Page 81 of The Locked Room

‘Who’s there?’ shouts Tanya. Ruth has to admire her nerve. They are on a small landing, facing several closed doors. Light clearly shows under one of them.

‘Hallo?’ comes a quavering voice. To Ruth’s surprise, she thinks she recognises it.

The door opens and a thin figure in a grey hood stands in front of them, holding a candle.

‘Mother of God,’ says Janet, reverting to her Catholic upbringing.

‘Eileen?’ says Ruth.

Eileen Gribbon, who is wearing a grey UNN sweatshirt, says, ‘Dr Galloway? What are you doing here?’

‘I might ask you the same thing,’ says Ruth, rather breathless from the stairs and the fright.

‘We’re living here,’ says Eileen. ‘Me and Joe. Joe was looking round Tombland one day and he saw all these empty houses. We broke in. We’re not doing any harm,’ she adds, obviously seeing Ruth as an authority figure. ‘It’s just that we didn’t have anywhere to go, and I couldn’t stand halls any more.’

‘You should have told me,’ says Janet. ‘I would have let you in. There’s no one else here.’

‘I think there is,’ says Eileen. ‘I can hear someone crying at night.’

Ruth’s blood runs cold, especially when Janet answers calmly, ‘That’s just the Grey Lady. I’ve heard it too.’

‘Eileen,’ says Ruth, ‘where’s Joe?’

‘I’m not sure,’ says Eileen. ‘He went out about an hour ago, just for some fresh air. I wish he’d come back.’

And, echoing through the walls, comes the terrible sound of sobbing.

Nelson is, once again, floating on a dark sea. The waves are breaking, white against black and, somewhere far off, he can hear music playing. It sounds like the slot machines on Blackpool pier. Then he’s on the beach, miles and miles of sand interspersed with strange shapes that look both ancient and threatening. There’s someone waiting for him at the water’s edge and, for a second, he thinks it’s Tim. Then there’s a swirl of cloak and he knows.

‘Hallo, Cathbad,’ says Nelson.

Chapter 40

‘That was no ghost,’ says Tanya.

Once again, Ruth is grateful for Tanya’s presence though she could have done with some of Judy’s sympathy and Nelson’s comforting bulk. Whereishe?

‘That’s the sound I heard,’ says Eileen, sounding very young and very scared.

‘Where’s it coming from?’ says Ruth, retreating a few steps down the stairs just to be on the safe side.

‘From down below, I think,’ says Janet. ‘Maybe the cellars? The undercroft?’ How can she be so calm when it’s her own– temporary– house that she’s talking about?

‘I thought I heard something earlier,’ says Ruth. ‘When we were passing the bricked-up doorway. It sounded like an animal.’

‘Let’s go back that way,’ says Tanya. ‘It must be in the right general direction.’

They must make a strange procession, thinks Ruth, as Tanya leads them back into the enclosed garden. Tanya with her phone held out in front of her, Janet with her stick, Eileen shivering in her hooded sweatshirt, Ruth in her TV-watching attire of jumper and loose trousers. It’s much colder now and she wishes she’d brought her anorak.

‘Where’s this doorway?’ Tanya points her phone torch at the wall.

‘Here.’ Ruth turns on her own torch app. ‘Where the bricks are different.’

As they go nearer, they hear the sound again, louder this time and definitely human.

‘Police!’ shouts Tanya. ‘Who’s there?’

Her words echo around the stone square.There,there,there. . .