Into the Thinnest of Air

  ‘And that’s all they are! Just stories!’ Olivia stopped, and took a moment to compose herself before continuing. ‘It’s all just made-up stuff, tall tales to please the tourists. I don’t mind using the old legends to pull in the customers, but I draw the line at taking any of this nonsense seriously. Or letting it get to me. Such things just don’t happen in the real world.’ She looked at me challengingly. ‘Do you believe in the supernatural?’

  ‘The supernatural?’ I said. ‘No.’

  ‘It’s true,’ said Penny. ‘He really doesn’t. But don’t get him started on the paranormal.’

  ‘I saw a ghost, once,’ said Eileen.

  We all stopped, and turned to stare at her. Eileen’s voice had been almost offhand. Calm and matter of fact.

  ‘A ghost?’ said Thomas. He looked startled, even shocked. ‘Here, in the Castle?’

  ‘Of course not here,’ said Eileen. She took a reflective drink from her glass, and then put it down and looked composedly round the table. ‘I was just a child, eight years old. I woke up in my bed in the early hours of the morning. It was summer, so it was already light. I could see my room quite clearly. I just lay there for a while, waiting to go back to sleep, when I saw something standing at the foot of my bed, looking at me. It was just a dark shape, a human figure, but far too tall. There was something wrong in the way it stood … But I was so young. You just accept things, at that age. I closed my eyes and looked again, and it was gone. I didn’t make a fuss. Just went back to sleep.

  ‘At breakfast, I tried to tell my mother what I’d seen. She said it must have been my father, looking in to check I was all right. But I knew what my father looked like. What I’d seen didn’t look anything like him. Then she said I must have been dreaming. So I just nodded, and got on with my cereal. I knew better than to argue, even at that age. But it didn’t feel like a dream. A dream can fool you into thinking it’s real, but only while you’re dreaming. Once you’re awake, you know what’s real and what isn’t. I know what I saw.’

  She stopped for a moment, her eyes far away, intent on yesterday. ‘I can still see that dark shape in my mind’s eye, as clearly as I saw it then, all those years ago. And I don’t know what else to call it apart from a ghost.’

  She smiled briefly round the table, and then returned her attention to her glass of wine.

  ‘Did you ever see this figure again?’ said Penny.

  ‘No,’ said Eileen.

  ‘You never told me any of this before,’ said Thomas.

  ‘You never asked,’ said Eileen.

  ‘What is the Church’s official position on ghosts, in these modern times?’ I asked Thomas.

  He surprised me by considering the question seriously. ‘We take a case by case position. Officially, the Church likes to appear open-minded. More things in Heaven and Earth and all that. But unofficially, at the very top of the pecking order, where all the important decisions are made, it has been made very clear that they don’t want to know … They don’t want to have to get involved with anything that might rock the boat. With things they can’t explain, that don’t fit into their comfortable world view. Ghosts and ghoulies smack too much of the old superstitions that we’re all supposed to have put behind us. We’re a modern Church now. The Devil is dead. Evil is psychological.’

  ‘But what do you believe?’ I said bluntly. I was genuinely interested in what his answer would be.

  Thomas smiled suddenly. ‘You know, I think I’d quite like to meet a ghost. So I could talk to it and ask it questions.’

  ‘You’d run a mile,’ said Eileen.

  Thomas let out a brief bark of laughter. ‘Probably!’

  The mood around the table lightened perceptibly. Jimmy fixed me with a challenging smirk.

  ‘What about you, Ishmael? Do you believe in ghosts?’

  ‘No,’ I said firmly.

  ‘It’s true,’ said Penny. ‘Even though he believes in all sorts of other things.’

  ‘Such as?’ said Jimmy.

  ‘I could tell you,’ I said. ‘But then I’d have to haunt you.’

  Everyone contemplated their drinks for a while, sitting quietly. I finished my brandy, and Olivia emptied the last of the bottle into my glass. I was surprised to find I’d drunk it all. Olivia was looking at me expectantly, as if trying to determine how much the plum brandy was affecting me. I smiled easily back at her. I was feeling pretty good; full of good food, enjoying the pleasant setting, and happily engaged in trying to sort out all the past and present emotional entanglements of the six old friends sitting around me.

  It should have been a happy reunion, after all these years. But I wasn’t convinced. There was something they weren’t telling me. Or each other.

  The room felt warm and cosy, the inn’s thick stone walls protecting us from the cold night and the rising wind outside. No one seemed to feel like talking. We were all comfortable with the quiet, sitting back in our chairs happily digesting our meal. I looked around the room, at the meticulously recreated setting of Tyrone’s day, and it didn’t look in the least dangerous or threatening. Or in any way supernaturally challenged. Just an old country pub where you could always be sure of finding a cheerful welcome, excellent food and pleasant company. Penny was right: it did make a nice change, to be able to relax like everyone else.

  The stories were obviously just stories. Like all the others I’d been told down the years, so similar they were practically generic. Everywhere you go you can hear stories just like them, with variations according to the setting and local preoccupations. And the few things Albert and Olivia had encountered in the inn were just too ordinary for words. I was actually considering asking the Calverts if Penny and I might spend the night at the Castle, in one of the guest rooms upstairs. Better than a long drive back to our hotel.

  And then Jimmy leaned forward in his chair and fixed Albert and Olivia with a beady gaze. His face was a little flushed, and even before he opened his mouth I knew he was going to say something he shouldn’t. Because he just couldn’t help himself. Something had been building up all evening, something from out of the past, and he just couldn’t hold it in any longer.

  ‘So, Olivia,’ he said loudly, ‘are you ready to tell Penny why you really wanted her here?’

  His voice fell flatly, insinuatingly, across the quiet. His friends stirred uncomfortably around the table, avoiding each other’s eyes. Albert looked at Olivia, while she stared calmly back at Jimmy, entirely unmoved.

  ‘I don’t know what you mean, Jimmy. Ms Belcourt is here because she’s the daughter of an old friend.’

  Jimmy sniggered briefly. ‘That’s as may be. But that’s not why you sent her such a special invitation. Why you wanted her here tonight, rather than at the grand reopening tomorrow.’

  Albert and Olivia were carefully not looking at each other now, saying nothing. Thomas scowled heavily.

  ‘Shut up, Jimmy. You’re drunk.’

  ‘No, that’s Eileen,’ said Jimmy. ‘I can still see things clearly. You know exactly what I’m talking about, Olivia. Penny’s only here because you need her money. You need her to invest in your precious inn. Just like you needed her father’s money, all those years ago.’

  No one around the table said anything, but I could feel an undercurrent of anger moving among the four friends. The subject no one wanted to talk about, that had been bubbling under the surface all evening, was finally out in the open. I looked round the table, fascinated. A hidden truth from out of the past was about to be dragged into the light, and I couldn’t wait to hear what it was. Penny gave Olivia a hard look.

  ‘What does he mean, Olivia? Why were the two of you so keen to have me here, when you haven’t spoken a word to me in twenty years?’

  Olivia sighed, and seemed to slump just a little in her chair. Albert patted her reassuringly on the arm, but she didn’t even look at him. When Olivia finally answered, her voice was calm, tired, and more than a little guilty.

  ‘Your father was a business a
ssociate of ours, as well as an old friend. We consulted with him on various deals to our mutual advantage. Never anything big; I think it amused him to act as our mentor. It was a way for him to make money outside his normal business dealings, and a way for us to raise money without paying ruinous interest to the banks. But twenty years ago, everyone at this table came together in an ambitious scheme: to buy and restore the Castle Inn and run it ourselves. We were all going to do it together because we were such good friends. Those four put in their life savings, as seed money; basically a bribe to the inn’s owners not to accept any other offer. That’s how local business works sometimes. And then Albert and I went to see your father to persuade him to put up the rest of the money. We’d have paid him back out of the first year’s profits. That was the plan that we’d all agreed on.

  ‘But our timing couldn’t have been worse. Your father couldn’t help us. He was temporarily overextended, and fighting his own board for control of his company. We spent the whole weekend trying to persuade him, but got nowhere. And while we were away, the deal collapsed … The Castle’s owners got tired of waiting, went with another offer, and refused to return our bribe money. So our four friends lost all the money they’d put in.’

  ‘That’s why you had to leave town?’ I said.

  ‘Yes,’ said Albert, glowering round the table. ‘Our friends blamed us for their losses. Even though it wasn’t our fault.’

  ‘We couldn’t face them, after letting them down,’ said Olivia. ‘It was better for all of us that we left. But now we’re back! We’ve put all our money into the Castle, and this time it will work.’

  ‘We didn’t just lose our savings,’ said Jimmy. ‘We lost our only real chance to break free from this awful town. To raise enough money to get away and make something of ourselves.’

  ‘Jimmy …’ said Thomas.

  ‘No, Thomas, it’s true,’ said Valerie. ‘With all of our savings gone, we were trapped here. No hope, no future, no way out.’

  ‘I’m sorry about what happened,’ said Olivia. ‘You know I am, we both are. But you could still have left Black Rock Towen and taken your chances. Albert and I did.’ She turned to face Penny squarely. ‘We invited you because we believe Walter would have wanted you to be here. To see us running the Castle and making a success of it. We wanted you here, in his memory. We haven’t asked you for money, because we don’t need it.’

  The tension around the table was slowly fading away. The secret was out, the old grievances had been aired, and it hadn’t been so terrible after all. Thomas looked at Jimmy, who was still sulking, and nudged him hard in the side with his elbow.

  ‘Apologize, Jimmy.’

  ‘What for?’ he said sullenly. ‘Speaking the truth? You know it doesn’t matter how much money they’ve sunk into the Castle. They’ll always need more. This place is a money pit, always has been. What are you going to do, Olivia, when the tourists don’t arrive in the numbers you need?’

  ‘They’ll come,’ said Olivia. ‘Tyrone’s story and the legend of the Castle will bring them streaming in from all over the country.’

  ‘Exactly,’ said Albert. ‘They won’t be able to stay away once they hear what happened here.’

  Olivia pushed her chair back and got to her feet. ‘You’ll have to excuse me. I need to check how the dessert is doing.’

  She headed for the side door. Alfred didn’t go with her. He was still glowering at Jimmy, who was pretending an interest in his wine glass so he wouldn’t have to look up.

  ‘What are we having for dessert?’ I called after Olivia.

  ‘It’s a surprise,’ she said, not looking back.

  She disappeared through the side door and into the kitchen. I surreptitiously sniffed at the air while the door was open, trying to get some clue as to what the dessert might be. But all I picked up was old smells from the dinner, still hanging heavily on the air.

  The atmosphere around the table remained somewhat strained. I decided I’d better get the conversation started again if I didn’t want to sit in silence for the rest of the evening.

  ‘Albert,’ I said, ‘do you know why there was only the one tree standing outside the Castle?’

  He shook his head, but seemed grateful for the change in subject. ‘It never occurred to me to ask. It’s just … always been there. Until the storm ripped it up by the roots.’

  ‘Was it a part of the old wood?’ said Penny. ‘The one we passed through on the way here.’

  ‘Nettie’s Wood,’ said Valerie. ‘No, the trees never did come all the way out to the cliffs. The ground is too stony. The old smugglers planted the tree when they built the inn, and did something to keep it alive. Maybe they watered it with the blood of their victims … or the good brandy from France. You have to remember, the tree was taken from Nettie’s Wood … And she was the witch whose voice alone was enough to drive people mad … Having one of her trees outside the inn was a ploy by the smugglers to assure the local people that they had Nettie’s blessing, and protection. The tree was supposed to have magical attributes, though exactly what depends on which stories you listen to. Most of them agree that on certain nights, when the wind was blowing from Nettie’s Wood, you could hear voices whispering among the branches.’

  ‘Do you mean Voices?’ said Penny.

  ‘Possibly,’ said Valerie.

  ‘Which could explain why the tree keeps coming back, even after being uprooted and destroyed,’ said Thomas.

  ‘Have you ever seen it?’ I said.

  ‘No,’ said Thomas. ‘But then I haven’t come out here for over twenty years.’

  ‘Do you know anyone who has seen it?’ I asked.

  ‘Everyone knows someone who has,’ said Eileen. ‘It’s that kind of story, and that kind of tree.’

  ‘No one’s had reason to come out here for ages,’ said Thomas. ‘So it’s no wonder that the sightings have dropped off.’

  ‘If a tree appears and disappears and no one sees it, does it really exist?’ said Eileen.

  ‘A ghost tree?’ I said.

  ‘It could be a recurring image from the past,’ said Thomas. ‘Just a little bit of history repeating.’

  ‘You’ve been reading the Fortean Times again,’ said Eileen.

  ‘When the tree does make an appearance, does it mean anything?’ said Penny. ‘Is it significant?’

  ‘No one knows,’ said Eileen. ‘If the tree should happen to manifest while you’re here, you can always go out and ask it.’

  ‘You do, and you’re on your own,’ said Jimmy.

  ‘I don’t believe in ghosts,’ I said firmly. ‘And I definitely don’t believe in spectral trees.’

  ‘Olivia’s taking her time in the kitchen,’ said Albert. ‘I’d better go and see if she needs a hand.’

  He pushed his chair back from the table, got to his feet, and went over to the side door. He pushed it open and called out to Olivia. We all sat there and watched him. The moment lengthened, but there was no reply. Albert made an impatient noise and strode through into the kitchen. The door slammed shut behind him.

  ‘Ten to one she’s dropped the pudding on the floor,’ said Jimmy, ‘and is desperately trying to scrape the mess up before anyone notices. I think I’ll just ask for the cheese and biscuits.’

  There was some laughter around the table, quickly cut off as the side door swung open. Albert stood in the doorway, staring at us.

  ‘Olivia isn’t in the kitchen,’ he said.

  We all looked at each other, and then back at Albert.

  ‘Is there another door?’ I said. ‘Another way out of the kitchen?’

  ‘No,’ said Albert. ‘Not even a window.’

  ‘She didn’t come back in here,’ said Jimmy. ‘I would have noticed.’

  ‘She’s not in the kitchen!’ said Albert, his voice rising. ‘There’s no sign of her anywhere!’

  He left the doorway, hurried down the room to the bar at the far end, and looked up the tucked-away staircase that led to the guest r
ooms upstairs.

  ‘She didn’t go that way, either,’ said Jimmy. ‘I’d have noticed.’

  Albert ignored him, and shouted up the stairs to Olivia. We all sat very still, listening, but again there was no reply. I turned to Penny.

  ‘I’m starting to get a really bad feeling about this.’

  ‘Me too,’ said Penny. ‘I think our nice normal weekend is over.’

  ‘Let’s not panic just yet,’ I said. ‘There could be any number of reasons why Olivia’s not answering.’

  ‘There could,’ said Penny. ‘But not many good ones.’

  Albert turned back to look at us. He seemed genuinely worried. ‘Would you all please … Would you all just go to the windows and take a look outside? See if she’s out there.’

  ‘Oh, come on! How could she have got to the front door without any of us seeing her?’ said Jimmy.

  ‘Just do it!’ said Albert.

  ‘Better do as he says,’ said Thomas, getting to his feet. The rest of us started to push our chairs away from the table.

  ‘Is there a back door somewhere?’ Penny asked quietly. ‘Could she have left the inn that way?’

  ‘There’s only ever been one entrance to the Castle,’ said Valerie. ‘The smugglers designed it that way.’

  ‘I’m going to check upstairs,’ said Albert.

  He hurried up the wooden staircase, his feet slamming loudly on the bare steps. We could all hear him calling Olivia’s name, over and over again, but there was never any answer. The quiet of the Castle was starting to feel just a little unnerving. We all looked at each other, and there was a real unease in everyone’s face.

  ‘Olivia can’t have just vanished,’ said Jimmy. ‘I mean, she can’t just have gone without any of us seeing her leave …’

  ‘And why would she want to go, anyway?’ said Thomas. ‘It doesn’t make any sense.’

  I went over to the side door and pushed it open. The kitchen was a compact little room, all white tiles and modern appliances, with signs of food preparation everywhere. It was quite definitely empty. No door, no window, no way out. I turned back to find everyone staring at me. I shook my head slowly.