Twelve Days

by Paul Williams

  I joined Danny and Reverend James by the fire. Orange flames licked the charred stone fireplace. Danny threw on a new log and sparks flew. An ember spat out and landed on the rug, and Reverend James scooped it up and threw it back into the fire.

  Linda returned with a pot of coffee and topped up everyone’s mugs. She handed me mine, eyeing me suspiciously.

  ‘Feeling better?’ said Reverend James, his tone laced with irony.

  ‘Do you think M-Mike’s reached the village by now?’ interrupted Danny, sharing the single thought that occupied us all.

  By now, I hoped he was talking to the police. Soon they would be assembling an emergency team to fly a chopper to the castle. But in the deteriorating weather, the trek to the village might take much longer, even for an experienced mountaineer.

  Linda collected the empty mugs on the tray and walked across the room. She pushed her backside against the closed kitchen door to open it, but found it jammed.

  Danny rushed to her rescue. ‘L-let me help you with that.’ Brute force did not budge it. ‘It’s locked,’ he said, peering into the keyhole.

  I leaped up and tried the door handle. Locked. ‘There’s a way to the kitchen through the hallway. I’ll just go through and open the door.’

  But the hallway door was also jammed. I rattled the handle. ‘But Linda just came through this door. Did anyone lock it?’

  ‘No one,’ said Reverend James. ‘I didn’t even know they locked.’

  ‘B-but we l-left this door unl-locked?’ said Danny, his stutter intensifying as the panic rose in him.

  I thought back to the three keys I had found on Stephen’s body. Each door in the castle had been fitted with the same brand of lock.

  The only other exit from this room was the front door that led outside, the door through which we had farewelled Mike. It was fitted with the same mechanism. I tried the door handle but, as I suspected, it didn’t budge.

  ‘It’s a smart lock. Electronically activated.’

  ‘So you’re saying we’re locked in,’ said Reverend James. He turned to Linda, and I could feel his anger at her. ‘Linda, you were the last one in from the kitchen. How could you be so careless?’

  She shook her head. ‘I didn’t lock the door. I…’

  I walked down and stood between them. ‘It’s not her fault.’

  Reverend James pushed past me, took out his room key and tried it on the front door, but of course it did not work.

  Emily tried all the doors in turn, pushing her shoulder against each one. ‘How long have we been locked in here? Linda brought in the coffee about ten, fifteen minutes ago, right?’

  Not such a good detective, I thought: I should have been watching everyone. And surely I would have heard the click of the locks when they were activated. But you never know that something is suspicious until after it has been done. Classic magic trick technique: you do the switching or the sleight of hand before anyone knows what to expect.

  Reverend James wiped his brow. Danny stared into the fire. Alison held her stomach, looking pale. Suzanne blinked back fear and kept staring at the doors, as if they would miraculously open by themselves. All of them were the very picture of innocence.

  Into this scene came the crackle of a microphone being switched on. I looked up at the sound and noticed for the first time the two mounted Bose speakers on the wall, one in each corner.

  ‘Greetings!’ boomed a voice, echoing off the stone walls.

  Linda screamed and jumped behind her husband, who held her behind him. Danny pressed himself against the wall. Suzanne let out a scream too. Emily looked at me, as if to say: be alert here.

  ‘You each have a secret.’

  ‘Who is this?’ Reverend James stepped forward toward the speakers.

  ‘Shh,’ I said. ‘Listen–’

  ‘The Lord has brought you all together to confess. You have transgressed the code of The Twelve.’

  ‘I never… I swear, this is not me–’ Reverend James wiped his forehead. His wife flickered fearful eyes at him.

  ‘Let your conscience find you out.’

  ‘Wh-who-who is this?’ Danny called out, staring up at the ceiling.

  ‘It’s a recording,’ I said, pointing to the speakers. The voice had been distorted so that it sounded inhuman, with reverb added to give a Hollywood god effect. ‘Shhh,’ said Emily. She cupped her ear at the nearest speaker to her.

  ‘The wages of sin is death. Judas was the one who betrayed the twelve apostles. And just like Judas, you are each guilty of betrayal. I have come to pass judgement and sentence on you.’

  Suzanne had composed herself now and folded her arms. ‘This is stupid. Who’s behind this? Is this your doing, Reverend?’

  Reverend James appealed to everyone with his arms outwards. ‘It’s not me.’

  ‘No one will leave this castle alive. You cannot escape. I am all around you, I can see you in your secret places, I can read your thoughts, I am omnipresent, omniscient; wherever two or three are gathered in my name there I will be also.’

  At these words, Suzanne went rigid. She caught my attention.

  Reverend James also stiffened with indignation. ‘Blasphemy!’

  ‘Death has been visited already on four of The Twelve. These were no accidents. And in the past two days, death visited you twice again. And this is only the beginning.’

  Reverend James was working himself into a lather. His face was red, and he shouted back at the speaker. ‘Show yourself!’ At the last statement, he picked up a knife from the table and hurled it at the speaker. It missed and twanged against the wall. He marched over to the kitchen door and rattled the handle. ‘This is preposterous. Rafe, did you organise this?’

  ‘Me?’

  He lunged at me with an accusatory finger. ‘While you were out of the room?’

  I put out my hands to stop him attacking me. ‘Steady on, Reverend.’

  He turned to the others, shaking his fist. ‘Who then? What sort of sick practical joke is this?’

  I looked at everyone in turn too, gauging their reaction.

  ‘Shut up, everyone,’ said Emily, annoyed. ‘Let’s listen.’

  But that was it. A crackle, and all we could hear was hissing.

  At the same time the three door locks clicked simultaneously. Reverend James turned the handle and pushed the kitchen door open. He peered into the kitchen to see whoever was behind the door, but I already knew that he would find no one there. The locks had been electronically activated remotely and had been automatically released as the recording ended.

  Now the speakers were silent.

  Danny rushed into the hallway, banged open the now unlocked door and stared into the darkness. I tested the front door. It was also open. I examined the lock, turned the door handle. The metal knob that locked and unlocked the door from the inside now functioned as before. So, our keys could be overridden remotely. ‘Lock your doors,’ Glen had said, and it had been futile advice.

  I looked around again at each person. I could hardly imagine that one of us twelve was a murderer. But someone was trying to set us up to suspect one another, knew us well enough to play us against one another. My thoughts returned to the two who had died in car accidents, accidents I had never heard about, until now.

  ‘Search each room!’ Reverend James called into the hallway. ‘Danny? Rafe? The girls stay here.’

  ‘Stop.’ I blocked the passage door. ‘Don’t go anywhere,’ I said, ‘and don’t let’s split up.’ I turned to Danny. ‘Where is the sound system equipment in this place?’

  He walked over to the other side of the living room and slid open a wooden door in a cabinet. We all followed and crowded over a Bose audio system inside.

  The system was switched off, but when I placed my hand on the amplifier, it was warm. ‘Someone thinks a cheap stunt like this will terrify us into repentance.’ I looked straight at Reverend James and he stared back at me with venom.

  ‘Some Judas thinks he can scare the Childre
n of God with a threat like this.’ He jutted his chin at me.

  ‘Reverend James, Rafe, please.’ Emily insinuated herself between us.

  The Reverend shook her off. ‘He said, “I am all around you. I can read your thoughts.”’

  ‘B-but we were all in here,’ said Danny. ‘He must have b-been here too, to put the recording on.’

  Emily pointed to the amplifier. ‘Any smartphone can activate a sound system. And a central locking system.’

  ‘But we don’t have our phones,’ said Danny.

  ‘What sort of sadistic creep would do such a thing?’ said Alison.

  Reverend James had not taken his eyes off me the whole time. ‘It’s sick,’ he said. ‘Blasphemous. Someone is mocking me. Mocking God.’

  ‘But four deaths?’ said Suzanne. She had been standing behind us, arms folded. ‘He’s talking about Sean and Jack?’

  Danny turned to her. ‘Th-they were accidents. He’s p-playing with us.’

  I clicked the on button, but the sound system remained mute. I had wanted to replay the recording and listen for other clues. Background noises, inflections perhaps, or speech patterns. I checked the power to the wall. Everything was in order. Whoever had set up this show had rigged it up to only play at his command.

  Or her command. My gaze lingered on Linda and Alison, who were still clinging to each other. On Suzanne, who was standing aloof.

  I reached in and checked the connections at the back of the amplifier. Emily touched my arm. ‘What are you doing, Rafe?’

  I stood up and shook my head. ‘This is such a meticulously planned operation. Whoever did this has the technology, knows the castle. They must have made the recording a while ago and wanted to stage it, time it right. I’m just wondering why they went to all this trouble.’

  I was careful to frame my thoughts as if we were talking about some ghostly third person, an outsider, and we were innocent victims. But one of us could have been lying. Maybe two of us. I watched all of their reactions. Surely if one of them had prior knowledge, there would be a change in them. They would show pallor, go red or avoid my gaze or I would see their throat tightening. I was searching for any of the classic symptoms of lying. Whatever you repressed emerged in unexpected ways. A Freudian slip. An unconscious compensation.

  Emily frowned and touched her lips with her forefinger. ‘How did he know we’d all be in the living room when he played the recording?’

  I recited what I could remember of the recording: ‘I am all around you, I can see you in your secret places, I can read your thoughts, I am omnipresent, omniscient; wherever two or three are gathered in my name there I will be also…’

  ‘That’s Matthew 18, verse 20,’ said Reverend James. ‘He’s playing God.’

  Suzanne brought her hands up to both cheeks in shock. ‘Rafe, I have a creepy horrible thought.’

  I motioned her to come closer to the fire. ‘What?’

  ‘Did anyone see Mike leave the property?’

  In the long silence that followed, Alison and Linda jolted upright as if they had both been struck by lightning. Danny shook his head from side to side, slowly trying to absorb the implications. Emily closed her eyes to think through the ramifications too. I tried to mentally retrace the steps Mike had taken before his departure.

  ‘You’re not suggesting–’ said Reverend James.

  ‘He could have doubled back,’ said Suzanne.

  ‘It’s not true,’ blurted out Alison. ‘Not Mike!’

  ‘Why M-Mike?’ said Danny. ‘It does-does-doesn’t make sense.’

  Emily began to pace the room, thinking hard. ‘Just because the voice said all those things doesn’t mean we have to believe him.’

  ‘Or her,’ I added.

  Reverend James pointed his finger at Emily. ‘I agree. This is just what the person wants us to do. It’s a classic trick to sow suspicion. To make us turn on one another. We need to stick together.’

  I could see that the others liked this idea better, that this meant an external enemy, not one of us. The thought that one of The Twelve, one of our own was doing this was too unbearable to conceive of. And they could be right. My mind immediately went to the concierge, even the owner of the castle. But Suzanne stood by her suggestion. Folding her arms, staring them down. She could be right.

  Linda glared at her. ‘What have you got against Mike?’

  ‘He could have come back to the castle,’ she repeated.

  ‘Let’s search the c-castle, then,’ said Danny, leaping up.

  Reverend James stood, clapped his hands. Barked orders. ‘Good idea, Danny. Guys, take the upstairs rooms, girls go together too. Go in pairs, no one must be alone. Be careful.’

  ‘Mike would never…’ said Linda.

  I knew it was a waste of time. Whoever had organised this so smoothly would not be found easily. If this person was one of us, then they were sitting right in this room, acting afraid.

  ‘We’re not saying it’s Mike,’ I said. ‘We’re just looking at all possibilities. It could be any one of us here.’

  Now they stared me down. I stared back. Danny averted his eyes, Alison shot angry daggers at me, and even Suzanne returned my gaze defiantly. Linda’s eyes were wide, looking at each of her compatriots with fear. After that, no one wanted to separate, so the group combed the rooms as one large gang, clinging together. The men banged open cupboards, looked under beds; the women pulled open shower curtains, opened kitchen cupboards.

  I watched them, scornful of such diversionary tactics. ‘Aren’t you missing the obvious?’ They all looked at me. ‘The first place we need to search is Mike’s room.’

  Mike’s room was not locked, and so I walked in and the others followed.

  Danny stood at the door. ‘I feel b-bad going in here.’

  Emily pushed past him. ‘I don’t.’

  Mike’s room was immaculate. I knew he was a neat freak, but there was some fanaticism here in the way he had made his bed, smoothed out the creases, tucked in the corners, as if ready for a military barracks inspection. He had squared his clothes into piles and centred his Bible on the bedside table. Reverend James picked it up and leafed through it.

  ‘What do we know about Mike?’ I said.

  Emily shrugged. ‘Who knows what fires burn in people’s hearts, what poison grows.’

  Reverend James turned on her. ‘How dare you judge…?’

  ‘Mike is strong in the Lord,’ added Alison, looking daggers at Suzanne and Emily and me in quick succession. ‘You should be ashamed of your accusations.’

  ‘We’re just being logical,’ I said. ‘Calm down.’

  She pushed past me to follow Reverend James and Danny. We then swept from room to room, cell to cell, all determined not to acknowledge that this person was probably one of us, searching and doing a very good job of acting as scared as the rest of us. In a closet on the landing, I found a long coil of climbing rope behind some linen. Making sure the others were not watching, I pulled it out and took it downstairs, hiding it on the top shelf of the hallway cupboard with all the coats.

  The search did little to settle our fears or suspicions. We returned to the living room, each of us at a loss as to what to do next. Suzanne drew herself into a foetal position and hugged her knees, rocking back in a big, comfy sofa chair. Alison and Linda closed their eyes in prayer, held each other’s hands. I looked at the clock on the wall. It was not even midday. If Mike had indeed gone on his rescue mission, if he had no trouble getting through, he could possibly be getting help now. But if he was the murderer…?

  Alison gaped out of the window, staring up at the skies.

  ‘We’d hear a helicopter long before we’d see it,’ said Reverend James, also peering out into the whiteness.

  Alison clutched the windowsill, staring, staring for any trace of hope out there. ‘We have to get out of here.’

  The Reverend placed his arm around her. ‘Have faith, Alison. Trust in the Lord. We have to believe Mike did go for help, and t
hey’ll be here soon.’ Reverend James, I observed, seemed to be taking the course of events rather well in his stride.

  Suzanne shook her head. ‘I still have the horrible suspicion that Mike didn’t go for help.’

  Reverend James held Alison tighter. ‘I know Mike,’ he said. ‘I think what you are saying is preposterous.’

  ‘The whole thing is preposterous,’ said Alison. ‘I still don’t believe it. It’s the work of Satan. I know how he works. This is the work of Satan.’

  ‘Or the scheme of a very fanatical mind who thinks we all need to repent,’ I said, deliberately staring into the fireplace to hide where my suspicions lay.

  Reverend James stormed over, red-faced. ‘I have had enough of your insinuations. If I am to be honest, and I am sure I am not the only one in the room to think this, it looks like… very obviously that–’

  I stood up to him, stretching myself to full height. ‘That what, Reverend? What? Who set up this castle? Whose idea was it to come here? Who organised that each of the twelve days was to be a lesson for us?’

  Again Emily put herself between us. ‘Please, can’t we just work together here?’

  I stepped back. ‘But if one of us is a murderer, we should be making sure we protect ourselves.’ I stirred the fire with the poker. ‘From one another.’

  Reverend James bristled but did not move. He was no longer the centre of attention. Everyone was looking at me.

  ‘What d-do you suggest we d-do?’ said Danny.

  I stared at each in turn. ‘We stay together. And we ensure that no doors lock behind us, and that no one is alone. If a helicopter is going to arrive, we need to prepare for an imminent departure.’

  Alison glanced out the window, her face shining with hope. I walked up to her and peered out. ‘The front courtyard, if I remember, is big enough, and clear enough for a chopper, and we can set up some landmarks easily visible from the air.’