‘Whereabouts up here do you feel weird?’ asked Annie.
‘Everywhere, especially the kitchen and my bedroom, we’re going to go into that one next.’
She pushed open the heavy door to a room that was painted white, everything was white, curtains, furniture, it was the nicest room they’d been in so far.
‘This is lovely and bright.’
‘It is and Jasper hates it, but I did it when he was away one weekend. Dragged all that awful depressing furniture into the room across the hall and had a ball at Ikea. Even Lexie managed to smile that weekend. We did the same with her room, only it’s green instead. Jasper was so mad he threatened to put everything back, and I told him if he did, we were leaving. It calmed him down a little; he needs a wife and daughter to look good at his business functions.’
‘Do you and Jasper not get on?’ Annie asked.
‘We do, I guess we’re more friends than lovers now. It was different in the early days, he was infatuated with me, and I wanted to marry a rich man to take care of me, so I had no worries. My childhood and teenage years were not the best, I made some terrible mistakes. I know how shallow I sound but it was what I wanted.’
Morgan was staring at Natalie. ‘What do you want now, do you still feel the same way?’
‘God knows, I want an easy life, but I also want a husband who pays attention to me at least some of the time. It’s like I’m his bloody housekeeper not his wife.’
‘Have you told him this?’
‘Yes, he said as soon as this big development is finished, he’ll have more time.’
Natalie showed them the rest of the first floor, stopping at the narrow stairs to the second floor. ‘If you want to go up there, you’re on your own, I hate it.’
Annie smiled. ‘Of course, you wait in the kitchen, put the kettle on and we’ll go take a look.’
Natalie’s eyes shone with unshed tears of gratitude, and she turned, leaving Morgan staring at Annie who leaned forward and whispered, ‘It’s okay, nothing bad up to now just a lot of residual energy.’
Morgan followed Annie up the narrow twisting stairs that were the complete opposite of the grand staircase that led up to the first floor. At the top Annie shone her phone torch around – it was even darker up here. There were lots of smaller rooms, most of them empty except for some rusted iron bed frames, small chests of drawers and lots of dust.
‘Wow, no wonder she doesn’t want to come up here, it’s creepy as hell. I think I’d put a door across and seal the stairs off so I didn’t have to think about it.’
Annie laughed. ‘I didn’t take you as the kind of person who is scared easily.’
‘I’m not, but this is too spooky for me. What do you think, have you picked anything up?’
‘I’m not sure, I don’t feel as if anything of the unearthly kind is haunting Natalie or this house though.’
Morgan was beginning to wonder if she was wasting her time. What kind of mad link was it, to be considering Natalie as a target because Annie had got a bad vibe off her? Ben would be horrified listening to this. Oh God, Ben! She pulled her phone out of her pocket; he was going to be worried sick – she’d been gone nearly two hours. There were no bars at the top of her screen, no 5G signal.
‘Annie, I’m sorry I need to get back to work. I completely lost myself and forgot I was on shift.’
‘Of course, yes, that’s no problem, thanks for coming with me. What do you think about Natalie? If she’s not being haunted by something scary enough to make its presence known, do you think it could be a person who is watching her?’
‘Like a stalker?’
‘Yes, I’m convinced that Sally had someone watching her, too, which was why she felt so uncomfortable.’
‘I need to just ask her before I leave.’
They went back downstairs to the kitchen where Natalie was standing with a mug under the tap.
‘No kettle, sorry, we have one of these taps that boils the water.’
‘I have to go, so don’t worry about me. Annie, are you staying? Natalie, do you think there is a chance that someone is watching you, not a ghost, a human being?’
‘Why would they? I don’t think so, if they could get past the security system, they’d have to be good. Annie, I can give you a lift back to the café if you’d like.’
‘Perfect, thanks, Natalie.’
