‘That was most refreshing,’ he said. ‘But I think all the blood’s going to my feet.’
Jervis caught him as he began to topple forward and sat him down on a sofa.
As Strudel patted his hair with a tissue from her bag, the Canon again exhorted Rosalind to leave. He closed his eyes. ‘Be gone seducer, the desert is your home,’ he roared. ‘God has prepared hell for you and your angels.’
A deathly hush fell on the room. Canon Frank remained unmoving. Then he opened his eyes and looked about him.
After a minute or so, Jervis broke the silence. ‘I say that was pretty steep,’ he said. ‘Perhaps we could all do with a glass of port. Do you think you’ve got rid of her?’
‘I have an intimation of success but it’s hard to be entirely certain. She may be lying dormant. I think this is a case for belt and braces.’ Canon Frank delved into his pocket and brought out a matchbox. He opened it and held up a tiny yellow slither of something Laura could not identify. ‘Have you got some Sellotape?’ he asked.
‘It’s on his desk, I’ll go and fetch it,’ Laura said.
She returned some minutes later and handed the roll to Canon Frank.
‘Come over here, could you Sir Repton. I’m going to stick this relic to your chest. It will keep the spirit at bay overnight. We may have to give her another session in the morning.’
‘A relic, how very interesting,’ Sir Repton said, unbuttoning his shirt and exposing his grey-haired chest. ‘What sort of relic?’
‘It’s part of St Francis Xavier’s toenail. I bought it when I was visiting the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Goa many years ago. Most fortunate timing as they only bring his body out once every ten years – immaculately preserved; charming lace mittens as I recall – he died in 1552.’
‘How fascinating,’ Sir Repton said, smoothing the tape. ‘Ouch, it’s rather sharp.’
‘They keep him under glass these days, since a Japanese tourist bit off one of his fingers in the 1970s. But that reminds me, I took the opportunity to sanctify various objects and ingresses around the house that I thought the serving wench may have been using to obtain access. Did you mention you’d had a new convenience installed?’
‘Yes the new miracle flush toilet, it’s in the bathroom opposite Grimsby.’
‘That’s a nuisance. I don’t think I’ll make it up the stairs again tonight – I can feel my ankle swelling as we speak. I’ll make myself comfortable in the old servants parlour.’
‘Where I found you that night,’ Laura said, giving him a meaningful stare. ‘What did happen that night by the way?’
‘I’d got the wrong month.’
Satisfied with this explanation, Laura picked up her bag. ‘It’s way past my bedtime. I’ll take Grimsby if that’s all right with you Repton. Then Strudel and Jervis can have Flamborough Head.’
‘Oh yes, I am feeling so much more at home now that the Canon has safely sent the Fräulein packing.’ Strudel stood up. ‘Laura, I shall accompanying you be up the stairs.’
‘That port’s definitely gone to your head my love,’ Jervis said. ‘I’d better take your arm.’
As they went their separate ways, Sir Repton stood wishing them goodnight from the hall. He said he would shut Sybil Thorndike in the sitting room before locking the doors and turning off the lights before he retired.
Laura was too exhausted to even think about reading a book, which was lucky as since the revelations of the Brigadier’s diary, she had nothing to read anyway.
‘We must go to the library next week, Parker,’ she said as he and she snuggled down and she turned off the light. ‘There’s nothing like a good Dick Francis.’
She wasn’t sure what it was that woke her. Was it a floorboard creaking? She sat up and listened. If one of the others had had to get up in the night, she would surely hear a cistern flush. She lay back down and closed her eyes. And then again, this time the merest hint of a door being closed. Laura reached for her torch and got out of bed. She put on her kimono and crept to the door, her ears throbbing as she listened intently.
She was about to return to bed, thinking she was getting as paranoid as Sir Repton, when again, she heard something.
She turned off the torch. And then it came again. It was nearer now.
Right outside her door.
She tried holding her breath to stop the sound of her heart thumping.
Tap thud. Hadn’t she heard that somewhere before?
She saw the handle of the door turn and it opened a fraction. A low beam of light illuminated the room.
‘Lady Boxford,’ Canon Frank whispered. ‘May I come in?’
‘What on earth…?’
‘Shhh.’ As he put one finger to his lips the torch beam flickered onto the ceiling but in the gloom Laura could just make out the stick and the bucket in his other hand. With a quick, tap thud, he was in the room and had closed the door behind him.
‘What’s going on?’ Laura asked.
Again the Canon put his finger to his lips. ‘There’s someone in the house,’ he said.
‘How do you know?’
‘I heard steps above my head in the servants parlour. It’s not above any of these rooms so I knew it wasn’t any of you. This may be our chance. I couldn’t get the cross upstairs but I’ve brought the holy water. I think she might have been heading in the direction of Sir Repton’s room.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Laura whispered.
‘The ghost. I had a feeling the task was not complete but we may yet have another chance, if we’re quick. There’s no time to get the others, but I think you and I might just be able to catch her in the act.’
Was the Canon playing an elaborate hoax? There was only one way to find out. ‘Come on then,’ Laura said, putting her torch back on.
They set off down the corridor in the direction of Sir Repton’s room. It wasn’t the noise of the Canon’s stick that was obvious but Parker’s snuffling in front of them. His pace quickened. He was onto something.
They caught up with him. He had mounted the three steps and was sniffing hard at a crack in the bottom of the door. Then he began to whine.
‘You go first,’ Laura whispered.
Canon Frank opened the door and shone his torch around the room. ‘I can’t see anything,’ he said. ‘She may have taken refuge in a cupboard.’
Laura stood in the doorway with him. She shone her torch at the bed. She could see the outline of Sir Repton. He was lying on his side facing away from them. ‘Call him,’ she said to Canon Frank.
‘Sir Repton?’ Canon Frank’s voice was barely audible.
‘Louder, he seems to be sleeping deeply.’
‘Sir Repton.’
Still there was no response.
‘Go nearer,’ Laura said. ‘Perhaps he took a sleeping pill.’ She followed him into the room keeping a few steps behind him.
‘Sir Repton,’ Canon Frank called out again.
The recumbent figure remained prone. They went closer and stood at the end of the bed.
‘Repton, wake up,’ Laura said. She shone the torch at him. ‘Give him a shake, Frank.’
Canon Frank walked round the foot of the bed. He gave Sir Repton’s shoulder a nudge. Still Sir Repton did not wake.
‘Turn on the light,’ Laura said.
Canon Frank reached for the switch on the bedside lamp. The room was filled with a pale yellow gloom. Sir Repton remained motionless. Laura pushed past Canon Frank and reached for Sir Repton’s shoulder. She pulled at his silk pyjama top, so that he rolled onto his back.
His mouth gaped a dark chasm, eyes wide open, hair dishevelled.
‘Saints preserve us, he’s had a heart attack.’ The Canon crossed himself.
‘I don’t think so.’ Laura picked up the pillow on the floor beside the bed. ‘I’d say the old boy’s been smothered.’
‘We must call the police.’ Canon Frank reached for the phone on the bedside table.
‘Wait, turn out the light,’ Laura whi
spered. She pointed to Parker who was scratching at a door in the far corner of the room. ‘I think he knows something we don’t.’
Chapter thirty-eight
By torchlight they crept to the door.
‘Matilda’s bathroom, it all makes sense,’ Canon Frank said. ‘Rosalind is returning to the scene of her crime.’
‘What?’
‘I’ve got the bucket ready. I may have to throw it at her. It’s the only way.’ He started reciting the Lord’s Prayer as he opened the door.
Parker rushed in. Canon Frank shone his torch.
Laura saw Chinese wallpaper with birds of paradise covering the walls above a dado rail with oak panelling below.
She turned to the Canon. ‘You mean this was where Matilda died?’
The Canon nodded.
‘So she didn’t use the bathroom next to her bedroom?’ Laura stared at the bath. It stood in the middle of the room; a huge cast iron affair with ball and claw legs splayed out onto the carpeted floor.
‘Cheryl brought her here every morning. I quite often had to help her get the wheelchair up the steps,’ he said. ‘Matilda loved this room.’
Laura’s gaze followed the beam of her torch around the rest of the room. Beneath the window stood the basin and in one corner a loo was contained within a majestic gilt throne above which the cistern hung, a gold satin rope with a tassel acting as the flushing mechanism.
‘Damn,’ the Canon said. ‘I didn’t think to sanctify the water closet.’
‘Don’t talk nonsense Canon, but look, I believe there’s another exit.’
Parker was snuffling madly at a piece of oak panelling on the far side of the room. Laura picked up a long-handled wooden back brush sitting in a bowl beside the bath and joined him. Below the dado rail was a small glass knob. She turned it, and the concealed door opened. Parker rushed out. Laura shone her torch down a passage. She tried to recall it from her tour with Sir Repton on the occasion of the first intended exorcism, but she’d lost her bearings.
She followed Parker. He had reached a thick velvet curtain. The hem lay in puddles on the floor and he could not penetrate it. Laura pulled it to one side and Parker rushed on. He stopped, sniffed the air and backtracked to another closed door. It was situated on a step and now Laura knew where she was.
‘This leads to one of the attics and then up to the roof,’ she said to Canon Frank, who had caught up with her. ‘If we’re not too late, we can trap whoever it is, but only if we have someone at the other end.’
‘Where is the other end?’
‘It comes out at the staircase next to the room you are in downstairs.’
‘It’s going to take me some time to get there.’
‘Too long, but if I’m not mistaken, Flamborough Head is the other side of this door.’ Laura pointed to another door on the other side of the passage. ‘I’m going to wake Jervis. Stay here and secure the way.’
She opened the door and indeed found herself outside Flamborough Head. At that moment Jervis popped his head round the door.
‘I thought I heard noises,’ he said, tying his dressing gown cord.
As succinctly as she could Laura put him in the picture.
‘Leave Strudel sleeping,’ she said. ‘We don’t want to frighten her.’ She explained where he was to stand guard and told him to arm himself with a stick from the umbrella stand in the hall. ‘Don’t put yourself in danger but turn on as few lights as possible. Just enough to identify the perpetrator, then be prepared to hide.’
‘What happens if she flies straight through me?’
Laura was about to tell him to stop being ridiculous, but thought better of it. ‘I’m sure Canon Frank would tell you to cross yourself. Recite a prayer or something. Now go. We’ll give you a few minutes to get in place.’
Jervis turned on the landing light and trotted off in the direction of the main stairs.
Laura returned to Canon Frank and Parker, who had his front feet on the step to the attic and was snuffling noisily.
‘As I recall, the staircase is very narrow,’ she said, tapping the long-handled brush against her thigh. ‘I shall have to go first.’
‘I’ll just sanctify this step.’ The Canon ladled out some water. ‘That should hinder her progress were she to attempt to overpower me here.’
As he said this, they heard a creaking coming from the top of the stairs above them.
‘I think she may be on the move.’
‘Jervis must be ready by now. I’m going up.’ Laura opened the door.
Parker dashed on ahead, as Laura followed clinging to the bannister rope with one hand and brandishing the torch and brush in the other.
She heard a door slam shut above her. There was no point in secrecy now. She reached the top. Parker was at the door, growling. As Laura went to open it, she heard a thud. She flung it open and was about to reach for the light switch but the room suddenly illuminated. Above her the moon shone bright in the clear night air through the trapdoor to the roof. Laura looked at the ladder, then at Parker.
‘That’s the end of the chase for you, I’m afraid.’ She turned back to the foot of the stairs where she could hear Canon Frank exhorting the ghost to quit the building peaceably.
‘Canon Frank,’ she called out.
His face appeared.
‘There’s no point staying there. Whoever it is, is on the roof. I’m going up. You’ll have to take Parker. Go and find Jervis as quickly as you can.’
She rushed back and picked up Parker. Angry at being thwarted from his quarry, he wriggled in her arms. She managed to pass him down and Canon Frank. ‘Will you be all right?’ he asked.
‘If I can fit through the hatch.’
Laura climbed the ladder. She peered out. There was no one to be seen. She got up onto the lead lined roof. Where did the other attic with the old ladder come up? Whoever this was, they knew their way around. She tiptoed over to the parapet where the stone eagles had stood. She looked down and hastily retreated turning in the opposite direction. And then she heard creaking and then the slam of wood hitting metal; it was coming from behind a tower of chimneys. She ran round just in time to see a wave of hair like the top of a chimney sweep’s brush disappearing down a hole in the roof.
There was a shriek followed by the sound of snapping timber and then a loud thud followed some seconds later by footsteps running. Laura got to the hole. It was pitch dark. She shone her torch. The rungs of the ladder lay in a neat pile on the floor of the room below.
Laura ran back to the original opening and, as fast as she dared, descended that ladder. And then the stairs and out onto the landing. She rushed down the corridor to the main staircase, sped down the steps two at a time and then on through the hall to the green baize door. Her breath coming short and fast, she pulled it open.
‘Grab the other arm, Canon,’ she heard Jervis shouting. ‘I can’t hold on much longer.’
‘I’m trying.’
Laura ran to the scene. The two men were grappling with a figure on the floor. Parker was standing close at hand growling in anticipation. Laura chose her moment. She raised the brush and brought it down with a mighty wallop.
‘Awww.’
In that moment Jervis and Canon Frank managed to quell the assailant. Jervis straddled the face down upper torso pinioning the arms as the Canon lay across the writhing legs. A muffled ‘awww’ came from the now prostrate figure.
‘Get some rope,’ the Canon called out.
‘Where from?’ Laura asked desperately.
‘The bungee ropes from the car,’ Jervis said. ‘I left them in the hall. But hurry, my thighs are on fire.’
Laura ran out. She found the ropes on the hall table and ran back.
‘Bind the arms,’ Jervis said.
Laura wound the elastic tight and hooked the ends together. Then she did the same with the legs.
A light flicked on and Strudel appeared in a floating coral pink gown, her hair in bright green spongy rollers. ‘What is
going on? I am waking to a terrible racket.’
‘I think you can get up chaps,’ Laura said. ‘She won’t be going far now.’
The body rolled onto one side and Angel Hobbs let out a tirade of abuse before Strudel put a stop to it by stuffing a roller in her mouth.
‘Drag her into the kitchen while I call Inspector Sandfield,’ Laura said.
She went to the sitting room where Parker had joined Sybil Thorndike who was sleeping on a sofa. She checked her watch as she waited for the operator to find out how long the police would be. It was three-thirty.
The operator came back on the line. ‘I’m sorry but most of the force are out on a special operation tonight. You’ll have to wait until we get reinforcements from Cheltenham. They’ll be with you as soon as possible.’ The operator apologised.
Laura put the phone down. ‘That’s outrageous,’ She said aloud. ‘They could be hours.’ She went to the window and pulled back the curtain hopefully. To her surprise, she saw headlights coming up the drive.
‘Silly man didn’t know what he was talking about. They’re here already,’ she said to Parker, as she walked back through the hall.
She swung open the green baize door and heard shouting.
‘Angel, we’re here and we’ve got the donkeys. The cats are in the van. We’ll bring ’em in.’
Canon Frank appeared at the kitchen door. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Where d’you want the hay bales?’ shouted another voice.
‘Shove ’em in this passage. Angel, where are you?’
Laura saw the angular figure of Angel’s friend, Rich. He was leading a donkey down the servant’s passage.
‘Hold on a minute,’ Laura strode towards him.
‘Oh hello, what are you doing here?’ Rich said, pulling on the donkey’s halter.
‘I might ask the same of you.’
‘We’re moving in. This is the new sanctuary. Angel’s organised it.’
‘I think you may be premature in that assumption,’ Laura said, as the sound of a siren could be heard. ‘Now get that donkey out of here.’
The Haunting of Mount Cod Page 26