy with women. A hilarious dandelion-seed moustache on his upper lip when viewed in profile. But that had been two years ago. ‘Jake? I can’t believe it.’

  ‘Believe it. He got striped. Twenty-four stitches. Face down to his neck. Could have been…’ He passed a hand over his brow. ‘I don’t know whether to strangle him or hug him. Maybe both. I don’t know.’

  ‘What’s your dad doing about it?’

  ‘He’s said nothing. And he can’t do anything. He’s angry about it, but… He’s a hands-off guy, Von. He’s not part of that world. He was never a hard case. That’s why we all love him, but… he also knows enough not to call the cops and make it worse.’

  ‘Jesus. Do the police even know? Silly question.’ Vonny moved in for a hug and he folded her in his arms. She had meant to comfort him, but it ended up the other way around. Her head against that chest. Safe. Where she liked to be.

  ‘No, don’t think the police will be involved much. I don’t know the kids involved. I say “kids”, it could be grown men…’ He swallowed, almost choked. Her own eyes filled with tears at this sound. He was a big man, but soft, so soft – a quality he hid, but a quality she loved. ‘He owes money, Vonny. Lots of it.’

  She drew back. Now she felt fear, too. ‘How much?’

  ‘Tens of thousands. Some sort of deal went wrong… I think they got banged, while moving the stuff. Or carrying out some kind of deal.’

  ‘Stuff. Drugs, you mean?’

  ‘I don’t know. My guess would be drugs, but I just don’t know. And I can’t get him to talk to me. Whatever went wrong, he’s been blamed for it. This is what he told my mum. He won’t answer my calls. He knows better, I suppose.’

  ‘How has he managed to get in debt for tens of thousands? He’s a bloody child! Isn’t he studying for his exams? I thought you said he was going to be an astronaut, Seth. Straight-A student. Heading for Oxbridge. How did this happen?’

  ‘Don’t know. How does it happen to anyone? Everyone goes a bit wild when they’re a teenager. I thought with Jake it would just amount to some dodgy clothes I could take the piss out of when he’s older. Some bad records. Christ, a haircut. But he’s gone wrong.’

  ‘Taking them or dealing them? Is that another silly question?’

  ‘I don’t think he’s taking them. He might have tried to deal them. Could have been a one-off. A lot of kids from the right side of the tracks do that. Sometimes they’re just passing stuff on. It’s an easy way to get kudos. But it makes them a target.’ He shook his head, violently, as if trying to physically obliterate what was going on in his head. ‘This is my fault. I’ve got to sort it.’

  ‘Don’t be silly. It can’t be your fault.’ Then, dread. ‘How can you sort it out?’

  ‘Leave it with me.’

  ‘You’re not going to pay him? We’re already up to our necks, Seth.’

  At this, he raised his voice. ‘Did I say I was going to do that? And I know we’re up to our necks. Well aware. Don’t forget who kitted the place out. So don’t be advising me about money!’

  Vonny’s chin dropped. ‘What? Where did this come from?’

  ‘Look…’ Seth said, clenching his jaw. ‘I think I need to head on back home. Like, soon. Like, tomorrow. I need to make sure he’s OK. I need to make sure Mum and Dad are OK. She’s… she sounded old on the phone, darlin’. Really worn out. That was the worst thing. Knowing she’s having to deal with this… I can’t have it. I’ve got to go back. I’m sorry. We’ll have to delay the grand opening.’

  ‘Seth…’

  He fastened his new jacket and closed the door firmly behind him. Vonny sat down, still dumbfounded. On the folding table, on the front page of the local paper, her own grinning face mocked her.

  14

  Vonny surveyed the turf being laid on the front lawn. The gardener she’d hired to do it was older and more experienced than the lads who’d come in to finalise the plastering and the electrics, but seemed no less diffident. He shot her the occasional dirty look as she watched the brown-backed rolls of turf being laid flat on the exposed soil.

  ‘Sorry,’ she said, ‘I must be putting you off. Watching this is therapeutic, in a way. Like when your windows are being washed.’

  The man grunted and got back to work. Vonny, wincing as if she’d made some dreadful faux pas, put her wellies on and went for a walk in the woods.

  It was the coldest day on-site yet. A chill mist had risen early, but had left its garlands of frost on every surface. The ground was hard beneath Vonny’s feet as she took a direct path through the woods to the stream, oddly wary of the place where they’d discovered the car. It seemed to throb somewhere just over her shoulder.

  She had considered sending a drone over the trees while the day was reasonably clear and the branches were bare, to see if there was anything else that might be concealed on the land. Something about the jagged barrier, natural or not, had repelled Vonny on sight. She wished they’d simply ordered the car to be towed away and crushed. She had felt an instinctive dislike for its beaming yellow grin, like a disinterred skull. There was something wrong with that car – though there was nothing inside that pointed to any wrongdoing, she didn’t like it one bit. It had been like a bad-taste exhibit, a serial killer’s car.

  So it was with a sense of some foreboding that she travelled to the east, through the thicker part of the woods. A path still coiled its way around the forest floor, and the terrain was hardly difficult, but it became a lonely place out there, the closer she travelled towards the peri
meter of her property. Pooled water had become ice, and it cracked under her feet. She regretted the wellingtons; considered going back for sturdier boots.

  A sudden snap in the trees ahead put her senses on alert. Out of pure instinct, she stopped, gazing towards a thicket directly ahead. ‘Hello?’ she said.

  Vonny remembered the impression she’d had earlier of the face in the woods. A fleeting glimpse of a figure, slight, though not well defined enough to be male or female; then it had been gone. There was a sudden crash through the bushes up ahead, and then silence.

  Vonny drew back to the thick trunk of an alder tree, peering out towards the scene of the disturbance, maybe forty or so yards away.

  There – a dark shadow, blundering through the trees, a slight stirring of low branches, whether in the slipstream of the escaping figure or actually moved aside by it, Vonny could not tell. ‘Hey! Where are you going?’ Her tone of voice was querulous, not reassuring, as she had intended. She had no wish to follow the figure, wherever it was going.

  Up to no good, she thought. Whatever that person was up to, they didn’t want to be found.

  She stared back instinctively, retracing her steps as quietly as possible. Now, the woods seemed to coalesce behind her, as if a great shining black eye had opened, and focused. Vonny was hyper-aware, now, of every crunch and flex of the foliage, every flicker of every bird. With the treeline as thick as it was, anyone could be stealing behind her now, gaining a few yards every time she returned her gaze to the front.

  When she did look in front, she screamed.

  ‘Oh!’ Prill said, springing backwards, her hand on her chest. ‘I am so, so sorry!’

  Vonny staggered towards a tree, resting her hand against the bark, waiting for her heartbeat to slow down. ‘Good God… You might have given me some warning!’ She laughed – and then started forward when the older woman’s face crumpled. ‘It’s all right, Prill – I’m sorry I startled you. You just gave me a fright. I was sure there was someone up ahead in the trees. I was a little bit freaked out.’

  ‘I was sure you’d seen me – I waved,’ Prill said, tears filling her eyes. ‘I had no intention to startle you.’

  ‘Oh, you silly sausage!’ Vonny opened her arms to hug the older woman, instinctively, and she accepted it awkwardly. At last Vonny drew back, patting her on the shoulder. ‘What a pair of prize loons! It’s fine. I’m kind of glad I saw you. You can walk me back to the house.’

  Prill blew her nose, the sound comically loud, ricocheting off every surface. ‘I just came over to say what a wonderful job they did of the house – I saw the pictures in the newspaper. My husband thought they were wonderful, too. And what a surprise when that car was found!’

  ‘Yes,’ Vonny said, gazing behind her one last time towards the path, ‘that was a real shock to us, too. We asked anyone if they fancied buying it. A couple of classified ads online… A buyer got in touch with us almost immediately. No one would give us any contact details of the family of the previous owner – Mr Grainger.’

  ‘No, I expect his relatives were quite difficult to find. Still – what a thing to have on your land. Like buried treasure!’

  Something occurred to Vonny, then. ‘This path… it isn’t public land, is it? I know there’s a path at the drystone wall around the back, which is accessible, but not round here. Would that be right? It isn’t that clear on the plans.’

  Prill suddenly gripped Vonny’s arm, and gazed into her eyes with an eerie intensity. ‘I hope you don’t mind me coming over here? It’s been so long, you know. It’s such a beautiful woodland, and people are perfectly welcome to walk through our fields, any time.’

  ‘Well, I’d prefer it if you knocked on my door first – so I could have some company. I think there are paths through here, open to the public – running along the back.’ There was a pause after this. Have to draw a line somewhere. Vonny had felt relief that she wasn’t being stalked – although technically speaking, she was indeed being stalked.

  ‘I hope I wasn’t imposing. I thought – how lovely to come around here. So few trees on our property, you know – just around the edges for drainage. And cover, privacy. But none to walk around in. Nothing like this.’

  ‘You’re fine to come around for a chat any time, you’ve got my word. Or to come around and have a cup of tea. We’re getting close to official moving-in day, you know. End of the week.’

  ‘Oh splendid, how exciting! You know, my husband was saying, “They’ll be selling up as soon as they finish that house. That article in the newspaper was basically a big free advert.” I told him, “Nonsense – that’s a dream home, not some kind of cut-and-shut enterprise. We don’t do that in Brenwood Green, and the house is fit for royalty. That’s not the house where people will just put it up and run,” I said.’

  Vonny smiled kindly. ‘We had the luck of the devil winning the raffle. And I do have a bit of inheritance money to use, to get the plot up to scratch. It’s a dream home – I helped design it. And it’s going to be our home. We’re staying put – no intention to sell.’

  ‘Oh, that’s wonderful,’ Prill said. ‘You’ve no idea how long it’s been since we had lovely neighbours. Good company.’ She seemed on the verge of saying something else, then nodded, and looked towards the forest floor.

  ‘You know, Prill, if there’s something you want to say – feel free. I know I screamed in your face, but I’m not one of those get-off-my-land types. I just wasn’t expecting anyone… And I’m still getting used to being a country girl, I suppose. You said you wanted to speak to me about something?’

  ‘Ah. I did.’ Prill looked relieved. ‘I suppose this makes it easier.’

  ‘Makes what easier?’

  ‘Warning you. About this plot.’

  Vonny straightened up. ‘If you mean about the suicides… Seth told me. He said your husband told him about them, in fact.’

  ‘It’s not just that. It’s the entire property. And the people who lived here for the past twenty years.’

  *

  Seth was over on the east side, close to the thicket where they’d found the car under the tarp. Two thick tracks were cut into the earth where Devin and the boys had helped Seth roll the car back up to the house, and anchor it until the collector had arrived in his pick-up truck to take it away. The section of ground where the car had been hidden under the tarp was bleached and denuded, even through the encroaching foliage.

  He listened to the sound of the stream, and then his own heartbeat, before he made the call.

  ‘Seth,’ the other person said on the line, hesitantly. ‘I thought you were calling this evening? Interesting text message you dropped me.’

  ‘Hope you’re not in the middle of something. I’ve got stuff on my mind.’

  ‘You’re quite right, Seth, quite right. Hold on a second…’ The other man said something with his hand over the phone; a woman’s voice answered. There was the sound of a door closing, then the voice returned. ‘Yeah, I’ve made some inquiries. Found out some interesting stuff.’

  ‘Go on, Colin. Don’t keep me in suspense. I’m in tatters, mate.’

  ‘Hope my Auntie Donna and Uncle Steven are looking after themselves? Because what I heard about my cousin…’

  ‘Don’t piss about, Colin,’ Seth said, tersely. He grit his teeth, staring into the swaying trees.

  ‘Sorry,’ Colin said, genuinely contrite. ‘Well, first of all, Jake’s problem isn’t dealing. He’s grifting though, mate. You know he’s into computer science, right?’

  ‘I didn’t know that, in fact.’

  ‘Bit of a genius, it turns out. Swiped a lot of money off a minicab company based not too far away, is what I heard. I don’t think he’s the brains behind it, but he’s done a lot of the graft. Lot of money’s disappeared – the kind you can’t see. Numbers in a bank, that kind of thing. Now you see it, now you don’t. All done at the touch of a button. Clever dick, your Jake.’

  ‘Jesus,’ Seth whispered.

 
‘Yeah. Trouble is, the cab firm, is like… more than a cab firm. It is a cab firm, but it’s also a place where things scrub up nicely. Lot of soaps and detergents on the go. Following me?’

  ‘I follow you.’

  ‘And the people who run those type of cab firms aren’t too happy about what’s happened. They leaned on a few people. Your brother ran into a spot of bother, but it could have been a lot worse. One of those cases of mistaken identity where it worked out for the guy in the receiving end, for once. They thought he was one of your brother’s mates. So they gave him a little warning – meant to have been for him, delivered to his mate. Had they known it was your brother, it might have gone worse. So, you could say he was lucky. He’s a bit less pretty, but still breathing.’

  ‘How much is he in for, Colin? Do you know?’

  ‘More than you can cover. And more than your brother can cover. He might have helped do the deed, but it’s all long gone. Don’t know whether they got scammed in return. It’s possible. Cash sitting in a bank account in Moscow somewhere, by now, and they don’t have a bean to show for it.’

  ‘How much? Ten grand? More?’

  ‘Wallop a zero on it and that’s close to what I heard. But it’s hard to know.’

  ‘Can you ask for me, Colin? Make some inquiries and find out?’

  ‘I’ll try, but he’s made it awkward for me. And I don’t know any easy way to tell you this… A bit like you, I’m not really a part of that world. Never was. You got into music; I got into business. But I didn’t want any ties to the old ways. It’s not for me.’

  ‘If you find out, I’ll be grateful. I’ve sent Jake away – paid for him to lie low someplace quiet. Mum and Dad too. The old man, he didn’t want to go… I don’t think he gets it.’

  ‘He’s of the old-old school, that’s for sure. Straight shooter. Always admired that about Uncle Steven, man. So. What’s next, Seth? I don’t envy you, cuz.’

  ‘I don’t know.’ He closed his eyes for a moment. ‘I’m going to get down there and see what’s what.’

  15