Helen Phifer - The Ghost House

Her face bright red, she grabbed the hat and pulled it down over her head then turned and walked briskly back towards the safety of the house. Once she reached the kitchen door she turned to face them. ‘If you need me give me a ring.’ With that she shut and bolted the kitchen door leaving them staring at each other.

‘What the fuck is the matter with you, Jake? Why did you have to say that?’

Jake shrugged and Will was pleased to see that for once he actually looked remorseful. ‘Ah you know me, Will, I don’t mean it. Before I can stop myself I’ve jumped straight in with my size twelve boots and the damage has been done.’

They walked in silence to the gate and Will couldn’t help but turn around to take one last look, he caught a glimpse of Annie watching them from one of the downstairs windows, she looked so scared and vulnerable and he wanted to go back and give her a hug, tell her everything was going to be all right . Bloody hell I’m going soft in my old age .

They walked back to the main path, which ran through the woods to meet up with some of the search team. Jake was subdued for a change and Will was thankful, his mind was working overtime wondering what had happened to Annie. But now was not the time or place because he needed to keep a clear head for Jenna White. On top of that he couldn’t ask Jake about Annie because he’d never hear the end of it. He supposed he could ask around the station where, no doubt, someone would be all too willing to fill him in on every gory detail, but he didn’t want that. He didn’t want to violate her privacy, he wanted to hear it from her and he wondered how he could approach her if he saw her again. And he did want to see her again. Very much.

Annie wasn’t really angry with Jake. She was used to him opening his mouth and putting his foot in it. The number of scrapes at work she had got him out of was too many to count; it was because Will had been there she had felt humiliated. She only knew him well enough to say hello to in the corridor, up to now never having worked on any cases with him. The look of pity on his face had made her feel helpless.

She didn’t want sympathy from anyone. It was her own fault she had stayed with Mike all those years when she should have done what she told the countless victims of the domestic violence cases she dealt with through work: get out of there. But Mike could be so persuasive when he needed to be and a complete charmer. He would promise her he wouldn’t do it again and tell her that he loved her so much and every time she believed him until the last six months when she had started to crack. She felt like a complete idiot.

As she had watched Jake and Will walk away she had wanted to run after them and offer them some coffee. It would be nice to have some company, especially after this morning’s events. She knew all about Will’s reputation around the station as a womanizer. According to Jake, who had been friends with him since they joined, his type was tall, blonde, stick-thin, the look of a starving supermodel. So why was the way he looked at her playing on her mind?

Jake, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. When, fresh from training school, she had been assigned a tutor on her first day in the station and had been introduced to him she had to breathe deeply to calm herself down. He was tall, dark and drop dead gorgeous with muscles in all the right places. Every single job they went to the women practically threw themselves at him. He was always professional and never took them up on their offers of phone numbers or drinks and Annie had found herself developing a major crush on her tutor.

Jake took to Annie and became her protector, to which she had not the slightest objection. After one particularly harrowing day at work – they had delivered two death messages in a row and been the first on scene at a fatal car crash – he invited her to his house for a bottle of wine and a takeaway. Annie couldn’t have said no even if she had wanted to. Eager to have the chance to spend some time with him she had told Mike it was a girl’s night out. He had moaned the whole time she was getting ready to go and she knew there would be a price to pay for it later.

She arrived at the large Victorian semi in one of the nicest parts of town, which made her wonder exactly how he could afford it on his wages. Walking up the cobbled path bordered on either side by the most aromatic lavender and pink roses she had ever smelt it occurred to her just how much she would like to live here with Jake.

Angry male voices filtered through the open sash window and then the front door opened, and out stormed an even better looking man than Jake. He slammed the door behind him, jumped over the lavender to the drive and got into a brand new Mercedes. The door flew open and Jake stood there about to shout something when he spotted Annie standing there with a bottle of wine in one hand and her mouth wide open.

‘I hope you’re not drooling after that. Because he is one spoilt, selfish bastard.’

Embarrassed she shook her head. ‘Is that your brother?’

Jake had laughed. ‘Oh how I wish he was because then I could just punch him when he gets on my nerves. Come on, I’m starving. Get in here quick so I can order before he comes back.’

‘He’s coming back? Does he live here then?’

‘Actually it’s his house but we both pay the mortgage.’

She began to imagine how nice it would be to live in this lovely old house, which was decorated with a vintage shabby chic feel to it. It would be even better sharing it with two gorgeous men; she looked at Jake who was genuinely confused.

‘Erm, I hope you’re not fantasizing about what you would like to do with my boyfriend?’

Annie had wanted the ground to open up and swallow her. Doing her best to look indifferent, she brushed it off. ‘Well, it did include the two of you; I wouldn’t leave you out, Jake.’

If Jake had been insulted he never let on.

Half an hour later the Greek God had turned up with two bottles of wine and a bunch of flowers. ‘These are for you. I’m Alex. I was so rude earlier and I’m very sorry but Jake can be such a tosser.’

Annie had accepted the flowers and smiled. ‘You know him as well as I do then.’ They had both laughed and Jake had tried to look insulted but failed miserably and joined in. That had been the start of a beautiful friendship.

When she was lying in casualty like a broken rag doll Jake had begged her to move in with them, but her pride had got the better of her and she had refused point blank. Although, if she didn’t have something sorted out by the time Ben and his family arrived back in the country, she might have to take him up on his offer.

Ben was visiting their mother, who had moved to France six years ago. Annie had been out twice to see her and it was twice too much: they just didn’t get on. Annie had never forgiven her for leaving her dad when they were young.

Annie had loved her dad so much. He had always been the one to tuck her in and read her bedtime stories and then one day she had come home from school and her mum and Ben had been waiting in the hall for her with two large suitcases and three black bin bags of toys. Annie had begged her mum to let her stay with her dad but she wouldn’t, insisting that Annie had to go with her. A black car had pulled up with a man driving she had never seen before, and her mum had loaded the cases, bags and then her children into a car with her and the mystery man and driven away.

Annie had never forgotten the look of hurt on her dad’s face. He died not long after that and Annie blamed her mum for breaking his heart. Ben on the other hand was the golden child, or so she had nicknamed him. He would laugh it off but Annie knew he was their mother’s favourite and it didn’t bother her, well, not now she was an adult. It had when she was a kid because Ben could just about do whatever he wanted yet whenever Annie asked it was always ‘no’.