I stopped, to stare steadily at Arthur. “After the gargoyle failed to kill us, we went back into reception. Where you were breathing hard, and covered in sweat. You tried to make us think that came from moving boxes around, but they didn’t look nearly heavy enough to justify that much exertion. It really came from all the running about you’d had to do: up to the roof to dislodge the gargoyle, then back down to reception where you intercepted Wendy, then up to her room to kill her and dispose of her body, and finally back down to reception again. No wonder you were sweating.”

  Catherine looked at Arthur as though he was a stranger. “I should never have let your parents send me away. What did Paul and Mary do to you, that you could end up like this?”

  “You really didn’t know about the cage,” said Penny.

  “What cage?” said Catherine.

  Penny told her, and Catherine buried her face in her hands. Marion looked shocked, and then furious. Ellen looked sick. Marion put a comforting arm across Arthur’s shoulders, but he just shrugged it off. Marion flinched back, shocked and hurt. Catherine raised her head, and stared at Arthur with tears in her eyes.

  “If I had known what they were doing to you, I swear I would have taken you with me when I left, and to hell with the consequences.” She turned suddenly, to glare at me. “None of what’s happened is Arthur’s fault. It’s all down to what Paul and Mary did to him.”

  “Your friends,” I said.

  “I only saw the side of them they wanted me to see,” said Catherine. She looked at Arthur. “No wonder you wanted to leave the Hall empty. To let it rot along with all the horrors that still haunted you.”

  “But what about the ghosts?” said Ellen. “All the things people have been seeing and hearing? Weren’t any of them real?”

  “I don’t believe so,” I said. “There were no ghostly phenomena before Lucas’ arrival. Marion kept saying she hadn’t seen anything supernatural, in all the time she’d been here. And neither did you, Ellen. Arthur only started encouraging Catherine in her ghost stories after Lucas disappeared, so the Hall would seem a weird and dangerous place, where Lucas’ vanishing would be just part of the strange happenings.”

  “But what about when Lucas’ spirit appeared to me in my room?” said Catherine.

  “I’m afraid that was just Arthur again,” I said. “Coming and going through his hidden doors. Because he appeared in the dark, and never spoke, he could be pretty sure you wouldn’t recognise him.”

  Catherine stared at Arthur. “How could you? I was frightened out of my wits!”

  Arthur stared back at her, but still wouldn’t say anything. I was starting to find my big speech a bit hard going. I’d expected Arthur to crack by now, and admit everything. Since most of it really was just guesswork, I’d have a hard time proving any of it. I needed him to break. While I was thinking that, Penny took a step forward.

  “Can I just ask Arthur how he was able to appear outside our window, when we were on the top floor?”

  “Yes,” I said. “I’m still having trouble explaining that.”

  Arthur smiled suddenly. “That one was nothing to do with me.”

  Penny sniffed. “Didn’t you just know he was going to say that?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said easily, though inside I was rejoicing. By saying he wasn’t responsible for that one, Arthur was implying he was responsible for the rest. “Put it this way,” I said. “Arthur had put a lot of effort into creating his weird atmosphere, establishing a communal belief in the supernatural that had everyone believing the Hall was lousy with ghosts and weird incidents. It’s possible that the sheer pressure of so much shared belief was enough to affect us too. For a while.”

  “I don’t believe any of this,” Marion said flatly. “I’ve known Arthur for over twenty years! He isn’t the kind to plot and scheme and sneak around in the background, let alone kill people!”

  “Of course,” I said. “You’ve always had to be the strong one in your marriage. You had to make all the hard decisions, like leaving London and returning to the Hall. No matter how much he tried to argue against it. You won that one, because you had reason on your side and he only had emotions. He couldn’t explain why he shouldn’t go home again, because he never wanted you to know what had been done to him here. You forced him to return to Glenbury Hall, to a place he knew would bring out the worst in him. And he did it, to protect his family. Because he didn’t want to be anything like his father.

  “There is a curse on the house of Glenbury, but it comes from the line of descent. All those generations of inherited evil and madness. But Arthur could be strong, when he had to. Like when he tried to frame you for Wendy’s disappearance.”

  Marion looked from me to Arthur, and then back again.

  “What are you talking about? I was nowhere near her room when it happened.”

  “But Arthur tried to make it look as though you were,” I said. “To point me away from him.” I produced the cigarette butt and everyone stared at it, fascinated. “I found this on the floor of Wendy’s room. Lying in plain sight, almost as though it had been deliberately left there for me to find. And of course the only person I’d seen smoking in the Hall was you, Marion. Arthur was there when I saw you doing it. I don’t think he actually intended to incriminate you; he just wanted to muddy the waters. But his plan didn’t work, because I knew Ellen also smoked cigarettes.”

  Ellen looked quickly at her mother, but Marion just smiled tiredly.

  “I knew, dear. I could smell the smoke in your room sometimes. I never said anything, because I was in no position to preach.” She glowered at me. “Arthur couldn’t have left the cigarette butt in Wendy’s room, because he would never have done anything to endanger his daughter.”

  “But he didn’t know Ellen smoked,” I said.

  Marion put a hand to her mouth. “Of course. I never told him because I thought he had enough to worry about.”

  “I wasn’t fooled anyway,” I said. “Because when I examined the cigarette butt, there were no traces of lipstick. Which there would have been, if you or Ellen had smoked it. So it had to have been Arthur.”

  “I get it now!” said Penny. “The evidence that was important, because of what wasn’t there!”

  I put the cigarette butt away. Marion glared at Arthur.

  “You stupid man! If there was a problem, why didn’t you come to me so I could deal with it?”

  He looked at her steadily. “Because this was my home, and my problem. But mostly...because I didn’t want any of my family’s evil to rub off on you.”

  “You’re not evil!” said Marion.

  He looked at her sadly. “Do you know why I was first attracted to you, Marion? Because you were strong and stern, just like my parents.”

  Marion shrank back in her chair. Arthur smiled sadly at her.

  “Just once, I wanted to be the strong one. I did all of this because my family mattered more to me than anything else. I’d already failed you once. I couldn’t let that happen again.”

  Marion reached out a hand to him, and he took it. She tried to say something, but couldn’t. She reached out to him and took him in her arms, and Arthur clung to her. Tears ran down Marion’s face, but Arthur didn’t cry. And I remembered him saying how the cage had taught him there was no point in crying. Ellen’s mouth trembled, but when she did finally speak her voice was perfectly steady.

  “You did it all for us, Dad. I couldn’t be more proud of you.”

  Marion nodded quickly, and pushed Arthur away from her. “You have to run. Get away from here. Ellen and I will buy you some time. Do it!”

  She launched herself from her seat and wrapped her arms around me, pinning my arms to my sides. Ellen jumped up onto the table, ran down it and launched herself at Penny with such force that both of them fell sprawling to the floor. Arthur ran down the length of the dining hall, and was out the door and gone by the time I’d broken Marion’s grip on me. I pushed her gently but firmly back into her chair, and raced down the room after Arthur. Catherine wouldn’t even look at me. Penny had already wrestled Ellen into submission and pinned her to the floor. She patted Ellen on the shoulder, jumped up, and hurried after me as I ran out the door.

  There was no sign of Arthur in the corridor, but I could hear his running feet ahead of us.

  “He’s heading for the front door,” I said.

  “He must have a car hidden away somewhere,” said Penny.

  “I don’t think so,” I said.

  “But he must know he can’t outrun us,” said Penny. “So where’s he going?”

  “I have a horrible feeling I know,” I said. “We have to catch him, before it’s too late.”

  When Penny and I finally burst out the front door and into the grounds, Arthur hadn’t gone far. He was standing by the wishing well, leaning over the side and staring down into its depths. I called out to him.

  “Stay where you are, Arthur! Don’t move!”

  He turned his head, and nodded to me and Penny.

  “Don’t come any closer. I’ll jump.”

  I put a staying hand on Penny’s arm, and we slowed to a walk.

  “Come back inside, Arthur,” said Penny. “We’ll sort something out.”

  “My only choices would appear to be prison or the asylum,” said Arthur, quite calmly. “Neither of which appeals. And anyway, I have my family to think of. I think one last act of penance is needed, to make it clear I take all the blame. The authorities should leave my family alone then.” He looked down into the well. “It’s calling me. I’ve been hearing its voice ever since I came home.” He slung one leg over the side of the well. “Move over, Lucas. Here I come...”

  I sprinted forward, but it was already too late. By the time I got to the well, he’d disappeared into the darkness. Penny arrived to join me and we stood together, looking down into the depths, seeing nothing. We waited, but didn’t hear a splash or an impact.

  “Do you think Glenbury Hall was ever really haunted?” Penny said finally.

  “It is now,” I said.

  Penny turned away from the well, to look at me steadily. “What did you wish for, when we first got here?”

  “A case worth solving,” I said.

  Penny nodded. “Never trust a wishing well.”

 

 

  Simon R. Green, Haunted by the Past

 

 

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