Malice (5 page)

Perdita

6:53 am

I was wrong about not sleeping. My eyes flew open as dawn was breaking and birds were chirping loudly. My muscles protested as I stretched out—I was stiff from sleeping in a weird position in the armchair. As I yawned, the events of the night before flooded into my mind. The impossible had happened—I'd seen a ghost. I scrambled for my mobile.

Boges's sleepy voice answered. But he was wide awake in seconds when he heard what I had to say. ‘Winter, are you sure?'

‘Boges, I came within a few metres of her. And then right before my eyes, she just vanished.'

There was silence as Boges tried to process this incredible information. ‘Look Winter, I promised I'd help my uncle out today with some cleaning work. But I'll come as soon as I can, later on. There has to be some rational explanation. Have you told Cal about it?'

‘No—it was too late last night and I don't want to worry him about something that he can't do anything about right now. I'm going to have a really good search around the place,' I continued, ‘especially at the edge of the grove where I saw her. There might be some kind of hiding place that she could have slipped into.' That explanation didn't satisfy me at all, but I had to tell myself something.

‘I'll tell Ryan,' said Boges, ‘and we'll call when we're on our way. I'll bring my ghost-busting gear.'

‘We'll also need some tools to hack through the grove to get in there. And
please
make sure you're here by tonight,' I said. ‘I don't think I can do another night alone here.' I shivered at the thought.

7:10 am

As the daylight grew stronger, I started my search. I walked across the driveway and over to the grove. There were still traces of the weird smell I'd noticed the night before. I pulled out my mobile and went online searching for ‘ghosts and bad smells'. There were quite a few references
to foul odours and evil spirits, but my phone dropped out before I could get much further.

I looked over to where the spectre had appeared. It was overgrown with very dense bushes and tree branches that were tangled together. I worked my way through the dense foliage, ignoring the prickles that caught at my T-shirt and scraped my skin. I stopped in the approximate position of last night's phantom. But there was nothing to show that anyone had been here. There were no broken twigs or scrapes in the bark. The hard leafy floor of the forest was untouched apart from where I'd stepped.

I couldn't go any further without proper tools. I turned around and started making my way back out.

Then I heard something. Immediately I stopped moving, although a branch was sticking uncomfortably into my hip. Someone was creeping around in the driveway. As stealthily as I could, I pressed my way forward until finally I'd broken free of the dense undergrowth and was almost at the edge of the grove. I looked through some leaves to see someone on the verandah, peering in at the window. The figure turned.

Crash girl from Abercrombie House!

‘What do you want?' I called out angrily.

‘Argh! You nearly gave me a heart attack! I thought you were a ghost!' she yelled.

After what had happened last night, the thought of
me
being a ghost struck me as hilarious. I couldn't help it. All the pent-up tension exploded out of me and I stood there in my ripped T-shirt, laughing like a hyena with the girl staring at me as if I was a lunatic.

My crazy laughter was infectious and soon she was laughing too, although a little uneasily. ‘What exactly are we laughing at?' she asked.

Brushing the tears of laughter from my eyes, I hurried over to her. ‘Not you,' I said, ‘it's a long story, I'm afraid.'

‘You know this place is haunted,' she said, putting out her right hand. ‘I'm Harriet Abercrombie, by the way. I'm really sorry about the other day. I wasn't sure if anyone was here. I'm on my way to the beach and thought I'd have a look around.'

I wondered briefly if it had been
her
feet that had left those footprints in the dust. I wondered if this girl might know something regarding Perdita's history. ‘Why don't you come in for some breakfast?' I said. ‘And then maybe I could come down to the beach with you.'

A few minutes later, we munched on toast together in the big room with the sun shining in.

‘Why is it called Deception Bay?' I asked.

‘Because this particular bay looks a lot like the harbour entrance, which is a couple of kilometres north. In the old days, sailing ships sometimes sailed in here by mistake and ended up on the rocks, shipwrecked.' She took another bite of her toast. ‘There are sixteen shipwrecks off the coast along here.' Harriet hesitated. ‘I really am sorry about the car accident. It was my fault. I wasn't concentrating and no-one ever comes down this road but me. By the way, where are your friends?'

‘In the city,' I said. ‘They'll be coming back later today.'

‘Well, I'd just had some really bad news when I shot out of the driveway like that. The bank called. They won't lend me any more money so I'll have to sell my farm. And then I thought the car was stuffed too. But it was OK after I fixed the radiator.'

‘What about your family?'

Harriet shrugged. ‘There's no-one else but me. My father left when I was little. Mum was ill for a long time and then … after she died, I tried to run the place by myself. But I'm broke, I owe the bank and I can't get a buyer. I've been trying for ages. But there's this water problem … '

‘Tell me,' I said, warming to Harriet. Of all people, I knew what it was like to try making a life all by yourself.

‘Abercrombie House used to be a wealthy estate. It was one of the best known farms on the coast. But a long time ago, the river that used to supply water to the property dried up. Now I have to rely on just rainfall and that's been pretty patchy over the last few years. I can't afford to put in another dam, and the one I have is so small that even after good rain, I only have water for a few months. I can't afford to stay there—the property is finished as a farm.' She stood up, flushed in the face. ‘I'd better go. I've got a lot to pack up. I'm moving out in a few weeks.'

‘What about going down to the beach?'

‘I'm sorry, I'm just not in the mood now, but thanks for breakfast.' She paused before adding, ‘And please pass on my apologies to that guy who was driving the truck.'

‘Boges,' I said.

‘Yeah—him.'

8:35 am

After saying goodbye to Harriet, I went back into the house and while I was changing, my mobile chimed.

‘Gabbi!' I said. ‘Great to hear from you. How's everything?'

‘I'm OK. But I miss Cal loads.'

‘Me too, Gabs.'

‘He called last night, says he's working really hard. It's so boring here, with just Mum and me. My bestie's gone away with her parents for the holidays. I want to come see you.'

‘Here?' I said, alarmed. I didn't want Gabbi to be terrified by a ghost.

‘Except Mum won't let me,' Gabbi continued. ‘She said I should spend time with people my own age.'

‘It's not very comfortable here, Gabs,' I said, relieved, ‘there's no TV and there's not even a bath or a proper kitchen. We cook over the fireplace and wash in a big tub in the laundry.'

‘Cool! Just like camping!'

‘Not quite,' I said.

‘Mum's calling. I gotta go.'

‘I'll call you soon,' I promised.

I headed off to the beach. It seemed a long way down this time and I had to concentrate on what I was doing. But my mind kept wandering as I tried to make sense of the apparition from the night before. I wondered too if I could trust Harriet. Underneath all that, my nagging anxiety about the Drowner still occupied my thoughts.

Finally, I was clambering over the rocks that gave onto the pure white sand of the long cove. Ahead of me, the waves rolled and crashed on the sand, and a stiff wind blew my hair into my eyes as I strode along. The beach was deserted, or so I thought, until I heard footsteps splashing behind me and turned to see Curly running through the edge of the water towards me, waving.

I waited impatiently until he puffed up to me. ‘You seem to be surviving OK all by yourself,' he said.

I frowned, puzzled and wary. Had this strange guy been watching me? ‘Yes, I'm fine,' I said shortly. ‘Why do you ask?'

Curly shrugged. ‘No reason. It was a bit blowy last night. Thought you might have had some trouble with rattling windows and banging doors—funny noises—that sort of thing.'

Funny noises? I thought. What does he know about last night? ‘Nothing out of the ordinary,' I lied. I turned to make my way back up the cliff path but Curly kept up with me.

‘Have you thought any more about selling the property?'

‘I haven't thought about it at all,' I said curtly. ‘The next property is for sale—Abercrombie House. It's got the same cliff top views. Your friend should buy that place.'

‘Ah, I'm afraid they have their heart set on Perdita.'

‘That's a real shame, because you know what? So do I. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have lots of things to do today.'

‘Are you staying there again tonight?'

Now I was on full alert. ‘Why are you so interested?'

Curly grinned, revealing missing teeth. If he thought that was going to disarm me, he was very mistaken. ‘Just being neighbourly,' he said. ‘If you're staying there, I can go fishing and bring you a nice flathead in the morning.'

I started quickly back up the cliff path. ‘I'm allergic to flathead,' I called back.

6:46 pm

Twilight was falling when I heard Boges's truck turning into the driveway. I ran out to meet the boys. ‘Am I glad to see you two!' I yelled with relief.

They'd brought heaps of provisions so we had a feast while I told Ryan and Boges about what had happened the night before.

‘So it just vanished?' Boges asked.

‘That's right. I was creeping along, getting closer and suddenly—' I clicked my fingers ‘—she was gone. Just like that.'

‘Awesome!' said Ryan.

‘It didn't seem very awesome in the middle of the night,' I said.

‘You mentioned a bad smell, and some fog?' Boges helped himself to more food.

‘Yep,' I said. ‘So I checked online. Supposedly, bad ghosts sometimes leave bad smells.'

‘So do a lot of other things,' Boges said, deep in thought. ‘Not sure about the fog, though. I wonder if she'll walk again tonight?'

‘If she does,' said Ryan, ‘we'll be ready for her.'

I also filled them in about Harriet and told them about seeing Curly on the beach. As I spoke, my mobile chimed again.

Hope everything good with you? Crazy busy here … prac and tech study 25 hrs a day! Send me some pics? Call soon. Cx

I texted back:

Everything fine. Hanging out with B and R. Miss you … chat soon 4 sure. Wx

I'd made a promise that I wasn't keeping. I tried not to feel too guilty as I hit ‘send'.

‘It just sounds odd,' said Boges, as we cleared up the plates, ‘Curly's mate who's so keen to buy the property—plus someone who was desperate enough to get hold of the Perdita file to hire an investigator. Are we talking about two interested parties or could it be the same person?'

‘And why wouldn't they just have bought the
place before?' Ryan asked. ‘Sligo had the deeds. A buyer could just have approached him. Am I the only one smelling a rat?'

‘Winter smelled a ghost already,' laughed Boges.

Perdita

2:32 pm

We'd spent the next few days hanging out and exploring. Ryan had brought some boards with him, so we tried the local surf, which turned out to be pretty good. There were also some great bush walks nearby.

Boges teased me mercilessly about the White Lady. ‘Are you sure about this ghost? How come she hasn't come back?'

‘Maybe she doesn't like guys,' said Ryan, and we all laughed.

I threw myself into the hard work of cleaning Perdita, and at the end of all our efforts, the old house was starting to look good. ‘It's called shabby chic,' I explained to the boys. ‘People go to a lot of expense to get this look,' I said pointing out the unevenly coloured walls, the scrubbed floors, the tall sparkling windows.

I was keen to get into the large chest with the jammed lid and drawers in the top room. Ryan and Boges chiselled away some of the timber and applied a lot of force. Finally, we were able to pull the top drawer open.

‘What's this?' I asked, pulling out and opening a large dusty box, to find a pile of jigsaw pieces inside.

‘What they did before television and DVDs,' said Ryan. ‘Let's try putting it together and see what it is.'

‘It's huge … there must be hundreds of pieces,' I said. ‘We haven't got a table big enough.'

‘We can do it on the floor downstairs,' Boges said. ‘It'll give us something to do at night while we're waiting for your imaginary ghost.'

I gave Boges a gentle punch, and we carried the big box downstairs and tipped out the contents in a massive pile.

‘Wow!' laughed Ryan. ‘Where on earth do we start?'

I pulled out a few pieces that looked like they went together along the bottom edge. We fooled around with the puzzle and had exactly six pieces in place when I decided I'd had enough, and went upstairs to bed. The boys bunked down in their room next door.