The Patchwork House (5 page)

CHAPTER 5

Ten minutes later,
Derek and I were working to set up our equipment at the top of the stairs. I attached the night vision lens to the DSLR camera and then configured it to go off every ten seconds with no flash. Then I handed it to Derek, who held it while I descended a few steps and then reached through the wooden bars to take it from him. I tried placing it in various positions until I was satisfied the camera had the best view of the landing, pointing towards the library. Derek took masking tape and wrapped it around the camera and the railing several times, being careful not to obscure the lens or the controls.

I checked to make sure it was taking pictures and then we moved to the library.

“Turn off the lamp a moment.”

Derek did as I asked and the hissing ceased. Then I turned off my torch.

It was quite astonishing how dark it was. It wasn’t just a case of our eyes having to get used to the gloom. We literally couldn’t see a thing. I held a hand in front of my face and wiggled my fingers. I saw nothing.

I broke the silence. “Now that’s dark.”

Both of us lived in the city. It was virtually impossible to shut out the light. At night, streetlamps illuminated our apartments through curtains or shutters. Electronics cast an eerie glow with their standby lights. But here, in this room, with our lamps off and the video camera powered down, even though there was nothing covering the window, we stood in pitch darkness.

“Wow,” I said. “You still there?”

“Yep,” said Derek. “I don’t remember being anywhere so dark before.”

I looked towards the window. It must have been an overcast night because we couldn’t see stars or the moon.

“You could shut yourself in a meat locker with the light off, I suppose,” I said.

“Not my idea of fun. If you turn off all the lights in my flat and go in the bathroom with the door closed, it might get this dark.”

I chuckled. “Is that something you do a lot?”

“I think we should turn the lights on now.”

“Scared?”

“Not yet. Getting there.”

The gas lamp hissed into life again. We blinked and shielded our eyes from the sudden intrusion. Once my eyes had adjusted, I glanced around the room. Nothing had moved this time. Derek placed the lamp on the centre table.

He worked on the tripod while I powered up the video camera and laptop and connected them together. Both had extra-capacity battery packs with a full charge, so in theory they should last throughout the night. I checked my iPhone. The time was 9pm. It felt like the middle of the night already.

The camera was rolling and I checked the images were going straight to the laptop hard drive. Then I paused it and mounted it on the tripod.

“We should try to cover as much of the room as we can,” Derek said.

“Over here should do it.” I picked up the tripod and moved to the corner next to the window, away from the wall shelves. Derek followed carrying the laptop, keeping the connecting cables slack. I stood the tripod up and checked the test image on the laptop Derek was holding. I shifted the camera to take in the impossible bookcase, the area where the bookcase
used to be
, and the covered table and chairs in the centre of the room. Derek was still holding the laptop, so I went over and grabbed him a small side table, removing the plant on it first.

As I adjusted the camera position, Derek picked up the lamp from the centre table.

“So I guess you weren’t that keen on coming,” I said. I had to bring it up at some point. If he was pissed at me, I wanted to know why and I didn’t want Chloe answering for him.

“No, mate, it’s fine, really. It’s good to see you.” That was obviously a lie. “Pass me the tape would you? I want to make sure nothing knocks this tripod over.” I handed him the tape but I wouldn’t let him change the subject.

“If it was up to you and not Chloe, would you have come?”

“Well I had to make it up to her so I couldn’t say no.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

He let out a deep breath. “What do you want me to say, Jim? You want me to say no? Okay no, I probably wouldn’t have.”

“Why? Is it me?”

“Jesus… You don’t give up, do you? We’ve hardly spoken in years. We have different lives now. It was like a stranger calling me up out of the blue to ask if I’d like to spend the weekend in his big scary house. Things are so different now. We’re not the same people. Plus there’s the whole charity thing of you helping us out, and while I appreciate the sentiment I fucking loathe being treated like we’re in need of handouts.”

“I can understand that.”

Still he wasn’t telling me the full story. He was holding something back.

We were pretty much done so I dropped it for now. At least he was talking to me and we had a common goal to pursue. That took some of the awkwardness away. Satisfied that the equipment wasn’t going to shut down automatically, run out of batteries or just fall over, we went back downstairs.

In the drawing room, with the door and window shutters closed, it almost seemed cozy. The dust covers were gone revealing comfortable leather furniture. The carpet was old and a bit worn, but it was clean. This was by far the warmest room in the house so we didn’t need to roll out our sleeping bags just yet. We would all be sleeping in here tonight. Our original plan was to give Derek and Chloe their privacy (and Beth and I, ours) but after what had happened we all agreed to stick together. We were all tired, but nobody wanted to turn in so early in the evening. None of us was sure we could even sleep.

Chloe announced that she needed to pee, so we suggested she use one of the downstairs toilets, a small room under the stairs accessible from the hallway. Derek and Chloe went together. While they were gone, I had my first chance to talk alone with Beth since they’d arrived.

“See, you asked for ghosts, I deliver ghosts. Am I good or what?”

“Pretty wild, for sure,” Beth said. I held her for a while and enjoyed the feel of her body pressed against mine.

“It’s a shame we can’t spend the night alone,” she said. I got quite aroused at that, just the idea that she wanted to be alone with me tonight. Sometimes that’s all it took.

“Well, we’re here tomorrow night too. So if nothing bad happens tonight then perhaps tomorrow we can find our own place to sleep.”

“That would be nice.”

“Or if we’re dragged into hell tonight, perhaps we can find a nice hotel for tomorrow night instead.”

“That sounds good too. The hotel bit, not the hell bit.”

I didn’t want to let her go.

“Hey, maybe tomorrow you and I could slip away to the woods behind the lake, or the Victorian garden, maybe have some open air fun?”

“Oh that does sound naughty,” she said. God how I wanted to take her somewhere private right now. Damn ghost! “But what if Arthur comes back?”

“He’s not back until Wednesday.”

“You never know, he might have forgotten something.”

“Well we can ask Derek and Chloe to act as lookouts for us. We can do the same for them.”

“I don’t want to ask them that! It’s embarrassing.”

“Then I’ll talk to Derek about it. I’m guessing he would love to take advantage of some rare alone time with Chloe.”

“If he talks to you at all.”

“You noticed that then?”

“Hard not to. Did you talk to him upstairs?”

“A bit. He says he’s just unsure of where we stand after so much time barely talking. But to me it’s like we’ve never been apart, you know? Some people you just know you’re always going to be friends with, even if twenty years has gone by and you’ve never seen them.”

Beth held me a little tighter. She could probably feel how horny she was making me, but she didn’t move away. If anything she pressed harder against me. “I know what you mean,” she said.

I kissed her, trying not to let myself get carried away.

“I hope you packed condoms,” she said.

“If I didn’t I wouldn’t worry. Dad will have thrown a pack in the supply bag.” She laughed at that and we moved apart a little. My body ached for closeness again but there was something I wanted to ask before the others returned. “Did Chloe say anything to you about Derek?” I asked.

“Oh we got on really well, we talked about everything. She’s so nice and friendly. So English! I really like her.”

“I’m glad to hear it. So what did she say?”

“Just that she’s as confused by his attitude as we are. He was reluctant to come and she thinks he only said yes because he screwed up so badly with the trip. She thinks he’s pissed at you about something, but she doesn’t know what it is and he won’t talk to her about it.”

“Yeah I don’t know what it is either.”

“You’ve pissed off a lot of people in your time, Jim. There could be so many reasons.”

I grabbed her close again with a mock growl and kissed her.

Just as the door opened and Chloe walked in.

“Oh I’m sorry,” she said. “We can come back.”

Beth and I parted awkwardly.

“It’s okay,” I said, grateful for the semi-darkness.

Derek followed Chloe into the room. She seemed more comfortable now, being in a smaller room with the rest of us. It had been an hour or so since the banging from upstairs, and the house was quiet now.

“I can’t believe how dark it is,” Chloe said.

Beth sat up, leaning on her hands stretched out behind her. “Yeah I hope the lamps don’t burn out.”

I opened the supply bag and pulled out three more cans of gas.

“I think we’ll be okay.”

Chloe settled into one of the winged-back arm chairs. “So what do we do now?”

“I have cards,” Beth said.

I walked over to the corner of the room where a wooden cabinet was mounted into the wall. Something about it just screamed
board games inside!
to me. The cabinet wasn’t locked. I swung the door open and sure enough saw six or seven battered boxes stacked on top of one another.

“Who’s up for Monopoly?” I asked, pulling out the first box. “Cluedo? Scrabble? Wow, all the classics. No Trivial Pursuit, which is a fucking relief and no mistake. No Pictionary either, and for that we can all be grateful.”

“Are you suggesting we spend the night in a haunted house playing board games?” Chloe scoffed.

“If you’d like to go poking around upstairs, please be my guest.”

“What’s Cluedo?” Beth asked. “Is that like Clue?”

“Yes, its Clue,” I told her.

“I hate Clue. Something else?”

Chloe piped up. “Well I like Monopoly.”

Since nobody objected, I lifted the box and brought it to the table.

“Monopoly it is.”

Derek sneezed suddenly, making us all jump. Obviously we were all still a little on edge.

“Did your dad put some wine bottles in that bag?” he asked.

“No but Chloe and I bought some from the village,” said Beth.

“They’re in the kitchen, right?”

“Of course.”

Derek stood up. “I’ll go get them then. I’ll get some glasses and see if I can find a corkscrew.”

“No need,” Beth said. “They’re the bottles with the twist off caps.”

“Classy,” said Derek. “Be right back.”

“Whoah, where are you going?” I scolded him.

Derek made a show of repeating himself. “To get the wine from the kitchen?”

“Not on your own, remember?”

He sighed and grabbed the spare lamp and a torch. “Fine. Come on, Chloe. Help me grab the wine while they setup the game.”

Beth and I were alone again. We opened the Monopoly box and took out the pieces. The game board was tattered but still serviceable, and while the money and the cards were dog-eared and in many places torn and stuck together with Sellotape, there weren’t too many pieces missing. We also had enough playing pieces, though the iron was gone.

“It’s a woman, isn’t it?” Beth asked, out of the blue.

“I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be a boot,” I replied, holding up one of the Monopoly pieces.

“Not the game. Derek’s beef with you. It’s a woman. I don’t know which woman, but something Chloe said really stuck with me. She was telling me how she got pregnant the first time she slept with Derek. She always wonders if he’s only with her because of the children. If she hadn’t got pregnant, would he have stayed?”

“They seem to be getting on okay.”

“Yeah I suppose so. But I wonder if that’s why he’s pissed at you.”

“What did I do? Sneak into Derek’s flat and stick pins through all his condoms?”

Beth screwed her face up at me. “She seems to think that Derek was only with her on a rebound though he’s never confirmed it.”

“And you think he was rebounding from the true love of his life?”

“How eloquent, Mr Harlequin Romance.”