‘Aww, not that wascally wabbit again!’
Every head turned quickly, and at the end of their gaze was a woman. She was striding up the steps of the gazebo in a cloud of perfume, with advert-rich blonde hair bouncing as she came. Her face was attractive but was so thick with make-up she had that false, uncanny look. A Japanese android crossed with a John Lewis counter girl. Tap a fingertip on that cheek and you’d leave a hole.
‘Kassy, you’re late,’ Bob said.
She ignored him and stared at Rachel. ‘Well, wow-fooking-wee … it’s Rachel Wasson. Rarer than a Sasquatch.’
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Rachel nodded. ‘Kassy.’
‘And who’s this?’ She clicked a fingernail in Matt’s direction. ‘Boyfriend?’
After all the tension he was surprised to hear Rachel laugh out loud. The sound of it shattered the gloom from seconds ago. She went to stand. ‘I’ve only just met him, idiot.’
‘Yeah, right. And erm … the French exchange student look …’ Kassy looked her up and down. ‘How’s that working for you?’
‘Clearly not as popular as the German Drag Queen.’
He heard Kassy snort a laugh. Rachel grinned.
‘You two,’ Jo slammed a hand on the wood. ‘This isn’t the time.’
But of course it was the time. In fact, it was the precise time. Because Matt saw Rachel and Kassy share a look and an awkward smile. The glance from Rachel that said, I’ve got to breathe a little and the mockery of old friends might just provide it.
Kassy plonked herself on the bench and started sucking on one of those vapour pipes. A ghost cloud quickly framed her head. ‘Please … carry on. You were just on about the wabbit.’
‘Actually,’ Matt looked over at Bob and Joyce. ‘You mentioned that Steph came to speak to you recently. To consult you.’
‘That’s right.’
‘Can you tell us why?’
Joyce pressed her fingers together, and arched them into a temple. ‘She wanted to talk about the entity.’
Rachel looked up. ‘Why, after all these years, would she—’
‘Because she saw it again,’ Joyce said. ‘Recently.’
Rachel breathed, slowly. ‘When?’
‘This month.’
The girls shared a look, and Rachel said. ‘Where?’
‘Once in her garden. Once by this old tree …’ She nodded to the oak. Everybody turned to it. ‘Don’t worry, it’s not there right now, I can tell. But mostly it was near your house on Barley Street. Enough to make her a very frightened girl. Steph wanted you all to meet with Bob and me so we could work out what to do about this. And look … here you all are.’
Rachel, Kassy and Jo glanced at each other again.
‘Sadly, Steph can’t be with us today, like she’d hoped,’ Joyce said.
Kassy spoke through her cloud, ‘Noooo shit.’
Bob tutted and wiped his hands off one another, like there was dust on them. ‘Folks, the bottom line is there’s unpleasant forces at work in Steph’s death. Evil ones that ought to be sent on their way.’
‘What forces?’ Matt asked, getting kind of annoyed now. ‘You do know that Steph was killed by her dog?’
‘Yes … but demons can enter anything they like.’
‘Really? Can they?’ Kassy laughed. ‘Like a table? Like a Samsung phone charger? How about a Sky box, cos mine won’t record Songs of Praise for some reason? Which is pretty satanic behaviour, if you ask me.’
Matt went to laugh but held it back. He plucked at his lip instead.
‘Don’t be daft. Clearly, I mean a malignant entity can enter an animal or a human.’ Bob raised a finger. ‘Like when the Devil entered the serpent in the Bible.’
‘That’s myth, Bob,’ Matt said. ‘It’s fable.’
Kassy raised her vape stick. ‘Hear, hear.’
‘Ah, but the only reason you say that is because you haven’t seen the things we have,’ Bob said. ‘Evil exists … spectral evil. And it’s rare I admit, but sometimes it can enter living things and make them do what they do not want to do. And yes, it can even make strange, poltergeist activity happen in a home.’
‘Like what happened at my house,’ Rachel said.
‘Precisely. And how else do you explain that and the creature on your roof?’ Bob swiped a hand across his beard. ‘See … Joyce and I suspect this demonic force may have tormented Steph in her last days. We don’t know why, but it clearly did. Then when it finally wanted to take her life, it took possession of her dog and killed her.’
Everybody looked at Bob. Even the tree shut up rustling for a second.
‘You’re not serious,’ Matt said.
‘What else accounts for the data?’
‘Haaaang on. You mean like a puppet?’ Kassy held up a hand. She flapped it like a mouth. ‘Like a Satanic frickin’ Kermit? That’s actually hilarious.’
‘Kassy!’ Jo hissed. ‘Shush.’
Rachel said nothing. Just pressed her glasses slowly back up the ridge of her nose.
Matt raised a hand. ‘And how exactly might this spirit be sent on its way?’
‘I strongly believe we need to ask Holly Wasson that,’ Joyce said. ‘She’s the key to understanding all of this.’
‘And what gives you that impression?’
‘Because I’ve heard her calling out.’
Rachel flicked her gaze at Joyce. ‘She calls to you?’
‘Not to me …’ Joyce shook her head and pointed. ‘To you, Rachel. She calls to you.’
He saw her shrink. Right there on the bench. Her shoulders, her body, her face, shrivelled. Like she thought she could will herself smaller and be harder to see. A vampire in the sun, crumbling to dust. Jo, Kassy and Rachel kept looking at each other. Even Kassy went quiet.
‘I hear her asking for you. Shouting out your name sometimes …’ Joyce looked across at Barley Street, and tilted her head. ‘Rachel, she’s doing that right now.’
Silence.
He’d been present in a Watford hotel’s function room once where he’d watched a tangerine-coloured spiritualist called Devon Blake stride the stage and contact the dead, on behalf of the giddy, weepy punters. They were perched on banqueting chairs, debit cards a little emptier than when they’d first walked in. He’d been researching the event for his book and had found it to
