Restless Dead (Harry Grimm Book 5) David Gatward (reading strategies book txt) 📖

‘Well, whatever it is, spit it out,’ Harry said. ‘Unless that look means you need the loo, in which case, you don’t need to ask for permission or put your hand in the air or even wait till break time.’

‘No, it’s not that,’ Jadyn said. ‘It’s about the house.’

‘What about it?’ Harry asked.

‘You don’t know then?’

‘Know what?’ Harry said, trying his best to not sound too exasperated.

He saw Jadyn’s eyes flick over at Matt then back to him.

‘It’s about the ghost,’ Jadyn said.

Harry almost choked on the brownie he’d just swallowed. ‘Ghost?’

‘Yeah, it’s haunted,’ Matt said, and Harry heard not a single note of sarcasm in his voice. ‘I thought everyone knew?’

The room fell silent, all eyes now on Matt.

‘I guess not, then,’ Matt said.

‘I’m assuming this isn’t where you tell me you’ve been moonlighting as a paranormal investigator,’ said Harry, having just about recovered. He remembered then how, as they’d left Black Moss on Thursday, after visiting James, Matt had seemed like he was going to say something, and then waved it off as nothing. Had this been it? Harry thought.

Jadyn said, ‘Now that would be awesome! Chasing ghosts and stuff? Brilliant!’

Harry looked across at the constable, his stare and a shake of his head enough to quieten him down.

‘So, what’s this ghost, then?’ Harry asked, turning his attention to Matt. ‘Because I can see you want to tell me, and that if I don’t let you, then you either just blurt it out anyway, or hold it in just long enough to give yourself an aneurism.’

‘I don’t know many of the details,’ Matt said, ‘but from what I understand, the reason the house is the way it is, well, that’s all down to the ghost.’

‘By that, I’m assuming you mean why it’s missing that bit in the middle,’ Harry said, ‘and not that the Munsters have moved in, has too many bats, or that people heard strange howls and screams in the middle of the night?’

‘Who are the Munsters?’ Jadyn asked.

Matt and Harry ignored Jadyn.

‘Oh, there’s nowt wrong with it as such,’ Matt said. ‘Just that massive missing section, that’s all.’

‘And what about it?’ Harry asked.

‘It was knocked down because it was too haunted.’

At this, Harry roared with laughter. ‘Come off it!’ he said. ‘You’re having a laugh! Someone knocked down part of a house because of a ghost? You’re surely not going to sit there and tell me you believe that, are you?’

As he waited for Matt to answer, Harry continued to chuckle, amazed that he was having a conversation about ghosts with two members of his team on a Sunday afternoon. And to think he was missing the snooker for this!

With Matt now quiet, Harry said, ‘And just out of interest, at what point does a house become too haunted? Is one ghost fine, two bearable, but three or more simply not on?’

Jadyn was sitting down now and leaning forward, his eyes focused on Matt. ‘So, this ghost then,’ he said. ‘What was it? What did it do? Has anyone ever seen it? Have you seen it? I bet you have, haven’t you? I can see it your eyes! What was it like? I’d love to see a ghost! That would be epic!’

Harry shushed Jadyn’s rapid-fire questions with a stare.

‘What I know is this,’ Matt said, and Harry noticed how the detective sergeant dropped his voice and leaned forward, resting one of his huge hands down on a nearby table. ‘The ghost itself is that of a headless woman.’

‘No way!’ Jadyn said, eyes wide. ‘That’s amazing!’

‘It’s bollocks is what it is,’ Harry said. ‘Complete and utter bollocks.’

‘I don’t know when it happened exactly,’ Matt continued, ‘but it was in the eighteen hundreds I think. You know, the nineteenth century?’

‘I do know when the eighteen hundreds was,’ Harry said. ‘And no, not because that’s how old I am,’ he added, having guessed that the look in Jadyn’s eye was enough evidence that such a suggestion was very close to tripping off his tongue.

‘The hauntings got really, really bad in some of the rooms,’ Matt explained. ‘Most of the house was okay, like, but in this one section, it was awful. Really, properly bad. The woman, well, was seen everywhere, and the disturbances just became too much for the people who lived there.’

‘So, what happened?’ Jadyn asked. ‘Did someone get possessed?’

‘Brilliant!’ Harry said. ‘The Wensleydale version of The Exorcist! Let me guess, they called in a priest who then went mad, or threw himself out of a window, is that right?’

‘You’ve not seen The Exorcist, have you?’ Matt said, looking to Harry.

‘No, I haven’t,’ Harry replied. ‘But I’d guess that it’s just as daft as this yarn you’re spinning right now.’

‘Anyway,’ Matt continued, turning back to Jadyn, ‘the owners eventually decided that enough was enough. So, in the end, they decided that the only solution was to tear down the haunted rooms, and that’s why the house looks the way it does now.’

‘Yeah, I’ve seen it,’ Jadyn said. ‘It looks well creepy, like, doesn’t it?’

‘But,’ said Matt, ‘they do say . . .’

He trailed off and Harry watched as Jadyn leaned even closer.

‘What do they say?’ Jadyn asked. ‘What?’

‘Well,’ Matt said, ‘sometimes when the moon is full, and when the sky is particularly clear, if you stand in the place where the old rooms once were, where me and the DCI here walked just a couple of nights ago now, you’ll see . . .’

‘See what?’ Jadyn said. ‘What will I see?’

The room was silent, Jadyn and Harry now both leaning in to hear Matt finish his story.

‘You really want to know?’ Matt asked.

‘Of course, I want to know!’ Jadyn said. ‘This is brilliant! What will I see?’

Without warning, Matt brought down his huge hand in a mighty slap on the top of the table at his side. The sound cracked the silence in two with the sound of a scaffold plank snapping in half, and although Harry flinched, it was nothing compared with