Psychopathia: A Horror Suspense Novel (15 page)

The phone call didn’t have time to be a real disappointment, since
Tully and Lara were discovered in the pantry and hustled out double time. Tully hurried her goodbyes, and slipped her phone back into her pocket. They weren’t even supposed to carry them while they were working, but all the wait staff did, set to a discreet vibrate.

So? What’s happening?’
Lara hissed. ‘Are they going to come and film?’

Tully shook her head. ‘No. They don’t do private houses.’ She watched her best friend’s face fall, and felt a sneaking suspicion the disappointment wasn’t because help wasn’t forthcoming. ‘Look, we’ll talk later okay? I have to get to work – I’m in the shit with the boss as it is, thanks to Toby.’

Lara had already turned away. She nodded, and reached for a pile of napkins, folding them ready for the tables. Tully couldn’t see her face.

It had only been a short phone conversation with the ghost hunters – make that
paranormal investigators –
but it had ended on a more positive note than she’d had time to tell Lara. They weren’t interested in travelling all the way down the country to investigate, and certainly not to film, despite what Lara had said. Suspecting Lara had read a bit more into her conversation with them than had strictly been there, Tully gripped her pen and made her way around her tables to take the next order, operating on auto-pilot.

‘Hi and welcome,’ she said, pasting on her professional smile. ‘Can I get you anything to drink while you look over the menus?’

Behind her, something crashed with a metallic clatter to the floor. Startled, she turned, blinking, heart already making the leap out of its cosy spot in her chest to block her throat.

‘What the hell?’ The guy at her table stood up.

Tully shoved her notepad back in her apron, and lunged for the cutlery on the floor. ‘I’m sorry, just a wee accident. Please pay no attention whatsoever.’ She scooped up the forks and spoons, but paused over the knife. It was embedded into the wooden floor, standing upright. Automatically chewing on her lip, she laid her hand on it only to jerk it back.

She’d got
an electric shock. Tiny, but a shock nonetheless.

‘They just slid off the table!’

‘I was reaching for my knife and suddenly it wasn’t there.’

The two women at the table peered over the edge at Tully squatting on the floor. She sent them a smile, not even knowi
ng she did, and grabbed the knife again. No shock this time, though was she imagining it – did it feel ever so slightly warm? Prying it out of the wood, she stood and smoothed a hand over her hair.

‘I’m so sorry for the inconvenience,’ she said. ‘I’ll go get you a new set right away.’ She spun on her feet, gripping the cutlery tightly.

‘But how did it happen?’ The woman was standing now, and curious diners from other tables had caught onto the strangeness.

‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I must have knocked them on my way past.’

‘Impossible!’ the woman said, but Tully didn’t stop to listen to more. She did a fast walk towards the kitchen, and threw the offending cutlery into the sink, before making for the wait station for two new sets. She wiped a hand over her forehead and wished she were at home.

No, screw that. She wished she were back at the
cabin, back in time, saying no way to Toby’s suggestion they go up to the old insane asylum. Because whatever insanity used to be there, it was now following her around. Wishing Lara were still at the station, she snatched up the silverware, plastered on a smile, and wound her way back to her tables.

‘Clean silverware,’ she said. ‘Any my apologies. May I get you another drink – on the house?’

The women murmured, still clearly perturbed, but willing to return to their meals, and their fresh drinks. They couldn’t explain what had happened, and Tully saw they’d decided to rationalise it away. Thank goodness, because they wouldn’t like any explanation she had to give, even if she was stupid enough to tell the truth, which she most certainly wasn’t.

Well, the spirit of an insane person followed me home from the asylum, and now to work.
No. She wasn’t going to be telling anyone that. Instead, she patted her phone in her pocket, and hoped the ghost hunter guy would be as good as his word and text her the number of someone local who could help. She needed help. There was no way she could afford stuff to start happening at work. She got the table’s order, and went back to tell the kitchen.

Lara
veered towards her. ‘What just happened?’ she asked. ‘Was it what I think it was?’ She tucked her head closer to Tully’s. Whispered. ‘This is a public place. You think they’d come film here if stuff keeps happening?’

The idea horrified Tully. ‘We’d both lose our jobs well before that happened! Besides, I think their show got cancelled, anyway.’

Disappointment clouded Lara’s face. ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘In that case, you better hope your ghost doesn’t cause any more trouble. I need this job.’

‘So do I, and it’s not my ghost.’ But
Lara was already gone, and Tully sighed, checked her watch and found out she had hours more until quitting time. Hours of wondering what the spirit would do next. As far as she could see, there was only one good point to it being here at work with her. While it was here, it wasn’t tormenting Toby.

She and Toby stood at the top of the driveway, waiting. He kept pulling out his phone and checking the time, but time had deserted them, it seemed, slowing down to inch along, barely perceptible.

‘They’re not coming,’ Toby said.

She reached for his hand. ‘They’re coming,’ she said, hoping it was true.

‘They won’t be able to do anything anyway.’

‘Sure they will. They specialise in this sort of thing.’

‘It won’t want to leave.’

‘It can’t stay. It’s ruining our lives. They have to get rid of it.’

A pause, and Toby shoved his other hand in his pocket, pulled out his phone and checked the time again. ‘You think they’ll be able to?’

A firm nod. ‘When I spoke to the woman on the phone, it seemed like they do this all the time.’

‘How long are Dad and Mary out for?’

‘Long enough, I hope.’

‘That’s them, look. They’re turning in here.’

Tully squeezed her brother’s fingers and tried to still the butterflies in her stomach. The little lavender Ford Focus accelerated up the drive and came to a stop in front of them.

‘Are you sure this will work?’ Toby asked.

Tully wasn’t sure. She wasn’t sure of anything anymore. If she’d ever known the laws of physics or gravity or whatever, she’d be seriously doubting them by now. But she nodded anyway.

‘Of course it will work.’

‘I’m scared.’

Tully looked at her brother in surprise. Nothing much had scared Toby since they were little and frightened of the dark, and she recalled, the possibility of the house catching on fire. But they’d grown out of those fears, and since then, Toby had been too laid back and content with his lot to be afraid of anything.

His face was drawn, like he hadn’t been eating. And he had the scrubby beginnings of a beard. She’d never seen him with any more than a day or two of stubble, and that had been hardly noticeable, since he was as blond as she was.

‘I
t’ll work,’ she said, and held his hand tighter for a moment before dropping it and stepping towards the car.

‘Are you Tully?’ the woman asked, unfolding herself from the car.

‘Yes, and this is my brother Toby.’

Shrewd brown eyes looked at them. ‘Twins, huh? I often find twins are more susceptible to the spirit world.’ She leaned forward and snatched up Tully’s hand to give it a shake. ‘I’m Delilah. Patricia is over there. We’ll soon fix your little infestation problem.’

Tully felt her heart fall and avoided looking at Toby, who was now having his hand waggled enthusiastically by
Delilah.
What sort of name was that? Old-fashioned, for sure, but then
Delilah
looked a hundred and eight if she was a day. Patricia came around to their side of the car and stood there with a delighted smile on her face. As though they were about to sit down to a nice afternoon tea with scones.

‘This is my dear Patricia,’ Delilah was booming at them. ‘She’s invaluable,’ she said. ‘And very experienced. Patricia’s a medium, you know. I do the practical stuff, and she takes care of
the woo woo bits.’

Tully could feel Toby’s eyes on her now, his dismay as palpable as her own, but she bit down on her lip and
dredged up one last knotted strand of hope.

‘Are you sure you’ll be able to help us?’ she asked, a definite quaver in her voice.

Delilah slapped her on the shoulder, surprisingly strong for an old biddy in tweeds and sensible shoes, despite the weather. ‘Don’t you worry, my young flower. We’ve never failed yet.’

Backing up, so she couldn’t be slapped around again, Tully cleared her throat. ‘Um, how many of these have you done?’

Patricia tittered, but it was Delilah who answered. It seemed Delilah did all the talking. ‘Well,’ she said. ‘We’ve been at this since well before you were born, sweetcakes. How many house clearings would you say we’ve done, Patty?’ She didn’t wait for an answer. ‘Hundreds,’ she announced triumphantly. ‘Simply hundreds!’

Maybe they’d be of some use, then. Tully gestured towards the house. ‘Shall we get on with it then?’ she asked.

‘My goodness, yes,’ Delilah said. ‘None of us are getting any younger!’ She laughed all the way to the door, but as soon as she stepped inside, it stopped, cut abruptly off. ‘Oh yes,’ she said. ‘Even I can feel it. You can feel it, Patty? Of course you can, I don’t even need to ask. My, but it’s a desperate one.’ She turned around in a circle. ‘Where did you say it latched onto you from?’

Tully licked her lips and glanced at Toby. He stood just inside the doorway, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his jeans.

‘The old Seacliff Asylum,’ she said.

‘There’s nothing left of the building,’ Delilah boomed.

‘It chased us out of the forest.’ She couldn’t repress a shudder at the memory.

‘You getting this, Patty?’ Delilah asked, turning to her partner in the flower-sprigged dress, who was at least as ancient as herself, if not more so.

Patty nodded, and whispered something into Delilah’s ear.

‘She says the poor thing’s trapped inside its own nightmares.’ She patted the woman’s arm. ‘Patty used to be at Seacliff, she knows all about it.’

Tully blinked, wondering if the wizened old stick figure was there as patient or nurse, but she bit down on the question, afraid of what the answer would be. She sidled closer to Toby.

‘The main disturbance has been in the bathroom, you said?’

Tully nodded. ‘And the baby’s room. They’re both upstairs.’

Delilah stuck a helpful hand under Patricia’s elbow. ‘Lead the way, my dear, and we’ll send this poor lost soul
to their reward.’

They visited Hannah’s room first, and Tully stood in the doorway hugging herself, hoping Mary didn’t turn up sooner than expected. Toby was behind her, still in the hall. She could hear him muttering.

‘What did you say?’ she asked him, but he just looked at her, blinked, and shook his head. She turned her attention back to the old biddies in Hannah’s room. Patricia was whispering in the other’s ear again.

‘What’s she saying?’ Tully asked.

‘The spirit is attracted to the vitality of the young life in here. He clings to it.’

‘He?’

Delilah nodded at her, a satisfied gesture. ‘Oh yes. Patty is sure of it. A man.’

‘Oh.’ Tully hadn’t known it was a man. For some reason, she’d assumed it would be a woman. ‘I thought it was female,’ she said.

‘No, quite definitely male. In his thirties or forties.’ She looked at Patty for confirmation. ‘Frustrated. He’s been in spirit a long time.’ She leaned closer to her partner and nodded sagely as Patty did more esoteric whispering. ‘My dearest says he was treated terribly. They did that, you know, some of them.’

Tully didn’t know what she was talking about, and it must have shown.

‘In the asylums. The doctors were well-meaning, most of them. But no one understood much back in those days. Some of the treatments were what we could call barbaric now.’

That was terrible. For the first time, Tully felt a tug of compassion for the spirit. ‘What did they do to him?’ she asked.

‘He won’t say.’ Delilah looked around again. ‘Show us the bathroom, if you will.’

Again, she and Toby stayed out in the hallway. There wasn’t room for all of them in the bathroom.
Tully stuck her head in. ‘Can you feel him in here?’ she asked. ‘Where is he now?’

A whispered discussion between the two old ladies then Delilah nodded. ‘He’s here,’ she said. ‘Hiding. He’s a bit of a shrinking violet, this one.’

Tully frowned. That didn’t sound at all right. A shrinking violet? This was the spirit who chased them out of the woods, who had been making a nuisance of himself ever since. And suddenly he was hiding?