The Night Visitor

by Lucy Atkins

  Olivia spat out the olive stone and glanced at him. ‘Yes, I know, it’s weird.’

  He paused and frowned, the knife suspended. ‘Why didn’t you ask her up? We’ve got enough lobster to feed an army.’

  A headache was pressing between Olivia’s eyes.

  ‘I thought we should have invited her up actually, but Liv said not to.’ Em twiddled her fork.

  ‘She wouldn’t have wanted to come,’ Olivia said. ‘She’s not a sociable person.’

  ‘That old woman looked upset and lonely,’ said Nura.

  They all looked at Nura.

  ‘She’s not old,’ Olivia gripped the stem of her glass. ‘Or upset. Or lonely.’

  Emma put an arm, protectively, round the back of Nura’s chair.

  ‘Sorry, Nuri, sorry.’ Olivia took a breath. ‘Sorry.’ She gazed around the table. Everyone was looking at her. ‘I’m sure Vivian is perfectly happy on her own.’

  ‘She’s looking for harlequins,’ said Emma. ‘They’re a voracious, cannibalistic type of ladybird.’

  Jess said, ‘I love ladybirds, they’re cute.’

  Emma turned to Jess. ‘Harlequins might look cute, Jess, but they’re actually quite dangerous to the environment. They pretend to be ordinary nice ladybirds but they’re very destructive.’

  ‘Oh, this is synchronicity!’ Chloe’s face lit up. ‘I literally just took on an eighteenth-century Meissen harlequin figurine. I was working on it just before we came here, doing some research. They were the trickster servant characters in the commedia dell’arte. Their origins are really dark – they were the Devil in medieval passion plays.’

  ‘We’re talking about ladybirds, my darling,’ said Al. ‘Not ceramic figurines or medieval servants.’

  ‘It’s just interesting,’ Chloe waved a hand, ‘how things come together, you know?’

  ‘That lady has a ghost dog that sits on her at night,’ Ben said.

  ‘It’s not the dog that sits on her, it’s another ghost,’ Nura corrected him in a quiet but firm voice.

  Olivia squeezed her napkin into a small, hard ball.

  ‘So do you think Old Baz came here because of you?’ David looked at her across the table. There was puzzlement in his eyes.

  ‘You’ve got a new stalker!’ Dom reached over and took a slug of Olivia’s wine. Olivia slapped his hand.

  ‘OK, sorry, I’m confused now. Is this the woman who runs the Sussex museum?’ Chloe’s eyes were deep green against her glowing skin in the tender evening light.

  ‘No, no, Vivian’s the housekeeper at Ileford Manor, where they found the diary.’ David looked at Chloe as he said this but she turned away and fixed her eyes on the view.

  ‘Wait. Why is this lady looking for ladybirds?’ said Paul.

  Olivia’s head felt as if it might explode. She needed them all to stop talking about Vivian. She was still reeling from what had happened in the cafe. The last thing she needed was everyone reminding her how slippery Vivian was, how tricky and intrusive. ‘It doesn’t matter!’ Her voice came out high-pitched and wavering. ‘She’s just not that interesting. I have no idea what she’s doing here, OK, so can we please talk about something else?’

  Everyone stopped talking.

  Then Dom chuckled. ‘All right, Mother. Calm down!’

  ‘OK … So …’ Chloe put on her soothing yogic voice. ‘Tomorrow? What about tomorrow? Maybe we could all have a day at the beach? We haven’t done a beach trip yet. What does everyone think? Shall we do it?’

  But they did not go to the beach the next day because as the peony dawn light fingered the hillside Olivia woke to the sound of her child’s screams.

  She sat upright at the same time as David. She threw herself out of bed and he did too. Together they raced down the stairs, propelled by the understanding that something horrifying had happened to Jess in the priest’s tower.

  Olivia

  South of France, Day Six

  Jess was standing in the gravel courtyard. She looked ghostly and insubstantial in the pastel dawn light, wearing a sprigged cotton nightdress, with her hands up at her neck. She was not visibly injured, not bleeding, but something about her had hideously altered. It took a second for Olivia to pinpoint what that was, a flicker of delay while her brain caught up with her eyes.

  Jess’s hands were grasping at the space where her hair had been.

  ‘Sweetheart!’ David got to her first, swooped and lifted her off the ground. ‘Oh, darling. What happened to your hair?’

  ‘Oh my God,’ Olivia touched Jess’s ragged head. ‘Who cut it?’

  Emma was hurrying down the steps from the house behind them in a nightdress. She must have heard Jess’s screams. She saw Jess, stopped and covered her mouth. ‘Oh my God, Jess! Your hair!’

  ‘What happened to you?’ David sounded shaken. ‘Who did this to you?’

  ‘It’s all gone!’ Jess wailed and waved her hands.

  ‘We know that, sweetheart.’ Olivia touched her face. ‘But who did this? Who cut it? Was it you?’

  ‘No! No! No!’

  Emma ran past them, then, barefoot over the gravel, shouting ‘Nura! Nura!’ The narrow door swallowed her cries.

  The boys wavered out of the tower like drunkards.

  ‘Who did this to Jess?’ Olivia shouted to them.

  They rubbed their faces, dazed. ‘What?’

  Over the boys’ heads, Olivia saw Emma emerge from the tower carrying her limp child and everything stopped, as if a pause button had been pressed. The birdsong, the rising sun, the scent of herbs, the boys’ confused faces – it all hung suspended.

  But then she saw Nura’s eyes open, and she blinked; she looked stunned, wrenched from an oceanic sleep. Her hair was messy but untouched. She lifted her head and looked at them all.

  ‘Is she OK?’ Olivia said to Em. ‘Nuri? Are you OK?’

  Emma squeezed her daughter against her body, ‘She’s fine, I think. She’s completely fine.’

  ‘Who did this to you, darling?’ Olivia leaned into Jess, but she just buried her head in David’s neck, sobbing. ‘Can’t you remember what happened?’

  ‘Just leave her for a minute,’ David said. ‘Give her a bit of space.’

  She opened her mouth to snap at him, then stopped herself because he was right.

  Khalil appeared in pyjama bottoms and flip-flops. His white T-shirt looked very bright in the soft morning light, his black hair stood on end. ‘What’s going on?’ He went over to Em and Nura. ‘What’s happened?’

  Emma pointed back at Jess.

  It took him a moment, then, ‘Whoa!’

  Olivia wiped gently at Jess’s wet face with her fingers. ‘Sweetheart, you have to tell us who did this to you.’

  ‘I – don’t – know …’ Jess hiccupped between each word.

  ‘Nura didn’t do it.’ Emma carried Nura closer. Khalil was behind them, too.

  Nura stared at Jess’s head with a look of comical horror, then burst into tears.

  Olivia turned to the boys who were lined up, silent, staring at Jess with bulging eyes. ‘Did one of you do this?’ She looked from Ben to Paul to Miles. ‘Was this some kind of joke?’

  ‘It’s OK, sweetheart,’ she heard Emma say to Nura. ‘Olivia’s just upset. We know it wasn’t you, we know that.’

  Ben’s eyes were enormous. ‘I didn’t do it.’ He looked at Paul. ‘I didn’t.’

  ‘Me neither.’ Paul and Miles said at the same time.

  David smoothed back Jess’s serrated locks. ‘Baby, are you sure you don’t remember anything?’

  ‘I was sleeping!’ Trails of silvery saliva linked Jess’s jaws as she wailed. ‘I was sleeping and when … when I woke up … my hair … was gone …’

  ‘The hair …’ Olivia looked at David. ‘The scissors and the hair must be in there – surely?’

  David blinked, then handed Jess to her.

  She had not held her daughter like this – standing up with Jess’s limbs wrapped round her torso – in a
long while. Jess felt reassuringly solid and heavy. ‘Shhh. It’s OK. It’s OK.’ She stroked Jess’s head, trying not to linger on the amputated ends. The gravel dug into her bare soles. All around them ancient herbs sent powerful messages up into the warm dawn air. There was frenzied birdsong. Nobody spoke.

  Then Miles and Paul were suddenly sniggering, letting out little snorts like silly, skittish ponies.

  ‘Stop that,’ she snapped. ‘This isn’t funny at all.’

  ‘She looks really weird,’ Miles snickered. ‘Like some kind of weird cartoon.’

  ‘How about we all go inside?’ Em said in a buoyant, Girl Scout voice. ‘I’ll make some hot chocolate and we can all calm down.’

  ‘They don’t need hot chocolate.’ Olivia tried not to snap, but didn’t quite manage it. ‘They need to tell us who did this. No one’s going inside until someone tells us what happened to Jess’s hair.’

  ‘I really don’t think they know, Liv.’ Khalil sounded firm and reasonable.

  ‘Could she have done it herself?’ Emma suggested, helplessly. ‘In her sleep?’

  The desire to yell at Emma not to be stupid was almost overwhelming, but at that moment David came out of the priest’s tower. He looked bewildered.

  ‘There’s nothing in there.’

  ‘Where is it then?’

  ‘I don’t know. There’s no scissors. No hair. Nothing.’

  ‘Did you check upstairs?’

  ‘I can’t. The door’s locked and there’s no key. You can’t get up there.’

  So much had been cut off, great handfuls of hair, a lush, golden crop, had just vanished. ‘Where the hell is it?’ she said, again, and as the words came out of her mouth an unspeakable image entered her head: Vivian holding a pair of scissors.

  She suddenly needed to get the children inside. She began to move across the courtyard to the house and heard the others follow. They each stepped over the gravestone and filed down the corridor to the kitchen. Olivia heard David double-lock the front door behind them.

  Emma sat Nura, sucking her thumb, on a kitchen stool and began to look for milk and a pan. Olivia carried Jess over to the sofa. The boys started to head for the terrace but David shouted, ‘Oh no you don’t. You guys aren’t going anywhere. Come back and sit on the sofas, we’ve got to talk about this.’

  She saw Khalil go over to Nura on the stool, lean in and begin talking to her in a low voice. Behind them, Emma began to busy herself getting milk from the fridge.

  Ben didn’t sit down. His legs, sticking out of his pyjama shorts, were bleached twigs. ‘I’m going to get my mum.’ But before he could move, Chloe appeared in the doorway. Her hair was tangled and she was barefoot in just a T-shirt that showed her long, brown legs. ‘What’s going on?’ She rubbed her face. ‘What’s happening?’

  Olivia pointed at Jess’s head; Chloe blinked and then her face shuddered. ‘Oh my God, oh – sweetie!’ She came over and crouched at Jess’s level. ‘You cut your hair off?’

  ‘She hasn’t cut her hair. Someone else did this to her while she was asleep.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘We have no idea. We can’t even find the hair.’ David rubbed his own hair, which was sticking up.

  Chloe looked at her sons, from one to the other. ‘Boys?’

  Ben wobbled his head and Miles shrugged. He had his phone in his hand. ‘Don’t even think about Snapchatting this,’ Chloe warned.

  The best explanation was that this was a practical joke that had got out of hand, and the boys were lying. ‘Look,’ said Olivia. ‘I’m sure it wasn’t meant to go this far. Just tell the truth. We won’t be angry with you, guys.’

  That was a lie and the boys knew it. Whoever had cut Jess’s hair was going to be in huge trouble.

  ‘Paul?’ David said, firmly. ‘You and Jess were fighting yesterday—’

  ‘Don’t blame me! I did NOT do this!’ Paul’s cheeks turned scarlet.

  Olivia looked closely at him. He seemed to be telling the truth, she was pretty sure of it. But then she remembered how, recently, he had taken a tenner from her wallet and lied so effectively – went red just like this – that she had believed him until she found the note stuffed into the zip pocket of his school backpack.

  ‘She must have felt something.’ Miles rolled his eyes to suggest that it was inadequate of Jess to have slept through her own violation.

  ‘This is NOT Jess’s fault.’ Olivia hugged Jess. ‘I don’t want to hear any of you blaming her for this, OK?’

  ‘You’re all so fucking loud.’ Dom came into the room, shirtless, wearing only pyjama shorts, rubbing his hair. ‘What the fuck’s happening?’ Then he spotted his sister. ‘Fuck me! If you’d wanted a haircut, you only had to ask.’

  ‘Stop swearing, Dom,’ David said. ‘It’s completely inappropriate.’

  ‘I’d say it’s highly appropriate,’ Dom said. It was the first time he had answered his father directly in months, and under different circumstances, Olivia might have been relieved. But Jess started to cry. Dom suddenly looked younger, less certain. ‘It’s OK, J.’ He turned to Olivia. ‘What happened to her hair?’

  ‘I know!’ Miles leaped up. ‘It was grave-man!’

  Paul gave a high laugh.

  Ben looked at Chloe with round eyes. ‘We heard the grave-man!’

  ‘This is not the time to be silly. This isn’t something to laugh about.’ David put his hands on his hips.

  ‘No, wait.’ Chloe leaned in. ‘What exactly did you hear?’

  ‘When we were going to sleep we were all, like, freaked out because we heard him upstairs,’ Miles said.

  ‘You heard footsteps? In the tower?’ Chloe frowned at her son.

  ‘We didn’t hear him!’ Jess lifted her head from Olivia’s chest. ‘I made it up – both times!’

  ‘Wait a minute, darling.’ Olivia patted her back. ‘What exactly did you hear, boys?’

  ‘Creaking,’ Ben said. ‘Footsteps.’

  ‘I told you! I made it up!’ Jess yelled. ‘I wanted to scare them.’ She looked at Olivia with bloodshot eyes. ‘They were all really scared.’

  ‘I definitely did hear a creaking noise though,’ Ben said.

  ‘Yeah,’ Miles glanced at Paul. ‘Paul and me heard him outside too. We even went out and looked.’

  ‘Last night? You went out of the tower in the middle of the night?’

  ‘Yeah but he wasn’t there,’ Paul said, and looked at his feet. ‘So we came back in.’

  ‘The whole tower creaks all the time, Mum.’ Jess’s voice was jagged and high. ‘It’s totally going to fall down at any minute!’

  Olivia hugged Jess. ‘It’s OK, darling. Nothing’s falling down. That tower has stood there for hundreds of years. And anyway, you won’t be sleeping in there any more so no need to worry about that.’

  ‘Well, what if someone broke in?’ said Dom. ‘What if they locked the door from the inside and hid up there? They might still be up there now.’

  Jess whimpered and Miles and Paul began to laugh, then Miles, unaccountably, reached out and punched his little brother on the side of the head. Ben howled.

  ‘Boys! Stop it!’ David barked, but the room was suddenly chaotic. It was as if it was not just Jess’s hair, but the strands that anchored them all to reality that had been severed, and they were now spinning and confused, fearing spirits and intruders, turning against one another; mistrustful, lying, demented.

  Olivia looked at David. ‘We need to get upstairs in the tower – we need to find a key. There’s a bunch in the armoire. Can you try those?’

  ‘Everyone stay here,’ David ordered.

  But Dom got up and followed his father out and then Miles and Paul ran after them too. Their deranged laughter rang out down the hall. Ben stayed on the sofa next to Chloe.

  ‘You know, it couldn’t be the boys because there aren’t any scissors in the house,’ Chloe pointed out.

  ‘That’s right,’ Emma called through from the kitchen. ‘I remember David
was looking for scissors when we got here, on the first day. And we all had a search, yesterday, too, because of the lobster.’

  ‘One of the boys could have taken them?’ Khalil stepped out from the kitchen where he’d been sitting with Nura.

  ‘What, on the first day? Before we’d even unpacked?’ Emma said.

  Olivia looked down at Jess. Her remaining hair was a flat, mousy brown and without its gold-streaked heft her face looked off-kilter; her features seemed to have swollen. Whoever had done this must have taken all her hair in one hand, twisted it, then hacked it off in one go. It would have taken a big pair of scissors – or a very sharp knife. You could not do that with nail scissors.

  This was a violent act. The attacker would have had to turn Jess onto her front or side in order to gather the hair into a trunk that could be severed. But perhaps she was already on her front – she still sometimes slept like that, with her legs tucked under her, her bottom up, as she had done since she was a baby. Olivia felt cold, suddenly, and then nauseous.

  After a few minutes, David and the boys came back

  ‘None of the keys work. We can’t get up there.’ Dom threw himself on the sofa.

  ‘OK, guys,’ Khalil said from the doorway. ‘Em’s made coffee and hot chocolate. Jess is going to be OK. How about we all get some breakfast, sit out on the terrace, calm down and maybe someone will remember something.’

  ‘Do you think we should have a look outside?’ said Olivia. ‘In case there’s still someone out there?’

  David nodded and their eyes met. They didn’t need to exchange any words; she knew that he wanted her to stay with Jess and he knew she wanted him to be careful. He was present and protective; he loved his family and was there for them. She realized that it had been a very long time since she had felt this from him. It had taken a crisis, an attack, but it was still a relief to feel that it was there.

  Chloe got up and stood facing David, with her back to Olivia. ‘I’ll come with you.’ She couldn’t see Chloe’s face, but David blinked and looked away. He seemed to shrink slightly.