Haunted by the Past, page 21
part #11 of Ismael Jones Series
“Okay...” I said. “That isn’t just an invitation, that’s almost insultingly blatant. Step into my web, said the spider to the fly. The kettle’s on.”
“We are still going to check it out, though, aren’t we?” said Penny.
“Of course,” I said. “I love walking into traps! They always end up revealing so much useful information about whoever set them.”
“Then feel free to take the lead,” said Penny. “I will be right behind you.”
“Because I make such an excellent human shield?”
“Got it in one,” said Penny. “Be as broad as you can, there’s a dear.”
We set off cautiously down the corridor, watching and listening all the way, but nothing moved and nothing stirred, even in the deepest of the shadows. We finally came to a halt before the open doorway, but all I could see was the gloom of an empty room. I shoved the door all the way back, with such force it slammed deafeningly against the inner wall. The echoes took some time to die away. Penny actually jumped a little, and looked at me reproachfully. I nodded apologetically and then raised my voice, addressing the open doorway.
“Hello!” I said cheerfully. “Anybody there?”
Penny shook her head. “Do you really believe someone hiding in ambush would actually forget themselves enough to answer you?”
“I live in hope,” I said.
I felt around inside the doorway for a light switch, but there didn’t seem to be one. I stared into the gloom, but I couldn’t even make out any furniture. The room gave every appearance of being completely empty. I entered slowly, one step at a time. Penny moved quickly into position beside me, ready for anything. Because the humour stopped the moment we were in enemy territory. It quickly became clear that the room consisted of nothing but bare walls and a scuffed floor. Drawn curtains covered the only window, blocking out the sunlight. We came to a halt in the middle of the room and looked around us, and nothing at all looked back.
“Ishmael,” Penny said quietly. “If there’s no one in here, who opened the door?”
“I suppose it’s always possible that the doorframe could have become warped over time,” I said. “So the door doesn’t hang properly anymore, and the vibrations from our footsteps made it swing open. Remember Arthur’s story, about the phantom footsteps on the top floor?”
Penny started to nod, and then sneezed explosively. She sniffed a few times, and then wrinkled her nose.
“It smells like something died in here.”
“Probably just rats in the wainscotting,” I said.
“Can’t you smell it?”
“Too much dust in the air,” I said. “It’s hard for me to pick up anything.”
“Then why aren’t you sneezing?” said Penny.
“Please,” I said. “I have my dignity to consider.”
The door slammed shut behind us. I spun around, dived for the door and grabbed the handle, but it wouldn’t turn. The door was locked. The room seemed suddenly that much darker.
“Could someone have sneaked down the corridor and locked us in?” said Penny. Her voice was entirely steady, but I could hear the tension in it.
“It isn’t usually possible for anyone to sneak up on me,” I said. “But I was concentrating on the room.”
“Try the pass key,” said Penny.
The key didn’t want anything to do with the lock. I put it away again.
“The pass key was only ever intended for the renovated rooms on the top floor,” I said.
Penny glared at the closed door. “Why would anyone want to lock us in here?”
“To throw a scare into us?”
Penny smiled briefly. “They don’t know us very well, do they?”
“Maybe they just wanted us to be in a position where we’d have no choice but to call for help, and be rescued,” I said. “To undermine our authority, and make us look like idiots.”
“But we’re on the ground floor,” said Penny. “We could just smash the window and climb out.”
“Please,” I said. “Think of our dignity. And besides, I feel the need to make a statement.”
I lashed out, and punched the steel lock so hard it flew right out of the wood, and dropped onto the corridor floor outside. I hauled the door back, strode out into the corridor, and looked quickly in both directions, but there was no one about. Penny emerged at her own speed, just to make it clear that being locked in a darkened room hadn’t bothered her in the least. She looked at the smashed lock lying on the floor, some distance away.
“Show-off.”
“I was in a bit of a mood,” I admitted. “I hate being caught off guard. Still, if you can’t punch the one you want, punch what’s there.”
Penny looked at the ragged gap in the door where the lock used to be, and smiled.
“Marion and Arthur really aren’t going to like that.”
“Tough,” I said.
“What if they ask how you did it?” said Penny.
“I shall just smile and look mysterious,” I said.
“You are very good at that.”
“Years of practice.”
We set off down the corridor again. If we had been locked up to prevent us from going any further, then whatever lay ahead was where I wanted to be. I finally stopped before one particular side door and considered it thoughtfully. Penny stopped beside me, and looked the door over carefully.
“What’s so special about this room?”
“Arthur was here, not long ago,” I said. “I can smell his scent, still hanging on the air.”
“So?” said Penny. “It’s his house. He and Marion have probably been all over it, checking out what needs doing.”
“But this was just him,” I said. “I’m not picking up any trace of Marion.”
I tried the handle, and it turned easily. I threw the door open, sending it flying back to slam against the inside wall. Someone once hid behind a door to ambush me, and I’ve never forgotten. The room was a decent size, with bright sunshine pouring in through a large window. The curtains had been neatly tied back. I took one last glance down the corridor, just in case someone was waiting for a chance to lock us in again, and then moved cautiously forward into the room. Penny stuck close beside me, peering eagerly around her.
The walls had been painted in bright primary colours, though they were somewhat faded now. A teacher’s desk stood at the far end of the room, before a blackboard fixed to the wall. It had clearly been some time since anyone used it, but the room smelled as though it had been cleaned recently. One wall was lined with shelves crammed full of books, and Penny leaned in close to study the creased and battered spines.
“Basic school textbooks, all the usual subjects,” she said. “And...a whole lot of children’s fiction. Enid Blyton! I used to read her all the time when I was young. Famous Five, Secret Seven....Ooh, The Faraway Tree! I loved that one!”
“A school room,” I said. “And the only child in this house, in recent times, was Arthur.”
Penny nodded approvingly at the room. “It seems his parents did do something for him.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” I said.
I pointed to something half hidden by the teacher’s desk. Penny frowned.
“What is that?”
We moved over to the desk and I pushed it to one side, revealing a metal cage just big enough to hold a medium-sized dog. The bars had been reinforced with steel mesh in places, and the entrance was held shut by a heavy steel padlock. I crouched down beside the cage, and studied it carefully.
“There’s dried blood on the mesh, and on the door,” I said. “Very old blood. Whatever was locked in here hurt itself, trying to get out.”
“What is a cage doing in a school room?” said Penny. “Did Arthur have a pet?”
“No,” said Arthur. “I was never allowed pets.”
I straightened up and turned to face Arthur. He was standing stiffly in the doorway, as though unwilling to enter the room.
“Then what was this cage for?” I said.
“It was for me,” said Arthur. “When I was bad.”
Penny made a shocked sound. “Your parents locked you in a cage?”
“It seemed quite roomy when I was small,” said Arthur. “Of course, it got more cramped as I grew older. They would take away my clothes and put me in, and leave me in the cage, all day and all night. No food, no drink, no chamber-pot. I think that was when I learned there was no point in crying. Because it didn’t make me feel any better, and no one would come. I must have been a very bad child, that they had to put me in it so often.”
His voice was perfectly calm, but his eyes were cold and far away.
“Did Catherine know about this?” said Penny.
“I don’t believe so,” said Arthur.
“How could parents do this to a child?” said Penny.
“They wanted me to behave,” said Arthur. He stepped cautiously forward, and smiled briefly at the books on the shelves. “They didn’t like me to have toys. I made too much noise, with toys. They liked it when I discovered books, because stories kept me quiet and out of their way. They didn’t realise that books opened my eyes to the outside world. Somewhere I could escape to.”
“How did you know to find us here, Arthur?” I said.
“I heard a door slam,” said Arthur. “So I thought I’d better come and take a look. I was worried some ghostly force might have locked you in a room.”
Penny looked at him. “Really?”
“Used to happen all the time, when I was a child,” said Arthur.
I gestured at the cage. “Does Marion know about this?”
“No,” he said. “It would only upset her.”
“So you cleaned this room on your own,” I said.
He shrugged. “Someone had to.”
“Why is the cage still here?” said Penny.
“You can’t just throw away your past, and pretend it never happened,” said Arthur.
He turned abruptly, and left the room. Penny shook her head slowly.
“The more I learn about that man’s parents, the more I want to find out where they’re buried so I can dig them up and punch them in the face.”
“And Catherine was their very close friend,” I said. “I think we need to press her some more on that.”
“Arthur said she didn’t know about this.”
“And you believe that?”
Penny scowled. “He’s trying so hard to be a good father, so he won’t be anything like his own. And he does seem genuinely fond of Catherine. The aunt he never had.”
“The woman who went away,” I said. “And left him with parents who locked him in a cage.”
Penny shuddered briefly. “I’d hate to think that sweet little old lady could have had anything to do with this...”
“Always remember the first rule,” I said. “Suspects lie. For all kinds of reasons. We can’t trust anything they say, including Arthur. What he told us could just have been a story, designed to get us on his side.”
Penny’s mouth flattened into a tight line. “It didn’t feel like a story. You saw his face. And there’s still blood on that cage.”
“Yes,” I said. “There is.”
“What are we going to do, Ishmael?”
“This isn’t what we’re here for,” I said steadily. “The monsters responsible for what happened in this room have been dead for ages.”
“Arthur was right. The past is always with you, in Glenbury Hall,” said Penny. “The horrors don’t go away, even when it’s daylight.”
We searched the room thoroughly, taking our time, but couldn’t find anything useful, never mind interesting. And then I stopped, and lifted my head.
“What is it?” said Penny.
“Can you hear something?” I said.
“Yes...” said Penny. “What is that?”
I moved quickly over to the window, and Penny squeezed in beside me. We stared out across the open grounds, brightly illuminated by the morning sun. There was nothing to be seen, apart from the statues, but I could hear a large gathering of people all talking at once.
Penny grabbed my arm. “Ishmael! It’s the timeslip! The people from the past, that the two women saw!”
“Then why can’t we see anything?” I said.
“We’re too far away,” said Penny. “We need to get out into the grounds!”
She scrabbled at the latch, but the window wouldn’t budge. I forced it open, and Penny threw a leg over the windowsill and was outside in a moment. I quickly followed her out, dropping down onto the grass beside her, but even as I looked around the sounds just stopped. The grounds stretched away before us, completely still and utterly silent.
“Where did everybody go?” said Penny.
“I don’t think they were ever here,” I said. “Someone just played a recording, to fool us.”
Penny looked at me. “Why would they want to do that?”
“To lure us out here,” I said.
“But there’s no one here!”
I heard a slow scraping sound, of stone moving against stone. Despite myself, my first thought was to check out the statues, but none of them had stirred or changed their position. I concentrated, and realised the sound was coming from behind and above me. I turned around to look at the Hall just in time to see one of the stone gargoyles lean out from the roof, as though trying for a better look. And then it launched itself out from the roof, and plummeted down. Heading straight for Penny.
I threw myself forward, and shoved her back out of the way. That left me directly underneath the falling gargoyle, but Penny grabbed my arm as she fell backwards, and pulled me after her. We crashed to the ground in a tangle of limbs, and the gargoyle slammed into the earth. Penny and I took a moment to check we were both all right, and then scrambled to our feet. The gargoyle was barely a foot away, half buried in the ground by the force of its arrival.
“You saved my life,” said Penny.
“You saved mine,” I said.
Penny smiled dazzlingly. “That’s what partners are for.”
We looked up at the roof. None of the other gargoyles had moved, though there was an obvious gap where one of them used to be.
“That thing didn’t just fall on its own,” I said. “I heard definite scraping sounds, as it was forced from its setting.”
“Somebody just tried to kill us,” said Penny.
“Well you, anyway,” I said. “Who would want to kill me?”
“Someone who’d met you?” said Penny.
We shared a smile. Brushes with death always bring out the frivolous in us.
“If someone is trying to kill us,” I said, “that must mean we’re getting close to something. I only wish I knew what it was.”
We moved further out into the grounds, so we could get a better look at the Hall, and its roof. The gargoyles held their positions, ignoring the gap where one of them used to be. I couldn’t see anyone moving around on the roof.
Catherine suddenly emerged from the front door, and came hurrying forward to join us.
“Are you all right, dears? I was just looking out the window when I saw a gargoyle go flying past!”
“We’re fine,” I said.
Catherine looked bemusedly at the half-buried stone figure. “How on earth could something that’s been set in stone for so many years have broken loose?”
“We were wondering that,” I said.
“Excuse me,” said Penny. “But where’s Wendy? Isn’t she still with you?”
Catherine looked startled, as she realised her friend wasn’t there. She looked back at the front door.
“She was with me when I saw that thing fall. I told her what I saw...”
She stared at the open door, as though expecting Wendy to come bustling through it at any moment. When that didn’t happen, Catherine turned back to us, her face creased with worry.
“I don’t understand. She was right behind me...”
“Let’s go back inside,” I said, “and see if we can find her.”
On entering the lobby, the first thing we saw was Arthur heaving a large box onto a tottering pile of other boxes, next to the reception desk. He was breathing hard, his face glistening with sweat. He looked up, and seemed a little taken aback by the urgency in our faces. I strode over to the desk, while he quickly sat down behind it and did his best to look like the man in charge. And not someone who’d just worn himself out with a little manual labour.
“I was sorting through some old records,” he said. “Can I help you with anything?”
“One of your gargoyles has fallen from the roof,” I said. “It only just missed hitting Penny and me.”
“Oh that’s all we need!” said Arthur. “Our insurance isn’t set up to cover things like that.”
“Ishmael and I are fine, thank you,” said Penny, just a bit pointedly.
“Of course you are,” said Arthur. “Was the gargoyle damaged in the fall?”
Penny turned to me. “I take back every sympathetic thing I thought about him.”
“I would,” I said.
Catherine slapped her hand smartly on the desk, to attract Arthur’s attention. He looked startled and a little put out, as though he’d already dismissed us so he could concentrate on more important things.
“Where is Wendy?” said Catherine.
“The last I saw, she was following you through the lobby,” said Arthur. “And then she stopped, seemed to change her mind, and went up the stairs to the next floor.”
“Why would she do that?” said Catherine.
“I don’t know,” said Arthur. “I did call after her, to see if everything was all right, but she didn’t look back. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go outside and take a look at the gargoyle, and the roof. See how bad the damage is. Though how we’re going to put the thing back where it should be, without hiring a crane....Oh, I don’t even want to think about how much that’s going to cost.”
Catherine gave up on him and headed for the stairs. Penny and I went after her.
“Catherine?” said Penny. “Where are you going?”
