by Cat Knight
The drawers were pulled out and utensils, such as they were, tossed on the bench. The door opposite the kitchen opened easily. Vera’s bathroom.
A bucket covered with a plastic bag was crammed in between the bath and the sink.
Sheets of newspaper were in a bundle beside it together with a two-litre bottle of water, soap and a shabby towel. She shut the door and entered the next room.
A tell-tale itch formed in her throat and she covered her nose against the mould. Natural light was absent because the windows were boarded up.
“Vera?” A dirty mattress lay in a corner, otherwise the room was empty. The remaining rooms yielded nothing.
Walking back past the stairwell, Anne stopped and looked at it, but the steps were broken and fallen in, not safe to walk on. Boo hadn’t budged. Anne walked back to the kitchen and put the burger down bracing herself to climb up the stairs.
“Are you up there, Vera?” Anne bit her bottom lip and gingerly placed her weight on the third step, she quickly ascended the edges. One foot on each side, holding on to the rails, not waiting for dodgy bits to cave in on her. “Vera? Its Anne.”
The stairwell led to a short hallway and rooms came off each side. Anne began opening doors searching for Vera. The stench up here was appalling, with no obvious reason. It reminded her of something learned from long ago. Cadaverine from biology class. The blood ran cold in her veins. I should have come every-day to this god forsaken place. “Vera?”
Covering her nose and mouth, Anne’s voice was a whisper and her searching was reluctant for fear of what she might find.
But search she must. Suddenly her head shot up, the sound of a soft voice reached her from the room ahead.
At first, she saw nothing, then, a small door in the wall, almost invisible with its carefully painted camouflage. Rushing at the door, she pulled it open.
Vera sat on small wooden plank repeating over and over
“Get ‘em good, get ‘em good,” a decomposing rat lay at her feet causing Anne to retch.
Vera’s little face puckered up in a happy crease, she actually looked pleased to see her.
“Vera, shall we go downstairs now?”
Anne spoke with genuine relief and affection. Climbing out of the cupboard Anne held her arm as she straightened up.
“I’ve got a hamburger for you, its downstairs in the kitchen.”
Vera clambered down the stairs as though they were solid as a rock, while Anne made her way carefully behind and was busy disassembling the hamburger by the time Anne reached the kitchen, presumably her pet mouse was going to get it’s share. While she waited, Anne started putting things back in the cupboard and drawers.
Scooping up a bunch of plastic forks and knives her eyes fell on a bone handled knife and butterflies started up in her stomach. Pressing on a small button Anne watched a long blade shoot forward. Was this the knife that… Her fingers went limp and it clanged back onto the counter.
Vera pulled off a piece of greasy bread and put it on paper plate replete with mouse droppings.
She looked up at Anne, who was staring at the knife, and said “Hah, got him good.”
“Got who Vera? Did this knife get somebody?”
Vera nodding emphatically.
“Harriet’s angry, Porgie kissed her. Harriet got him good. Got Boo good too.”
Chapter Seven
Anne’s blood ran cold. She looked at Vera contentedly reassembling her burger and inched into the sitting room. Boo lay exactly where he had been. Now that she was closer, she saw his pallor was an unnatural white.
“Boo? BOO?”
She shook him. A knitting needle rolled out from under his head. Anne removed the patch from Boos eye and screamed bloody murder until Vera came up and looked her square in the eye.
“Harriet said Leave.”
Anne backed off from Vera momentarily and reached into her pocket for her mobile. She dialled 999 and as calmly as she could spoke to Vera.
“Tell Harriet Boo needs to leave first, and this is the only way I can make him go.”
Looking around the room Anne called out “Harriet, if Boo doesn’t go then Vera will get into a lot trouble.”
The worst thing was, Anne didn’t even feel silly. Sirens roared up the road, screaming controlled panic into the usually sleeping roads.
Anne swallowed back a surge of guilt, she really didn’t know what would happen to Vera in the immediate term, or the long term for that matter, but she could not ignore the dead body. But the one thing Anne was sure of, it wasn’t Vera who had done this. There was neither the physical or emotional wherewithal in that little body to accomplish such a task. Vera strangely, or perhaps not, had started swatting at her own head.
“Get away. Get away Boo.” Anne tried to calm her.
“Boo will go away; the police will come and take him away.”
She was harbouring the question she wanted to ask Vera. It didn’t seem the right time, given that Vera was apparently dealing with a deceased Boo. But if Anne knew anything from her recent experiences, she knew that in Vera’s mind at least, Harriet would take care of him at any second so that Boo would be made to leave Vera alone.
And at any minute the police would arrive so that there would be no opportunity for asking crazy questions. “Vera? Will you ask Harriet something for me?” Vera held her hands up defensively, protecting herself from Boo and looked quizzically at her. “Ask Harriet where her body is buried.” The question was posed too late, the police stormed in with forensics on their tail. The knitting needle and the eye patch were carefully secured in plastic bags.
A half-dozen policemen combed the house, while another two questioned Anne and tried to question Vera.
“No-one else here, chief.” called a voice.
Two men with stretchers lifted the lifeless Boo onto the pallet and carried him out. “You will need to come in for questioning and we’ll have to bring Vera in too. She can’t stay here, it’s a crime scene now.” It was getting on to 10 PM by the time Anne left the police station to head home. She had a lot on her mind, foremost among them was what would happen to Vera. The police had charged her with vagrancy and locked her up.
“It’s for her own good, luv. You don’t know what kind of crazy person is hanging around that house. She could wind up like our friend in the morgue.”
They still didn’t have a name on him and were ordering an autopsy. “We have to, in cases like this.”
Right now, the police were working on the hypothesis that a) a vagrant had come in and they’d had an altercation, which led to Boo’s death, or b) that Vera had done it. Anne argued with them.
“How could Vera have had the strength to pop his eye or find a way to kill a man that size?”
But they said she had motive given Anne’s own testimony of Boo intimidating and bullying Vera, and there was evidence that he’d drunk enough cough syrup to sedate him. If he’d been out of it, they said, maybe Vera could have managed it. She was crazy enough.
There was another option they didn’t know about. Harriet had done it. But Anne could hardly tell that to the police.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The clock had barely struck 9 AM when Anne arrived at work. Pamela was waiting for her.
“News like this travel’s fast around here. I thought I was clear you weren’t to go there on your own.”
“I was on my own time, Pamela. And I only checked in to make sure she was OK. Good thing I did don’t you think?” Anne bristled.
“No, I don’t.” Pamela’s voice was rising to a low roar “You put your life at risk. And you were expressly told not to go to that house on your own. Your own time is your own time, but not when it involves our clients.” By now Pamela’s voice was reaching crescendo. “You are on suspension from today while we decide if we can keep you on. If you so much as put one foot in that place, you are gone. PERMANENTLY FROM EVERYWHERE. AND KEEP AWAY FROM THE OLD WOMAN.” The whites of Pamela’s eyes bulged out against her ever-reddening face
and her voice had risen to a loud roar. “DO. YOU. UNDERSTAND?”
“YES MAAM.”
Anne turned on her heel and left. Pamela could shove it. From the ferocity of the outburst, Pamela seemed just as deranged as Vera was, but Anne was going to take care of Vera.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Vera sat in the corner of her gaol cell, a tiny frail shell. Her brown hair hung around a woebegone face and a plate of food lay untouched.
“Did she eat anything last night?”
Anne’s forehead was lined with concern. It was now day three and they would have to release Vera soon, but to where?
They couldn’t hold her for vagrancy forever. The house was still a crime scene. If Vera went back there, they could easily arrest her again.
The young constable looked unconcerned when he spoke.
“Won’t speak, won’t eat. Boss says we’ll be getting her transferred as soon as the paperwork comes through.”
“What paper work, what are you talking about, transfer her where?”
“I thought you knew, you being in community care an all?
“No, why would I know? “
“Well your boss, she’s initiated it.” He observed Anne with steely brown eyes, scrutinising her face. Anne kept her expression bland.
“It’s for the best for the old girl, isn’t it? Proper meds and all that. She’ll go into a psych facility for a while till they get her sorted and after that she can probably live in a proper flat, or in a group home if that’s what she needs.”
Despite her outward façade, anger flared hot in Anne’s breast.
That bitch. On the face of it, the plan didn’t seem unreasonable, but to do all of this behind Anne’s back, it was as though she’d already had it planned. Pamela hadn’t even bothered to inform her. And she would know that Anne was worried about what would happen to Vera.
I might be on suspension, but it would have been a professional courtesy. Her blood boiled. It was an intentional insult, a payback for not heeding Pamela’s instructions.
But Pamela didn’t know the first thing about Vera. Or anyone else that lived in that house.
Chapter Eight
A few calming breaths later Anne said, “Of course, that makes perfect sense. She’ll be much better off in a psych facility, or a group home.” The bobby seemed satisfied. “Could I go in and talk to her for a moment? I’ve brought her a hamburger, it’s her favourite thing to eat.”
“You can try, luv.”
He opened up the cell and let Anne in. At least Vera was in there alone, and not with God knew who else had the misfortune to be locked up that day.
“Hello, Vera.” She held out the burger. “It’s not very warm, but I thought you might like it.” At the smell of it the Vera looked up. Anne’s heart broke. Her usually vacant or otherwise preoccupied eyes were bright and glistening. The tears didn’t spill but the pain on her little face tore at Anne.
Accepting the burger, she opened it, and began to disassemble it as was her ritual. She tore off a piece of bread from the inside and held it out in her hand to Anne.
“Is this for your mouse?” Anne whispered.
Sad eyes looked up at her imploring. Lying had never come easily for Anne, but white lies were really a good deed, weren’t they?
“I’ll take it up and put it on the plate.” she whispered. Vera reassembled the burger and put it back in the box and sat it next to her untouched gaol food. They sat silently for a while until Anne deemed that Vera would communicate no further.
Anne called out, “I’m ready now.” The sound of office machinery whirred behind her and the young constable took papers off the fax machine. He unlocked the cell door and motioned to the paperwork now laying on his desk.
“It’s all there for your old lady. The paperwork I mean. She’s going to the psych ward later today, in the hospital. Thought you’d like to know, seein’ as you’re not being kept in the loop an all.”
He looked embarrassed for her. Anne gave him a small smile and nodded her appreciation.
“Thanks for that. I’ll visit her there.”
“And Miss?” Anne turned back. “I heard on the grapevine the house is gonna be knocked down.” He nodded his head toward Vera “It’s best they find something for her now, rather than just toss her out of it. It’s about falling down anyway.”
“Oh! Oh, I see. I suppose that makes sense then, to tear it down.” Actually, the house isn’t nearly falling down. It’s really just the roof letting water in that has caused some damage, but nothing that can’t be fixed. But she kept that opinion to herself. “Thanks again for everything.”
She exited the building, thoughts flying a dozen a minute. It was around 5:30 PM when she drove up near to Vera’s suburb, parking in an adjacent street, and walked the 20-minute distance to the house. The police tape still surrounded it.
No cars were parked, so she would be safe to go in. Coming after nightfall would have been the safest, but she wanted to inspect the old house properly, and that wouldn’t possible by torchlight. Besides. She didn’t let the thought develop, but Vera talking to invisible people kind of freaked her out. The door opened easily and she let herself in, it swung shut behind her.
“Well, HELLO DOLLY!” Anne jumped and a startled scream leapt from her mouth before she could stop it. A man in a thin brown worn out jumper sat on the sofa, looking at her from the doorway. Anne glared at him.
“This is a crime scene, you can’t be here.”
“Says who? You?” The man’s face became hard, a menacing glint rose in his eyes. “It’s dry in here. And I got a place to sit. Nice digs for someone who just got into town.”
Anne turned and made to open the door but he jumped up and covered the distance, placing his hand on it, holding it closed. His proximity nearly made her dry reach, he stank of tobacco, wine and dirty skin. His face reached in close, and his lips almost brushed hers.
“I’m lonely, why don’t you stay with me?” He reached out and imprisoned her against the door, one arm either side of her. Anne was about to lift her fingers to jab his eyes and her knee up to jam him hard in the groin, as was her self- defence training, when a bottle came flying through the air with incredible force and smashed on the wall, grazing his head.
Shock registered on his ugly face, but he quickly recovered, grabbing Anne by the shoulders and spinning her around in front of him. He pinned her arms.
“Who’s there? Come on out?” Silence resounded. His voice became conspiratorial. “Come-on out. We can share her. Take turns.”
Anne whimpered, fear was getting hold of her, she struggled against him, but he had her in such an angle that leaning forward and trying to trip him over her shoulder didn’t give her the leverage she needed. A long shape hurtled forward, from somewhere near the stairwell. And instantly another bottle flung toward them. This time it connected and hit the vagrant hard at the temple. Anne couldn’t see who had thrown it, but whoever it was had power in their arm and his hold on Anne fell away. She stepped aside as the man sunk to the floor on his knees, disoriented and stunned. A coldness settled around them it was somehow familiar and triggered something in her memory, something to do with Vera. The words ‘Harriet said Leave’ came to mind. All at once she knew. Harriet had arrived.
Chapter Nine
Horror grew in Anne’s stomach, whirling around she called,
“NO. NO. Don’t do anything. Just let him leave.”
The man was getting his thoughts back, he looked at Anne curiously and stood up, grappling at the door handle. It was immovable. The man’s face was wild with fear as he pulled and tugged at the door in a frenzy. Anne pleaded again, almost hysterical.
“Don’t hurt him. Please just let him go.”
The man reeled backwards from his collar teetering on his feet and was flung against the wall, his head hit it in a sideways motion.
“Please don’t do anything. I’m OK. Let him go.”
Anne pleaded, but the man’s head began hitting the
wall in a repetitive motion, his eyes bugging wide.
“Stop. This is not going to help Vera. If you kill him the police will be back and Vera will never get back into this house.”
Calmness, of a kind, fell in the room. The man’s head ceased it’s banging and he slipped to the floor, trembling and hyperventilating. Anne noticed he was bleeding from the temple area.
The door creaked open slowly, the man looked at Anne, begging was in his eyes. She stood aside and he got up and ran down the path screaming. She watched till he was out of sight, sick with relief that Harriet hadn’t bashed his brains in. If that had happened she would have been joining Vera in gaol.
Anne stepped back inside and closed the door.
“Hello, Harriet. Thank-you for helping me. And for helping Vera. I want to help Vera too, and now I want to help you. How can I do that? Would finding your body and locating it for the police give you some peace?”
The house became more than quiet, unnaturally silent. The sickly-sweet Jasmine smell hung in the air. Time seemed to stand still, excruciating moments passed. Anne was too scared to stay, and too scared to leave.
A faint scuffling sound came from somewhere close by. Scanning around, a mouse jumped over her feet, leaving tiny footprints in a dusty trail. Acting on instinct, she followed it to an unused room. There scratched into a thick layer of dust was the word ‘nobody.’ Anne inhaled sharply, Harriet was communicating. Pushing down the urge to run from the house, she spoke aloud.
“Nobody what? I don’t understand. What do you mean?”
The little mouse ran around back and forth over the word until ‘no’ disappeared and only the word ‘body’ remained.
It worked away scurrying over dust and bit by bit new letters formed until Anne said out loud.
‘Body burned ashes.’ It took her a moment, but then she said, “There is no body. You were burned to ashes. He burned you.”
A cool breeze floated around her face. Anne knew she had gotten it right. Sadness whelmed up in her and she wiped tears from her eyes.