Darkness Dominates - Chapter 23

Sometime after seven in the evening, Alicia was letting Jennifer be the cool mum. They were sat next to each other, watching a downloaded episode of ‘The Originals’. It had been 4 years since they last watched TV together. Individual viewing had become more normal in recent years. A couch with more than one person on it, facing the telly, made Jennifer nostalgic for her youth. She missed the part where the whole family was watching a single programme. Viewing what was on the screen as a duo wasn’t the same thing, but she could still divine a family feeling from the experience. Just it being the two of them didn’t dent that sensation. Jennifer wasn’t as engrossed in it as Alicia was. Her taste in TV seldom matched her daughter’s.

What she didn’t know was that her mum was again preparing her for the life about to be forced upon her. Jennifer suddenly allowed herself to step into the embarrassing mum stereotype for one moment. This was marked by her asking “Do you think Klaus is cute?”

The purpose of this query was to help put her off-guard. It was successfully executed. Alicia reacted as anyone her age would.

“Totally wishing you hadn’t asked that, mum!”

To most mothers, that comment might’ve come over as an insult, but Jennifer found it comforting. She was burdened by the fact she wasn’t like most mums, but still pretended to be. Tonight, however, she was ready to let that veil slip in front of her daughter. The preparation was just as much for her as it was for Alicia. This forthcoming prospect jostled a memory from the back of her mind. It took Jennifer back to the days when Alicia was still in her high chair and was too young for solid foods. She heard herself singing a song about a train heading to a tunnel. The motion got kids below 2 years of age to swallow a spoonful of mashed food. Alicia had yet to form a word. Jennifer had to make do with misshapen sounds and giggles mixed with gurgling. After her entire life was irreversibly altered, she let her mum share the burden of child care, when it was called for.

With what she felt she had to do looming, DCI Stoneham tried to list as many benefits to it as possible. Ingrained in her mind were wafer-thin strands of doubt. The first person she turned, Darcy, was easy because she was a stranger. With Pippa, being a friend, the task seemed a bit more difficult. Now she had to carry out the transformation that was the hardest of the lot.

Making an excuse to enter the kitchen, Jennifer paused by the cutlery drawer for a moment. The indecision passed and she casually pulled it out. Her right hand hovered over the collection of big knives. It then picked up the one she frequently used for halving cabbages, cauliflowers and marrows. She re-entered the room where her and Alicia had been in front of the TV. The knife had been carefully hidden up her right shirt sleeve. Even seated close to her mum, Alicia didn’t notice it was there. This episode of one her favourite US teen dramas had a jump scare. Jennifer’s daughter bounced up and then down by just over an inch.

“Thought I was so over being freaked out!” exclaimed Alicia. She felt a little embarrassed at expressing fear.

“If something scares us, our senses act accordingly.”

“What scares you, mum?”

DCI Stoneham had to select something from her younger years and plant it into the present.

“Possession films, Ali”

“Why them?”

“The idea you’re not in control of your body, your mind, and your senses”

“I totally agree with that, mum! Who knows what you can be made to do? Eat kebabs – gross; flash your arse in public, watch ‘Orphan Black’!”

“What’s wrong with ‘Orphan Black’?”

“The idea of cloning people is seriously creepy! Can you imagine if they did that to George Osborne?”

“Now that would be scary! I still like ‘Orphan Black’, even if you don’t.”

“Chillax, mum – I so don’t mind if you like it! So, what’s your top possession flick?”

“Guess”

Glancing at her mum’s smile, she realised she didn’t have to. Alicia turned her face back to the TV.

“Green vomit and lifting up the bed – totally lame”

“I don’t feel that way. Hey, it’s an X-certificate – how come you saw it?”

“What’s an X-certificate?”

“What they call 18, these days – and you didn’t answer my question, Ali.”

“I didn’t see the whole film – only the clips of it they keep showing.”

“So, Ali, what things in movies scare you?”

“Killers with masks – the movie ‘Scream’ totally made me do just that!”

“What about vampires?”

Since she was referring to them in a fictional sense, Jennifer wasn’t giving any kind of game away.

“If they looked like some of the aliens in ‘Doctor Who’, I’d be scared.”

This thought of Alicia’s led to another one immediately being entertained.

“I so just realised, mum! If Klaus dies, then the vampires on this show and its sister one would too!”

“Like some sort of chain”

“Totally dull way of putting it, but sort of accurate”

“What would you do if you were immortal?”

“Party all day and all night; vampires don’t have to worry about how much they drink! The legal limit doesn’t apply to them. What would you do, mum, if you were turned into one?”

“Extend the chain” she said, after pretending she had to really think about it.

Alicia was about to ask what her mum’s reply meant, but Jennifer had already removed the knife from up her right sleeve. She delivered the knife blow in a maternal way. It was a similar motion to one made when a new mother is trying to release their newborn’s trapped wind. The underside of Jennifer’s top teeth numbers 3 and 4 had already gone from flat to a spade formation. A split-second bite was delivered. When she could see the breaks in the skin, Jennifer positioned her face in alignment with them. As soon as the substance went down into the scarlet puncture marks, Alicia fell to the right and onto the couch, succumbing to unconsciousness. Jennifer edged herself carefully off where she was sat on the sofa.

She moved halfway across the floor and stayed in that spot, as she watched how her daughter breathed. Absent was Alicia’s tendency to snore. The start of her transition had subtracted this unintentionally annoying habit. DCI Stoneham ended up sitting on the carpet and observing her the entire night. A few hours before dawn, Jennifer phoned her best friend from the kitchen. She was using the landline phone on this occasion. When Pippa answered, Jennifer said just one thing before hanging up.

“This time around, I did it.”

The Stewarts were 11 minutes late to view Pippa’s house, the following afternoon. As she and the estate agent handling this sale watched them approach, it became clear that a detail about the family was wrong. The information Henderson & Willard had gathered about them made out there was only one child – a 17 year-old boy, Keith. In truth, he had a twin sister – Natalie. She’d come along with her parents and brother, but Pippa easily twigged her willingness to be here was just for show. She suspected Natalie had either been owed something for accompanying her family or was being promised a special treat if she came with them.

The mistake in the info provided didn’t change matters. Mayor Trennell’s house had the ideal number of rooms to accommodate a family of four. Keith and Natalie’s dad swiftly started introducing his wife and kids to Pippa and the H&W representative. He pointed to each of them in the process.

“This is Olivia, that’s Keith, and that honey blonde-haired beauty is Natalie.”

Pippa didn’t think the introductions were necessary. She was already aware of their individual names. Yet, she accepted that he was probably just being polite. She picked up that he’d forgotten to reveal his Christian name.

“What does your wife call you?”

“Alvin”

“You sound Welsh”

“Olivia and I hail from Lisvane.”

“I don’t think I’ve heard of that place.”

“You won’t have, Mrs Trennell. It’s one of the lesser known villages.”

Pippa then followed Mr Stewart’s example and introduced the estate agent by name.

“This is Anthea Roach”

After saying hello to all the family members, she said “Okay, everyone, which rooms do you want to see first – upstairs or downstairs?”

Since Alvin was keen to call the shots, he replied “Upstairs”

It was during this part of the house viewing that Anthea remembered where she knew the name of the family from.

“Weren’t you in the headlines a year or so back?”

Though Alvin was doing his best not to show it, Anthea’s question had rattled him. Pippa didn’t just see it in his eyes – she saw it in his wife’s and the twins’ too. Rescuing the Stewarts from this disquieting topic, she verbally drew attention to the wardrobe in hers and Doug’s bedroom.

“You see, Mr & Mrs Stewart, lots of space to hang shirts and jackets.”

Turning to Natalie, Pippa added “Why don’t I show you Rosie’s bedroom?”

“We can all do that together” Alvin suggested a little too boisterously.

“Alvin” said Olivia, through partially-clenched teeth. “Nat’s allowed to have a solo look at what might be her bedroom – remember?”

This gave further weight to Pippa’s theory that Natalie had been bribed into coming with her family. Whatever deal had been made, Keith’s twin sister getting some alone time was obviously part of it. When Natalie and Pippa entered Rosie’s room, the door to it was gently shut. The 17 year-old pressed down on the quilt half-heartedly. She next looked at the walls surrounding the bed.

“Did you make up the beds last night, Mayor Trennell?”

“This morning, Natalie, as it happens”

She waited until Alvin and Olivia’s daughter had walked all around the room, and then asked “So, how did they get you to come with them?”

“I so don’t have a clue what you’re on about.”

“I know when someone doesn’t want to be where they’ve been brought to, Natalie. I saw that expression on Charlotte’s face.”

“Who’s Charlotte?”

“My eldest”

Knowing further denial was pointless, Natalie came clean.

“It’s totally not what you think, Mayor Trennell”

“Mrs will do fine. I’m not due to start being the mayor until next week. So, you’re saying you weren’t bribed to come here”

“It’s more a punishment”

“For what”

“It’s complicated, Mrs Trennell...and way private”

Not being able to dig any deeper into this matter, she asked Natalie what she thought about the room as a whole.

“It’s a foot or two wider than mine back home – yeah, me being in here long term would be cool.”

“How did you know the measurements of this room?”

“I’m way good at Geometry at school!”

“What are your other favourite subjects?”

Natalie could tell this was small talk, but let herself be swept along by it.

“Drama and history”

The Stewarts’ visit to this house ended 42 minutes later. Alvin had made Pippa aware of the duration by checking the time on his mobile, every so often. Just as his car was about to pull out of the driveway, Natalie turned to where Pippa was standing. The parting glance given to her by the 17 year-old made Mayor Trennell believe something was going on with this family. Her new and incredible secret made her hyper-aware that the Stewarts had one of their own. Whatever they were hiding, she felt an undercurrent of domestic tension.

Anthea was about to return to work, when Pippa offered her a coffee. First of all, she said no, but it only took a moment for her to change her mind.

“Sugar or sweetener”

“Neither” said Anthea.

“Milk”

“A little – not too much”

Anthea launched into discussing the Stewarts’ viewing of the property.

“So, Pippa, do you think Mr Stewart will be quick to make an offer?”

“I think you do, Anthea.”

“I’m confident he’ll say yes, aren’t you?”

“I’m not sure. That question you asked Mr Stewart generated an awkward look from him.”

“I’m sorry about that, but he does look like someone I saw a photo of on the front page of a newspaper. The entire family was.”

“It’s easy to get faces mixed up. Can we get back to the selling of this house, Anthea?”

“Of course, sorry”

“How much do you think Mr Stewart will offer?”

“It might be less than your asking price of £89,000.”

“How much less?” asked Pippa, while filling up the coffee pot.

Basing her reply on what she knew about the Stewarts’ finances, Anthea said “They might be willing to drop their offer down to just four grand less.”

Pippa completed making the coffee before giving Anthea her response.

“I’m prepared to drop to £84,000, but no lower.”

“Mr Stewart might not agree to that”

“He’ll have to”

Anthea only found the time to drink half her coffee. She thanked Pippa for offering her one, left the house and headed back to her vehicle. The reason she tried to get to it with such haste was that she was paranoid about it being stolen. It always proved to be an unfounded fear. Her orange Avensis was still waiting for her. She seemed incapable of ditching this worry, though. It was in her subconscious every time she parked it somewhere. It was this inner panic that brought out why the family’s surname was familiar to her. She was on the edge of revealing it publicly, when her phone buzzed. She’d put it on silent mode whilst showing the Stewarts around her client’s home. Anthea didn’t want to be disturbed whilst trying to make the property sellable. On the other end of the line was the voice of Greg Willard. He informed her that the viewing of No.6, Carlton Lane had been moved forward to over half an hour from now.

“I’m on my way now, Mr Willard”

Her daily job was instrumental in pushing that memory about the Stewarts back into its box. Now wasn’t the time for it to dominate her thoughts.

Still in her kitchen, Pippa was thinking about what Anthea had said. She mulled over the comment and then rang Jennifer.

“It’s me. I need you to get some extra info on the family who might be buying my house.”

Pippa heard her ask why. She didn’t hesitate in giving DCI Stoneham a reason for this favour.

“When the Stewarts arrived, they seemed kind of normal.”

“What changed?” asked Jennifer, on her end of the line.

“The atmosphere surrounding them did. Natalie said she came with her parents and twin brother as a punishment.”

Heard only by Pippa, DCI Stoneham suggested that this wasn’t unusual.

“Under normal circumstances yes, but since I became like you, it’s as if I’m picking up hidden emotions and personality undercurrents like they were odours.”

“For our kind, that’s common enough. What put you onto this feeling?”

“A look Natalie Stewart gave me. There’s something going on with them and I want you to find out what it is.”

“I’ve a workload lasting until after five this evening, so I’ll do a search tomorrow, during my lunch break” said Jennifer.

“That’ll be fine”

There was a minute and a half’s pause before she ended the call. Jennifer had already hung up, but Natalie’s expression was distracting Mayor Trennell from immediately doing the same.

Pippa wandered into Rosie’s room, in order to find somewhere to think. Only the sound of birds in the distance seemed to be finding their way into the silence. There was a six second burst of someone’s radio. The owner of it switched it off before the noise could irritate anyone out in their back gardens. She emulated a music festival goer wanting to be carried along on top of the crowd, falling back onto Rosie’s bed. Pippa remained on her daughter’s quilt for less than a minute. Someone was phoning her up. She wrongly concluded it might be Jennifer calling her back or either of her two daughters.

There were no phone calls she’d received during her adult life that really astonished her. This one was certainly the exception. Though it had been 18 years, Pippa was able to identify the caller’s voice. It belonged to Rosie’s biological father.

“What do you want?”

“To talk”

“We don’t have anything to talk about!”

“I think you know that’s not true, Pippa.”

“You’re only ringing because Doug’s dead, and I’m a vampire.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I thought you’d be pleased to hear that we share the same biology now.”

“No, I meant I’m sorry about your husband. I already knew you and my daughter were made immortal when I phoned.”

“She’s not your daughter, she’s Doug’s! Raising a child’s about nurture not nature!”

“I want to see her.”

“No.”

“Either you and I meet up to talk or I pay a visit to my daughter’s school.”

“Where and when?” asked Pippa, aware of how serious he was.