Helen Phifer - The Secrets Of The Shadows

‘Will speaking.’

He listened as the control room operator informed him that a body had been found in St Mary’s churchyard, it looked suspicious and would he attend. ‘Yes, I’ll be there in ten minutes.’ He ended the call, bollocks now it was going to be hours before he would get to speak to Annie. Not wanting to do it over the phone he had no choice so he dialled her number. She didn’t pick up and he hadn’t really expected her to so he left her a message. ‘Annie, it’s not what you think. I swear to God I don’t know how she ended up there. I was so drunk I wouldn’t be able to, well, you know what I mean. I love you so much, I’ve got to go, there’s a suspicious death at St Mary’s and it might be hours before I can come and see you. Please Annie, I love you with all my heart – let me explain.’

He ended the call and slumped on the bed, today was going to be a long day.

***

Annie had driven around aimlessly for a couple of hours, at one point she ended up on Walney Island and parked the car on the seafront, watching the waves crashing onto the shore with tears rolling down her cheeks. She finally decided it was time to go home and parked the car outside her semi-detached house. Her phone was vibrating on the seat next to her but there was no way she would answer it. She couldn’t bear to hear Will’s voice right now, he had hurt her so much yet she wasn’t surprised. She knew she had got too involved so soon after Mike. She looked at her house, it had been over a month since she’d been inside. The For Sale sign that was swaying in the wind would be coming down, there wasn’t another option. It looked like she would be moving back after all, she couldn’t stay with Jake, he’d smother her with love, and the last time she’d stayed at her brother’s it had caused no end of heartache for everyone. She’d run there to escape from Mike after he’d smashed her over the head with a bottle and almost killed her, which had led her to discover the haunted house in the woods, where she had also discovered her new found ability to see ghosts. Oh and she’d managed to attract the attention of a man called Henry who was a serial killer.

Her phone beeped, shaking her from the memories which were filling her mind with horror; the only good thing which had come out of it had been her falling in love with Will. He had turned into her knight in shining armour, and now this morning had put an end to all of it. Her phone beeped to tell her she had a voicemail so she opened the glove compartment and threw the phone in there, slamming it shut. She needed some time on her own, time to think, and this was as good a place as any. She got out of the car and walked up the three steps to reach her front door. Once she opened it and stood inside she waited for a couple of minutes to see what would happen. See if the memories of the beatings Mike used to give her would come flying back, but they didn’t. In fact she didn’t feel anything. She went into her living room, which had once been full of mismatched, antique painted furniture. Now it was an empty shell; everything had been packed away and stored in one of her brother’s barns at his farmhouse in Abbeywood. The only thing of any comfort was the carpet that she’d had fitted just before Mike had tried to kill her, it still smelled new. She went through into the kitchen and checked the cupboards, there were a couple of mugs, a plate and two forks and a spoon – at least she had something to eat and drink with. She filled the sink with soapy water and plonked the lot of it into the bowl to soak. She needed to go and buy some groceries. In fact she needed to buy quite a bit unless she waited until Will was at work and went back for all her stuff – she would have to because she didn’t have much spare cash. Turning to look at the kitchen door where Mike had decided to try and cave the back of her head in, she expected to feel upset, but the only thing she felt was relief that she was still alive, even if her life was one fucked up mess. She ran up the stairs to check the bedrooms and turn the heating on to air the house through, it didn’t feel much like summer today. She didn’t even look into the master bedroom, instead she went into the much smaller spare bedroom, which looked out onto the tree-lined front street. This house was by no means as pretty as Will’s but it was her house and it was time to reclaim it.

Tears filled her eyes but she blinked them back. She had wanted to spend the rest of her life with Will but she wouldn’t let him treat her like a fool. She stripped the single bed, shook all the covers and pillow cases and then put them back on. They had never been used before so there was no point washing them, she was just checking for spiders and dust. Annie turned to peer out of the window and caught a glimpse of a little girl standing on her front door step. She was wearing a long, white cotton dress and had platinum blonde hair which had been parted down the middle and braided into two plaits. She didn’t recognise the girl as one of the neighbour’s kids; the poor thing must be frozen because there was a bitter wind today. And then she noticed that the litter on the street was whipping around on the tarmac pavements in a frenzy, but the girls hair and dress weren’t moving at all. Annie looked up and down the street to see if there were other people around, the only one was the elderly man across the road and he was hanging onto his battered old trilby to stop it from blowing away. Her heart began to race and the palms of her hands were damp. The girl didn’t move, she carried on staring up at her. Annie pressed her face to the glass and opened her mouth to speak but the girl lifted a finger to her lips to shush her. Then she turned and walked down the first two steps … by the time she should have touched the third one she had disappeared. Annie ran down her stairs and opened the door; there was no sign of the girl. She stepped out of the house and down the steps to check the front street, as she trod on the bottom step something crunched underneath her shoe. She stopped and bent down, picking up a broken toy figure, it was a head and body with no legs or arms. It was a pretty creepy toy because whoever he was he looked far too old to be an action figure, his hair was grey. She looked up and down the deserted street then turned and went back inside her house. She went into the kitchen and opened one of the empty drawers, throwing the figure into it. She didn’t like it but for some reason she knew it was important to someone, maybe the girl had played with it when she had been alive. As much as she didn’t want to admit it she knew that the girl was dead, normal kids don’t disappear into thin air. If only Jake had been here, he would have had a shit fit.

***

A car horn beeped outside and Will pulled himself up from the bed. He went downstairs, picking up the overturned picture. He kissed his finger and pressed it to Annie’s lips – sorry babe . The hall still stunk of stale vomit and his stomach lurched once more, he opened the front door and inhaled the fresh air, lifting his hand to wave at the officer waiting for him in the patrol car. Slamming his door shut he went down the steps and opened the car door. ‘How’s it going Sean?’

‘Oh you know how it is Will, same shit different day and all that.’

Will nodded; he knew exactly what he meant. ‘So what’s happened?’

‘I haven’t been to the scene; I heard the shout come over the radio that an old dear had found a dead woman in the church grounds. They’ve been in a flap ever since.’

‘Christ. As if we need any more murders, I take it that it doesn’t look like natural causes?’

‘Not from what I’ve heard on the radio. They were shouting about getting a tent there from CSI to cover her up. I spoke to Smithy who’s on scene guard, he said she was totally naked.’