by Helen Phifer
‘Jesus, will you all listen to yourselves? None of this is even possible. How can a woman, a dead woman, cause so much panic? We are all grown men and very much alive, unless you carry on like this and you will all scare yourselves to death, which is exactly what could have happened to Marcus. He liked to drink, did Marcus, and we all know that—how did we all meet?’
There was a murmur from everyone, agreeing with Joss.
‘You’re right, Joss, he did like to drink and did the doctor not say he died from falling down the stairs? Broke his neck, he did, but how? He didn’t have enough ale in his house or empty bottles to get that drunk he couldn’t walk straight. And I saw the look on his face when they carried his body out—terrified, he was. A mask of fear he was wearing when his heart stopped beating.’
Joss nodded. He agreed with Thomas to a certain extent but the problem was that now they were all scared.
‘Look, why don’t we stick together? Those of you who are lucky enough not to be married can stay here with me. Those of you with wives make sure you’re never left alone long enough for anything to happen. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but if we stick together she won’t be able to hurt us all. That’s if it even was her; we might just be worrying over nothing. If after a couple of days nothing happens then we’ll put it down to Marcus’s bad luck and his inability to hold his beer.’
No one answered but Seth looked relieved; in fact, when Joss looked at each of them in turn they were all wearing the same expression of relief.
‘I suggest you go home and get anything you might need for the next few days then lock up your houses and come back here. Bring some food as well because I have no idea how much food is in the pantry.’
The heavy atmosphere in the room had eased; it was not the answer to the problem but at least it was a temporary solution. He stood with his back to them all as they began to move around and leave to go and get whatever they needed. His brain felt as though it was too heavy for his head to hold up and he prayed for some kind of answer to the problem as soon as possible. The men all shuffled out of the door except Seth. Joss dropped onto a chair opposite him.
‘We need to speak to Father Sawyer, ask him if there is something we should have done with her body. I don’t think we can exactly ask him to bury her in the church grounds, but I think there might be something we could have done that would stop all of this.’
Seth nodded and for the first time in days the frown lifted from his brow. ‘That’s a grand idea; maybe he could come and bless her grave. I think he already knows something went on because he was fishing around at the inn two nights ago. If we swear him to secrecy he will have to keep it to himself. Priests aren’t allowed to break confession, are they?’
‘I don’t think so, Seth, but we don’t really have much choice, do we? As I can’t think of anything else that we can do.’
Joss stood up. ‘Come on, let’s go and find the priest and see if he can help.’
Seth followed him and they began the short walk back to the village and the church, which was on the hill overlooking it. They climbed the steep stone steps and walked up the path to the church. Seth lingered behind Joss, uncomfortable; he really hated churches. Joss hoped that when he reached the church doors God wouldn’t decide to strike him down dead; then again, if he died it would be the end of this nightmare.
He twisted the iron ring on the door and it swung inwards. There was a strong draught of cold air which blasted Joss and he shivered. Seth tripped over the step and fell into him, pushing him forward. He missed his step and clattered through the internal door into the church. The priest spun around to see who or what had made such an entrance. His face visibly relaxed at the sight of Joss and a very red-faced Seth.
‘Sorry, I missed my step.’
‘Happens a lot that, as long as you didn’t hurt yourself.’
‘No, I didn’t. Thanks.’
Joss smiled at him. He hadn’t been inside the actual church in a while. Not since his wife had died and he had lost all faith in the good Lord. He made an exception for funerals, suffering through a church service to show his respect to the dearly departed.
‘What brings you two here on such a fine day? I’d have thought you would be out working the land, Joss?’
‘I should be, no doubt about it, but I have a problem. Well, we have a problem; there are a few of us but they are too afraid to speak about it.’
The priest nodded. ‘Would this have something to do with the sudden disappearance of one Betsy Baker and the demise of your entire family?’
Joss bowed his head. ‘Yes, Father, it does.’
‘I wondered when one of you would be forced to come and see me. I suppose Marcus dying in such a manner has put the fear of God or the devil into you all, has it? I know what you all did. I’m the first person someone comes to see if they need to confess their sins. You all honestly didn’t believe that every one of you would carry your secret to the grave and not tell another soul?’
Seth let out a sob and pushed the sleeve of his jacket into his mouth to stop him from crying out his admission of guilt. Joss patted the lad’s shoulder and turned to face the priest.
‘I suppose not; so you know about Betsy then. You know that it was her who poisoned my boys, my parents and then planned to murder me. You know that we chased her through the woods with hunting dogs and dragged her back to my house to hang her and bury her in the garden.’
The weight of confessing lifted from Joss’s shoulders and he felt much better; so be it if the priest decided to tell the authorities. If Joss was hanged at least he would be reunited with his family; he didn’t care about living or dying any longer.
‘I do. I know every single detail but do not fear for they were passed to me in a confession and we all know that they are sacred and can never be broken. Your secret is safe with me and if it’s forgiveness that you want then I forgive you. If she had done the same to my family I would want to see her hanged until she breathed no more, priest or no priest. So what have you come to see me for?’
It was Seth who spoke next. ‘She’s come back for us all; she said she would and she has.’
The church door flew open, hitting the wall with such force a chunk of limestone fell to the floor. The colour drained from Seth’s face and Joss felt a cold shiver run down his back. The priest looked at them both, fear etched across his face. He began to walk briskly down to the huge wooden door to close it.
Seth stood so close to Joss that he couldn’t have moved fast if he needed to and whispered into his ear, ‘She’s here. She knows we’re talking about her. What are we going to do?’
From somewhere behind them came an ear-splitting sound of sharp nails being dragged across a pane of glass, the sound amplifying around the eaves of the church. Seth lifted both his hands to his ears; the noise actually hurt his brain it was so loud. The priest was trying to shut the door but it wouldn’t move, and his face began to turn crimson with the effort. Joss ran to help him, followed by Seth, who didn’t want to be left on his own near to where that awful sound was emanating. All three of them put their shoulders in and began to push at the door with all their might; the priest began to pray out loud and the door moved an inch so they shoved it even harder and managed to move it slowly back so they could close it. The force behind it on the other side was huge and Joss was too scared to think about how something invisible could be so strong.
With one last push the door slammed shut and the priest took the key from his pocket. Inserting it into the lock, he turned it until it clicked and the door was locked. All three of them sighed; they leant with their backs against the door while they waited for their breathing to return to normal. Something threw itself against the door and the whole thing shook; the wood felt as if it was being pushed through. Terror made them turn around and Seth pulled Joss away from it. The priest began to shout at the door in Latin as the wood began to bulge into the church. Joss was scared it was going to break and splinter towards them. As
the priest shouted louder the door became flat once more and the noise stopped. The atmosphere, which had been heavy moments ago, returned to one of peace and serenity.
Father Sawyer turned to them. ‘You need to show me where you buried her. Did you give her a proper burial because if not we have to dig her up and at least bless the grave. Did you place a cross on her chest, sprinkle her with holy water; was she properly laid out?’
‘No, Father, we did none of that; we were so guilt-stricken and afraid for ourselves at what we had just done that we threw her into a hole in the ground and buried her.’
‘There is no way we can move her body into consecrated ground now, it will be rotten, but if I bless her and we do what I’ve just said I might be able to contain her spirit. I can’t say if it will work but it’s better to at least try than all die of terror.’
Joss nodded. ‘When shall we do it?’
‘I’m afraid we have no choice; we must do it now before she becomes too powerful for me to fight. Now, kneel down at the altar. I’m going to bless your sins and forgive you both. Then I’m going to baptise the pair of you because I have no idea whether your parents did or not and it won’t hurt to do it again and then we are going to go and do the same to the remains of Betsy Baker and ask God to take her in, away from the forces of evil so that she may rest in peace.’
Chapter Twenty
Jake knocked on the front door as Father John pulled into the drive behind him. He turned and grinned, saluting the priest, who saluted back.
‘Good morning, Father, long time no see. I hope you’re here on a nice visit and not some scary shit that will turn my hair grey.’
‘Morning, Jake. Now what makes you think that? I’m here to check on our special friend Annie and see how she is.’
‘She’s special all right.’
The door opened and Annie poked Jake in the ribs. ‘I heard that, cheeky.’
Jake walked in, rubbing his side, and Father John opened his arms and grinned at Annie. She fell into them and he wrapped them around her. There was something safe about being hugged by a man of God, well, this one, anyway; he was such a good person through and through.
‘Have you heard anything about our William?’
Annie shook her head. She had never called him William once and it sounded strange; she much preferred Will.
‘Nothing, but I have it on good authority that Will is going to be set free anyway and, if not, then by tomorrow Tom will have the money ready by lunchtime to do the drop.’
John nodded. ‘I see and then they will let him go, is that right?’
‘I hope so; that’s what they said.’
‘Is there anything I can do? Maybe I could take the money? They won’t feel threatened by a priest; that way, you’re not putting yourself or Mr and Mrs Ashworth at risk.’
‘That’s very kind of you, John, but I couldn’t ask you to do that. I want to take the money. I want to be there.’
Jake looked at her. ‘And we all know why that is, but you can’t beat her up, Annie. As much as you want to batter her, you’ll lose your job and she might have a knife or a gun; we don’t know how dangerous she is.’
‘I don’t care about my job, Jake. I care about getting Will back safe and sound and then hunting her down and bringing her to justice, one way or another.’
Jake shook his head. ‘You’re a pain in the arse.’
‘I know.’
John laughed. ‘Annie, Annie, Annie, you don’t change one little bit and that’s why we love you.’
She led them into the kitchen and they all sat down at the table.
‘John, I have a big favour to ask you which doesn’t concern Will… Well, not at this moment in time, but if we don’t sort it out very soon it could well do.’
‘Ask away; I told you I’d do anything to help you.’
‘Anything?’
‘Yes, anything.’
‘I think my new house is haunted. No, I don’t think, I know that it’s haunted. By a woman called Betsy Baker who lived there back in 1782, before she died.’
She gave him a chance to digest the information, which didn’t take very long.
‘How do you know that it’s haunted? A lot of old houses have draughts and creak in the night.’
‘This is more than that; I’ve been having nightmares and visions. I keep seeing a woman dressed in a white gown running through the woods near the cottage being chased by a group of men with dogs, only I kept waking before they caught up with her. Last week I was driving home from the cottage and I caught a glimpse of a flash of white running through the trees; as I rounded the bend she was standing in the middle of the road and I had to swerve to avoid hitting her. I went off the road, crashing my car into a tree and ended up in a coma in hospital for a few days. Whilst I was unconscious, the dream carried on, only this time it went to the end. She’d poisoned an entire family and the men caught up with her. They dragged her back to the cottage and hanged her from the beams of the front porch. Only I felt as if it was me they were hanging; I could feel them dragging me, their hands were rough and then they looped the rope around my neck. I could feel myself being lifted from the ground and choked. That was when I came out of my coma. The builders are refusing to work in the cottage; they keep finding their tools missing, one of them was strangled by something invisible and someone keeps breathing icy-cold air down their necks. There is a terrible sound of nails being scraped along glass whenever one of them is in there on their own; I’ve heard it myself when I’ve been there.’
Jake gulped. ‘I heard it too, the last time I was there with you and Alex, only I didn’t want to say anything in case you thought I was losing it.’
‘See, I knew you had seen something; you were acting so strange even Alex thought you’d flipped. Why didn’t you just say?’
‘Because I didn’t want to put you off living in your dream house, Annie, I didn’t want to be the one to tell you. I thought with you being psychic you’d pick up on it and get it sorted out yourself.’
‘Ah, then we have a bit of a problem. I’ve never heard of Betsy Baker… Who did she kill?’
‘I think she poisoned her mother, her boyfriend’s children and his parents, with arsenic by the sound of it. There is no official record of her being hanged, from what I can find, but I trust my instincts enough to know that what I saw was an action replay and it wasn’t very nice. What can we do, John?’
‘I think we need to see if we can find a grave in your garden and see if Betsy Baker is buried in it and then we need to report it to the police and let them take over.’
‘That would take months—years, knowing what our police are like. Technically, me and Jake are the police; if we find her grave and it’s a really old skeleton can we not transfer her to a quiet patch in the church grounds and give her a proper send-off? I want to move into my house after the wedding and I won’t be able to if we notify the authorities; they’ll want to dig everything up.’
John shrugged. ‘Your call, Officer Graham, but if we find any evidence that she hasn’t been in the ground for at least two hundred years then we report it. I’m too old to argue with you and I want to help.’
Jake looked at them both. ‘I don’t know about this; if there’s a body in there we should do the right thing, Annie.’
‘Jake, it’s not going to be a body as such, is it? If I’m right, she’s been buried there since 1782 and nobody missed her then. If we don’t give her a proper burial she’ll be grounded in my house forever and I’ll never get rid of her and, besides, it’s not as if she was an upstanding pillar of the community. She killed at least five people, possibly more. She tried to kill me. She wasn’t a very nice person.’
He shrugged his shoulders. ‘I suppose so. Trust you, Annie, only you could buy a house that has to be haunted by Cumbria’s first female serial killer. You couldn’t get one that was haunted by a tabby cat or a friendly dog?’
‘No, Jake, you know that’s not my style.’
&n
bsp; ‘I know it isn’t but I wish to Christ it was. Sorry, Father.’
John smiled. ‘You’re forgiven, my son. When shall we do this? If I’m to dig a grave in the churchyard without any of my nosy parishioners catching me I’ll have to do it when it’s getting dark. How about if I get it prepared tonight and we move her tomorrow? She will need to go straight from one grave to the next and you’ll have to transport her in a specially blessed container of some kind. You can’t just shove her into a cardboard box and hope for the best. If she’s haunting you, Annie, she must have quite some spiritual power.’
‘I’ve got a plastic under-bed storage container. Can you bless that if I bring it to the church with me in the morning? We could put a cross inside and sprinkle it with holy water.’
‘What about some garlic and a wooden stake to drive through her heart?’
‘Shut up Jake, I’m being serious.’
Annie’s mobile began to ring and she saw Kav’s number flash up on the screen. She put it to her ear. ‘Tell me you have some news, please?’
‘We have an address and the cell site analysis of Will’s phone has come back to within a three-kilometre radius of that address so a couple of plain clothes task force officers are on their way as we speak to scour the area and do a sweep and no, I can’t tell you where it is because you’ll go rushing there and probably end up getting yourself in a whole world of trouble that I won’t be able to bail you out of. I just wanted you to know that we’re on it and doing our best.’
‘What if I promise to sit in the back of the car with you and Jake so I can’t get out and get into any trouble? I promise I’ll be good—please, Kav, I need to be there when they bring him out. I’ll go mad sitting here biting my nails.’
‘Arghh, I knew I shouldn’t have said anything and just turned up at the house with Will following behind. Wait until they’ve checked it out and given the go-ahead; if we go storming in, you and I know that it might not end too well for Will. If they think they’re going to get caught they might decide to cut their losses and run.’