Dance of Ghosts Read Online Free Page B

explain everything you need to know and draw up a contract.’
    Mrs Gerrish got to her feet. ‘Well, thank you again, Mr Craine. Really … thank you very much.’
    ‘You’re welcome. I’ll see you at six o’clock.’
    She smiled her humourless smile again, turned round, and started walking out. I watched her go. She was one of those women who scuffle across the ground with small, quick steps, barely lifting their feet, as if they’re somehow embarrassed about the process of walking.
    I was just about to pick up the phone and call Ada to let her know what to put in the contract, when I heard the scuffling stop, and I looked up to see Mrs Gerrish peering back at me.
    ‘Would you mind if I asked you a personal question, Mr Craine?’
    ‘Not at all.’ I smiled at her. ‘I can’t promise to answer it, though.’
    She didn’t return the smile. ‘Have you always lived in Hey?’
    I nodded. ‘Most of my life. Why?’
    ‘Well, it’s just that … back in 1993, something terrible happened here. A young woman was murdered …’
    I didn’t say anything, I just stared at her.
    This time she didn’t look away. ‘Her name was Craine … Stacy Craine …’
    Inside the house, I drop my keys on the hall table and call out, ‘Stacy! It’s me … Stacy?’
    There’s no reply
.
    I look at my watch. It’s 5.35
.
    ‘Stacy!’ I call out again, going into the kitchen, then on into the sitting room. ‘Where are you, Stace?’
    I shouldn’t be worried. She’ll be upstairs taking a nap, that’s all. It’s a sweltering hot day, she’s five months pregnant … she’s been feeling really tired recently. That’s it. That’s where she’ll be. Upstairs, in bed
.
    Asleep
.
    No, I shouldn’t be worried
…
    But I am
.
    Something doesn’t feel right. Me, the air, the house … this moment. It’s all wrong. There’s a terrible coldness in my belly. A deadness in my mind. This, right now … this feels like a moment that I’m never going to forget
.
    And now I’m half-remembering something, something I’d seen but not registered when I’d entered the house just aminute ago, and with an awful sense of dread in my heart I go back out into the hallway and stare intently at the hall table … and my half-memory is right. The table is slightly askew … not quite flush to the wall … as if someone has knocked against it in passing and not put it back where it belongs. And when I look down at the floor to the right of the table, I can see what I didn’t see before … the antelope’s head. It’s on the floor. Our carved wooden antelope’s head, six inches long, that we bought at a junk shop for 50p … the carving that we use as a paperweight for anything that needs posting
…
    It’s on the floor
.
    It shouldn’t be on the floor
.
    It belongs on the hall table. And if either of us ever knocks it off, we always pick it up and put it back where it belongs
.
    Always
.
    Without fail
.
    It’s one of our stupid little things
…
    And now I’m running up the stairs as fast as I can, and my heart is pounding, and I’m shouting at the top of my voice, ‘Stacy! Stacy! STACY!’
    ‘Mr Craine …?’
    I looked up.
    Helen Gerrish was staring at me with a slightly puzzled look on her face. ‘Are you all right?’
    ‘Yes … yes, I’m sorry. What were you saying?’
    ‘Stacy Craine … I was just wondering, you know, as it’s quite an unusual name … if she was related to you in any way.’
    ‘She was my wife,’ I said.
    ‘Oh … oh, I’m
terribly
sorry. I hope you didn’t mind me asking … it’s just … well, I remember it, that’s all. It was such an awful thing.’
    ‘Yes, it was.’
    ‘I’m sorry to bring it up. It must be … well, it must be very hard. I’m sorry.’
    ‘That’s all right.’
    ‘Did the police ever find him? The man who did it, I mean. Did they catch him?’
    ‘No …’ I said quietly. ‘No, the police never caught him.’

3
    While Ada was sorting out the paperwork for Helen