After the phone call Jess and Lee sat down to eat.
“You didn’t tell me how your psychic night went.”
“It was good, the medium was excellent.”
“Did mum come through?”
Lee paused and cut through her chicken breast. “Yes.”
Jess looked up at her. “Well, what did she say?”
“She said I was to look after you, and to listen to you. And she said she loved you and your Dad very much.”
Jess didn’t say anything she looked a little sad as she chased a piece of food around her plate.
“You all right?”
“Yes. Did she say anything else?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. I think I would like to go to one of those things, I would like to speak to her again.”
“It’s not like that. I didn’t hear or see her, it was just a message passed on through someone else.”
“Still it would be nice to know she was close to me.”
“She’s always close to you, Jess. I don’t think your mother is ever very far away.”
“What did she mean, you have to listen to me?”
Lee continued eating debating in her head what she should tell her and what she should hold back.
“Well, all the things that have been going on round here, I told you it was just an overactive imagination. Well, I said that so you didn’t get to afraid, but your Mum said I should tell you that I believe you and not let you think your going mad.”
Jess looked up. “But do you believe me?”
“Yes, Jess. I always have, I was trying to convince your father. To no avail of course. And another thing, they aren’t trying to scare you, they have just been trying to get your attention.”
“They did that all right. Aunt Lee, who is ‘they’?”
Lee looked across the table to her. She was not going to be the one that told her Olivia was with her mother.
“Just, the ones on the other side. It’s just a turn of phrase, love, that’s all.”
“So the figure I keep seeing in my room, that’s not my imagination?”
“I don’t know, love; maybe you are just sensing your mother’s presence in the room with you. When you were a baby she used to spend ages just watching you sleep.”
Jess scraped some of the left over chicken onto a plate for Topaz and helped Lee clear away the dinner dishes. Although she felt a level of validation, she still felt a little afraid. Jess was sure that her Mother was not the only one that hung around her. That’s what scared her.
*****
Tom lifted the story from his bag. He wanted to know exactly what it meant before he took it to his boss. He flicked through the hand written sheets of paper.
We hid silently in the barn. We were both shaking, but not from the cold. We could see him kneeling on her. At six years old, I had no idea what was going on, I just knew it was wrong. I also sensed that I was in danger. My cousin sat beside me. His eyes were closed tight and he had put his hands up to his ears. He was trying to block out all sound. I followed his lead. But I could still hear her.
I had no idea what he had done to her, not until I was much older. Then I knew what I had seen. At the time, we were too afraid to talk about it. We made a pact never to tell another soul, not even my mother. We promised we would never talk about it again. It never happened.
Tom leaned back against the headboard of the bed with the papers in his hand, as he tried to digest what he had read. The two children had been playing at the church. Tom mentally planned the village in his mind. Goyl's farm was just past the church. In fact, Goyl’s farm would have been right on the path of any hikers if they left the church hostel and headed toward the hills.
He lifted his briefcase to take out his notebook. Something slid out on to the bed. It was Sara’s Dictaphone. Tom lifted the small machine and turned it once again in his palm.
Now how did you get in there? He was sure he had put it in his desk drawer. He looked at it for a long time. Still unsure as to whether he could listen to Sara again. He didn’t want to go back down that road. He had struggled to hold it together for Jess. In truth, he had never really moved on and he knew it. Reluctantly he pressed play on the machine. As Sara’s voice rang out Tom physically slumped. He could feel his energy drain as a heaviness settled upon him.
Tom skipped passed the notes on numerous different patients.
Eva Brook has been exhibiting symptoms that you would not expect to see with someone suffering survivor’s guilt. She is extremely reluctant to discus her childhood. She states simply that her mother was estranged from her family and will not elaborate …
Again he skipped.
I have looked at Eva’s story. I have arranged to meet with her tomorrow. There is no doubt in my mind that she has written about Coppersfield. I wonder if she knows I came from there? I don’t feel as though what she has written is purely imaginative …
Tom listened to the final note she made.
I had to cut the session short with Eva. She became very upset when she realized I was born in Coppersfield. I have to speak to Tom to find out if there are any reports that could corroborate Eva’s memories of the summer of 1968 …
The final entry had not been made in her office, she sounded as though she were outside, walking while making the entry. There was nothing else on the recorder. Tom cast his mind back to the day she died. It had always bothered him why she was at the train station, why she was so desperate to speak to him. She had left several messages on his mobile and at the station that day. He tried to return her calls when he got out of his meeting, but by that time. She was already gone, he just didn’t know it.
The realization began to dawn on him. Sara had found a witness to the murder of Susanna Wheeling. He tried to make the connection, but his brain wouldn’t allow it. Sara died in a horrific accident. It was just that. An accident. That would make this man the luckiest on earth. The only other person that knew what he had done.
Tom got up and began to pace the floor. He played the recorder over and over in his hand. A sickness was rising in his stomach, he couldn’t understand why. He felt he had missed something, something important. He looked at the clock. It was just after 11pm. He pressed redial on his phone and called Lee.
“I didn’t wake you did I?”
“No, Jess is up in bed, but I was just locking up. Is something wrong?”
“Lee, I need to know everything you were told about Sara last night.”
Lee scratched the side of her head; she was unsure how to take this question.
“Why?” she asked.
“Just tell me what Sara told you.”
“About Jess?” asked Lee.
“No, I want to know everything.”
Lee didn’t feel the time was right to joke with him about becoming a believer. Instinctively she knew what part of the conversation she was supposed to tell him.
She took a deep breath in. “I don’t know if you really want to hear this Tom, but she said Olivia was with her because they were connected. I don’t think she meant in life.”
“You think the connection was in their death.” It was a statement.
“I’m sorry, Tom, I know you don’t go in for this kind of thing, I didn’t want to upset you last night.”
“Did she say anything else?”
Lee paused.
“Lee? What else did she say?”
“She said that Sara’s death was not an accident.” Her voice was quieter. “Tom? Are you still there?”
“Yes.” A silence followed. “I have to go, give Jess a kiss for me.” He hung up the phone and looked at the papers spread across his bed. A river of vomit rose in his throat. He ran to the bathroom as his stomach churned out its contents. Pulling himself up from his knees, he ran the cold tap. And washed his face under the cool water.
He had always had questions about Sara’s death. He had just never allowed himself to ask them. He had been so preoccupied with Jess
and her grief that he never faced his own. Nor had ever allowed himself to really look at what had happened. Something urgent had sent Sara from her office. She never took her car into the city centre so she headed straight for the station; she would have been planning to get off at Waverly Street, that was close to the police station. All in a vain attempt to get hold of him, and he sat in a meeting oblivious to all this.
He walked back into the bedroom. His head was swimming. He couldn’t believe that he would ever take the word of a psychic seriously. Over the years, he had dealt with his fair share of them, and never did anything ever pan out. But last night, Lee looking for that box. The newspapers that led him to the names of the missing hikers. How could she have known? He started to think about the dreams Jess was having. The dark room, the chair. How could any of this be possible?
Tom sat on the edge of the bed and rested his head in his hands. He sat there in silence for a long time.
He felt the anger rise inside of him. He lifted the brief case from his bed and fired it across the room.
“Why don’t I feel you, Sara? If you are there, why can’t I feel you?”
*****
Lee made a cup of herbal tea and carried it upstairs. She passed Jess’s bedroom on the way to her own. The bedside lamp was on and the door was half-open, Jess and Topaz were huddled under the quilt, only the two heads visible.
Poor thing, she thought as she looked in. Lee realized how cruel she had been dismissing Jess. She knew only too well how afraid she was when things were happening that she couldn’t explain and she at least had Elsie to talk to. As she crossed the hall to her own room, the floor boards creaked under her step. A familiar sound from her childhood.
She switched on the lamp and sat on the bed sipping her tea. The phone call from Tom had left her feeling unsettled. It was not like him at all to show any interest in psychics, or anything of that nature. Something had changed. He didn’t have the mockery in his voice, in fact he sounded more concerned than anything else. She preferred it when he didn’t believe, she thought.
Lee could hear Jess moaning in the other room. She knew it would be another dream. She listened intently to see if it would pass.
The sobbing started.
Lee put her tea on the bedside table and got out of bed. She walked back across the hall and in to Jess’s room.
“Jess? Jess, sweetie, it’s just a dream, wake up.” Lee was sitting at the edge of her bed. Topaz had vacated the warm spot under the quilt and was now standing in the door way puffed again. Jess began to wake from the nightmare.
“Are you all right?” asked Lee stroking her hair.
Jess nodded still sleepy, her eyes incessantly flicking between Lee and the other side of the room.
“If you’re looking for Topaz, she’s over at the door. If this keeps up that cat will need valium.”
Jess turned to see the kitten at the door way puffed up to twice her normal size yet again, she gave a have hearted smile.
“Do you want to settle back down?” asked Lee pulling the quilt back around her shoulders. Jess pushed it away.
“I’m scared. The dreams are getting worse. I feel as though I’m being watched.” Jess spoke in a hushed tone as she glanced to the far corner of the room where she could see the constant companion that terrified her so. “You think it’s all in my mind don’t you?”
Lee didn’t even think about her answer. “No, Jess, I don’t. I just don’t want you to be any more afraid than you already are.”
“Have you ever seen a ghost, Aunt Lee?”
“No, I sometimes feel things, but I have never seen anything conclusive, I think sometimes I see things out of the corner of my eye, but that probably is just an over active imagination.”
Jess flicked her eyes to the corner again. She was becoming clear, stronger, as though she were feeding off Jess’s own fear.
“So you still don’t see her over there?” She flicked her eyes back in the direction of the shadow.
Lee sighed. She spread her hands as she turned to survey the room. “I don’t see anything …” As her eyes scanned the far corner, she stopped talking. Her eyes met with the deathly pale face of a young woman. standing there silently in the corner watching them.
Lee grabbed Jess by the arm and pulled her from the bed. Her first instinct was to run but her legs wouldn’t move. Pushing Jess behind her, she backed out of the room, not once taking her eyes from the woman.
Lee headed down the stairs and straight for the kitchen. She switched on the light and closed the door at their back.
“Aunt Lee?” Jess looked at her questioningly. Lee could feel her whole body shake. She ran both her hands through her long hair pushing it back from her face as she stared at the closed door as if it held an explanation to what had just happened. As the minutes passed in the silent kitchen, Lee began to question what she saw, or thought she saw.
She turned to Jess standing by the table.
“That thing in your room, have you seen it before?”
“She’s there most of the time; well, anytime I have a nightmare she’s there. At first it was just a shadow, I could barely make it out I just felt afraid, but over the last week it has become clearer, more distinct, I think.”
Lee stood with one hand on her hip and the other on top of her head. A scratching sound came from the kitchen door.
“It’s all right Aunt Lee, its Topaz.” Jess walked forward and let the little cat in.
“I’m sorry, Jess, I can’t take this in. I don’t believe that spirits hang around to terrify us. It has to be a shadow or something.” Lee wracked her brains looking at a mental picture of the bedroom in her head, looking to see what could possible cause such an illusion.
Jess had never questioned what she had seen; still shaken from the dream she sat down at the table with Topaz and stroked her silently while her aunt processed what had just happened.
“I don’t want to go back up there Aunt Lee, do you think we could sleep in the living room tonight?”
Lee looked at her in disbelief. Is this what she had been putting up with all this time? Or was this something that she and Gemma had brought through when they messed with that damn board?
“No! This is the kind of thing you read in a James Herbert novel. Not the kind of thing that happens in real life, Jess.” Filled with defiance Lee pulled the kitchen door open and walked in to the hallway; anger more than bravery was the driving force behind her actions, mixed with more than a little disbelief. She switched on all the lights on the ground floor and headed up the stairs. She walked in to Jess’s bedroom and put on the ceiling light. An ominous atmosphere seemed to have settled through out the upstairs of the house. Her eyes scanned the bedroom, stopping at the point where she thought she had seen the battered and bleeding face of a woman. The room was empty. Her anger and bravery diminishing slightly, she pulled the quilt and pillow from the bed and went back down stairs leaving the upstairs lights still burning.
She went into the living room and prepared a makeshift bed on the couch for Jess. Jess followed her from the kitchen holding Topaz.
“Has she gone?”
“If she was ever there, yes.”
“Don’t you believe me?”
Lee stopped what she was doing and turned to face her. “Yes, that’s why I’m making beds in the middle of the living room. I don’t know what it was, but we certainly saw something. I need time to think about it. Tomorrow, you will be changing rooms, when I get a chance I’ll clear out the other spare room for me when I stay over.” Lee began to wonder if this was the danger to which Sara had been referring.
“Will you tell Dad?”
“Honestly, I don’t know what your Dad will make of it. He’s been a lot more open minded the last couple of days. But this, this is too much even for me to take on board. Come on jump in.” Lee held the quilt back for Jess to settle down. “I’ll put the television on low, see if you can fall asleep.”
“Where are you going?”
>
“I’m going to get the spare quilt from the study; I’ll sleep on the recliner.”
*****
Tom had chased the promise of sleep into the early hours of the morning, before exhaustion took over. As he drifted off, he realized that his impatience toward Lee wasn’t simply because he didn’t believe in the after life, he was jealous. Jealous that Lee could feel Sara, smell her and sense her around. He ached for that conformation. As dream state took hold of his thoughts, he was transported back to a happier time, a time when the three of them had been happy in Edinburgh. A time when he could keep them safe. He could hear Sara’s voice, clearly; hear the laughter the three of them had shared.
The 8am alarm sounded unusually intrusive. He didn’t want to come back from where he was.
Tom, wake up.
Tom sat bolt up right in bed. He was sure he had just heard Sara. He switched of the alarm and rubbed his hands briskly up and down his face. He had a little over an hour to get ready and eat breakfast before it was time to meet with Eva Brook.
Tom showered and packed his bag and put it in the car before going for breakfast. The hotel had a large buffet of cooked English laid out on a table in the dinning room. His eyes scanned what was on offer before he decided on black coffee and toast; his appetite still not back since last night. He finished his food and went to reception to check out. The usual pleasantries were exchanged with the receptionist, and he paid his bill.
Tom drove to Edinburgh new town to meet with Eva. He parked outside a row of large Georgian style town houses and walked down the hill toward Eva’s. As he climbed the front steps, he noticed it appeared to be a very elegant old house.
A tall slim woman with blonde wavy hair and cat like green eyes answered the door. Tom introduced himself and the woman led him through the front foyer into a large hall with a Georgian staircase sweeping upwards on one side. He followed her through into a large bright living room.
“I recognise you from the pictures your wife kept on her desk,” she said as she offered him a seat. Tom could not draw his eyes away from her. She looked so familiar to him; the unusual green eyes seemed to draw him in. “Detective, Is everything all right?”
Echoes of the Past Page 18