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

of a grandparent was still a little distant, wasn’t it? And looking after his mum, well, that was a good thing.

Dan, James just couldn’t read. He was all concern and sincerity on the surface, but he’d never really got to know the man. That probably had little to do with him and more to do with Patricia’s urge to live as far away as possible from the dales and to only visit if she really had to. And he was very interested in the house, this time, wasn’t he?

‘So, what happens now, then?’ Patricia asked, her voice as warm as the grey ash of a long-dead fire, damp from the rain and hidden in the sweet darkness of the trees.

They were all in the lounge, sprawled out on various sofas and chairs. Anthony was lost in a game on his phone, plugged into his wireless headphones.

‘We’re just waiting for Beverly,’ James said, looking at the clock above the fireplace. ‘She’s due at eight.’

‘And I’m sure she’ll be fashionably late,’ Patricia said, ‘and blame it on some nonsense like her chakras being out of alignment or something.’

‘If you don’t want to be here, then you don’t have to be,’ James said. ‘I’m not forcing you to stay.’

‘Oh, I’m staying alright,’ Patricia said. ‘I want to make sure that whatever this woman is here to do, that she doesn’t get one single chance to make a fool of you, or any of us, for that matter.’

James wanted to say more but knew there was little point. Patricia was an expert at sitting in any room and absorbing all the light and warmth. It was hard to believe that she could ever have been born of someone as warm and caring as Helen. He loved her, of course, he did, he just didn’t understand her, and that bothered him. And it probably always would, he thought.

A knock at the front door had everyone looking to James.

‘Right on time,’ he said, heading out of the lounge.

‘And why does she insist on using that door?’ Patricia said. ‘Everyone uses the one around the back. Everyone! It’s like she wants to make some kind of grand entrance, isn’t it? And did you see what she was wearing? All those bangles and scarves. Ridiculous! She may as well just wear an enormous I Talk to The Dead badge, for goodness sake!’

James came back into the room with Beverly behind him.

‘Everyone’s here,’ he said. ‘So long as that’s okay.’

‘It’s fine,’ Beverly said, then said hello to everyone else, before walking calmly over to the windows. She stood there for a moment, staring out into the darkness, before drawing the curtains closed, shutting the night out completely. She then walked slowly across the floor back to join everyone else.

‘Look, I can’t say that I understand any of this,’ Ruth said, walking over towards Beverly as she came back from the curtains, ‘but if it helps dad deal with what happened? Then, I’ll support it.’

James smiled a thank you to his daughter.

‘Where do you want us?’ Dan asked.

Beverly looked around the room then pointed at the coffee table in front of the fire. ‘If we could pull the chairs around that, I think we’ll be fine.’

‘Anthony?’ Ruth said, reaching over to tap her son on his head. ‘You joining us?’

He pulled his earphones out and looked up at Beverly.

‘Are we doing a Ouija board?’ he asked. ‘Awesome!’

Beverly laughed. ‘Too many horror films, right?’

‘No Ouija, then?’

‘I’m afraid not, no,’ Beverly said.

James asked for Dan to help and they shuffled and moved the chairs and sofas until they had them in a rough circle around the coffee table.

‘Do you have those items I asked for?’ Beverly asked.

‘I do,’ James said and pointed at a sideboard on the other side of the room. ‘In the drawer, over there.’

‘Excellent,’ Beverly said. ‘Now, if you could all just give me a couple of minutes alone, that would be great.’

‘Alone?’ Patricia said. ‘Why could you possibly need to be alone in here?’

James watched as a patient smile slipped across Beverly’s face.

‘Don’t worry,’ she said, ‘it’s nothing to do with getting rid of negative energies and auras or anything like that. I just need a moment to myself, to collect my thoughts, so that I’m fully focused on why we’re here.’

‘Dad?’ Patricia said. ‘Are you really sure about this?’

‘I am,’ James said. ‘So come on, let’s give her a couple of minutes, shall we?’

Out in the hallway, no one said a word and James noticed how everyone was avoiding catching someone else’s eyes. When Beverly called them back in, it was clear that everyone was relieved just to be getting on with it.

‘Right then,’ Beverly said, ‘if we can all take a seat, I think we’ll get started.’

James was first to sit, taking a seat closest to the fire, with his back to the window, followed by Ruth and Anthony, then Dan. Patricia stayed on her feet. He saw that the coffee table was covered in a white cotton shawl covering three items.

‘Honestly, if you don’t want to be here, you don’t have to be,’ James said. ‘It really doesn’t matter.’

Beverly said, ‘There’s nothing to be afraid of.’

At this, James watched his daughter’s eyes almost pop out of her skull.

‘Afraid? Why the hell would I be afraid? Are you mad?’

‘Then just sit down, please,’ James said. ‘Or go. But decide.’

At last, Patricia sat down, thumping herself onto the sofa beside Dan.

Beverly took a seat in the last remaining chair. And it didn’t escape James’ notice that it was the one she had sat in earlier that day, the one Helen had so often fallen asleep in, over by the window.

‘I need everyone to join hands,’ Beverly said, and reached left and right, taking hold of James and Patricia’s hands.

James was fairly sure that Patricia was about to snap her hand back, but he saw a nudge from Dan stop her.

Around the circle, hands were joined.

‘Excellent,’ Beverly said, then she released the hold she had of James and