Echoes of the Past (24 page)

*****

It was still light outside when Jess arrived home from Ingaldean.

Lee
had spent the day worried and feeling ill at ease. She was going to sit down and have a talk with Jess, find out what was going on in her life. Maybe she could spot something that could be potentially dangerous. She had been saying silent prayers all day for Sara to guide her. A wave of relief washed over her when she heard the front door open at 6pm, that evening and Jess appeared, she seemed to be back to her usual happy self.

“Hi,
Aunt Lee, where’s Dad?”

Lee
gave her a peck on the head. “He’s gone down to Edinburgh. He won’t be back till tomorrow, late afternoon.”

“Why?”

“He had to meet with his boss, and then he was seeing a witness or something on Saturday morning.” Lee was setting the table for dinner as she spoke and did not see the disappointment on her face.

“He
said we would swap my room around tomorrow.”

“Don’t
worry, love; he’ll be back in time for that, he won’t forget. So what’s new with you? Have you been up to anything lately?”

Jess
shook her head giving nothing away, much like any other teenager.

“Still
having bad dreams?” Lee said.

The
telephone rang, interrupting the conversation.

Jess
lifted the phone to her ear. “It’s Dad,” she said with a smile.

“Every
thing is fine? You don’t need to worry, why didn’t you tell me you were going down to Edinburgh?”

Lee
could only hear one side of the conversation. After a minute Jess passed her the phone and went upstairs to change.

“Hi,
Tom.”

“You’ve
got me worried with what you said this morning, thought I would just check in. Do you think you can talk her out of going out tomorrow, just do something together instead?”

“I
can try, but I don’t fancy my chances. Why? Are you worried about her being up at Matt’s?”

Tom
laughed. “No, I’m more concerned about the horses she’s around. Accidents happen and I was wondering if that was what you were being warned against.”

“Ah,”
Lee could understand his point. She herself had been thrown from a horse before, although it wasn’t serious, it can be. “Do I sense the prospect of conversion in you?”

“No,
I simply don’t want to leave anything to chance.”

“How
did it go with your boss?”

“Oh,
pretty much what I expected. If you need me you know to call my mobile, and remember Danny is just along the road if there are any problems.”

“I
know. I should never have mentioned anything to you; it’s just made you worry. To be honest I didn’t think you would listen, let alone take it on board.” Tom didn’t reply, he knew himself he would normally have completely ignored anything that Lee had told him about the psychic night, but there was something eating at him. He wasn’t sure what, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was coming. He didn’t like it.

After
the phone call Jess and Lee sat down to eat.

“You
didn’t tell me how your psychic night went.”

“It
was good, the medium was excellent.”

“Did
mum come through?”

Lee
paused and cut through her chicken breast. “Yes.”

Jess
looked up at her. “Well, what did she say?”

“She
said I was to look after you, and to listen to you. And she said she loved you and your Dad very much.”

Jess
didn’t say anything she looked a little sad as she chased a piece of food around her plate.

“You
all right?”

“Yes.
Did she say anything else?”

“Like
what?”

“I
don’t know. I think I would like to go to one of those things, I would like to speak to her again.”

“It’s
not like that. I didn’t hear or see her, it was just a message passed on through someone else.”

“Still
it would be nice to know she was close to me.”

“She’s
always close to you, Jess. I don’t think your mother is ever very far away.”

“What
did she mean, you have to listen to me?”

Lee
continued eating debating in her head what she should tell her and what she should hold back.

“Well,
all the things that have been going on round here, I told you it was just an overactive imagination. Well, I said that so you didn’t get to afraid, but your Mum said I should tell you that I believe you and not let you think your going mad.”

Jess
looked up. “But do you believe me?”

“Yes,
Jess. I always have, I was trying to convince your father. To no avail of course. And another thing, they aren’t trying to scare you, they have just been trying to get your attention.”

“They
did that all right. Aunt Lee, who is ‘they’?”

Lee
looked across the table to her. She was not going to be the one that told her Olivia was with her mother.

“Just,
the ones on the other side. It’s just a turn of phrase, love, that’s all.”

“So
the figure I keep seeing in my room, that’s not my imagination?”

“I
don’t know, love; maybe you are just sensing your mother’s presence in the room with you. When you were a baby she used to spend ages just watching you sleep.”

Jess
scraped some of the left over chicken onto a plate for Topaz and helped Lee clear away the dinner dishes. Although she felt a level of validation, she still felt a little afraid. Jess was sure that her Mother was not the only one that hung around her. That’s what scared her.

*****

Tom lifted the story from his bag. He wanted to know exactly what it meant before he took it to his boss. He flicked through the hand written sheets of paper.

We hid silently in the barn. We were both shaking, but not from the cold. We could see him kneeling on her. At six years old, I had no idea what was going on, I just knew it was wrong. I also sensed that I was in danger. My cousin sat beside me. His eyes were closed tight and he had put his hands up to his ears. He was trying to block out all sound. I followed his lead. But I could still hear her.

I had no idea what he had done to her, not until I was much older. Then I knew what I had seen. At the time, we were too afraid to talk about it. We made a pact never to tell another soul, not even my mother. We promised we would never talk about it again. It never happened.

Tom
leaned back against the headboard of the bed with the papers in his hand, as he tried to digest what he had read. The two children had been playing at the church. Tom mentally planned the village in his mind. Goyl's farm was just past the church. In fact, Goyl’s farm would have been right on the path of any hikers if they left the church hostel and headed toward the hills.

He
lifted his briefcase to take out his notebook. Something slid out on to the bed. It was Sara’s Dictaphone. Tom lifted the small machine and turned it once again in his palm.

Now
how
did
you
get
in
there
? He was sure he had put it in his desk drawer. He looked at it for a long time. Still unsure as to whether he could listen to Sara again. He didn’t want to go back down that road. He had struggled to hold it together for Jess. In truth, he had never really moved on and he knew it. Reluctantly he pressed play on the machine. As Sara’s voice rang out Tom physically slumped. He could feel his energy drain as a heaviness settled upon him.

Tom
skipped passed the notes on numerous different patients.

Eva Brook has been exhibiting symptoms that you would not expect to see with someone suffering survivor’s guilt. She is extremely reluctant to discus her childhood. She states simply that her mother was estranged from her family and will not elaborate …

Again he skipped.

I have looked at Eva’s story. I have arranged to meet with her tomorrow. There is no doubt in my mind that she has written about Coppersfield. I wonder if she knows I came from there? I don’t feel as though what she has written is purely imaginative …

Tom listened to the final note she made.

I had to cut the session short with Eva. She became very upset when she realized I was born in Coppersfield. I have to speak to Tom to find out if there are any reports that could corroborate Eva’s memories of the summer of 1968 …

The final entry had not been made in her office, she sounded as though she were outside, walking while making the entry. There was nothing else on the recorder. Tom cast his mind back to the day she died. It had always bothered him why she was at the train station, why she was so desperate to speak to him. She had left several messages on his mobile and at the station that day. He tried to return her calls when he got out of his meeting, but by that time. She was already gone, he just didn’t know it.

The
realization began to dawn on him. Sara had found a witness to the murder of Susanna Wheeling. He tried to make the connection, but his brain wouldn’t allow it.
Sara
died
in
a
horrific
accident
.
It
was
just
that
.
An
accident
.
That
would
make
this
man
the
luckiest
on
earth
.
The
only
other
person
that
knew
what
he
had
done
.

Tom
got up and began to pace the floor. He played the recorder over and over in his hand. A sickness was rising in his stomach, he couldn’t understand why. He felt he had missed something, something important. He looked at the clock. It was just after 11pm. He pressed redial on his phone and called Lee.

“I
didn’t wake you did I?”

“No,
Jess is up in bed, but I was just locking up. Is something wrong?”

“Lee,
I need to know everything you were told about Sara last night.”

Lee
scratched the side of her head; she was unsure how to take this question.

“Why?”
she asked.

“Just
tell me what Sara told you.”

“About
Jess?” asked Lee.

“No,
I want to know everything.”

Lee
didn’t feel the time was right to joke with him about becoming a believer. Instinctively she knew what part of the conversation she was supposed to tell him.

She
took a deep breath in. “I don’t know if you really want to hear this Tom, but she said Olivia was with her because they were connected. I don’t think she meant in life.”

“You
think the connection was in their death.” It was a statement.

“I’m
sorry, Tom, I know you don’t go in for this kind of thing, I didn’t want to upset you last night.”

“Did
she say anything else?”

Lee
paused.

“Lee?
What else did she say?”

“She
said that Sara’s death was not an accident.” Her voice was quieter. “Tom? Are you still there?”

“Yes.”
A silence followed. “I have to go, give Jess a kiss for me.” He hung up the phone and looked at the papers spread across his bed. A river of vomit rose in his throat. He ran to the bathroom as his stomach churned out its contents. Pulling himself up from his knees, he ran the cold tap. And washed his face under the cool water.

He
had always had questions about Sara’s death. He had just never allowed himself to ask them. He had been so preoccupied with Jess and her grief that he never faced his own. Nor had ever allowed himself to really look at what had happened. Something urgent had sent Sara from her office. She never took her car into the city centre so she headed straight for the station; she would have been planning to get off at Waverly Street, that was close to the police station. All in a vain attempt to get hold of him, and he sat in a meeting oblivious to all this.

He
walked back into the bedroom. His head was swimming. He couldn’t believe that he would ever take the word of a psychic seriously. Over the years, he had dealt with his fair share of them, and never did anything ever pan out. But last night, Lee looking for that box. The newspapers that led him to the names of the missing hikers. How could she have known? He started to think about the dreams Jess was having. The dark room, the chair. How could any of this be possible?