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.The first time was late one afternoon.Archie was away at school and you were on one of the boats.I’d made myself a cup of tea and taken it into the drawing-room.I was very tired.I must have drifted off to sleep.I was woken up suddenly by an unearthly low moan and the beginnings of a scream – as if someone had started to scream, and been suddenly silenced.”“What did you do?”“I was afraid, but I knew I couldn’t let it rest.I opened the door of the drawing-room and listened, but all was quiet again.I moved across to the cellar door and stood with my head against it, still listening, but there was no sound.I was thinking about going down there again when Tony came downstairs and asked me if I was all right.He said that I looked ill.”“Just how often does Tony come to work in the office when I’m not there?”“Not all that often.Perhaps once each time you’re away.You know he brings papers for you to look at when you return.He sorts them into piles for you so that you can deal with them as quickly as possible.Surely that’s helpful?”“Oh, amazingly helpful.And he just happens to be on the premises every time something strange happens! What was his take on it this time?”“He said that I was over-tired from worrying about Archie and that I’d probably projected Archie’s irrational fears on to my subconscious.”“And you believed that?”“It seemed to make sense.”“Was that the last time you heard the noises?”“No, I’ve heard them twice more: both times when I was completely alone.But I was taking the new medication by then, and I thought that this, combined with the reason that Tony had suggested, could probably explain them.”“In other words, you decided that you might be hearing things?”“Yes.”“So how does knowing about the skeletons change your view?”“Because, despite all I’ve told you, I’ve had the feeling all along that there’s something really evil there.I’ve never been down into the cellar again since that time I went with Tony.It’s always scared me.And, although I know it sounds superstitious, I’ve been convinced that whatever the evil thing is, it’s been sapping my strength, just as it’s undermined Archie’s sanity.”I embrace her again, looking over her head at the march of the flat fields beyond.I have no doubt that someone has sapped her strength and frightened both her and Archie.I am equally convinced that it is a living person, or people, and not the ghosts of three unfortunate Africans who died more than one hundred years ago.Thirty-TwoThe following morning, Tim found himself in a bit of a quandary.He’d had misgivings about being escorted off the Laurieston premises so firmly, if not discourteously, by Tony Sentance the previous day.Sentance’s arrival in the cellar, coupled with Verity Tandy’s discovery, when she’d returned with the first aid kit to dress Giash’s wound, that the latter was nastier than they’d thought and probably ought to be examined by a doctor, had more or less halted their activities for the day.Against Giash’s protests, Tim had encouraged her to take him to A & E in the patrol car while Tim himself had tried to get as much work done in the cellar as he could before 5 p.m., but in practice it had proved impossible for him to move the remaining large items of furniture on his own.In any case, Sentance had returned within fifteen minutes to tell him that he’d had a text message to say that Kevan and Joanna de Vries would be home shortly, considerably earlier than the time de Vries had originally suggested.Tim had wondered who had sent the message.Sentance had implied that it had come from Kevan de Vries himself.Having twice witnessed de Vries’ barely-disguised disgust for his henchman, Tim had doubted this, but been willing to believe that Sentance was not exaggerating when he said that Joanna would be both distressed and annoyed if she were to encounter Tim or any of his team at her homecoming.De Vries himself had indicated as much.Tim had recognised that he would have to complete the cellar search at another time.He’d therefore looked carefully at everything they had so far done, taking particular note of where they’d placed the various items, and been on the point of going home when Sentance, still hovering, had offered to give him a short tour of the garden.He’d said that he wanted to show Tim from the outside of the house how the burglars had forced their way through the conservatory window.Tim had shrugged, but agreed – in his mind, the burglary was something of an irrelevance, unimportant except for its role in exposing the two much more serious crimes that had been discovered at Laurieston.However, he’d wanted to keep Sentance onside for as long as he could.He’d had no doubt that there was an ulterior motive behind the offer and initially assumed it to be a pretext for getting him out of the house so that he could have left without meeting Joanna de Vries should she and her husband have arrived home.On further consideration, however, he realised that this could not have been the reason: if he’d left when he’d intended, Joanna would not have seen him anyway.Watched closely by Sentance, he’d closed the cellar up and meticulously and pointedly re-taped it against intrusion and then followed Sentance into the garden.When he thought about it, Sentance had managed to place them by Tim’s car just as Kevan de Vries had driven in, his face turning into a vicious scowl as soon as he’d seen them.Tim had wanted to meet Joanna, but de Vries had surged past them and stopped right beside the door, after which he’d quickly shepherded his wife inside, shielding her from Tim’s gaze.He could only conclude that Sentance wanted Joanna to be aware of his presence, while at the same time attempting to ingratiate himself with de Vries by appearing to be responsible for removing an offending policeman from the scene.But what would Sentance have gained from such manouevrings? Were they just a further move in his perennially manipulative power game, or did he have a more pressing imperative?Whatever the answer, by acquiescing to Sentance’s demands, Tim had put himself in a tricky position.He would need to go back to the cellar to complete the search, accompanied by at least one of the two PCs, but, because Sentance had adroitly steered him away from de Vries yesterday, he’d had no opportunity to request more time from the businessman, or even to establish that his wife was now in full possession of the facts.Although Tim didn’t particularly like de Vries, he felt desperately sorry about his wife’s illness.This, together with a certain half-acknowledged fear of Jean Rook, made him almost shy about bothering de Vries again.He felt, however, that he must bite the bullet; he’d ring de Vries and suggest that he would need to complete the search, but, out of consideration for Mrs de Vries’ feelings, leave the couple alone until tomorrow, as long as they both agreed to leave the cellar alone and let no-one else down there, either.In the meantime, he’d place Ricky close by but away from the house and let things be whilst he himself turned his attention to Norfolk; he consulted his watch, and saw that it was almost 9 a.m
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