Page 97 of Murder Most Haunted
She stood aside. They had been mistaken. The room wasn’t completely empty. On the windowsill, in front of Midge, was a tiny black box, a small timing device set on top of it.
‘What is that?’ asked Harold, bending over it, his nose practically touching the surface. ‘Some sort of camera?’
Checking that the evening sky outside was just dark enough, Midge pressed a button on the box and suddenly, down belowon the north lawn, the vision of a pale ghost appeared, flitting across from the fountain before disappearing behind the dilapidated woodshed.
‘Jesus, it’s a bloody projector,’ said Harold, his mouth hanging open.
‘Rendell must have set this up for the ghost appearances!’ said Noah, disappointedly. ‘And look! Typical...’
Noah was pointing to a small cabinet on the wall, its door slightly open. ‘There’s your flying curtains and air changes.’
He was right – inside the cabinet was an elaborate system of pulleys and levers, connected to various wires that ran out and into the panelling behind. Each one was carefully labelled for the room it controlled, and each one had a timer set. The one nearest to Midge had the word ‘KITCHEN’ written above it. She switched it on and cocked her head to the side, listening.
From far, far below them came the sound of more plates falling from the sideboard and smashing into pieces on the flagstones.
‘The flying plates!’ gasped Harold. ‘From the kitchen, remember? Poor old Gloria thought it was Robert.’
‘Exactly,’ murmured Midge. ‘I imagine this is why Rendell was so reluctant to give Noah access to the attic.’
Noah had the appearance of a child who had not only been told that Christmas had been cancelled, but also all subsequent birthdays and bar mitzvahs for the foreseeable. ‘This was my one chance of saving my podcast,’ he sighed. ‘I really thought I’d found an authentic one this time.’
Midge felt a responsibility to cheer Noah up and so she tried her best. ‘I’m sure another opportunity will come along soon.’
‘You think I’ll find a real ghost?’
Pleasantries could only be taken so far. ‘Of course not.’
‘Hang on.’ Harold was holding his hands up, his face creased into a frown. ‘What about Rendell?’
‘What about Rendell?’ asked Midge.
‘Well, he saw the ghost too, didn’t he? On the first night, right when we were all at the séance?’
‘Yes, right before he got the message,’ said Noah, slowly.
‘Perhaps Rendell was just pretending,’ mused Midge. ‘After all, it was in his interest to scare everyone. All part of the elaborate haunted house he’d set up for us.’
‘I’ve known him for years,’ scoffed Harold. ‘He’s not that good an actor. And besides, what about the portraits – who slashed them?’
Midge stared out on to the lawn below the window, her mind silently whirring. ‘It seems we’ve been dealing with more than one ghost in this house all along,’ she finally said, turning back to face the others. ‘But to prove that, we need to listen to the podcast recordings.’
Chapter62
Extract fromThey Do It With Stringspodcast
‘The Tin House’: Episode Five
Noah:Welcome, Gloria. Can you tell me why you wanted to attend the haunted weekend at Atherton Hall?
Gloria:I suppose I wanted a chance to feel my son again. He... died a little while ago. We were always close. I was a stay-at-home mum when he was little, because I wanted to be with my baby rather than at work, and I was lucky enough to be able to afford to do that. I told myself I could go back to nursing full-time when Robert was older, but I found I didn’t want to be apart from him more than I had to, he needed me, and by the time he was ready to go out into the world by himself... well, that’s when the crash happened.
I still dream about him. And I enjoy the dreams because I get to touch and hold him again. It’s the waking up that hurts. Everyone said to me ‘after the funeral, you can begin to move on’ and then it was ‘after the inquest, you can begin to move on’ and then ‘after the court case, you can begin to move on’. But even then, I couldn’t and I didn’t.
Noah:You believe that Robert made contact during the séance on Friday evening. Do you think he needed to tell you something, right a wrong, perhaps?
Gloria:The judge called it ‘an operational delay that led to the suspect’s blood alcohol tests taken at the hospital being rejected as evidence.’
All because of one useless police officer.
