The House on Cold Hill

‘What kind of messages – what was she saying?’

‘He said she was telling us to leave. To leave while we still could.’

Ollie wiped fragments of cork from the neck of the bottle, thinking. If Caro’s mother, despite being a magistrate, was a tad bonkers, her auntie Marjie had been seven miles north of bonkers. He’d genuinely liked her, but she really was wired on a different circuit from everyone else. ‘Did your auntie have anyone in mind to buy this place and pay us back all we’ve sunk into it?’

‘I’m being serious, Ollie.’

‘So am I.’ He filled two wine glasses and carried them over to the table. ‘Look, I’m not going to pretend I’m happy about any of this. I can’t explain the bed, and I can’t explain what you saw in the mirror. But moving here is the biggest thing we’ve ever done. We can’t just walk away because some drug-addled old rocker with a fried brain is getting messages from your dead auntie. Is that what you want?’

‘Kingsley Parkin said that if we wanted to stay we should consider asking for an exorcism. But he’s offered to come out here himself and see what he picks up.’

Ollie sat down opposite her. ‘An exorcism?’

It was along the lines of what Bob Manthorpe had suggested to him earlier, although he had used less dramatic words, a Christian Service of Deliverance, he had called it. And he had told Ollie he knew a good person to do it if they decided to go that route.

‘Parkin said we should talk to the current vicar,’ continued Caro. ‘Apparently there’s an exorcist in every diocese in the country. They get called in when things happen that people can’t explain. Like they’re happening here.’

‘Bell, book and candle. All that stuff?’

‘I’m willing to give it a go. Do you have a better idea, Ollie? Because if so, tell me. Otherwise I’m getting the hell out of here.’

‘Listen, we mustn’t panic, that would be ridiculous!’

‘Like rotating one hundred and eighty degrees in the night is ridiculous? Like seeing an apparition in my mirror is ridiculous? Sure, I can accept that this move here is a big thing and massively disruptive. But we’ve moved into a nightmare.’

‘The old vicar chap, Manthorpe, was going to have a word with someone – someone in the clergy who’s had experience dealing with odd phenomena. But I don’t think it was quite as dramatic as an exorcist.’

‘Why not have an exorcist?’

‘I’m happy to have an exorcist – or whatever he’s called – come here. Let’s do it. Would that make you feel better?’

‘Would it make you feel better?’

‘If he can stop whatever’s going on here, yes.’

‘OK,’ she said. ‘I’ll sort it. I’ll call Kingsley Parkin first and see how soon he could come out here. Maybe he can come this evening. Shall I do that?’

All the time they talked, Ollie continually glanced past her at the archway through into the atrium, looking for the spheres he had seen previously. He glanced around for them, with a shiver, every time he entered the atrium. An exorcist. He shrugged at the thought. But he had no better solution.

He also had a feeling there was more that Manthorpe might have told him, if he’d pressed, if he’d had more time and not had to leave to go and collect Jade. He suspected the old vicar knew more about the history of the house than he was telling. He would call him tomorrow and try to go and see him again, he decided. ‘Sure, call this Parkin chap,’ he said to Caro.

‘I’ll do it now. Let’s carry on this conversation later,’ she said. ‘We’ll make beds up on the sofas. But I’ve got to deal with something urgently for a client.’ Caro leaned down, opened her briefcase and pulled a thick plastic file-holder from it.

‘I’ve got something urgent to do too, for sodding Cholmondley,’ he said. ‘Want me to make supper tonight?’

‘That would be great, thanks.’

‘Stir-fried prawns? We’ve got some raw ones in the fridge.’

‘Anything.’

He looked at his watch. It was coming up to 6.30 p.m. ‘Eat around eight?’

‘Fine.’

As he removed the bag of prawns from the fridge, and poured some into a bowl, Ollie heard Caro on the phone leaving a voicemail message for Parkin. He filled the cats’ food bowls, called them, then carried his wine glass up to his office, sat at his desk, and switched on the radio to catch the closing news headlines.

Earlier that afternoon Cholmondley had sent him an email which he had only looked at, so far, on his iPhone. It was a photograph of a 1965 Ferrari GTO that had sold at auction in the USA for thirty-five million dollars a couple of years back. Cholmondley had now been offered its sister car with, he claimed, an impeccable provenance. He wanted star treatment for it on the website.

As the screen came to life, to Ollie’s surprise all the normal folders and documents on the desktop had vanished. In their place were the words, in large black capitals:

MANTHORPE’S AN OLD FOOL. DON’T LISTEN TO HIM. YOU’LL NEVER LEAVE.

As he stared at them in shock, they suddenly faded away and all the folders and documents came back into view.

Then he heard Caro scream.

34

Thursday, 17 September

With his heart in his mouth, Ollie raced down the stairs, through the atrium and into the kitchen.

Caro was standing, wide-eyed, in the middle of the room. Shards and splinters of glass lay on the table, across her documents, and on the floor. Open-mouthed, she was staring upwards and pointing. He looked up and saw the remains of the light bulb hanging from the ceiling cord directly above the table.

‘It exploded,’ she said, her voice quavering with fear. ‘It just bloody exploded.’

‘It happens sometimes.’

‘Oh, does it? When? It’s never happened to me before.’

‘It’s probably from the flood – water was dripping down here yesterday. Must have caused a short or something – or leaked into the bulb.’ He peered up at it more closely. ‘Looks like it was used in the Ark! Probably some water leaked into it.’

She was shaking her head. ‘No, Ollie. I don’t believe it.’

‘Darling, calm down.’ He put an arm round her. She was trembling. ‘It’s OK,’ he said.

‘It’s not OK.’

‘There’s a perfectly rational explanation.’

‘I’m fed up with hearing you say perfectly rational explanation, Ollie. What’s happening in this house is not perfectly rational. We’re under sodding siege. Or are you in bloody denial?’ She was yelling.

He raised a finger to his mouth. ‘Ssshhh, don’t let Jade hear, I don’t want her freaked out.’

‘She’s up in her room with her music blasting, she can’t hear.’ Caro stared up at the light socket then down at the glass on the table and floor.

‘I’ll get a dustpan and brush and the hoover,’ Ollie said.

‘I’m calling Kingsley Parkin again,’ she said. ‘I want him to come here now, tonight.’

Ollie scooped up as much of the glass as he could with the brush, helped by Caro, who picked up the larger pieces in her fingers. He wondered whether it would help the situation to call his mother-in-law. But he was nervous that the woman, however well-intentioned, might only make matters worse. He emptied the pan into the rubbish bin, then went through into the scullery, returned with the Dyson, and plugged it in. He heard Caro leaving a second voicemail for her medium client. When she hung up, he switched the machine on.

It roared, and there were tiny clinking sounds as it sucked up the smaller, almost invisible glass splinters. Then, suddenly, there was a loud click. The room darkened as the other lights went out. The vacuum cleaner’s motor fell silent.

Caro looked at him, more calmly than he was expecting. ‘Great,’ she said. ‘How great is that?’