Tamsyn Murray-My So-Called Haunting (13 page)

Celestine gripped my hands in reassurance. ‘I’m sure he’ll be back soon.’

She was right, of course, but it didn’t stop me missing him.

‘Do you think his friends are really psychic?’ I asked. Half of me hoped she’d laugh. She didn’t.

‘I don’t know. Romanian folklore has strong links with the supernatural, and there are some well-respected psychics from the Carpathian Mountains, but they don’t claim to be
able to teach the ability to communicate with the dead. I doubt these friends are even really gifted, so let’s hope Nico’s dad is smart enough to avoid getting hustled.’

Nico had sounded pretty convinced that it wasn’t a con. ‘Yeah, you’re probably right.’

Standing up, Celestine glanced around at the mess before smiling down at me. ‘So, do you think you might owe Jeremy an apology?’

I bit back a sigh; she had a point. ‘Yeah, in a minute.’

‘Good,’ she replied. ‘If you really wanted to help, you could go and see the ghost on the bridge with him.’

I wanted to tell her that I had enough on my plate with Dontay, but I didn’t. ‘OK.’ Then something occurred to me. ‘Hey, does this mean I get a lift to school
everyday?’

Celestine’s eyes twinkled. ‘Do you know, I think it just might.’

I apologised to Dontay too, when I went to the Dearly D on Thursday evening. He shrugged it off, of course, and acted like he hadn’t even noticed my foul mood. I was
grateful he understood; some of my old friends wouldn’t have.

‘It’s cool,’ he said, once we were sitting on the wall opposite the church. ‘And we don’t have to be around each other twenty-four seven. You got friends to see, I
get that. Nigel or whatever his name is.’

I shivered as a drop of icy rain squirmed down my neck. It was pouring down and my little umbrella was taking a serious pounding. ‘He’s gone away.’

‘How come?’

I sighed. ‘Family stuff.’

My misery must have been obvious because Dontay growled, ‘You need me to have a word when he gets back?’

The thought might have made me giggle if it wasn’t for Nico’s belief he’d soon be talking to ghosts. Anxiety ran through me and I shivered. ‘Nah, it’s OK.
How’s Nelson?’

A heavy scowl creased Dontay’s face. ‘Him talking about Shank the other day worried me, so I decided to follow him.’ He shook his head in disgust. ‘It turns out
he’s been missing training, going off to do stuff for the other gang members.’

A gust of wind buffeted me sideways. ‘What kind of stuff?’

Dontay’s scowl deepened. ‘It starts off with something small. “Just deliver this package” they’ll say, but you don’t know what’s under the paper and it’s worth more than your life to look. If you do a good job then they’ll trust you with something
else.’ He paused. ‘It feels good at first, being part of it, but then they ask you to do something a bit shady, steaming probably, to prove your loyalty.’

‘Steaming?’ I repeated, wrinkling my nose in puzzlement. The only steaming I could think of was the kind you did with an iron and I didn’t think the London Fields Posse were
running a laundry service.

‘It’s where a load of you run through a crowd, nicking people’s phones and wallets. Before you know it, you’re running from the law, and there’s no way out cos then
the gang have got something on you.’

‘Oh.’ I stared at him. ‘Is that what happened to you?’

He threw me a scornful look. ‘Nah. I didn’t do nothing illegal. Not much anyway. How could I when I had Nelson looking up to me?’ He sighed and gave a small shrug. ‘But I
suppose I played the game a bit, stayed on the edges. I was too smart to get caught up in it.’

‘But Nelson isn’t that smart?’

‘I didn’t say that,’ he muttered, but I could tell that was exactly what he’d meant. ‘It’s complicated.’

‘Try me.’

‘He’s all messed up in here.’ He tapped the side of his head. ‘When I died, he changed. It’s like he stopped being my kid brother and turned into this person I
don’t know. I think he wants revenge for my death.’

A chill settled over me, and it wasn’t just from the rain trickling down my neck. ‘Do you think that’s why he’s joined the gang?’

He nodded and I caught a flash of fear behind his eyes. ‘For sure. But he’s just a kid, he doesn’t get that Shank is using him, and my parents have no idea what he’s
into. Shank has filled his head with the idea that he’s got to step up and avenge me. I’m scared he’ll end up in a really bad place – maybe even get himself
killed.’

His words stayed with me all the way home. The thought of Nelson getting in over his head and dying for something nobody wanted made me feel physically sick. My worries over Nico were tiny by
comparison; Nelson’s future and maybe his life were hanging in the balance, for crying out loud. But as scared as Dontay had made me feel, I knew I’d do whatever I could to help.
I’d just have to hope that when it came down to it, Dontay had my back. Because one thing was for sure: I couldn’t save his brother on my own.

‘Are you sure you want to do this?’

It was Jeremy’s night off and we were sitting in the car, watching Hornsey Lane Bridge to see if Isobel showed up. We’d seen her a couple more times on the way to school, but
I’d always been late and we hadn’t stopped. Now we had plenty of time, but no ghost.

Jeremy sighed. ‘I can think of several things I’d rather be doing, actually, but the thought of Isobel keeps nagging at me. She reminds me of Hep, Lucy’s friend.’

I thought back to the conversation we’d had the day he first saw Isobel. ‘She killed herself too, right?’

‘Yes, but I don’t think she really meant to. The saddest thing about Hep was that if she’d had someone to talk to when she was still alive, her problems might have been sorted
out.’

‘What happened to her?’

He gazed out of the window. ‘Lucy and I helped her to make peace with her parents and she passed across. I wonder if we can do something similar for Isobel.’

We sat in silence for a minute, watching the occasional pedestrian cross the bridge. Not for the first time, I considered how lucky it had been that Jeremy and my aunt had found each other. I
could imagine how freaked out he’d been when he’d first seen Lucy and had no one he could talk to about it. For Celestine, it must help if your other half understood what you were going
through. ‘You really cared about Lucy and Hep.’

Smiling, he nodded. ‘If you’d asked me a year ago if I’d be hanging around a toilet with a copy of
Heat
so a girl no one else saw could read it, I’d have laughed.
Actually, I’d have thought you were mad. But as soon I saw how lonely she was, I couldn’t walk away. I think Isobel might be the same.’

A movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention and I squinted through the windscreen. ‘Now’s your chance to find out – she’s over there. We’ll have to
be quick, it looks like she’s getting ready to jump.’

He was out of the car in seconds. ‘Isobel, wait!’

She paused in the act of climbing on to the parapet and turned her head to listen. ‘Who’s there?’

‘My name’s Jeremy,’ he called. I slammed the car door and stood behind him. ‘This is Skye. We’re here to help you.’

‘You can’t,’ Isobel dismissed and resumed her climb. ‘I’m beyond help.’

I thought that was a bit melodramatic, but Jeremy hurried forwards. ‘Look, we only want to talk to you for a few minutes. If you still want to jump at the end, you can.’ He stopped
at the edge of the pavement. ‘What have you got to lose?’

Isobel seemed to be considering his words. Then she clambered down. ‘No one’s ever tried to stop me before,’ she said, turning to face us. ‘In fact, I don’t think
anyone knows I’m here.’

‘We’re psychic,’ I explained. ‘We see ghosts all the time. Or at least I do. Jeremy only sees one or two.’

Isobel looked at him. ‘And I’m one of them?’

Nodding, he said, ‘Yes.’

‘Why?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘But I do want to try to help you, if I can. Why do you jump off this bridge every day?’

She sniffed. ‘I don’t have anything better to do.’

Jeremy and I exchanged glances. It looked like Isobel was going to be hard work.

‘Yes, but why are you doing it over and over again? Are you angry? Sad? Both of those things?’

I thought for a minute she was going to bolt, but I guess the chance to tell her story was too great to pass up. She fixed him with a piercing stare. ‘You really want to know? How long
have you got?’

After that, there was no stopping her. Soon, we knew the whole sorry tale: how she’d lost her job in the City and become depressed, how her husband had left her for another woman and
finally, how she’d lost her home because she couldn’t keep up the mortgage repayments and it felt like no one cared. It made depressing listening and I didn’t have a clue what to
say at the end. Jeremy did, though. ‘You’ve been through a terrible time. Didn’t you have any family you could turn to?’

Isobel shook her head. ‘My parents are both dead and my friends kept telling me things would get better. But nothing ever did.’

‘And so you jumped?’

‘I thought it would be over,’ she said, heaving a sigh. ‘Instead, I’m stuck here.’

Jeremy smiled encouragingly. ‘Well, at least you’ve got us now.’

Her expression brightened. ‘Really? You’ll come back?’

‘Of course we will. And we’ll introduce you to other ghosts too.’

‘There’s a whole afterlife for you to discover,’ I chipped in, but she didn’t seem to hear me. Her gaze was glued to Jeremy.

‘When? When are you coming back? Tomorrow?’

He hesitated, then nodded. ‘Sure, we can come back tomorrow if you like.’

Isobel’s eyes glistened. ‘Thank you. It means so much to me. You’ve changed my life.’

I supposed she was right, watching her giggle at Jeremy’s jokes. But there was something familiar about the way she was eyeing him. It bothered me all the way home and it wasn’t
until I was getting into bed that I realised what it was. Isobel hadn’t behaved with Jeremy the way ghosts usually acted around psychics; Isobel had looked at Jeremy the way that Ellie looked
at Nico.

I didn’t mention my worries to Jeremy. Maybe I’d got it wrong, anyway, and Isobel was just grateful for his attention. She was certainly keen, waiting for us to
drive by every morning and waggling her fingers at him as we did. By the time Friday rolled around, even Celestine was raising an eyebrow at the amount of Jeremy’s time Isobel was taking
up.

‘Have you told her about the Dearly D?’ she asked over breakfast.

Jeremy nodded. ‘Yes, but she doesn’t feel ready to go yet. She says she wants to get to know me better first.’

I snorted into my Weetabix. It was the clearest sign yet that Isobel had developed a crush on Jeremy.

Celestine frowned. ‘It sounds like she’s becoming a bit dependent on you. I think you should encourage her to go to the Dearly D. Find something from the bridge she can take with
her. Maybe then she’ll realise you’re not the answer to all her problems.’

‘She’s only being friendly,’ he said. ‘I’m sure she’ll want to meet other ghosts soon.’

I looked at Celestine and shrugged. I hoped for Jeremy’s sake he was right; hell had no fury like a spirit scorned.

I got to Friday evening without any further mishaps. I still hadn’t heard from Nico and I tried not to fret. Over a Big Mac and fries, which I ate as Dontay tried not to
drool, we came up with a loose plan to get Nelson’s attention, and on Saturday morning we headed to the pitches at Hackney Marshes to pull everything together before Nelson turned up to play.
It was so early that the fields were empty, apart from the occasional dog walker or jogger, so I had no worries about looking like a lunatic talking to myself. The problem was that the plan
involved ball skills I didn’t have, and Dontay wasn’t turning out to be the most patient teacher.

‘No, use your knees!’ he yelled at me as the ball bounced away over the sodden ground for what felt like the millionth time. ‘They’re called keep-ups, not
drop-downs.’

‘Ha ha,’ I mumbled, picking it up and pushing my bedraggled fringe out of my eyes. ‘It would help if you could show me how it’s done instead of shouting at me.’

He glared at me. ‘Very funny. You just control the ball. It’s easy.’

I threw the ball towards him. It rolled a few metres past him and bobbled to a stop. ‘If it’s so easy why don’t you show me?’

‘How am I supposed to do that? I’m a ghost, remember?’

Hands on hips, I returned his glare. ‘You just control the ball, it’s easy.’

We stood glowering at each other for a few seconds. Then his shoulders slumped. ‘Stop tormenting me. You know how much I’d give to be able to play again.’

My own expression softened and I felt bad, but not bad enough to let him off the hook. ‘Then try. Other ghosts can touch things. How do you think poltergeists manage to move stuff
around?’

‘I’ve never thought about it,’ he admitted. ‘What do I have to do?’

I knew that most ghosts used anger or some other strong emotion to allow them to make contact with non-ghostly objects. Given the way Dontay had just been bellowing at me, fury shouldn’t
be too hard to manage.