Hiding From the Light (41 page)

Lyndsey had forgotten about Alice. Bill’s long and detailed crash course on the ‘stuff that really worked’, and the shock of finding herself suddenly unemployed, had wiped the girl’s visit completely from her mind. After a night spent walking up and down, meditating, dozing wrapped in a warm rug, and finally sleeping the sleep of the totally exhausted, she awoke on Saturday morning aware of only one thing. It was Halloween, Samhain, the time when spirits of the dead were close at hand and mindful of returning to visit the living, and all around her she could feel the tension, the presence of the other planes. Tonight she would enact a ritual, alone at home, then she would go up to the churchyard, but before any of that she had to try and stop these idiot people summoning Hopkins and his unfortunate victims back to the scene of some of their last encounters on this earth.

Dressed for battle in jeans, a scarlet sweater and a black fleece she stepped out of the house and locked the door behind her. It was not something she normally did but she was well aware that some of the locals knew she was a witch. They might decide today was a day to break in and wreak havoc in her home.

It took her twenty minutes to walk along the river. It was a windy, murky day. The water and mud were a uniform grey, as was the sky which was heavy with cloud except in the distance where it was torn into ragged strips, allowing a few pale smears of blue. Flecks of rain spattered the road as she walked. The swans that always congregated at the edge of the river on the far side of the Hopping Bridge were standing around disconsolately. One or two stared at her as she passed. None moved.

The shop was open. Several customers were browsing amongst the shelves as she opened the door and went in. She stood still for a moment, aware of nothing but the atmosphere. It was cold. Alert. Anticipatory. Walking over to the stairs, she looked up.

‘Can I help you?’ The woman in charge of the shop appeared suddenly at her elbow. ‘That’s private.’

‘I’ve come to see the film people.’ Lyndsey stared at her.

The latter quailed visibly. ‘There’s only one of them up there.’

‘One is enough.’ Lyndsey put her foot on the stairs. Then she stopped and closing her eyes she took a deep breath. She was filled with dread; sick; sweating. She couldn’t move. More than anything she desperately wanted to run away.

‘Are you going up or what?’ The woman was watching her suspiciously now.

Lyndsey nodded. Hand on the oak banister, she found she had to pull herself physically up the stairs.

Colin was up there, thoughtfully looping a cable round his hand. He glanced up.

‘Ah, Alice said you might look in. Excellent. Good to see you, girl.’

Lyndsey looked round. She was finding it hard to breathe. ‘Where is the other man? The one I spoke to before.’

‘He’ll be here in a second. It’s a big day for us. There is a lot to set up.’

‘No, don’t set anything up. You have to stop.’ Lyndsey took a few more steps into the room. She shivered. ‘There must be no more of this. You are encouraging Hopkins to manifest. It mustn’t happen.’

Colin raised an eyebrow. ‘I know Mark wants to talk to you about this.’

She folded her arms. ‘Do you realise what day this is?’

He nodded. ‘Halloween. Best day of the year for interviewing ghosts, so I’m told.’ He grinned, then reached for a camera tripod.

She glared at him. ‘If you think that, you are complete fools. This is not some game! This is deadly serious.’

Behind her Mark had appeared at the top of the stairs. He was listening, a frown on his face. ‘I’m glad you’ve come.’

She swung round. ‘Your colleague seems to find this amusing.’

‘No. No, he doesn’t.’ Mark stepped forward. ‘Believe me, we take this extremely seriously. And to prove it, I want you to allow us to interview you so that your views are made clear to everyone. The rector feels the same and to a certain extent I agree with you both.’ He was watching her closely. ‘I am trying to persuade him to appear as well. I really would value your contribution.’

‘You want to make a joke of me and my views, don’t you?’ Lyndsey’s voice suddenly rose in pitch. ‘Here’s the local witch! Let’s pillory her.’

‘No! No, I don’t – ’

Mark’s denial was interrupted by a shriek from the bottom of the stairs. ‘Lyn? It’s Lyn. I can hear her!’ There was a rattle of small feet on the oak steps and Jamie appeared with Sophie in hot pursuit. ‘Lyn, we were buying frisbees with Mummy!’ Jamie had a luminous green disc in his hand. ‘We heard you! Look, this is mine!’

‘Children, come down!’ Paula’s voice echoed up the stairs. Ten seconds later she appeared. She stared round the room and as her gaze fell on Lyndsey, her mouth tightened grimly. ‘Sophie, James, come on down. We have to get home.’

‘It was your idea, I suppose? To sack me?’ Lyndsey faced Paula across a polythene-wrapped carton of plastic kitchen tools. Her frustration and anger had reached boiling point.

‘Yes, but Alex agreed with me.’ Paula’s voice was flat. ‘You are a practising witch, Lyndsey. I don’t think it right for you to take care of my children.’

‘You knew about it, I’ve never made a secret of it,’ Lyndsey retorted.

James, with a glance at his mother, edged towards Lyndsey and groped for her hand. She put an arm around his shoulders.

‘That was before I realised what you do.’ Paula strode towards them and grabbing Jamie by the wrist, pulled him away. Jamie let out a wail of protest.

‘And what is it I do that is so bad?’ Lyndsey shouted. ‘Tell me.’

‘Satanic ritual. Using children. Murdering babies!’ Paula screamed back. ‘That’s what you do! You let me think you were just playing with herbs and flowers, and all the time you were a murdering, vicious bitch! I trusted you with my babies!’ She grabbed both the children, pulling them against her tightly. ‘I trusted you!’

‘Hey! Ladies, please!’ Mark stepped forward, hands raised. Neither woman took any notice of him.

‘I’m not a Satanist!’ Lyndsey shouted. ‘How can you think it? No one murders babies. How many babies are missing? How many times have the police been round searching for murdered babies? How can you say such a foul, vicious thing! For God’s sake, Paula.’

She stepped forward and Paula shrank back. ‘Don’t come near us. Keep away!’

Both Jamie and Sophie were crying now. The shop assistant had appeared on the stairs, her eyes huge as she took in the scene. Behind her another woman, presumably a customer, was peering round her shoulder.

‘Come on, cool it now!’ Colin walked over to Lyndsey and put a hand on her arm. ‘Please, I think you should leave and take those kids away now,’ he addressed Paula. ‘You’re frightening them.’

‘I’m
frightening them!’ Paula echoed furiously.

‘Yes, you are.’ Colin’s voice was very firm.

Lyndsey, her eyes narrowed, advanced on Paula again. ‘If I had wanted to put a spell on your children, Paula, believe me I would have done it. Like that!’ She clicked her finger and thumb together over Jamie’s head. He shrank back with a little scream.

‘But you already have, haven’t you? You made him sick!’ Paula was incandescent with rage. ‘You little bitch!’ As she pulled the children closer to her, Mark had retreated to the window. He was staring round the room, suddenly distracted, ignoring the others, aware of a change in the surrounding atmosphere over and above the tension caused by the two shouting women. The temperature had plummeted.

‘Shit!’ he murmured under his breath. ‘Colin, I think we may have a visitor.’

Colin caught the tone of his voice. His hand dropped from Lyndsey’s arm. She was still looking at Paula. ‘You stupid, stupid woman!’ She addressed her with icy scorn. ‘Have you any idea of what you have done?’ She was looking at the two terrified children.

‘Lyndsey!’ Mark barely breathed her name but she picked up on the fear in his voice and froze, turning to face him.

‘What is it?’

‘Can’t you feel it?’

Lyndsey stiffened. ‘Has Emma ever been here?’ she asked suddenly, her voice raw.

Mark frowned, puzzled. He nodded. ‘She said the face of the ghost was Liza’s,’ he said softly.

For a moment the room was silent, then Paula let out a groan. She turned towards the stairs. ‘I knew it! Oh, God Almighty, I knew it. You are all in it. Come on, Soph. James. Quickly! Out of my way!’ She shoved past the shop assistant and headed down the stairs, towing the protesting, crying children behind her. The assistant, after another quick frightened glance round the room, turned to follow her. As they disappeared they heard Sophie’s voice, shrill and indignant: ‘I want a witch’s hat, Mummy, so we can do trick or treat …’

Lyndsey, Mark and Colin were left alone. None of them heard Sophie’s words; none of them gave the stairs a second glance. Whatever had happened, had happened in the room with them. Lyndsey straightened her shoulders. She moved away from the stacked cartons and stood still in an empty patch of floor and waited, holding her breath.

Colin glanced at Mark. He raised an eyebrow. The glance meant, shall I switch on a camera? Mark nodded. He was watching Lyndsey intently.

Silently Colin stepped over to one of the cameras and switched it on.

‘There is someone here,’ Lyndsey said softly. ‘The anger, that woman’s hatred, the children’s fear, has given her enough energy to reach us.’ She held out her hands. ‘Speak to me. I am your friend. Your sister.’ Her eyes were fixed in the middle distance, unfocused. She wasn’t actually looking at anyone.

Colin and Mark watched quietly, intrigued.

Lyndsey took a step forward. She was smiling. ‘I am here to help you. To bring you peace. Show yourself, please. Let me see you.’ She glanced round, her hands almost groping at the air in front of her, then suddenly she jerked backwards as though she had been pushed in the chest; Mark saw genuine shock and fear in her face. Almost at once she recovered herself. For a moment she stood still. She looked round at him. ‘She’s gone.’ She frowned uncertainly. ‘I thought I could reach her, but she’s too angry.’ She licked her lips nervously. ‘She’s so angry!’

‘Why is she angry, Lyndsey?’ Mark asked softly.

‘Why do you think?’ She turned on him furiously. ‘She was tortured here. By Hopkins. He sent her to her death. She wants revenge!’

Mark glanced at Colin. ‘Perhaps we can help her, by giving her a platform.’

Lyndsey stared at him. Then slowly she shook her head. ‘You don’t get it, do you? You really don’t get it. If you put this on TV you will be releasing something so huge –’ She stopped abruptly and took a deep breath. ‘Hopkins will come. It is his name that will rebound around the country. He will come and he won’t be interested in destroying her. She is already destroyed. He will turn his attention to every other woman in the country! Don’t you see?’

Mark blinked. For a moment he had believed her. He had felt the fear, but she was losing it. ‘
Every
woman?’ he repeated. He couldn’t keep the scepticism out of his voice.

‘Every woman!’ She was almost shouting again. ‘Look around you! The women of his day were a different species. Now we are all witches in his eyes! All of us. Witches in his sense of the word. Creatures to fear. To suppress!’ She grabbed him by the shoulders. ‘Call it off. Stop it! Don’t let it happen.’ Whirling round, she made a dive towards the camcorder placed on the floor near a heap of flattened cardboard boxes.

Just in time Colin saw what she was doing and caught her arm, swinging her off balance. ‘That’s enough, Lyndsey! We’ve taken your point,’ he said firmly. ‘We’ll think about it, but that’s it. You don’t damage our equipment. I don’t want to have to call the police. Out now, please. I’d like you to leave.’ He was guiding her towards the stairs. ‘We’ll keep everything you’ve said in mind, I promise you.’

‘Fools! Stupid, stupid fools!’ Lyndsey wrenched her arm away from him. For a moment he thought she was going to come back and have another go, but with a furious sob she turned and ran down the stairs, leaving Colin and Mark staring at each other across the silent room.

The sun was coming out at last, as Alex and Emma stood on the terrace. They had searched the barns and the sheds, calling the cats every few seconds, but there was still no sign of either of them.

Emma was getting anxious. ‘I don’t understand. They’ve never done this before. They have stayed so close to home.’

‘Don’t worry.’ Alex was trying to comfort her. ‘If it was one of them I’d worry more. If it’s both, surely they must have gone off on a spree together. They’ll turn up.’ He glanced at her. She was looking very pale, her face drawn and unhappy. ‘Emma, I’m afraid I’m going to have to go in a minute. Paula will be wondering where I am. Is there anyone I can ring to come and keep you company?’

Emma shrugged. She had not told him about the doctor’s prescription. What was the point? ‘Alex, you’ve been so kind. Don’t worry. I’m OK on my own. And I’ll give Piers a ring. He said he might come down.’ She didn’t see Alex’s sudden grim expression as she was turning towards the kitchen door, and when the phone rang she smiled almost cheerfully ‘There you are. That will be him.’

It wasn’t. It was Paula. ‘Is my husband there? He’s turned off his mobile again.’ Paula’s anger was palpable. ‘Put him on, please.’

Emma grimaced. She handed Alex the receiver and went back outside, trying not to listen, judging Paula’s anger by the long silences and Alex’s ineffectual attempts to interrupt.

At last he switched off the phone, put it down and came outside. She turned to him. ‘I’m sorry. My fault. Blame me.’

He shook his head. ‘It’s not you, it’s Lyndsey. They met in the shops somewhere and had a terrible row. I’m going to have to try and calm Paula down – not so easy once she’s got herself worked up.’

She was still standing by the gate after waving the Volvo out of sight, reluctant to go back inside the house, when a bicycle appeared round the corner of the lane. It was Lyndsey. She flung the bike down into the grass behind Emma’s car and let herself in through the gate. ‘We’ve got to talk.’

Emma led the way round the back. ‘Alex was here and Paula rang. I gather you and she had a row?’

‘Stupid woman!’ Lyndsey’s lips tightened angrily. ‘But it’s not just her, it’s everything! I can’t do it on my own, Emma. You’ve
got
to help me.’ She walked ahead of Emma into the kitchen and stopped dead. ‘What on earth has been happening in here? The atmosphere is dreadful!’ She frowned. ‘Not just Paula on the phone, it’s more than that. Something else has happened. What is it?’ She turned accusingly.

Emma, taken off guard by the ferocity of the question, took a step back. Embarrassingly, her eyes filled with tears and she brushed them away furiously. ‘I just had a bad night. Nightmares. I’m so tired!’ She bit her lip. ‘And now Max and Min have disappeared.’

Lyndsey took a deep breath, visibly trying to calm herself down. ‘OK. Let’s tackle this bit by bit,’ she said more gently. ‘If I was a cat, I wouldn’t be here now. Not with all this going on. Don’t worry about them, they’ll come back. Your nightmares are linked to all the rest of it. If we sort it all out, they will go away. As for Alex and Paula …’ Her eyes hardened. ‘They’re not friends of mine any more. It’s up to you if you still think of Alex as a friend, but Paula – you do know that she hates you, don’t you? She’s jealous of you. And she hates it that you know me.’ She gave a quick smile. ‘You go and wait outside. I’m going to start by putting your kitchen right.’

Emma frowned uncertainly. ‘Putting it right?’

Reaching over, Lyndsey gave Emma a brief hug. ‘Call it Feng Shui if that makes you feel better. Installing good vibes. Then the cats can come home.’ She gave Emma a push towards the door.

It was fifteen minutes by the time Lyndsey came and found her in the barn. She was smiling. ‘There. Come on back now. I’ve even made us some coffee.’ Lyndsey’s unexpected camaraderie was disconcerting.

‘The cats …?’

Lyn shook her head. ‘Not yet. But they’ll come.’

Emma followed her back and just inside the door she stopped, staring round. The room did indeed feel different. It was warm again and almost sparkling; it felt welcoming and happy and safe.

Emma sat down. ‘Whatever you’ve done, thank you. It does feel better.’

‘Good. Now for the rest.’ Lyndsey sat down opposite her. ‘You’ve got to help me. I can’t do it alone.’

‘The rest?’ Emma eyed her uneasily.

‘You’ve been into Barker’s shop. Where they are filming.’

Emma nodded. ‘It was Liza’s face on their film.’

‘They told me.’ Lyndsey paused. ‘But they aren’t going to leave it at that. I’ve been trying to stop them. Tonight is Halloween and they’ve got it into their heads to try and film the ghost. Their intention, their longing for it to appear, together with thousands of men and women and children dressing up as witches and ghouls and ghosts, will conjure Liza into being almost certainly, but more than that, it is Hopkins they want. Hopkins they are after. And it is Hopkins they will get. I’ve tried to stop them. They don’t understand. They think I’m mad. Our only hope is to intercept him.’

‘Intercept Matthew Hopkins?’ Emma’s eyes rounded.

‘He must not be given the chance to appear. We have to bind him.’

‘Oh, Lyndsey, no.’ Emma shook her head. ‘You know I don’t want to be part of this. I really don’t.’

‘You have to.’ Lyndsey grabbed her wrist. Her charm was gone and her eyes were hard. ‘There’s no one else.’

‘No, Lyn. I can’t. I won’t. I don’t want to get involved.’

‘You are involved. You are one of us.’

‘No, I’m not.’ She wasn’t sure what ‘one of us’ meant. She started to tremble again. ‘Please, Lyn. I want you to go.’

‘No chance. This is too important.’

‘No, Lyn. No!’ Emma was backing away from her. ‘Please. I can’t think straight. My head aches. I just want to go to sleep.’ She threw herself down in a chair.

‘Later. You can sleep all you want later. For now, you have to listen to me. Between us, we can do this. Sarah can do it!’

Emma froze. ‘What do you mean?’

Lyndsey held her gaze. ‘Oh, come on, Emma. The sooner you face what is happening here, the sooner we can do something about it.’ She stood up and walked briskly up and down the kitchen floor a couple of times. ‘Sarah Paxman is inside your head, right? You dream about her more and more. You hear her voice. She’s telling you what she wants you to do – isn’t she?’ She sat down, facing Emma across the table.

Emma sighed heavily. She didn’t want to hear all this again.

‘She wants to get even with Hopkins. She has pursued him backwards and forwards through time and space and now she’s tracked him down here, where it all started.’ She sat down. ‘This is all part of a much bigger picture, Emma. Things have happened on the other planes, other worlds, to do with ancient Anglo-Saxon evil which is helping all this to happen. Hopkins didn’t live in this part of the world by accident. He was drawn here. There are huge build-ups of supernatural energy all over East Anglia, which the Germanic invaders knew how to channel. There is a cunning man in the town – Bill Standing – and he has told me all about it, how it works, why it is so powerful.’

‘Why doesn’t he help you, then?’ Emma said weakly.

‘He is. He is doing a lot. As is …’ Lyndsey hesitated. ‘Apparently the rector is helping, though I can’t think how. In my view he’ll make it even more dangerous with Hopkins trying to possess him but Bill says this is so great it needs us all. That’s as maybe. I know I can’t do it alone, but if we work together, you and I, we don’t need them. You are strong, Emma. With your help we can do this!’

‘But I’m not a witch,’ Emma put in quietly.

‘No?’ Lyndsey smiled. ‘Not formally, perhaps. It doesn’t matter. I can teach you what to do. You’re a woman, that’s all that matters.’ She smiled. ‘The other two are men, of course. They don’t realise that this is about far more than mere techniques. This is personal. You saw what Hopkins did to those women. He may not have done it himself, but he watched and he made notes. What sort of sick bastard does that make him? This is you and me, Emma. And Sarah. No one else can do it.’

‘Lyn – ’

‘Say yes, Emma. You have to. Only you can do it.’

‘But – ’

‘Say yes, Emma! This is for Liza. For Liza, Emma!’

Emma stared up into her eyes. For a moment she couldn’t move, then slowly, almost without realising it, she nodded. ‘All right,’ she said. ‘I’ll help.’