The Protector of Memories (The Veil of Death Book 1) (11 page)

Katherine arrived at her favourite café, situated a few roads away from the hospital, a little earlier than the scheduled time of one o’clock. She wanted to watch the news.

After ordering a cup of tea and a buttered toasted teacake, she sat down in her usual chair facing the small television screen, positioned above the café’s door way.

She used a napkin to clean the table from crumbs and coffee stains left by previous customers before straightening up the napkin holder, pushing together the sugar, salt and pepper pots and wiping the dried ketchup sauce from its nozzle.

As she ate her teacake and stared out of the café’s window her thoughts focussed on the two telephone conversations that she has had with Mrs Crewmonger.

The first phone call arrived in the very early hours of this morning. Katherine had just arrived at her apartment in Luxborough Towers when Mrs Crewmonger had rung to ask about her daughter’s mobile phone. Katherine had delicately explained that her daughter’s personal belongings were now with the police and they were perhaps the best people that Mrs Crewmonger should be talking to.

But then, just a little over an hour ago, Mrs Crewmonger had contacted Katherine again, explaining that she had gone to the police and whilst they could not give to her… as yet - Alice’s belongings, they did however tell her that there was not a mobile phone amongst them.

Mrs Crewmonger had then gone back to the scene of the accident and searched the vicinity and surrounding areas that many times… she had lost count. Having not found Alice’s mobile phone she had decided to call at the ‘YoungSkin’ building. “My Alice had rung me from there.” Maurice Stanton had let Mrs Crewmonger into Charity’s private suite and had even helped search for the mobile phone. Maurice had also told Mrs Crewmonger that he had seen Alice driving out of the car park ‘erratically’. “But my Alice was not an erratic sort of person.”

That was when Katherine had asked if Mrs Crewmonger could meet with her at ‘Joe’s café’.

She glanced now to her watch; 12.57 and asked the young man behind the counter if he could raise the volume on the television.

A couple of minutes into the news broadcast, the café door opened and in walked a woman; late fifties, slight build with a spritely demeanour, shoulder length brown hair and glasses.

“Mrs Crewmonger?” Katherine asked and stood up to greet her and when the woman nodded a ‘yes’, she pointed up toward the television. “Mrs Crewmonger. That is Mr Herringbone, the surgeon who is looking after Charity.”

Mrs Crewmonger turned and listened to the broadcast and when the reporter mentioned ‘rapid ageing’, she looked at Nurse Adams. “Nurse Adams,” she said. “That is what my Alice had said about Charity’s face… it had aged right before her eyes.”

Katherine motioned with her hand for them to sit down. “Please Mrs Crewmonger sit down. Tea? Would you like some tea… coffee?”

“Janet.” Janet Crewmonger said. “Please call me Janet. And let me get the teas.” She ordered, and paid for, two cups of tea, sat down opposite Nurse Adams and placed a cup of tea in front of her. “I don’t know what is going on. But whatever it is I believe it caused my Alice…” her voice broke. “I’m sorry. It’s… well.”

Katherine discreetly pushed her cup of tea out of the way to drink the one that Janet had placed before her. “Please,” she said quietly. “Call me Katherine. And you have nothing to be sorry about.”

Janet smiled at Katherine; a woman in her early thirties, short jet-black hair, pretty round face and when she smiled it reached her eyes. But what fascinated Janet the most was that each eye was a different colour; one was mauve and the other was white?

Katherine smiled softly and waited for Janet’s expression of astonishment to turn into embarrassment.

“Don’t worry.” She said, “I get that reaction all the time. When I’m at work I have to cover the white eye with a special contact lens… it is that one that seems to put people off more than the mauve one…” she laughed gently and added. “I must admit even I get a bit spooked when I look at my own reflection.”

She then leant forward and asked Janet. “You mentioned Charity’s face? I never got a chance to see it. Mr Herringbone had already bandaged her up. Considering his alleged claim that Charity is suffering extensive trauma, the woman is more than capable at holding a conversation.”

Janet leant back in her chair and relief washed over her. “Thank you.” she said. “Thank you for believing in me. Everybody else seems to think I’m looking for somebody… something to blame my Alice’s death on. I don’t know why you are doing this… but thank you.”

“In my line of work Janet, I see so many regrets. I see so much of what haunts the living. I see so many wrongs that can never be put right. A lot of people always ask me; ‘why?’ and ‘what if? I cannot answer a question that has no answer but what I can do is help where I can. Invest my time and energies into people who need it the most.”

Janet wiped the tears from her eyes and whispered. “My Alice would have liked you Katherine.” She said and continued to explain what her daughter had said to her. “‘Mum.’ She said. ‘You’ve gotta help me. Charity has suddenly grown wrinkles and moles’.” Janet stopped quoting her Alice’s words and told Katherine what she thought was happening. “I heard the panic that my Alice was in. My poor Alice…” she faltered and said, “I believe it was Charity that they aimed to kill. Not my Alice…”

“Sorry to interrupt you Janet. But I need to tell you something. In the very early hours of this morning, I heard Charity telling Mr Herringbone that she would turn his dreams into a living hell. All because he had spoken to her in a way she didn’t like. So you must not see Charity as a victim. Whatever is going on, she is smack bang in the middle of it.”

Janet put her head into her hands. “Have you any children?”

Katherine shook her head ‘no’ and wondered what that had to do with Charity.

Janet explained, “Charity is a couple of years older than my Alice and from what my daughter said about her – Charity is an incredibly intelligent, beautiful woman…” Janet paused, “But she is about to become very powerful because of the fact that her inventions of creams rate the highest over all others. And I don’t care about those who insist that the equality of the sexes is equal more now than it ever was…” she tutted, “it is the men who do the insisting and in my opinion they insist too much.”

Katherine stacked her cup and saucer onto her empty plate, processed Janet’s words and wondered where this conversation was leading to. “I agree but what_.”

Janet interrupted Katherine. “Men do not like it when a woman holds more power then they_.”

She stopped talking and stared out of the café’s window. “My Alice is dead…” her voice broke with emotion, “why should I care about such things. It doesn’t change anything does it? Nothing matters anymore. Not to me…” her words trailed away as she continued to stare out of the window.”

Katherine reached out her hand and clasped it gently over Janet’s – she could see the grief etched onto the woman’s face, heard the depths of its silence. Katherine had learnt a long time ago that the wisest thing to do was to sit with another person’s grief rather than fill it with words.

Each sat in a quiet silence for a couple of minutes.

Janet’s mobile phone broke the silence.

She answered it, spoke a few words and hung up. “That was the police… they have taken a written statement from Charity. They need to talk to me now.”

Katherine looked at her watch. “I would come with you but I go on shift at the hospital within the hour. But it’s my day off tomorrow. I suggest that we try and talk with those two women…” she looked up, nodded over toward the television. “Faith and Hope… when they visited Charity at the hospital yesterday they stayed with her for quite a while. Charity has not severed all contact from them. I can assure you of that.”

Janet wiped her red, puffy eyes, blew her nose and said. “I don’t see how they can help? You heard what Charity thinks about them. One is an alcoholic and the other a schizophrenic.”

Katherine shook her head. “If Charity is lying about not having seen them for weeks, as well as her injuries, then it stands to reason that she is lying about those women. I’m inclined to believe their word over Charity’s.”

Janet looked at her watch and sighed. “I’m not sure of anything anymore. Besides Mr Herringbone is doing the talking not Charity.”

“Let’s at least visit them. Listen to what they have to say.” Katherine said encouragingly.

Janet nodded and stood up from the table.

Katherine stood, faced Janet and explained. “I ‘googled’ the one called Faith and found out that she holds…” but Katherine hesitated over the words, ‘medium sessions’ and decided to say instead, “she works at the West End Library. Shall we meet there tomorrow afternoon at three thirty?”

Janet nodded an agreement then turned toward the café’s door.

Katherine put her hand onto Janet’s arm. “Janet I’ve just one last question. What is the importance with Alice’s phone?”

“I told my Alice to take a photograph of Charity’s face and knowing my Alice she would have done just that. That phone holds the only true picture of what Charity really looks like…” Janet hesitated and added. “Proof that Charity’s creams have been sabotaged and that Charity is in grave danger.” She opened the door. “I’ve got to go.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Katherine said and watched as Janet left the café before looking at her watch; 13.30.

She had half an hour to spare before her shift and ordered a cup of coffee this time.

As she sat and drank it, she wondered what it was they were actually trying to prove.
Okay… if the creams are dangerous then that would soon be found out. If Alice’s death was suspicious then that too would be revealed. No one gets away with murder these days?

Katherine drank the last of her coffee and looked up at the television to see why its volume had been turned up and read the words; ‘Archaeologists are still baffled by the sudden appearance of thirteen golden eagle statues on Salisbury Plain.’

“Pretty cool eh,” the young man behind the counter said. “1
st
of April they appeared… reckon they’ve been carved out of alabaster but nobody’s sayin who done it?”

Katherine stared in amazement as the camera swept across Salisbury Plain. It was awash with all different coloured tents housing the people camping there.

Now her eyes widened even further and she couldn’t help but gasp aloud. An aerial view scanned the white coloured golden eagle statues circling the stones of Stonehenge. She had visited Stonehenge and knew that those stones were quiet a height, but they looked like pebbles in comparison. She leant back in her chair as the camera zoomed in on one of the golden eagles; “My…” she trailed her words away and could not remember seeing anything quite as spectacular as this. The attention to detail – she could make out each and every feather. Then the camera settled onto the eagle’s beak which was enhanced by the sun’s rays bouncing off of it, giving it the appearance of a golden, rich yellow. The eagle’s eyes seemed to be a mixture of blue, white and grey… they looked so real Katherine was expecting it to blink before leaping off of the ground to soar into the sky.
The wingspan would be the length of a jumbo jet.

The broadcast finished.

Katherine sat quietly for a couple of minutes longer.

She read the time and realised that she was now going to be late. She rushed out of the door and felt lightened by what she had just seen. It reminded her how extraordinarily wonderful the world is.

Sam arrived at the police station half an hour after Hope had been arrested. She looked at her watch; 13.33 and realised that she had been waiting… pacing… waiting for nearly two hours. Her mind was conjuring up all sorts of scenarios as to what could happen to Hope.

She paced the main lobby of the police station and fired out questions to the officer behind the desk.

“If she’s been arrested does that mean she’ll go straight to prison? Will she get bail? If it’s her first offence…” she paced the lobby, “what am I saying it’s all lies. Hope hasn’t done anything wrong.”

Sam stopped with the questions and watched Sarah, Nigel and Paul appearing from the door over toward her left. She marched up to them. “Drop the charges!” She demanded. “If Hope goes to prison for something she hasn’t done I’ll_.”

“What? You’ll what?” Nigel interrupted. “I spent most of my yesterday locked up in a cell for something that I hadn’t done.” Nigel’s face showed the contempt that he felt for her. “That’s it defend the squatters like you always do. Never mind what we… your friends have gone through.”

She watched as Nigel stormed out of the police station.

A few seconds later, Faith walked in as Paul was saying, “You women bang on about how it is that a man thinks only with his dick. What do you think with Sam?”

Great
Sam thought. She held up her hands. “Not now Paul.”

Sarah joined in. “Hope doesn’t even know how you feel about her. How would she, she’s too busy being drunk… how much money have you given her_?”

Paul interrupted Sarah, “She’s using you. You’ve got your own business… all that money to keep her in drink. She doesn’t even love you Sam_.”

Sarah interrupted Paul. “Listen to us Sam. We’ve known you for over six years. You’ve only know these squatters for a couple of months and that woman doesn’t even see you! Paul is right. Drink is the only thing that these people care about and she will hurt you_.”

“Enough!” Sam shouted but then lowered her voice before adding, “Can we talk about this later?”

“It’s always later with you,” Sarah said. “Stick it. You made your choice.” She turned to Paul and said. “Come on let’s get out of here.”

Sam remained quiet.

She listened to the sound of the wooden doors banging shut and tried to process the onslaught of words that she had just received.

Faith looked at Sam and saw the tears in her eyes. “Sam is it not?”

“Yes…” Sam wiped away her tears. “Hope told me that your real name isn’t Faith.”

“It is not – but it is the one that best describes the essence of who_.”

“Don’t even go there.” Sam interrupted her. She held her hands up in defeat. “If that’s the name you want to be known as then it’s not for me to question.” And she explained to Faith what she thought her friends had done. “They…” Sam hesitated and nodded toward the station doors, “they are telling the police that Hope hit Sarah with an iron bar. They are being ridiculous. I think they have done it out of spite. Nigel…” she took a breath, “That’s Sarah’s husband. He got arrested yesterday for causing a public disturbance.” She stopped to see if Faith wanted to add anything - pushed her hand through her hair, waited and then continued. “It is Hope’s word against the three of them. And Paul and Nigel…” Sam hooked her fingers, “’happened’ to have witnessed the whole thing.”

Faith frowned at Sam in concern and then walked up to the desk. She said to the officer behind the glass partition. “My name is Faith. I am here to vouch for my sister called Hope.”

Sam joined Faith at the desk.

The officer picked up the telephone and talked into it. He put the receiver back down and said. “An officer will be out in a moment.” He nodded over toward the row of chairs behind them, “sit down please and wait.”

“Wait.” Sam said impatiently. “That’s all I’ve been doing.” She then sat down in one of the chairs over by the far wall.

Faith joined her. “Your friends take something quite extraordinary… the love that you have for my sister, and they taunt you with it.” Faith frowned at the sight of Sam’s aura layers; shades of browns as rich as soil, hues of greens, yellows, silver, beige and blues. She held all the signs within her energies that indicated her to be a well-balanced and grounded person; a mortal who had a strong attachment to her Earth.

She shook her head because at this moment in time Sam’s energies were dull, unbalanced and within a flux of turmoil. “If your friends could see the damage that they actually do unto your Self would they stop?”

Sam stared at Faith and held her eye contact. But after a couple of seconds she had to avert her eyes away from their directness. It was as if Faith was looking into the very depths of her Soul. Sam shivered and said. “Don’t worry. I’m used to it,” she shrugged and repeated. “I’m used to it.”

“The taunting you are used to? Or being in love?” Faith asked and noticing Sam’s eyes flashing with anger added. “I’m sorry. I meant you no harm.”

Sam leant back into the chair and closed her eyes. She didn’t want an argument with this woman. After a few moments of silence, Sam decided to answer Faith’s question. “Yes.” She admitted. “The taunting I am used…” she shrugged. “As to love… well it creates such a wealth of emotions. I am filled with exhilaration one minute which then shifts to vulnerability. As quickly as that arrives, I then feel as if I am invincible. I can handle anything the world… people throw at me. But then!” Sam exclaimed. “I want to hide from everything and everyone. I cry at the slightest thing…” Sam prodded at her own chest, “I don’t recognise who I am anymore_.”

Sam stopped in mid-sentence when she realised that she had just shared her inner most feelings with Faith.

Faith scratched at her head, stared into Sam’s eyes which she realised were a lighter-shade of green then those of Hope’s. “A friend of mine called Linda asked that ‘I give her time’. That Sam is what you must give to yourself. Experience these emotions and feel them… no matter how painful they get.”

As Sam listened to Faith’s words, her tears were immediate. “See what I mean,” she whispered and instantly wiped them away.

“Wipe not your tears away Sam for they are who you are.”

Sam tried to make light of the situation. “I’d be a walking waterfall if I allowed my tears to fall.”

“Go with the flow Sam.”

Sam couldn’t help but laugh aloud and nodding her head added, “I will try and do just that…” she paused, held Faith’s eye-contact. “Thank you,” she said, “For listening.”

“You need to be aware that your auras are intricately interwoven with those of Hope. She does not see it as yet but she will.”

Sam frowned at Faith’s words.

Faith caught Sam’s confusion and explained her meaning. “Hope is in love with you as much as you are with her.”

They sat for a couple of minutes in silence.

Sam turned in her chair, held out her hand. “I’m Sam.” Sam said wanting to start all over again.

“Hello Sam.” Faith said and smiled.

The same door over to their left opened.

Sam looked over and watched the police officer who had arrested Hope coming toward them. Then she saw Hope.

“Hope!” Sam exclaimed, jumped up and ran to her. “Are you o.k.?”

“All charges dropped.” The police officer said. Something to do with the mention of CCTV and the fact that wasting police time is actually an offence.” He pointed a finger between the three women. “The next time you have a falling out might I strongly suggest that you do it in your own time. If this happens again…” he stared at Sam and then Hope. “You will be arrested and charged.” He turned and walked back through the door.

Sam felt so embarrassed. “None of this is our fault?” she said and added, “I need a cigarette.”

Faith was distracted by the state of how Hope looked.

“What happened to your eye?” Faith asked and frowned at the speckles of blood on the cotton wadding.

“The roof of my home collapsed when I went to retrieve the money. I am lucky to have escaped with but a splinter.”

Faith scratched at her head. “Did you manage to say a farewell to your friends?”

“I did. They reside now within the park. I left them the gift of money.” And feeling the fiery pains within her body Hope added, “I need some wine.”

She walked out of the police station, looked up at the sky and breathed in its fresh, crisp, cold air. She turned to Faith and Sam. “My body was imprisoned within a cell. I am imprisoned within a body that was imprisoned in a cell.”

Sam lit up a cigarette and thought about needing a drink herself.

Faith hailed a black cab. “I must get back to the library. I have an appointment with the mortals and their ghosts.”

Sam drew deep onto her cigarette – felt the smoke hit her lungs.
Yep
.
I could definitely do with a drink.

Faith got into the cab and explained to Hope. “There is a drinking house near the library. You can have your drink and I can attend my appointment…” she pulled down the cab’s seat and explained to Sam about the medium sessions that she holds. “You are most welcome to come along.”

Sam nodded a ‘yes’ and as Hope got into the cab, she drew more drags on her cigarette, flicked the butt across the pavement and clambered in and sat next to Hope.

As the driver of the black cab navigated through the streets of London, Sam recalled what her friends had said to her back at the police station. She looked out of the window and became aware at how fed up and annoyed she felt toward the three of them. What with Nigel and Sarah constantly banging on to her about the importance of friendship but when the chips are really down what do they do?
Throw it back at me.
They all know how deep my feelings run with Hope but they’ve turned it into something sordid. Why did I go and trust them with my feelings?

She turned to look at Hope and blushed when she realised that Hope was staring back at her.

“Thank you Sam.” Hope said and took her friend’s hand.

“What for…” Sam’s voice broke with emotion.

Hope kissed Sam’s hand. “I understand why you would doubt me. But you are here Sam wanting still to be with me.” She squeezed her friend’s hand and thought back to the sadness that had begun to seep into her bones and instantly join the coldness from past tenants that had resided within the cell.

“Sam,” she said. “You are right to question the truth of my words. I am grateful that you have not walked away from me. That is what is important.” Hope kissed Sam’s hand again before taking one of the books out of the carrier bag.

She turned to Faith. “Our mother has etched our story.” Hope passed the book over to her sister. “You need to read this. Hera incidentally is more powerful now then she ever was. Sadly, that was of our parents doing.”

Faith looked at the book’s cover and read the title: The Claiming of the Children.

Sam stared at the book in amazement because the moment Faith had read the title, the words floated up and into her head.

“Does the book list all who were claimed?” Faith asked Hope.

“No.” Hope replied, shaking her head in sadness.

Sam joined into the conversation and asked about the fifteen books that are out with the general public. “Will those words disappear?”

Faith turned around and looked at Sam before explaining, “If they were once an immortal being then yes the words will disappear. Otherwise, the book will be just a story.”

“The books were only taken because they were free. I doubt it would be because of what has been written.” Sam rubbed her hands through her hair and quickly added. “That came out all wrong… I didn’t mean it to sound the way it did.”

Hope laughed and nudged Sam gently.

Sam looked between Hope and Faith. “Come on admit it. You both wrote that book and delivered twenty copies to my bookshop. April fool’s day.” She continued to look between the two sisters.

It was Faith who answered her. “Sam that is not what we did. The fact that it exists holds more value than you will ever realise.”

Sam’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment and she turned away from Faith’s stare, caught the eye contact of the driver in the mirror and realised that she had her eyebrow raised. She smiled half-heartedly, pushed her hands through her hair and was relieved when the cab finally pulled up outside the library.

She leapt out of the car and lit up a cigarette.

“The drinking house is over there.” Faith said, pointing toward a corner pub. The mortals start arriving at the library when the sun is positioned there…” and she pointed toward the sky.

Sam looked up and saw nothing but grey clouds.

“Okay.” she said. “I’ll just nip into the library and ask somebody.” She ran up the steps, whizzed through the revolving door and within minutes was back explaining to Faith. “People are due to start arriving just before four…” she stopped to catch her breath before continuing, “I told the woman… tall, hair the colour of copper - behind the counter that you were outside.” Sam looked at her watch. “It’s a little before a quarter to three.”

Faith nodded to Sam. “Thank you. It is good that you have met Linda.” She turned to Hope and asked. “Can you take your fill of wine quickly then join me by my side?”