Shani Struthers - 44 Gilmore Street

“And you’d be right,” Theo admitted. “Spot-on.”

This was turning into one of those wistful moments.

Releasing Ruby, Theo clapped her hands together, which broke the spell.

“Right, this holiday—”

“Theo, let’s just sort out these new cases. They’re mostly local but there’s one in the Lyme Regis area, linked to a period cottage, dating back to the seventeenth century and recently purchased to let. It’s got ghosts galore apparently. Layers and layers of them. The new owners, Rachel and Mark, claim to have seen at least several different apparitions. They’re not bothered by them funnily enough but they think prospective tenants will be.”

“Lyme Regis you say? Now why don’t you and Cash carry out the first survey on that one? You could combine it with a—”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, a holiday.”

“Indeed,” Theo replied, looking nothing if not smug.

Cash was not the fourth member of the team. He was a freelance IT Specialist with enough work of his own. Corinna was the fourth member. Not a psychic but a sensitive, in her early twenties and keen to hone her skills. Although she worked in a pub, she’d been doing increased hours for Ruby lately. They all had – despite Theo having turned seventy and Ness coming up to fifty-six. Ruby worked at the business full-time and then some. But workaholic or not, as she’d just been accused, she loved her job. There was nothing more satisfying than helping a spirit that was grounded. Dealing with the non-spiritual, however, that which had never been human, was another matter – one she didn’t want to think about. Not after last year.

“But you are thinking about it, aren’t you?”

“Theo, I’m fine.”

“I’m not contradicting you, I’m just saying—”

The door burst open and Cash bustled in, his arms full of something.

“Babe! Guess what I’ve got here?”

Ruby grew even more fractious; she could see well enough.

“Holiday brochures,” Cash continued enthusiastically. “I’ve just picked them up. I’ve got the Caribbean, the Far East, America, the lot. I have to say, if it were up to me, we’d be heading to Barbados pronto. Mauritius looks good too, though. The beaches go on for miles and miles and they’re so white.”

Ruby couldn’t believe it. “Are you two ganging up on me?”

Some of Cash’s enthusiasm waned. “Sorry? I’m not with you.”

“Theo’s been saying I need a holiday and now you. Have you two been scheming behind my back, concocting this up between you?”

He seemed genuinely taken aback. “I swear, I haven’t.”

“So how did you know?”

“Know what?”

“That we were talking about holidays!”

His familiar grin returned. “Ah, well, that would be the psychic in me.”

Ruby couldn’t help but smile too. Cash was not psychic but he was intuitive, becoming more and more so over the months she’d been with him. He always said hanging around with psychics was the reason why and maybe he had a point. Either that or it really was coincidence.

“Look, Cash, I’d love to go on holiday with you,” – it would be their first – “but we’re really busy so there’s absolutely no way—”

There was another interruption. The door to her office opened and a face peered round it. All three of them stared in surprise. This was the attic. People didn’t just walk in off the street. Usually they phoned first or made an appointment. More usually still Ruby and the team went to visit clients – or rather the four walls the clients occupied that were deemed ‘haunted’. The attic was simply too small to hold consultations with the general public.

Everyone continued to stare, as though engaged in a contest.

Ruby spoke up. “Erm… hello, can I help you?”

“Psychic Surveys?” the girl responded. She was young, not far out of her teens, Ruby guessed, around twenty-one, twenty-two, with brown hair – a mousey shade not dissimilar to Ruby’s – and timid blue eyes.

“Yes, this is Psychic Surveys.”

Relief flooded her features. “Oh good. I mean I know it is, I checked I had the right address before I came here. Then I met one of the men in the offices below. He was really nice, he opened the door, said for me to go on up, that you wouldn’t mind. I hope you don’t, mind that is. It is okay, isn’t it?”

The girl was rambling. What could she say? ‘No, it’s not okay, come back when you’ve made an appointment?’ That would seem churlish.

Ruby stood up and gestured towards a second, smaller desk. Her desk – purchased from Ardingly Antiques Fair and massive with an inlaid green leather top was where she, and she alone, sat. It might be massive but it was cluttered too, with all sorts of files, books and random pieces of paper covering it, as well as her computer, keyboard, printer and phone. The other desk was where team meetings were held – it was here she invited the mystery guest to sit, whilst offering her the obligatory cup of tea.

“Oh no, I don’t drink tea. A cup of coffee though, that’d be cool. I take it with lots of milk and two sugars. My name’s Elisha Grey, but call me Ellie, everyone does. And you’re Ruby Davis aren’t you?”

Ruby confirmed she was and also introduced the others as Cash Wilkins and Theo Lawson. They shuffled over to the meeting table too and Ruby included them in the drinks round. When all four had their respective mugs in front of them, Ruby asked Ellie the purpose of her visit. Immediately Ellie started scratching at her arm.

“It’s… well… I’ve got a bit of a problem.”

“A problem of a spiritual nature?” queried Theo.

“I don’t know what you’d call it, to be honest.”

“Are you being haunted? By a ghost I mean.”

It was Cash who’d asked that, cutting to the chase as usual. He knew very well that Ruby didn’t call grounded spirits ‘ghosts’ but as most of the world did, she supposed it did no harm to use the layman’s term every now and then. Again Ellie looked embarrassed. People often did when talking about psychic matters; either that or manically excited as though the real world was not quite thrilling enough for them, wanting to spice it up with a dose of the supernatural. Ruby and her team called those types of people the ‘wannabes’ – they wanted to be haunted. Generally though, it was easy to tell the difference between those who were and those who weren’t. There was no disguising genuine fear. With Ellie, however, it wasn’t easy. Ruby glanced at Theo. She was having trouble deciding too.

“Are you being haunted?” Ruby repeated Cash’s words.

Ellie took another sip of coffee.

“I think I’m tuning into a past life,” she said finally.

“A past life?” Ruby hadn’t expected that. “You mean reincarnation?”

“Yes, that’s it, reincarnation. I… I was told something, a short while back and, well, it’s like it’s set something off in me.”

“Oh?” prompted Theo.

“It’s like a door’s been opened in my mind, a door that’s always been there but was shut tight, until now.” Ellie hung her head, brown hair falling forward slightly. “Do you know what I mean? Am I making sense?”

Ruby’s eyes travelled to where the girl was scratching, the skin was red, sore looking: eczema perhaps.

Theo must have noticed too. “Tell us more,” she said, smiling indulgently.

Ellie looked so grateful that the older woman was interested. “I’ve started dreaming.” She tutted – seemingly annoyed at such a trite statement. “We all dream, I know that, but these dreams are different, they’re like, really vivid. Familiar too, that’s what gets me about them. It’s hard to explain.”