The Secrets of Ghosts (30 page)

‘I told you before. I’m not talking to any journalists.’

‘What about leading a ghost tour?’

Patrick wasn’t listening to her, so Katie tried a different tack. ‘Didn’t you say the town council objected? What about Pendleford’s traditional family values?’

‘What could be more traditional than history?’

‘Well, count me out,’ Katie said. It was difficult not to glance in Violet’s direction; she was plucking at Patrick’s sleeve.

Patrick shivered. ‘You know your future employment relies on this place staying open.’

Katie stepped up and looked Patrick straight in the eye. ‘Don’t threaten me. You have no idea what I can do.’

Violet put her arms around Patrick and Katie felt the coldness she knew would be enveloping him. She watched Patrick turn pale with great satisfaction. He turned and half ran down the hall, the fire door at the end slamming shut behind him.

‘Fun!’ Violet clapped her hands. ‘Who else can we do?’

*

Patrick avoided Katie for the rest of her shift, which was just perfect. The bar was so busy that Max didn’t have time to scowl at Barton any more and Anna finished early in the restaurant to go on a date with Nicolas, the cricket player.

‘I’m so pleased for you,’ Katie said, giving her a quick hug goodbye.

‘You inspired me,’ Anna said. ‘You took a chance and now look at you. All loved up.’

‘I wouldn’t say that,’ Katie said, trying not to smile.

‘Oh, please,’ Anna said. ‘You dribble whenever you see Max and he can’t take his eyes off you.’

‘I don’t dribble,’ Katie said. ‘That’s slander. Does he really watch me?’

Anna pulled on her denim jacket and adjusted the collar. ‘He doesn’t just stare at you, he gets this really dopey expression. Like this.’ Anna pulled a moony-eyed face.

‘He does not,’ Katie said, glowing all over.

At the end of her shift, Katie went to the freezer to liberate a couple of Fabs. Max joined her outside and she filled him in on Violet’s latest antics. She couldn’t stop smiling, but Max was quiet.

‘What?’ Katie said.

‘I don’t understand. You and Violet are so friendly, why do you have to investigate her death? Why not just ask her what happened?’

‘She says she doesn’t remember,’ Katie said. ‘I don’t know if she just doesn’t want to talk about it or if she really doesn’t—’

‘So she’s lying to you? And you wonder why I don’t want you to trust them—’

‘She’s frightened, I think. Or maybe she really can’t remember. It was a long time ago.’

‘I think she’d remember her death. It’s pretty important.’

‘The dead seem to have a different concept of what’s important. You’d be surprised.’

He didn’t know Violet the way she did; he didn’t understand. Violet was trapped and bored as a ghost and she’d been trapped and bored when she was alive, too. She deserved to live.

Max put his hands on the tops of Katie’s arms near her shoulders. They were hot but dry and she felt the shock of his touch right down to her toes. Max put his face close to hers. ‘Don’t you think that’s an even better reason not to trust them?’

Katie tried to focus on his words, tried not to get distracted by his nearness, by the feel of his hands on her skin. He was holding her firmly, not gripping, but she could see the tension in his arms. The muscles were standing out and the sleeves of his T-shirt had ridden up, exposing a line of lighter skin.

‘I know you like Violet,’ he was saying, ‘but she’s dead. At the very least she’s got this whole other perspective, something we can’t imagine. I mean, maybe life doesn’t seem all that important to her any more, or maybe it does. I don’t know. You don’t know. That’s what I’m saying. We. Don’t. Know.’

‘If I can help her, then I should.’

‘I know you believe that, but you have to stay safe, too.’

‘Believe me, that’s always been my view. My priority. But I’m sick of being scared.’

‘I get that,’ Max said, gently. ‘I really do. And I know you like Violet.’

‘It’s more than that.’

‘You don’t have to prove anything. Not to me. Not to anyone. You can just walk away.’

‘It’s not that simple.’ There were whispers in every shadow; the suggestion of a face was looking through the window — it had been getting clearer and clearer the whole time Max had been speaking. Spirits seemed to be everywhere she turned, getting stronger and louder by the moment.

‘We could go away,’ Max was saying. ‘Together. Just for a while.’

‘Maybe,’ Katie said. She tried to focus on his face, but she felt very cold. The hairs were standing up along her arms.

‘I think a break would—’ Max broke off. ‘Are you okay? You’ve gone really white—’

‘Headache,’ Katie managed. A shape rose out of the concrete floor and the flickering image of a woman ran through Katie, filling her with a paralysing ice.

‘Do you want a tablet?’

‘Please,’ Katie said, trying to sound normal, trying not to alarm Max. ‘And a glass of water.’

‘I’ll be right back,’ Max said and disappeared into the hotel.

‘Find my baby,’ a deep voice, like a woman who had been smoking cigars for the last hundred years, and then another ‘help’ and another and another.

Katie curled into a ball on the floor. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been there, hours or minutes. She wrapped her arms around her head and tried to block out the voices that were coming from all around. She couldn’t make out the words any more; it was just a babble of different tones. There were screams, too, one getting louder and higher pitched. Somewhere, at the edge of the noise but still, somehow, achingly clear was a newborn’s thin and heart-wrenching cry.

Katie was crying, now; she couldn’t stop the tears falling and she couldn’t stop the voices. She had her fingers wedged so tightly into her ears that they hurt but it didn’t help. The boundary between her and the voices seemed blurred. It was as if they were screaming inside her head.

She didn’t realise that she was rocking, or that she was making sounds of her own, but she felt a shaking of her shoulder. She jerked up and saw Henry reaching down for her. He put his hands on her head and she jerked away. He came forwards, his hands out and Katie scrabbled backwards, pure instinct driving her from beneath the pain and terror.

‘I can help,’ Henry said. At least she thought that was what he said. She watched his lips move and heard him, just barely. Darkness was edging in around her vision and she felt her old terror of passing out. She was not going to be helpless. She was not going to let the darkness take her. She couldn’t think coherently enough to know why, but she just felt that inner steel, the same thing that stopped her from having more than one beer, the voice in her head that told her she had to stay alert, in control.

The pain was a band around her temples and it was squeezing tighter and tighter, the voices just an incoherent roar. In a moment my head is going to pop like a ripe mango. The thought was horribly clear. She let Henry put his hands on her. He took her hands from her ears and replaced them with his own. His palms softly cupped her ears, his fingers ran underneath her hair at the back of her neck and, for once, the icy touch of a lost soul felt like a balm. The voices faded almost instantly. Katie caught a couple more separate voices again and then, blissfully, they went quiet.

She gazed into Henry’s pale eyes, willing the miracle to stick. It did. The quiet was so absolute that she became aware of the sound of her own ragged breath.

‘Better?’ Henry spoke quietly.

Katie swallowed. ‘Yes. Thank you.’

He moved away, then, and Katie closed her eyes, expecting another onslaught. Nothing.

Katie sat back on her heels and pressed her palms over her eyes. She could see flashing lights. Perhaps she was getting a migraine. Anna had described hers once and they’d begun with fuzzy vision and ended with intense pain.

‘What was that?’

‘At a guess,’ Henry said, ‘you’re not in control of your own power.’

That was wearingly familiar. ‘It’s not my fault.’

‘I didn’t say it was your fault. It’ll be your funeral, though.’

Katie took her hands away and looked at Henry. He looked completely calm. ‘Are you trying to frighten me?’

‘I don’t think I need to do anything. Surely you can see that, long term, hearing the voices of every echo and fragment of every person who has felt strongly enough to leave some kind of trace on this world is not a tenable position.’

‘Not tenable. I think my head is about to split open.’ I thought I was going to die.

‘Precisely.’

‘You stopped it, though.’ Katie tried to sound appropriately grateful, rather than terrified and angry. ‘How did you do that?’

‘I’ve had a lot of time to practise and it seems that my unfortunate position is not without its own abilities.’

‘Can you help me?’

Henry smiled. ‘Absolutely. But there is something I want you to do for me in return.’

‘You won’t do it out of the goodness of your heart?’

‘Not really my style, I’m afraid,’ Henry said. ‘But I can show you how to control your power. You’ll never need to be scared again.’

‘What do you want?’

‘I want a friend.’

Katie opened her mouth to say that she was already Henry’s friend, but he pre-empted her.

‘Not you, dear girl. A friend like me.’

‘A ghost.’

‘Precisely. I don’t want to be alone any more.’ Henry looked embarrassed and a little forlorn and Katie felt her heart clench in sympathy. But still. ‘I don’t know how to give you what you want. You all seem to exist in different, like, dimensions or something. Were you with anyone when you died? Maybe I could find them and if they’re linked somehow—’

‘I think you’re the key.’

‘What?’

‘To linking. I think I’d be able to cross over to another dimension if you, shall we say, invite me.’

‘And how would I do that?’

‘As I say, I think you’re a key. I think you open the doors between the different planes of existence. In fact, you’re like a skeleton key — you fit everyone’s lock and that’s why you can hear us all.’

‘I still don’t see how—’

‘If I step inside you, then I think I’ll be able to talk to the other ghosts who can talk to you. You’ll be a conduit.’

‘But you can’t stay inside me for ever,’ Katie said, horrified. ‘You’ll be back to square one afterwards.’

‘I don’t think so. I think you can hold me and another soul inside at the same time. We’ll become linked because we’ll occupy the same dimensional space. You.’ He smiled. ‘Temporarily, of course.’

‘And then you’ll, what, step out of me again?’

‘Naturally. If we do it at the same time, then I’m hoping we’ll still be linked.’

‘Will that work?’

‘I have no idea, but I think it’s well worth a try.’

‘And you swear you’ll leave me again?’ Katie couldn’t believe she was considering it. The idea was abhorrent. Awful.

‘It would just be for a moment,’ Henry said. ‘Then I’ll never trouble you again.’

Katie felt a stab of guilt. ‘You’re not troubling me,’ she said. ‘I really do think of you as a friend, you know.’

‘That’s kind,’ Henry said. ‘But I must face facts. You’ll leave this place, your life will take you onwards, and then I’ll be alone again.’

‘I could take you with me. If I could work out what you’re anchored to, I could maybe move it, give you more freedom.’

‘But you’ll grow old and die and I’ll still be me. Same age. Same Henry. Still alone. Besides…’ He hesitated. ‘Now I know that Violet’s here I won’t rest until I see her again.’

Katie swallowed. ‘You know about Violet?’

‘I heard you talking to your friend.’ Henry wagged a finger. ‘You should’ve told me. Naughty girl.’

‘I was going to,’ Katie said, wondering what the hell Violet saw in Henry. He was unbelievably arrogant. ‘I was waiting for the right moment.’

Henry spread his hands. ‘I believe we’ve found it. You give me what I want and I’ll help you control your awkward little psychic gift. I’ll make sure you’re never troubled again.’ He was moving towards her and Katie took a step back. ‘Imagine the peace and quiet.’

‘Let me think about it.’

‘Of course.’ Henry gave a small smile. ‘I’ve got all the time in the world.’

Chapter 26

Max came back with a box of paracetamol and a pint glass of cold water. Katie swallowed two tablets and half the water.

‘Do you believe me, now?’ Max said. ‘You need a break from this place. I’m going to take you home and you’re going to have a good night’s sleep and then tomorrow we’re going somewhere. Anywhere. How about the Lake District? Or Cornwall? Ireland?’

‘You’re taking me on a mini break.’

Max managed a tense little smile. ‘It’s for your own good.’

‘You said you’d help,’ Violet said. She floated towards Katie, her eyes wide, arms outstretched, looking more ghoul-like than she ever had before.

‘I know,’ Katie said. ‘And I will. I just need a bit of time.’

‘Is she here now?’ Max was squinting in Violet’s direction. ‘You see. They don’t leave you alone for a moment.’

‘I’m not bothering Katie,’ Violet said, indignant.

‘Hang on,’ Max said. He squinted in Violet’s direction. ‘I think I can see something. It’s like heat haze. The air is kind of shimmering.’

Katie looked at Violet. She could smell burned matches and an undertone of Chanel No.5. The light was catching off the stones in Violet’s headband and her dress moved as if blown by a draught. She reached out and touched Violet’s fingertips. There was a crackle of energy, like an electrical current jumping from Katie to Violet, and she snatched her hand away.

‘Christ.’ Max stumbled backwards. ‘I saw her.’

‘That’s interesting,’ Katie said. She was rubbing her fingers. They felt hot, almost singed.

‘I just saw a ghost,’ Max said. ‘A real ghost. Fucking fuck.’

‘Is he talking about me?’ Violet said. ‘His language is appalling.’

The scent of cigar smoke gave Henry away a few seconds before he appeared. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Chatting to Violet. I think I’m making her stronger.’ Katie felt as if something very important had happened but it was hard to concentrate with Henry and Violet and Max all near her.