Lethal Whispers Read online

  Lethal Whispers

  Deadly Highlands book 6

  Oliver Davies

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  15. Caitlin

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  19. Caitlin

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Epilogue

  A Message from the Author

  Prologue

  Conall’s eyes shot open, and he took in the shadows of the room. His line of sight fell upon the blackened wardrobe in the corner, from behind which a dark figure emerged and began to walk towards him.

  It juddered as it walked, its outline flickering a little, until it stopped, as it always did, at the bottom of the bed. Its face was indistinguishable, but Conall knew that its eyes were upon him, watching him in still silence as he stared back at it, aghast and helpless. After what felt like an eternity, it decided to start moving again, and it slid along the end of the bed and began to walk right up to Conall’s side.

  His chest began to tighten as it approached, making him feel more suffocated with every step it took towards him. He tried desperately to move, but found himself locked within his own body, unable even to lift one finger. As he lay immobile, he watched on powerlessly as the figure came closer, eventually standing over him and reaching out a menacing hand towards his throat.

  Just as the elusive figure was about to touch him, something suddenly snapped in Conall and he shirked himself over to the other side of the bed, grasping at the sheets as he scrambled away from the intruder’s reach. But in the next second, as he turned to look back, there was no longer anything there. The figure had vanished, and Conall was left alone in the safety of his empty bedroom once more.

  He ran a trembling hand through his hair, which was drenched in sweat, and tried to control his racing heartbeat with a series of deep breaths. For a while, he wasn’t too sure where he was and whether or not he was still in danger, and it took some time before reality fully flowed back over him. It didn’t matter how many times he had the same hallucination, it still always seemed real while it was happening. And it was happening a lot lately.

  Sleep paralysis was nothing new to Conall. He had suffered from it for years on and off, usually after a particularly distressing case at work, but the hallucinations were a recent and unwelcome addition. He managed to steady his hand enough to take a few shaky gulps of water and lay back down, although he knew from experience that it would be a while before his pulse calmed down enough for him to go back to sleep.

  He wasn’t sure he even wanted to go back to sleep, if that was what he was going to wake up to again, but as he had work early in the morning, he supposed that he had better at least try. His sleep problems never followed anything distressing that had happened to him personally. It was always when something had happened to someone close to him, and Caitlin nearly dying a few months ago had certainly been enough to trigger his issues back off.

  He tried to calculate roughly how many more life-threatening cases he could realistically go through, whether the threat was to his own life or someone else’s. After all, he had been through quite enough of them already and he was only in his mid-thirties. If things carried on the way they had been lately, who knew what it might begin to do to his mind? All the bad memories were certainly starting to spill over as he slept.

  He then wondered if Caitlin had been thinking the same thing. She had often had second thoughts about the job, even before the events of a few months ago.

  For the moment, he would just have to deal with things as best he could and not allow his mind to be taken over by things that were in the past. It would be a lot easier to do so, however, if the dark figure that plagued him almost every night would leave him alone and crawl back into the shadows where it belonged.

  One

  Callum was going off on one again. He had only needed three shots of whisky before starting this time.

  “The way I see it,” he declared, as he paced up and down the sitting room in full view of everyone, “if you really put your minds to it, you could turn this place into your living.”

  Mhari watched her great aunt Evelyn’s face across the room, as it sunk into an unhidden expression of pure loathing.

  “You could do multiple tours every day,” Callum pressed on obliviously. “You could turn one of these unused rooms downstairs into a gift shop! Think of all the merch you could have. A famously haunted house with a ghost who murders people... The public would lap it up. Well, most of them would anyway. And you could increase the Fright Nights as well. Have them every Friday and Saturday. Make it a proper weekend thing.”

  Evelyn felt it impossible to remain polite any longer. “That my brother has agreed to these Fright Nights at all is quite enough for the time being.”

  Mhari glanced awkwardly between Evelyn and Callum and quickly tried to diffuse the situation. “I’m afraid you’re never going to convince Aunty Evie on this one, Callum. I have the feeling a gift shop might take away some of the house’s charm.”

  “Charm is all well and good,” answered Callum, undeterred by Evelyn’s clear dislike of him, “but it doesn’t pay the bills, does it? I mean, you could make a fortune! You could finally get this place back in shape. You could fix that leak in the dining room ceiling that everyone’s been ignoring for half a year now. You could get a decent central heating system put in. You know, one that actually works... And then you wouldn’t have to keep lighting log fires all the time like it’s still the 1800s.” He paused to see if anyone would back him up, but when nobody did, he simply carried on with even more gusto. “The guttering out the front has been hanging off for nearly two years now. You’re telling me you wouldn’t rather have that fixed?”

  “Oh, give it a rest, Callum,” murmured Skye from her seat on the pouffe. Unlike her sister Mhari and their great aunt Evelyn, Skye felt no personal attachment to Crawcrag Hall. She found the place stuffy and depressing and wouldn’t object for a second to it being used for all it was worth. But that didn’t mean she wanted to spend the evening listening to Callum yammering on about it.

  “I’m just saying, that’s all.” He finally stopped pacing and went to take a seat next to Skye, placing one arm casually around her shoulders as he did so. “You could all be minted. I don’t see what’s stopping you.”

  “Some things, young man, are worth more than money.” Evelyn’s steely tone made it quite clear that the subject was now closed.

  Callum, along with everyone else, wondered when she was finally going to go to bed and leave the rest of them to it. Nobody knew quite how old she was, as she never told anyone and nobody would ever dare to ask her, but she had to be eighty if she was a day. There was a rumour in the neighbouring village that she had actually been alive for hundreds of years at this point, refusing to die and clinging on with the help of her many homemade potions. Looking at her now, hard as iron and happily sucking all the life from the room, Callum was inclined to believe it.

  “Come on, Aunty Evie,” said Mhari, making another attempt to quash the tension in the room. “Callum’s only trying to help.”

  Callum smiled warmly at Mhari, while Evelyn tsked loudly and looked away towards the great fireplace. As Crawcrag Hall had visitors this evening and the October nights were becoming
increasingly cold, it had thankfully been lit. That wasn’t a usual occurrence, however, even when the weather was at its most bitter, and Mhari couldn’t help but silently agree with Callum on the central heating issue at least.

  “Have any of you actually seen the ghost?” asked Callum after a few moments of silence. Skye groaned, Jack laughed, and Mhari looked woefully over at Evelyn to see what her response would be. She didn’t give any, but continued to stare into the flames of the fire as if nobody had said anything. “What? I’m genuinely curious.”

  “No, you’re not,” said Skye. “You don’t believe in ghosts any more than I do.”

  Callum shrugged and took another sip of whisky. “I like to keep an open mind.”

  “I’ve seen it,” said Mhari, still looking over at Evelyn. “I mean, her. I’ve seen her.” The group fell silent and everyone, including Evelyn, turned to face Mhari.

  Callum leaned forward on the pouffe, engrossed all of a sudden. “Where did you see it?”

  “Where everyone always sees her. In the old pantry.”

  “What did she look like?”

  “She didn’t look like anything,” Skye intervened. “I’ve told you this time and time again, Mhari. You were a kid, you imagined it.”

  “I didn’t imagine it,” said Mhari, shaking her head vehemently. “I know what I saw, and she was as real as any of you sitting right here. I can still see her in my mind as clearly as if it happened yesterday.”

  Skye looked at Callum with a weary expression, but didn’t oppose her sister anymore. Jack reached out and placed two hands on Mhari’s shoulders in a gesture of comfort, although the twinge at each corner of his lips stated quite clearly that he didn’t believe her, either.

  “How does it go again?” asked Callum, still staring steadfastly at Mhari. “Any man who spends an hour in the pantry doesn’t come out alive?”

  “Any unworthy man,” corrected Evelyn from her armchair.

  “Unworthy?” said Callum, laughing as he tossed down another gulp of whisky. “What does that mean?”

  “It means someone who’s been unfaithful,” said Mhari seriously. A knowing glance passed between herself and Callum before anyone else had the chance to see.

  “Well,” said Callum after thinking for a moment, “why don’t we put it to the test? I’ll happily volunteer.”

  “Don’t be stupid,” said Mhari, panic sweeping across her face. “It isn’t a game, you know.”

  “Well, we’ll soon find out, won’t we? Lock me in the old pantry for an hour, and we’ll see if I’m still alive by the end of it.”

  “You only need to worry if you’ve been unfaithful,” said Skye, eyeing Callum questioningly.

  “Exactly, so I’ll be fine then, won’t I?” Another secret glance passed Callum and Mhari.

  “I really don’t think you should, Callum,” protested Mhari. “You shouldn’t provoke forces that none of us can really understand.”

  “Quite right,” Evelyn chipped in. “The other world is not for you to test and make fun of, young man. I think you will find its inhabitants make their own rules.”

  They needn’t have bothered to say anything because Callum was already at the living room door. “Fair enough,” he said before draining the last of the whisky from his glass. “If anything happens to me, I take full responsibility. Skye, Jack, you two are witnesses to the fact that they warned me.” With that, he disappeared swiftly through the door and could be heard traipsing his way along the passage towards the kitchen.

  Skye giggled delightedly and got up to go after him, followed by Jack.

  “Come on,” he said, looking apologetically at Mhari as he stood up. “Nothing’s going to happen. It’s just a bit of fun. Come on, you’ll see.” He held out his hand to her, and she eventually took it and went with him, although she did so with a marked air of trepidation.

  They followed their friends through the dimly lit corridors that wound round to the kitchen at the back of the house. Electricity didn’t seem to suit the place somehow, and even with the overhead light on, the room was remarkably dingy. With its ancient brass cookware piled up neatly beneath the counter top, and the array of blue and white china decorating a sideboard in one corner, Mhari always felt as though she was stepping into a kitchen from a hundred years ago whenever she entered this part of the house. It made sense that nobody had ever tried to renovate it in any way, as nobody had ever wished to incur the wrath of the deadly spirit that resided there.

  In the far corner of the room was a tiny white door, which was far too small for most adult people today to fit underneath comfortably. The door was locked, as it always was, and Callum was pulling manically at the handle while he looked around the kitchen for any hint of a key.

  Evelyn’s voice boomed out behind them as he searched, making everyone jump and turn to face her in the doorway. “If you are intent on going through with this foolish jape, then you are going to need this.” She rattled a heavy iron key on a hoop from one finger.

  “Let’s see that,” said Jack, taking the key from her and examining it in wonder. “Bloody hell, it’s like something from medieval times.” He shook it at Callum and went over to open the white door.

  “Callum, don’t do this,” pleaded Mhari. She had moved over to him and was now clinging desperately onto his arm. “You really shouldn’t do it. You don’t understand what it’s like in there.”

  “It’ll be fine.” Callum unfurled Mhari’s grip on his arm and held her lightly by the shoulders, bending a little so that his eyes were level with hers. “It’s just a room. Nothing’s going to happen. You’ll see.”

  “But I know what’s in there!”

  “There’s nothing in there. It’s just a room. It’ll be fine, I promise.”

  “Are you going to do this or not?” snapped Skye impatiently.

  “No time like the present,” Jack piled on, giving the thick key another shake.

  “Yeah, come on, let’s do it.” Callum wandered breezily into the old, empty pantry, a desolate sliver of which now visible through the now open door.

  “Aunty Evie,” cried Mhari, “stop him, please! You know what’s in there as well as I do.”

  “Oh, shut up, Mhari,” said Skye with an irritated scowl. The girls’ great aunt remained standing in the doorway of the kitchen and made no attempt to either stop the escapade or comfort her distraught niece.

  “Make sure to fasten those bolts when you’re in there, mind,” Jack reminded Callum as he prepared to close the door. “If you’re not locked in properly, she might not come.” He slammed the tiny corner door shut and turned the key in the lock, testing the handle to make sure it had worked.

  The sound of grating metal came from inside. “All locked up,” called Callum. The mirth in his voice was evident even from the other side of the door. “Now clear off, will you? You’ve got to give her some chance.”

  Jack grinned and made to leave, but Mhari intercepted him. She began trying to grab the key back off him in a frenzy.

  “Woah, calm down, babe,” he said softly, lifting the key out of her reach.

  “You need to open that door,” she screeched. “You need to open it back up right now.” She began clawing at his raised arms in an attempt to grasp the key above her head.

  “Mhari,” yelled Skye, as she grabbed her sister by the arm and pulled her back. “Stop being such a psycho! You’re going to feel like a right idiot when we come back in an hour and absolutely nothing has happened.”

  Mhari looked from her sister to the locked white door to Jack. They weren’t going to open it back up, no matter how much she protested. But she knew things they didn’t, and she knew with every fibre of her being that leaving Callum there was not a good idea. She glanced back at the doorway to appeal to Evelyn for help one last time, but she was no longer there.

  “Come on,” said Jack, taking her hand and leading her out of the room. “Skye’s right. You’re going to feel daft in an hour or so.”

  Back in
the living room, Jack and Skye seemed to forget all about Callum after only a few minutes. They started playing cards on the coffee table, drinking and laughing, apparently oblivious to Mhari’s distress. After declining to join them in playing poker, she sat in the armchair opposite her great aunt, feeling sick and jittery and watching the minutes tick by slowly on the mantel clock above the fire. Every now and then, when she looked away from it, she would catch her aunt glowering ominously at her through the shadows, as if she sensed what was to come and was trying to prepare Mhari for it.

  Evelyn had regained hold of the pantry key as soon as her nieces and Jack had returned from the kitchen, and she sat with it poised on her lap, jingling it every now and then when she moved in her chair. Mhari was certain that she was doing it on purpose to make her feel even less at ease. Jack and Skye didn’t appear to even hear it.

  During the hour, Jack left the room to fetch some better playing cards, Skye left to get a jumper from upstairs as the fire began to dwindle, and at one point Mhari said she was going to the kitchen for some ice, with the intention of shouting through to Callum and making sure he was alright. She only reached the passage ahead of the kitchen, however, before she had to turn back. As fearful as she was for Callum’s safety, she never went in the kitchen alone, and tonight could be no exception. Her feet would not physically carry her there.

  Evelyn was the one person who stayed rooted to her spot the whole time Callum was carrying out his test. She watched over the young people in the room with her in the manner of a great hunting bird eyeing its prey. Mhari was sure she knew what was happening in the pantry, despite it being completely impossible.