Peter James - The House on Cold Hill

‘Like the Star Trek transporter?’

‘Yeah, kind of thing, heh-heh!’

‘And that’s your theory for how the bed turned round?’

‘Like I said, Ollie, we understand so little still. Go with it and accept it.’

‘Easy for you to say — you weren’t the one sleeping in the room. Want to come and spend a night in there?’

‘No thanks!’ He laughed again.

Ollie stayed talking to Bruce Kaplan at the Falmer Sports Centre, then drove straight to Jade’s school to collect her at 3.30 p.m.

She came out with a group of girls, chatting animatedly, and he was happy to see her looking so settled now. As she climbed into the car and kissed him, she waved her goodbyes out of the window to the rest of the group and said, ‘Dad, is it OK that I invited Laura, Becky and Edie to come to my party as well?’

‘Of course.’

As they headed off he asked, ‘So how was your day?’

‘It was OK,’ she said, brightly. ‘We had English. Our homework is to write a story. I’m going to write a ghost story!’

He gave her a sideways look. ‘A ghost story?’

‘I’m going to write about a girl who moves into a new house, and is on, like, FaceTime with her friend, and her friend sees a strange old lady standing behind her!’

‘OK,’ he said. ‘And what does this strange old lady do in your story?’

‘Well, I haven’t decided yet.’

‘Is she a nice ghost or a nasty one?’

‘Well, I think she frightens everyone. But they shouldn’t really be frightened because she’s not nasty, she can’t help being a ghost.’

He grinned, loving her sweet innocence, and relieved about how she was still so unaffected by what had happened in the house. If only he and Caro could feel the same levity. ‘Is that what you really think?’ he asked.

She nodded. ‘I mean, a ghost is just like coloured air, right?’

‘That’s a good way of describing it!’ He was thinking back a few years, to when Jade was about six. She’d had an imaginary friend called Kelly who she played with. Back then she talked about Kelly to himself and Caro constantly. She told them that Kelly lived in her cupboard. He remembered one time asking Jade what her friend looked like and she’d replied that Kelly didn’t have a face.

It had spooked them both. Caro had talked about it to a friend who was a child psychologist, who had said it was something quite common. Rather than worry about it, they should relax and show an interest. Eventually she would grow out of it. So they had shown an interest, regularly asking about her. By the time she was eight, Kelly was long forgotten.

‘Do you remember Kelly?’ he asked.

‘Kelly?’

‘Your imaginary friend, when you were younger?’

‘Oh, Kelly, yes.’ She fell silent.

‘Is this woman that Phoebe’s seen anything like her?’

She shook her head. ‘No. Do you like my idea for the story, Dad?’

‘Yup. I’d love to see it when you’ve written it.’

‘Maybe!’ she said with a mischievous grin.

When they arrived home ten minutes later, there was a large, brown cardboard Amazon box, addressed to Ms Jade Harcourt, sitting on the hall table, which one of the workmen must have signed for.

Ollie moved to pick it up. ‘Looks like a birthday present — I’ll take it upstairs and put it with your other presents!’

She shook her head vigorously. ‘No, no, no, no, nooooo! I know what that is! I got Mum to order it for me, for my party!’ She grabbed it possessively, then ran upstairs, clutching it.

Ollie went into the kitchen; three electricians were at work, and there were reels of cable everywhere. He then climbed the stairs and went into their bedroom. There were dust sheets on the floor, and a solitary workman on a stepladder was pushing a paint roller across the last segment of unpainted new ceiling. The television was back in place on its mountings on the wall.

‘Almost done, Mr Harcourt!’ he called down.

‘You’re a total star!’ Ollie replied.

He went back down to the kitchen, and then into the cellar. There was no sign of Bryan, Chris, or any of the other workmen. But several steel Acrow props were in place. As he went back up the stairs into the scullery, Barker appeared.

‘Well, the good news is that your house won’t fall down this weekend, Ollie,’ he said.

‘Glad to hear it!’

‘This is the bad news.’ He handed him an envelope. ‘I’m afraid it’s the bill. If you don’t mind paying it next week, I’d appreciate it — I’ve paid the engineer out of my own pocket.’

Ollie opened the envelope and stared at it in dismay. It was over three thousand pounds. ‘Sure,’ he said, thinking about his rapidly diminishing bank balance, and hoping to hell Cholmondley would pay promptly. He planned to invoice him this weekend. ‘Of course. I’ll do a bank transfer.’

‘I’m afraid I’ve got another bill for you — an interim one from myself — we’ve had to purchase a lot of materials. I’ll pop it in on Monday.’

‘Of course,’ Ollie said, his gloom deepening.

He made himself a mug of tea and carried it up to his office. There were more bills on his desk from the electrician and the plumber, as well as his annual renewal for the Falmer Sports Centre, a reminder that the car tax was due on Caro’s Golf, a second reminder from Caffyns garage that the Range Rover was overdue for a service, and more paperwork that he didn’t even want to look at right now.

Bob Manthorpe had still not called him back. He dialled the retired vicar’s number again, and once more it went to voicemail. He left another message. Then he checked his emails.

There was an enthusiastic one from Bhattacharya of The Chattri House chain, accepting his quote and confirming he would now like Ollie to extend his brief to include all twelve of his restaurants and his wholesale business. There was also an encouraging one from another classic car dealer, from his visit to the Goodwood Revival, who said Cholmondley had spoken well of Ollie, and asking for a quote for an extensive website. His new business was at least starting to get some traction, he thought, with relief.

He began work on his invoice for the car dealer, detailing the hours spent. But he was finding it hard to concentrate. He kept thinking back to his conversation with Bruce Kaplan, earlier. Energy. There had been a lot about that subject in the Sunday Times article. Also Caro had said that her medium client — the now-dead Kingsley Parkin — had talked about energy. In particular, bad energy .

Could everything that was going on here be put down to energy? If they could understand more, they could deal with it, surely?

Out of the window he saw Caro’s car approaching. It was just after 5.30 p.m., and pelting with rain. He went down to greet her.

She arrived at the front door holding her briefcase in one hand and a heavy City Books carrier bag in the other. She gave him a kiss then handed him the bag. ‘These are the copies of all the deeds that you wanted. My secretary blew some of the older ones up because she said they’re not that easy to read — they didn’t start typing deeds until after the First World War — before that they’re all handwritten. And they are pretty verbose and long-winded. In those days lawyers got paid by the folio, so why use two words when you can be paid for using twenty-two... What do you fancy for supper tonight?’

‘You!’ he said.

‘That is always going to be the right answer!’ She kissed him again. ‘I really fancy a curry. A client who lives near here told me there’s a great place that does takeaways in Henfield and another good one in Hurstpierpoint. Shall I see if I can find their menus online?’