Restless Dead (Harry Grimm Book 5) by David Gatward (english reading book TXT) 📗

‘So, if you were in bed,’ Harry said, ‘how did you know about the fire?’

‘It was the smell that woke me,’ Patricia said. ‘Woke us all I think. The smoke. Dan and I rushed outside and there was Dad’s cabin, just this huge inferno, you couldn’t go near it. And we couldn’t find Dad anywhere.’

‘And then you called the emergency services?’ Jadyn asked.

‘Immediately,’ Patricia said. ‘Well, Ruth did, didn’t she? And we all kept looking for Dad all around the place, checked every room, the garden. We none of us thought for a minute that he was in there, you know, in the fire. It didn’t even cross our minds.’

‘Is there anything else that you can remember?’ Harry asked.

‘Nothing,’ Patricia said. ‘We had the séance, we all went to bed, the smell from the fire woke me up, and now here we are.’ She sighed, then added, ‘It’s bloody horrific, isn’t it?’

Harry said nothing for a moment, then asked, ‘Is there anything else you can think of, anything that seemed odd or out of place or strange?’

‘In what way?’

‘In any way at all,’ Harry said.

Patricia shook her head and leaned back in her chair. ‘Everything that’s happened has been odd,’ she said. ‘None of this is normal.’

Harry had to agree with her, and after he thanked her for her time, Patricia stood up and left the room.

‘So, what do you think so far?’ Harry asked, looking across at Jadyn.

Constable Okri checked his notes, then looked up at Harry, shaking his head. ‘To be honest, Boss, I haven’t got a sodding clue.’

‘No,’ Harry said. ‘Neither have I.’

Chapter Twenty-Four

Dan glanced across the table into the stony face of Detective Chief Inspector Harry Grimm and couldn’t help but feel guilty. It wasn’t just the detective’s eyes that did it, though they were things of hard, cold stone, he thought. No. And it wasn’t the scarring either, though that really was something to behold, the man’s skin cracked like the surface of a lava flow. It was what lay beneath all of it, he realised, an invisible and altogether frightening presence which seemed to seep from the man like fog, to wrap around him and choke him. He’d seen Patricia briefly in passing, as he’d been called in by the constable for a chat, and she had certainly looked drained. And Ruth had looked just the same as well. So, now it was his turn, and that feeling of guilt just wasn’t shifting. And that wasn’t good, was it?

‘Probably best if you just tell us what happened in your own words,’ the detective said.

‘How do you mean?’ Dan asked. ‘Tell you about what exactly? So much has been going on, hasn’t it? What with Helen’s death, James seeing things, that thing last night, the fire.’

Dan was sure that he could see cogs moving behind the detective’s eyes.

‘You came over here last week, is that right?’ the detective asked.

‘Yes,’ Dan said. ‘As soon as we could. I was away on business, you see.’

‘Doing what?’ the constable asked and Dan noticed how the young man was busy jotting notes down as they spoke.

‘Property development,’ Dan said. ‘But it’s not always the money-spinner everyone thinks it is.’

‘So, you flip houses?’ the constable asked.

‘Not just houses,’ Dan answered. ‘Property in general. It’s been a bit tough lately, with a few large projects not exactly going to plan, cashflow issues, that kind of thing, but that’s business, right?’

God, what was he saying! They don’t want to know about any of that! And he absolutely didn’t want to be telling them any of it, or indeed anyone else, did he? Even Patricia didn’t know! Cashflow issues? Now that was a massive understatement, wasn’t it? And Patricia thought she had problems from when her last venture had gone wrong! She hadn’t the faintest idea, which was probably for the best. Yes, there was probably a very good argument for them sharing more with each other, being honest, but that just wasn’t them, was it? They were private people, even with each other, and he’d been away because he’d had to try and sort things out.

‘So, you’re both self-employed,’ the detective stated.

‘Yes,’ Dan said. ‘It comes with its own challenges, and it’s certainly risky, as I’m sure Patricia told you, but better that than working for someone else and putting money in their pocket instead of my own.’

The detective then asked about how James had seemed to him since the accident.

‘Not great,’ Dan said. ‘But that’s not a surprise really, is it? The accident was terrible. It’s no wonder he was a bit off.’

‘What do you mean by a bit off?’

‘Well, all that stuff about seeing Helen around the place. I think it was just emotional exhaustion or something, his mind showing him what he wanted to see, which was Helen around the place, that’s all.’

‘So, you don’t think there was an intruder?’

‘No, of course, I don’t,’ Dan said, and then something just popped into his head. ‘I think a big part of it is that Ruth and Patricia, even Anthony, well they all look so similar, like Helen, don’t they? You must have noticed. And I reckon he just saw them around the place and his mind was turning them into Helen. That’s it. That’s all it was.’

‘And what about the séance?’ the detective asked.

Dan shook his head and laughed, then realised just how wrong it sounded, how it was the most inappropriate thing to do, the sound cold and broken like a glass smashed on concrete, and he quickly shut it down.

‘It was ridiculous,’ he said, forcing his voice back to being serious. ‘A séance? I mean, have you ever heard of anything so completely stupid in your life, contacting the dead?’

The detective didn’t answer and instead asked, ‘Can you tell us what happened?’

Dan thought back to the evening before, to when that medium, that Beverly Sanford woman had turned up, and what had happened after.

‘It was all going fine,’ Dan said, ‘and it was a