ASHLEY FOUND MALORY back down in the main hall, where the guests were milling around the tables, perusing the selection of crystals, incense, wind chimes, and other esoteric bric-a-brac. All through her search, she had kept her eyes open for the young girl but had seen no sign of her. Ashley grabbed Malory’s arm, and the older woman jumped.
‘Ashie, you gave me a fright!’ Malory had a box full of coupons in her arms. ‘How are you feeling now?’
‘Where’s Penny?’
A crease appeared between Malory’s exquisitely plucked eyebrows. ‘She’s around here somewhere, I expect. Listen, is this all right with you?’ She took a coupon from the box and held it up. ‘I’m offering these to anyone who was in your, uh, curtailed session today. It gives them fifteen percent off at the bar and a free set of volcanic rock beads.’
‘Malory.’ Ashley shook her slightly. ‘The girl. When did you last see her?’
‘Oh. Well.’ Malory blinked slowly. ‘Last night, I suppose. I was busy, so I told Richard to send her off to bed.’
‘Richard.’ Bile pressed at the back of Ashley’s throat. A memory from years ago rose in her mind, clear as day: the teenage Richard, sneaking into the dormitory in the middle of the night, his shape bent over one of the beds. ‘He didn’t take her to her room. I did. Where is he now?’
‘Richard?’
‘Yes, Richard, for fuck’s sake, Malory!’
‘I don’t know. He hates these kinds of things, so he’s probably sulking somewhere. Somewhere in the house at least – it’s not like he can drive off at the moment, is it?’
‘Can you put out an announcement or something about Penny?’ Ashley waved a hand vaguely at the ceiling. ‘On the Tannoy, or something?’
Malory’s eyebrows vanished under her fringe. ‘A Tannoy? This isn’t a supermarket, Ashie.’
‘Malory, please.’ She squeezed her friend’s arm hard. ‘I’m really worried something has happened to her. We have to find her, okay?’
Finally, a trickle of unease seemed to cross Malory’s expression. She bit her lip.
‘All right. I’ll ask around. She must be somewhere. In fact, some of the kitchen staff will be free until dinner – I’ll ask them to look around for her.’
‘Good. Thank you.’ Ashley took a breath. ‘Do you have phone signal?’
Malory smiled ruefully. ‘We rarely get it on a good day, let alone in the middle of all this. Honestly, I’m surprised the lights are still on. Listen’ – Malory took Ashley’s hand; her fingers were hot – ‘if I find her, I’ll leave a message with Carol in reception.’
‘Okay. I’ll go and have another look around.’
‘And try not to worry,’ said Malory. ‘She can’t have gone far.’
You were supposed to be looking after her, Ashley thought, but she forced herself to smile.
‘I know.’
* * *
Ashley tried to approach her search systematically. She started on the lower floors, where the sprawling kitchens were, as well as the old servant’s quarters that were largely used for storage since Malory’s parents had passed away. Ashley scooted around the main hall, deliberately avoiding eye contact with Cleo and Desmond as well as the punters. She could see that Cleo was bursting to talk to her, but she kept her head up, scanning the room.
Ashley moved to the smaller rooms, where the other psychics had been doing their own shows. No sign of Penny. From there, she went to the first floor of the west wing, which was where the guests were sleeping. Here, she stood for a moment, frustrated. Of course, if the rooms were locked, how could she check for Penny? She settled for knocking on each of the doors in turn. Unsurprisingly, she received no answer to most of them, and those that did blinked at her with confusion while she asked about Penny – no one had seen her.
The second floor was private, the part where Malory and Richard still lived. Ashley knew from chats with Malory over the years that they had converted it into a long, meandering apartment, with its own kitchen, bathrooms, living rooms and bedrooms, almost entirely separate from the rest of the house; she had always said that they were both tired of living with décor more suitable to their distant ancestors. Ashley hesitated at the bottom of the stairs. Penny would have no reason to be there that Ashley could think of, but it was also the place she was most likely to find Richard. She followed the stairs up, past the sign that politely advised that the second floor was off-limits, and let herself into Malory and Richard’s apartment.
It was clean and fresh and normal. In comparison to the rest of the house, it was filled with light; the walls were painted soft, pale greens and blues; rather than fusty oil paintings, the walls were hung with blown-up photographs and the odd piece of modern art; the furniture was sleek and dripping with design, upholstered in white leather or neutral fabrics. She couldn’t hear anyone moving or talking; there were no sounds at all, apart from some music playing very faintly somewhere down the corridor ahead of her.
‘Penny? Are you up here, love?’
Nothing, and then the tiniest noise, a foot moving over a polished floorboard perhaps. Ashley headed towards the sound. She thought how wonderful it would be to find Penny now; how she would feel stupid for overreacting; and how she would be embarrassed and mortified, but how much better that would be than the alternative.
‘Penny?’
She paused by one of the modern paintings, frowning. It showed a barren red landscape, a single blackened tree twisting its way out of the dry earth, and she had the sudden awful thought that this was where the Heedful Ones came from. No wonder they would rather be here, haunting the living. As if she’d summoned it, she caught a shadowy shape out of the corner of her eye. A Heedful One hung just outside a closed door, and then, a second later, she heard a dry scraping noise, as though something was being dragged along the floor. Ignoring the Heedful One, she yanked open the door and stopped.
The room was clearly Richard’s. His collection of guitars were mounted on the wall, bookended by framed film posters: Rosemary’s Baby, Manhunter, Eyes Wide Shut. But it wasn’t these that drew her eye. On the floor were six changeling dolls lying in a neat row, as though waiting for someone to take them away. Ashley stumbled back into the corridor, her heart in her throat, only to back straight into Richard.
‘Ashley.’
‘Get away from me!’
‘Ashley, wait!’ His arms closed around her, holding her firmly in place. ‘Don’t go getting the wrong idea, all right?’
‘Get off!’ Ashley tried to pull away from him, but she had always been slight, and his arms only pinned her all the tighter. The hair of his beard scratched at the back of her neck. ‘Fucking let me go, Richard, or I will scream this whole bloody house down. Where’s Penny?’
‘Look, you have to understand,’ he spoke just behind her ear, his hot breath hideously intimate. ‘There’s only so much I could do. I told you to go, didn’t I? I told you both to go.’
‘Fuck you.’
Ashley threw herself to the side, and in the second before he reacted, she struck behind her wildly, hitting him in the groin. He gasped with pain, and then she was free. Richard leaned forward, his hands on his thighs.
‘You fucking bitch.’
‘Where’s Penny?’
He straightened up slowly, shaking his head. To her surprise, he started laughing, and then, when he looked at her, she saw that his eyes were wet.
‘It’s time to learn to keep that mouth of yours shut, Ash. Or you’ll never leave Red Rigg.’
Ashley turned her back on him and ran back down the corridor. She didn’t slow down when she came to the stairs, but flew down them two at a time, a high giddy feeling in her chest, as though her heart had come unmoored and was floating separately from her. When she made it to the ground floor, she skidded to a halt and checked her phone. Still no signal. She went to the big front doors and, with some effort, managed to open them.
Outside, the grounds staff had shovelled a path to the driveway, but it was already vanishing under a new flurry of fresh snow. Dressed in the thin white jumper she had worn for the afternoon show, she ploughed out through the snow. Her jeans were instantly soaked to her knees, and fat, wet snowflakes stung her face and hands. Within a few feet, she lost sight of the house and every other landmark; there was just the snow, the wind, and a blank unknowable sky. Covering the screen with her shaking hand, she checked her phone again, but there was still nothing. Her eyes and nose were streaming with the cold, but she forced herself to move further away from the house. The closer I get to Green Beck, she thought, the better chance I have to call the police.
It was hard going. In a very short time, even Ashley’s tolerance for the cold was exhausted, and every part of her felt frozen to the core. Already uncertain if she was even heading in the right direction, she kept moving, stopping every ten steps or so to see if she had enough phone signal.
‘Come on.’
She stopped again, her whole body shaking. For a brief second, she saw it; one tiny bar, a flicker of white against her phone wallpaper. Then it was gone, and the phone slipped through her numb fingers, dropping neatly into a bank of crisp white snow. Ashley fell to her knees, pawing through the snow to try and find it. The cold was a physical pain now, stinging and pinching at every part of her, and the dark was growing thicker and thicker.
Her fingers touched something slick, but they were so numb she couldn’t get a purchase on it, or even tell whether it was her phone or just a rock. At that moment, part of the darkness came forward, and she almost dismissed it as a Heedful One until she saw that it was wearing bright green wellies. The figure stopped, standing over her, a furred hood pulled low over a shadowed face.
‘Aye, Ashley lass, it’s a bit nippy to be out for a walk.’ Melva took her arm and pulled her to her feet. ‘You’ll catch your death.’