There was a light in the far corridor dimly aglow as I pushed open the heavy front door of Dudley Hall. I could hear soft whispers coming from the dining room and drawing room as I walked past them. I’d almost forgotten that the house was full of murder mystery guests – young adults dressed up in school uniforms thinking it was brilliantly exciting that a schoolgirl had been murdered.
Walking towards the kitchen, I paused next to the telephone in the hallway. Something made me reach into my back pocket and pull out the scrap of paper with Nate’s number on it. I picked up the telephone and began to dial. With every ring that passed I held my breath, waiting for him to answer. Eventually the phone beeped onto voicemail.
‘Nate,’ I said quietly into the receiver. ‘I’m so sorry about everything. When you get this … I just want you to know that I’m sorry.’ I put down the phone and stared at it for a long moment, wondering when he’d ever listen to the message and whether he’d believe me – I really was so sorry.
The shoe box still in my hands, I walked towards the faint light coming from the kitchen at the end of the dark corridor.
Nell was sitting alone at the kitchen table, her tarot cards fanned out in front of her. The kitchen blinds were closed, barricading the daylight out, and the room was filled with candles, flickering away in the darkness. In one hand Nell twirled the shadow puppet that I’d taken from her house a few days before.
‘Did you find what you were looking for?’ she asked, without looking up at me. I looked down guiltily at the shoe box in my hands, the box that contained only more riddles about who the grey girl was and why she died. Nell didn’t sound angry, only tired. Maybe she felt like me, maybe she just wanted it to all be over.
‘Your mother knew her, didn’t she?’ I asked, coming towards the kitchen table.
Nell continued to study the cards laid out in front of her, the shadow puppet whirling around between her fingers and casting blurred shadows onto the kitchen walls.
‘I have no idea who my mother knew, or what she knew,’ Nell said softly. ‘Sit down,’ she told me. I pulled back one of the kitchen chairs and placed the shoe box on the table as I sat down. Nell’s eyes briefly flicked up to look at the shoe box before settling back down to the cards on the table once again. ‘My mother refused to speak about her time as a schoolgirl here.’
‘I know,’ I admitted, one hand resting on the shoe box, as if it gave me some kind of comfort. ‘Fiona told me.’
‘And did my sister tell you how we used to come here as children?’ Nell asked, finally looking up at me. The soft candlelight sparkled in her eyes. ‘How we used to explore the house when it was nothing but a ruin. It looked nothing like it does now.’
‘She told me that you heard the grey girl crying up in the attic. When you went to see if you could find her you ran away. You found that on the stairs,’ I said, pointing to the shadow puppet in her hands.
Nell nodded. ‘Fiona swears she saw her that day. Says she stood on the landing looking down on us as clear as any living girl might do. But I’ve never seen her. I come here every day and she’s never once appeared to me. Me with all my crystal balls and tarot cards, you’d think I’d be an easy target for a restless spirit.’
‘Why did you come back to Dudley Hall to work if you knew it was haunted?’
Nell gave me an exaggerated shrug and looked down at her cards. ‘The cards told me that this was where I needed to be. The cards never lie. I came here thinking that I would be the one to help her move on, but she’s never appeared to me.’
‘If you want to see her then why do you never go upstairs?’ I asked.
‘I don’t want to see her. I’ve seen what happened to my mother and sister – they were both driven mad by her in some way. I don’t want to see her, but I know that somehow I have a part to play. I don’t need to seek her out to know that. I’ve told you before, Suzy, the ghosts you chase you never catch.’
‘Did you ever tell your mother what happened that day?’ I asked. ‘When Fiona saw the grey girl, when she gave you the shadow puppet?’
Nell shook her head solemnly. ‘My mother would have skinned us alive if she knew we were coming here. This place haunted her – she carried the weight of Dudley Hall around with her all her life. Living in the house’s shadow ate away at my mother like a cancer, it killed her, but she couldn’t bring herself to move away or confront whatever it was that troubled her.’
‘Your mother knew her,’ I said, lifting the lid from the shoe box. ‘She knew the grey girl when she was alive.’ I pulled out the picture of the grey girl, the one where she stood with another girl, both holding shadow puppets.
‘That was my mother as a girl,’ Nell said, taking the picture from me. ‘But I don’t know who this other girl is and why her spirit would haunt Dudley Hall.’
‘We need to find out,’ I said, my voice as soft as a whisper. ‘We need to find a way to make her go.’
‘And how do you suppose we do that?’ Nell lifted her eyebrow.
Holding her gaze, I reached towards the cards spread on the table and swept them into a pile. I picked up the pile from the table and shuffled it in my hands. I spread the cards out in front of me, face down, as I’d watched Nell do before. Looking down at the cards, I waited for the ones I needed to leap out at me. I repeated my question to the cards in my head: Will she ever move on? Slowly, my fingers moved towards one in the centre of the deck. I pulled it out and turned it over.
‘Death,’ I whispered, looking down on the card. ‘Can’t be good.’
‘Death is as much a part of life as living is,’ Nell said gently. ‘All that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity.’
‘But some things don’t pass to eternity. Some things are trapped here.’
Nell nodded steadily. ‘Pull out another card.’
I pulled out a second card, a card that seemed to glow brighter than the others in the flickering candlelight.
The five of wands.
Finally, I pulled out a third card and turned it over in front of me.
The four of swords.
‘I want you to read the cards,’ I told her. ‘I need to know.’
Nell nodded her head in understanding. ‘This card here,’ she pointed to Death, ‘this represents the past.’
‘Her past,’ I said quietly.
‘The Death card represents the end of something. The end of life, the end of friendship, the end of sorrow or of happiness. And this card, the Five of Wands, the card that represents her present, is the card in the deck that means Conflict. She suffers great conflict now. Torn between one world and the next, between her desire for revenge and her need for peace. And this last card, the Four of Swords, the card for her future, represents Truce. She is ready to let go, Suzy. She is ready to leave.’
‘What do I need to do?’
‘You need to summon her again. She’s so close to giving up her secrets. She wants to rest, Suzy. She’s tired. She’s been angry with this world for too long. She’s ready to let go.’
‘Suzy,’ came a familiar voice from behind me.
I turned around to see Frankie standing in the doorway. My best friend was back in Dudley Hall. I blinked at her, feeling too confused to say or do anything.
Frankie ran towards me, worry etched on her face as she pulled me out of my chair and flung her arms around me. ‘You’re okay?’ she asked breathily in my ear. ‘I thought … when I saw that email from you … I thought you were going to do something stupid. I came straight here.’
Frankie pulled away and I smiled at her. She really was amazing, the best friend I could have ever asked for. Someone who would drop everything and travel any distance just to see that I was okay.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked, looking down at the tarot cards spread out on the table.
‘We need to banish the grey girl,’ I said. ‘And we need to do it tonight.’
Frankie nodded in understanding. ‘I’ll help in any way I can.’
‘Let’s do this now,’ Nell said slowly. ‘The sooner it’s all over the sooner we can all move on.’
‘What do we need to do?’ Frankie asked, her eyes resolute. I’ve always loved that about Frankie, the way her eyes land on something so steadily, the way she’s so dependable.
‘We need to carry all these candles upstairs and put them around the attic room. That’s where her presence seems to be strongest, so that’s where this needs to be done. And we’ll need chalk. Suzy,’ Nell looked at me, ‘there’s some in the library, in a small box by the window. The guests sometimes use it to draw around the dead bodies.’
At that moment Katie walked into the kitchen, a tray of empty wine bottles in her hands. She smiled nervously at Nell, whose face was a mask of dread and worry. Katie’s gaze moved around the candle-lit room. ‘Candles and tarot cards are for the guests,’ she muttered, walking over to the counter and putting the tray of empty bottles down. ‘What’s going on in here?’
‘We’re going up into the attic,’ Nell replied slowly.
Katie’s shoulders tensed. ‘Why? You know we’re not meant to …’
‘There’s something up there,’ I said quickly. ‘I know you’ve heard it, Katie. It’s not just the wind.’
Katie nodded her head slowly, her fair hair shimmering in the candlelight. ‘I’ve heard the stories about what’s up there. I don’t believe them.’
‘Then you won’t mind helping us,’ Nell said briskly, walking towards the nearest candle and blowing it out.
Katie hesitated. ‘The guests …’
‘Can look after themselves for a while,’ Nell finished. ‘We need your help up there.’
‘Very well,’ Katie said unconvincingly. ‘What do you need me to do?’
‘Help me take the candles upstairs,’ Nell said to Katie, walking towards the next candle and snuffing it out. Frankie and I watched as Nell and Katie worked to gather up all the candles scattered around the kitchen.
‘I’ll come with you to find the chalk,’ Frankie said to me, slipping her hand into mine and squeezing my fingers.
Frankie and I walked towards the library, still hand in hand. There were no guests in there – but we could hear their voices ringing out from the other rooms in the house. It was dark when we walked into the library. I flipped the switch on the wall and bright light flooded the room. ‘Wow,’ Frankie gasped, looking around. ‘This place is amazing. If I were you I’d never want to leave.’ She looked over at me and gave me a small smile. ‘Once the house is free of ghosts, of course.’
‘Is anywhere ever free of ghosts?’ I asked, letting go of her hand and walking towards the window.
‘Maybe it’s not places that are haunted,’ Frankie said thoughtfully, following after me. ‘Maybe it’s people.’
‘Who would the grey girl be haunting?’ I asked. Answers to my own question buzzed around my head. The grey girl could have been haunting Nate’s grandmother, she could have been haunting her daughters – Nell and Fiona. She could have been haunting anyone who stepped foot in the house that she died in. She could have been haunting me. ‘We need to put her to rest,’ I said.
‘Tonight,’ Frankie nodded. ‘We put her to rest tonight.’
Suddenly the sound of Nate’s motorbike tyres on the gravel driveway outside tore my attention from my best friend. I looked out of the window to see him pulling off his helmet in a rush and taking long strides towards the house. I ran through the library, into the grand hallway and watched as the front door to Dudley Hall swung open.
‘You know who she is, don’t you?’ Nate said, walking straight up to me. ‘If this is all about to end, then I’m going to help you.’