Silent - Return To The House (2)

Two Years Ago, Lucy

Suddenly, she got the impression that someone was watching her from an upstairs window, looking beyond the clump of tree trunk, directly at her. She peered up, certain that the person was standing there, staring down from the top floor where Agnes was currently staying in a double apartment.  But she couldn't see anyone.  

The entrance door opened.  Gavin. 'It's not too bad, but we'll have to be quick. Veronica's round the back with this lad I've not seen before. I told her I'd come back because I wasn't feeling well. We go straight in and up the stairs.'

'Veronica?'

'I'd prefer not to get involved in this business with Veronica.  I'm fine about keeping a look out for half an hour. But if you want to confront Veronica, you'll have to do it on your own. I really don't want to get involved, sorry'

'Fair enough. I'm really grateful to you for offering to keep watch for a while.'

'It's fine. I hope you get your answers, seriously.  That business with the skeleton's not on.'

She and Gavin went inside, darting past the empty reception desk, and tiptoed up the open staircase, sprinting up once they reached the halfway point. The building appeared empty, still.

First floor. She and Gavin found the staircase leading to the second floor, to the Ogre's apartment.

'Okay,' Gavin said. 'After me.'

They were about to start on the second staircase when a door slammed in the building and footsteps sounded directly above them.  

'Hello?' a voice called from the landing.

'In here,' Gavin said, pulling her inside an empty storage room. Dark, stuffy, claustrophobic.  

Footsteps coming down the stairs, getting closer.

'Hello?'  

First floor.  

The footsteps stopped right outside the storage room  'Hello, someone there?'  A pause. 'Come on, come on.  Time to give this up.  Veronica and her friend have seen you today, so there's no use pretending. If you come out now, we can sort it out and come to some sort of agreement.'

She stiffened and held her breath, feeling dizzy suddenly, as if she was about to faint.
The voice.  Flickers of memory.  A man coming to the old flat round the back ten years ago. Same voice. It was him. He was here now.  Acting in a strange manner. The same hint of wheeziness in his voice. Peering in at her through the bedroom window when she was a little girl.

'I know you're on the premises, and I know you've had to deal with terrible, terrible things in your life,' the man continued. 'I'm prepared to pay for the damage you caused, but you and I need to sit down and talk about this. I'm going to count to three, and then I'm coming in. One. Two. Three.'

The door opened, exposing Gavin and her.

Former mayor Arthur Harlesden gaped at them. 'What on earth are you two doing in here?'