The Dead of Winter (6 page)

Viv spotted her and grinned broadly. ‘Red or white? Or I think there's some sherry.'

Rina went over to them. ‘Sherry would be nice, actually.' Sherry before dinner was a commonplace at Peverill Lodge. ‘I had a quick look through the information you prepared for us. You've done a very efficient job.'

‘Thank you.' Viv looked both pleased and surprised. ‘Robin gave me a hand. It's really interesting stuff, don't you think, and isn't this just an amazing house?'

‘It is,' Rina agreed. ‘Tell me though, what do you actually think happened that night? Hype aside, do you think they really experienced anything?'

Viv and Robin exchanged a glance. Rina was slightly taken aback; she'd expected an immediate affirmative from Robin.

‘Weeell.' Viv stretched the word to breaking point. ‘We've talked about it a lot, Robin and me. I mean, I'm a major sceptic, but Robin really believes there is something else out there, you know.'

‘I don't think it's all ghosts and ghouls,' Robin put in quickly. ‘I mean, I'm sure most things that seem strange have a perfectly ordinary explanation, and I'm not sure that calling things ghostly or psychic or supernatural really helps anyone. I mean, they're happening here, in this world, aren't they, you know? Which kind of implies that they belong here and not somewhere else.' He trailed off, and Viv took over.

‘What we mean is that yes, there is something we haven't explained yet, but it becomes difficult to talk about because of the semantics involved. It separates people into two separate camps, you know, believers and non-believers, when what we should really be saying is we don't know what's going on, but something
is
, so we should just observe, explain what we can and then accept that there are elements we don't have a handle on yet. It's like . . . I've got a friend who's doing an archaeology MA. She says that in really important sites they deliberately leave areas un-dug because each generation has better ways of examining the evidence and understanding what went on there.'

‘We shouldn't be afraid of saying we don't know, is what we think, I suppose.' Robin blushed, the pale cheeks flushing a very bright red. ‘And that we need new words, a new vocabulary, so we don't get tied up in the way all the words we use have extra value and meaning added to them. If I say I want to see a ghost then everyone thinks I must be some kind of religious loony. What I really mean is that I'd like to see something interesting, something I can't explain and can't figure out or reproduce using special effects or stage magic.'

‘And that night, back in eighteen seventy two, I think those two groups clashed,' Viv said. ‘The people who wanted to see, but who also believed, clashed with the people who couldn't accept any of it. I think they quarrelled because Doctor Pym thought his friends had dragged him into a situation that was pointless or maybe even evil. I don't know what you've managed to read yet, but Pym was dead against all the experimentation that was going on. I couldn't find out why, but he seems convinced it was dangerous and he thought Mr Southam was becoming obsessed.'

‘It wasn't the first seance he'd attended though,' Rina objected. ‘They seem to have been a regular occurrence, according to your very thorough notes.'

Viv looked pleased. She didn't get much praise for what she'd done, Rina thought.

Robin was thoughtful. ‘I don't think he was against trying to speak to the dead. He'd claimed to have received messages from his dead wife, hadn't he?'

Viv nodded.

‘So, what was so different about this time?' Rina asked.

Again, that swiftly exchanged glance between Robin and Viv. ‘Maybe because they told him they'd
invented
the ghost,' Viv said. ‘I think that upset him. I think he felt cheated and used and began to doubt that the earlier messages had been real.'

‘That's what we think, anyway.' Robin shrugged. ‘It's all a bit speculative, but then, all of this stuff is a bit speculative. I mean, we're not even dead certain their ghost was fully invented.'

‘Oh?' Rina was intrigued.

‘Well,' Viv said. ‘One letter I read suggested it was another attempt to contact the gamekeeper. Elizabeth seemed to agree with some of the local gossips that the shooting hadn't been an accident, but –' she shrugged – ‘I don't know. Edwin is convinced it wasn't about the gamekeeper, so . . .'

‘And what do you think?' Rina asked them both.

‘I think everyone looks at the evidence and sees just what they want to see,' Robin said. ‘No change in that. I can't imagine Mr Southam would have been too pleased to have all of that dragged up again though. I mean, he'd been seen to have done his bit, called in the detective, looked after the family.'

‘Whatever actually happened,' Viv added, ‘it ended in disaster.'

‘And how do you both feel about this group having invented their ghost?' Rina asked

‘I'm just intrigued,' Viv said. ‘I mean, if nothing happens, then nothing happens, but if it does, it's going to be very interesting.'

‘Have they tried to raise the same character? The same one as the original seance? That's assuming it wasn't the gamekeeper, of course.'

‘Well, that's a bit of a problem too. No one could really agree on what or who that was – assuming it
definitely
wasn't Mr Creedy the gamekeeper, that is. It's not like the Philip phenomena we told you about. That's well documented: a lot of it was filmed or recorded at the time, and there are tons of notes. What happened here is fragmentary, and a lot of it is from the coroner's report and eyewitness statements, and Mrs Southam had left here by the time the rest of the statements were taken so we don't know what she thought about it and that was kind of central to the event.'

‘Her portrait is on the first floor landing,' Rina commented. ‘She looks very young.'

‘She was twenty when she married Albert Southam. He was fifty-three.'

‘And she left?'

‘The morning after the seance, very early. Pym's body was found after she'd gone. She never came back here.'

‘Where did she go?'

‘Italy,' Robin said. ‘The family had a villa in Rome or somewhere close. She went there and never came back home again. Albert Southam died five years after, and this place was rented out. She didn't even come back for the funeral. The room was walled up, and it was a condition of the tenancy that it was never opened up again – and it wasn't. Not until a month ago when Melissa got the builders in to take the false wall down. The room was just as they'd left it. Table, chairs, even what was left of a bowl of roses on the table. Melissa took pictures as the work was being done.'

‘I'd like to see those,' Rina said thoughtfully.

‘Pity she didn't get someone to film it.' Robin was regretful. ‘Surely there was someone here with a video camera, or even a mobile phone.'

Viv laughed. ‘Well, anyway, the room was opened and the re-enactors started to prepare.' She pulled a face. ‘We got here two days ago to set up, but no one's told us anything much yet.'

Joy left Tim's side and came over to join them. ‘He's talking shop,' she said. ‘I'll not get a word in.' She didn't sound as though she minded too much. ‘I read through your stuff,' she told Viv. ‘I didn't realize that Mrs Southam was the medium.'

Rina had missed that. Joy had evidently been more assiduous in her research.

Viv nodded. ‘She was at it before they married. Only private parties and stuff, not in public, though there were impresarios who tried to persuade her father and offered big money. She came from what they called an “old” family, lots of tradition and no cash, but then she married Albert Southam and I suppose that sorted that.'

‘They met at a seance,' Robin said. ‘I'm not sure if that's my idea of an ideal first date.' He glanced at his watch. ‘Dinner in a couple of minutes,' he added. ‘I'll give you the quick biographical tour before we go in, so at least you'll know who's sitting next to you.'

‘Thank you,' Rina said. ‘I think that might be a good idea. Start with the man Tim is talking to.'

‘Ah, well, I'm not surprised they're so engrossed. That's Jay Statham. He's American—'

‘
African
American,' Viv corrected him with a little giggle. ‘You know how Toby likes us to be politically correct. He's a nice guy,' she added. ‘Jay, I mean.'

‘And Toby is not?' Joy evidently couldn't resist. She'd spent far too much time with
her
, Rina thought.

‘Oh, he's OK, he's just a bit . . . Anyway, Jay Stratham. Magician and technical adviser. He writes books about the history of magic and also advises film companies and stuff. We're lucky to have him here. He's going to be the fourth camera on the night. I was just standing in for him today.'

‘What will you be doing?' Joy asked.

‘I think, if I remember the seating plan right, sitting between Rina and that man over there who's talking to Toby.'

Blond, close cropped hair, his expensive suit cut to emphasize the musculature beneath, Rina felt an immediate sense of familiarity. ‘Oh,' she said. ‘That's Terry Beal, isn't it? The one who does all those action films.'

‘Didn't know you watched that sort of thing, Rina.' Joy was amused.

‘The twins like them.'

‘Stephen and Matthew?'

‘No, dear, Bethany and Eliza. They like all that overblown muscularity. Some things don't change even when you reach the age to know better. What's he here for?'

‘His agent got wind of what we were doing and arranged it,' Viv said. ‘I think he's playing an exorcist in his next film or something. Over there, the Asian man is Rav Pinner. His dad is English or Welsh, I forget. Anyway, he's a physicist, he's a member of one of those debunking groups, but the old man he's talking to is Edwin Holmes—'

‘Grand old man of psychic research,' Robin said. ‘I'm quoting Toby there. He's lovely, and he and Rav seem to be really good friends even if they do sit up all night arguing.'

‘And playing poker,' Viv added. ‘Rina, just in case you're tempted, don't. They are scary good, they really are.'

‘And the girl standing next to the middle-aged man?' The pair of them were standing in the corner of the room, observing. Occasionally, the man had spoken to the girl, but she seemed almost to be ignoring him.

‘Oh, yes, them.' Viv frowned. ‘Sorry, he gives me the creeps. If you had to describe a stereotyped shrink then he would be it. You get the feeling he's judging you all the time. Anyway, that's the famous professor David Franklin. Gail is the medium; she's one of his research students. I think Toby mentioned that?'

Rina nodded, recalling that he had said something about her. She didn't look comfortable with her mentor, Rina thought. In fact, she looked as though she'd rather be just about anywhere else.

Still full of misgiving for the weekend, Rina could not help but be intrigued by the company and speculate as to how events might unfold. It would, as she had said to Joy, be interesting if nothing else.

Out in the hall the handbell rang and then Melissa appeared. ‘Dinner is ready,' she said. ‘Sorry it's a few minutes late, but the rest of the temporary staff don't get here until morning, so I'm pretty much it.'

They followed her through from the anteroom in which they had been chatting to the formal dining room.

‘Do you happen to know who else is on my corridor?' Rina asked Viv. She had knocked on the door of the room opposite hers before coming down, but had received no reply.

‘You're on the nursery floor, aren't you? I don't think there's anyone else up there. Melissa said the renovations are only part complete on that floor.' She glanced curiously at Rina. ‘Any particular reason?'

‘No, not really. I just noticed that the door along from mine was open.'

‘Probably Melissa,' Robin speculated. ‘She's still using a lot of the un-renovated rooms for storage.'

‘Probably was, then,' Rina agreed, but something, she felt, was wrong with that analysis. Melissa was a bustler: she scurried and hurried and made noise wherever she went. Some people moved quietly and calmly, some did not – and Melissa was definitely a did not. If Melissa had been in that room, Rina would have heard her.

FIVE

‘
Those that were with him said he told them,' Ellen whispered. ‘Mr Creedy swore that he'd been shot at, that it wasn't his weapon that went off.
'

‘
Who on earth would shoot your husband?' Elizabeth had, at first been reluctant to listen. Albert was doing all he could to help the family: he had kept a roof over their heads at no rent and given them the promised pension – more than most employers would have done, Elizabeth well knew.

‘
He said it, ma'am, he told them. Oh Mrs Southam, forgive me, but I can't get out of my head that he was killed and that the man who killed him is still out there.
'

‘
Did he name someone?
'