White Phantom Chapter four

Chapter Four

Her friend!

What he hell was she on about? Her friend! She’d only met the girl that morning. She was just a kid. Beth couldn’t get her head around why a teenager would want to befriend a woman twice her age. Beth had just killed a man and here was this silly little girl having histrionics on her doorstep. She didn’t have time for this.

‘Look, I’m sorry, Jennifer, but it really isn’t a good time right now. I was just about to get in the bath and I’ve got some stuff to do.’

‘I think you should let me in. We need to talk.’

Beth laughed. Her head was swimming. They couldn’t be working yet, it was too soon. ‘Well, what about, Jennifer? Is it about the book? I’ll have to hunt it out for you. I’ll tell you what, you call back tomorrow and I’ll have it ready.’

Beth was fighting the temptation to just shut the door in her face. She'd killed somebody; after that, bad manners and rudeness were nothing. She was just about to follow through with her thoughts when the girl’s gaze hardened.

‘Don’t patronise me. This isn’t about a stupid book. This is about friendship and loyalty and it’s about not lying to somebody who is supposed to be your friend.’

There she goes with that friendship word again, thought Beth.

‘You’d better let me in,’ Jennifer went on. ‘It wouldn’t be in your best interests to annoy me. That would be a very stupid mistake. Who knows what I could say.’ Her face was granite hard. ‘I might have friends that you wouldn’t like.’

Beth felt dizzy. She gripped the door-casing for support. This kid, who she’d met on the bus for the first time that morning, was threatening her. Did she know something? What could she possibly know? She couldn’t have an inkling about last night. It was just a coincidence. Some kid was having a hissy fit and Beth was jumping at shadows. She was finding it so hard to think straight. Thoughts were all jumbled up and reality was beginning to blur at the edges, Beth was high.

‘There are things we need to discuss,’ said Jennifer. She’d seen the change in Beth and her own attitude altered. She was looking at Beth. She had a calm cunning in her eyes. Her anger seemed to have dissipated and she said this last in a matter of fact voice.

Beth opened the door for her, resignedly. ‘You’d better come in then, I suppose, but I don’t know what all this is about. I really am very busy.’

She led the way through the house and noticed the note that she had left for the police that morning. She picked it up and pushed it into her jeans pocket as she motioned Jennifer to a seat.

Jennifer raised her eyebrow. ‘Secrets, Beth? Secrets and lies?’ she chanted in a sing song voice. ‘Secrets and lies and alibis.’

Beth was aware of a tremor when she replied. She tried to keep herself calm but the girl was freaking her out now. ‘What are you talking about? It’s nothing, none of your business.’ Her voice sounded different in her head. She was just beginning to slur and her mouth felt rubbery. She straightened up and made an effort to collect herself. Jennifer looked amused, she was smiling. ‘What are you saying? What’s all this about?’ Beth repeated.

‘Oh, nothing, nothing at all. You just looked a bit guilty about something. Calm down, you’ll give yourself ulcers.’

Beth let out her breath in a whoosh. She almost laughed. Jennifer didn’t know anything after all. She was jumping at nothing and if she didn’t get herself under control, despite the pills, she might as well go and shout to the world that she had just committed murder. If a young lass could pick up something suspicious by her attitude then what the hell would the police make of her?

‘Would you like a drink?’ It seemed appropriate to offer something, ever the effusive host. ‘Coffee, maybe? Or tea?’ What the hell was she doing?

‘Have you got any Lexicon Fruit Fizz?’ asked Jennifer.

‘No.’

‘You’ll have to get some in. It’s usually all I drink.’

Beth’s life was blurred. For a second she saw Jennifer in triplicate. She tried to follow the three girls separating each one from the paper dolly of the next and then she blinked and the world snapped back into focus.

‘Where will I be sleeping?’

‘What?’ For a second, Beth honestly thought that she’d misheard. ‘Did you just ask…?’

‘I don’t do sofas. They make me restless and then I sleepwalk and shout out in my sleep really loud. There was this one time when I leapt off the sofa at my aunt's house and I ran into the kitchen. I started going through all the draw–’

‘Stop! Will you just stop talking for one second? Jennifer, I don’t know what the hell you’re thinking but you can’t stay here.’ She swayed, drunkenly.

Jennifer rolled her eyes and pouted. ‘Now, here was me thinking we’d got this name thing all sorted out. It’s very rude you know, calling somebody by a name that they don’t want to be called. It’s Phantom, okay? Phantom. I’ll tell you what, let’s play a little game. You’ll like this. Every time you call me Jennifer, I’ll call you Beth Bathory. How’s that?’ She didn’t wait for an answer but ran to the windowsill where Beth kept a collection of Wade animals.

She’d thought of getting rid of them but the collection had grown from childhood. Jennifer picked up one of the larger ones. ‘And,’ she continued, elongating the word, ‘every time you call me Jennifer I’m going to smash one of these stupid things. I can see you aren’t very bright, Beth Bathory, so I’m going to have to educate you.’

Jennifer was obviously nuts. On top of everything else that she had to cope with, Beth had the misfortune of taking the number six bus. If only she had gone for six pills, too. ‘Okay, Miss, that’s it… Out! I want you out of my house right now. Go on, get out.’

‘I can’t. Nowhere to go.’

‘I don’t care, Jennifer. Get out.’ Beth moved towards the girl and was about to grab her to physically move her to the door but her feet refused to obey her. She felt awful. The pills were taking full effect now. Her head swam. She had to get rid of her before she fell over.

‘Oh dear, Jennifer again. Just remember, this is going to hurt the polar bear far more than it’ll hurt you.’ She swung her arm back and flung the ornament hard against the wall. It broke in two and lay on the carpet by Beth’s feet. Jennifer put a finger to her mouth and giggled. ‘Oops, sorry.’

‘What the fuck are you doing? How dare you…’ She wanted to say more but the thought got lost before reaching her mouth. She had to focus on the words to get the bitch out of her house while she still could. She was more unsteady now and the air was filled with a blanket of vagueness.

The girl turned her eyes on Beth and stood with her left hand on her hip in a stance of defiance, challenging. It was Beth’s move but she didn’t know what to do. This was ridiculous; she was intimidated, and even a little bit frightened of Jennifer. Her first instinct was to slap the girl but the kid was obviously deranged. She decided that the best course of action was to try and reason with her.

‘Look, Phantom, you can’t stay here. I don’t even know how you came up with the idea. I’ve got to be up early in the morning for work. I’m not prepared for visitors and like I said earlier…’ She was struggling. Reasoning with her was hard. Her brain was fogged and she felt so woozy. ‘I’ve got a lot of stuff on at the moment and have plans for this evening.’ She took a step forward. She didn’t want to sit down. She needed to be upright to get her out but she had to sit. She couldn’t stand any longer. As she moved towards her chair, she collapsed.

When Beth fell unconscious to the floor Jennifer started. She looked shocked, but she recovered herself quickly and walked cautiously over to the prone figure. She remained standing, observing. She noticed that Beth was breathing and stood looking for another few seconds. She seemed to make a decision and picked up Beth’s handbag, rifling quickly through it.

She pulled out her driving license and placed it on the arm of the chair. Next she went to the dresser and flung open the first of two drawers. Glancing once at Beth, she went through papers and documents and after looking at – and discarding – several letters she picked up a recent British Gas bill, grabbed a pen from the front of the drawer and hastily scrawled down Beth’s driving licence number before putting it back where she found it. She pocketed the bill with the scrawled number, shut the drawer and looked quickly through the second drawer.

She was about to close it when she noticed Beth’s address book. She hesitated for a second and then hastily shoved it down the front of her skirt, pulling the loose T-shirt over to mask it.

She returned to Beth and knelt beside her. She watched her chest rise and fall for two breaths and then grabbed her arm, raising it a foot or two from the salmon carpet. She let it go, scientifically, and smirked as it slammed back to the ground. She shook her and shouted her name. When Beth didn’t stir, Jennifer slapped her hard across the face. She sat back on her heels and waited. No reaction. She frowned, stood and walked into the kitchen, taking in the spilled pill bottle with a glance.

‘All too much for you, Bethany? Oh, no you don’t.’

After picking up the empty bottle and stuffing it into her pocket, she went back to the living room. She grabbed the front of Beth’s jumper with both hands and lifted her head and shoulders off the floor. She shook her violently, her head wagging on a limp neck.

Beth responded, her breath caught and her eyelids opened.

Jennifer hooked her arm under Beth’s head and pulled the pill bottle from her pocket. She shook it in front of Beth’s unfocused gaze. ‘How many of these have you taken?’

‘Huh?’

‘Come on, get up. Florazepam, it says on the bottle. Florazepam. What are they?’ She shook her again but not as roughly this time. ‘They’re prescribed to Margaret Johnson. What are they, Beth? How many have you taken.’

‘Pills.’

‘Duh, I know they’re pills, stupid. What do they do? What are they for?’

‘Sedative.’

‘Sleeping pills, right? How many have you taken? I’m ringing an ambulance.’

Beth lurched forward, grabbing her by the wrist. ‘No ambulance.’ She licked her lips, tried to produce some saliva to swallow but couldn’t. Her eyes opened wider and stayed in focus. ‘I’m a nurse, no ambulance. I work at the hospital. Reputation…’

‘Oh well that’s all right then, job done. I’ll just leave you here to die, shall I?’

‘Four.’ She tried again to swallow, her voice cracking like her lips. ‘Not die, only took four. Sleep. Need Sleep.’

‘Some bloody nurse. You’ve taken too many. What do I do?’

‘Emetic.’

‘What? What’re you on about?’

‘Need to throw up.’

‘Oh, fucking delightful.’

Jennifer moved behind her and grabbed her under the breasts trying to lift her onto her feet. ‘Come on help me. I need you up and moving.
With virtually no effort from Beth, Jennifer got her to her feet.

Beth’s legs were dead and useless.
‘One foot after the other, that’s the way,’ Jennifer said.

They staggered to the kitchen and Jennifer led her to the sink. Holding Beth with one supporting arm, she removed the two empty mugs from the sink and sat them on the draining board.

‘In there, go on.’

‘Can’t.’

‘Yes you can. It’s easy. Think of that size eight dress and just do it.’

Beth shook her head, her vision spinning. ‘Water.’

‘Later. Come on, bring it all up.’

Beth leaned over the sink, her hands steadying her balance on the countertop, and dry heaved. Other than a coffee or two, her stomach was empty. It had nothing to give. ‘No good,’ she said.

‘For heaven’s sake, Beth, what’re you like?’ Jennifer took Beth’s chin, turned her head to face her, and prised her jaw open. Beth tried to back away, wobbled, lurched, and Jennifer stuck two slender fingers in her mouth.

Beth retched. The fingers were deep. Her head buzzed, her stomach contracted and she felt her bile volcano from within. Jennifer pulled her fingers out and forced Beth’s head back down towards the sink in time for the splatter of thin vomit. The wave of nausea that flushed up through her chest to her head made her dizzy and a second heave produced more contents of a largely-empty stomach.

When the retching diminished and her body had expelled two cups of coffee and four sleeping pills, Jennifer vigorously rubbed a tea towel over Beth’s mouth and chin. ‘There, that wasn’t so difficult, was it? Is there anything else I need to do? Are you in the clear now?’

Beth shrugged and shook her head. When her vision settled again, she said, ‘Sleep.’

‘Haven’t you just had some?’

‘Need rest.’

‘We need to talk. If you’ve got to sleep, you’d best sleep it off quickly.’

She helped Beth up to the bedroom and threw her roughly onto the bed. ‘I’ll wake you at seven, and don’t think I’m leaving, I’m not going anywhere.’

When Beth woke, it was to the sound of a strange voice yelling up her stairs. She was disorientated and felt fuzzy. It took her a few seconds to make sense of the fact that a stranger was in her house. Once she had put a face to the unfamiliar voice, she groaned. And then she remembered Marc.

‘Beth, I’m not waiting any longer, you’re making me angry. Come on, get down here. With your playing up we didn’t get to finish our chat earlier.’

Beth got out of bed carefully, to find that although she was still stiff and sore her legs were working now. With new resolve to get rid of the unwelcome guest, she put on her dressing gown and sat down on the bed as the sickness descended anew.

Still under the effects of the sleeping pills, she was muzzy and brain-addled. She wanted to go downstairs fighting, but couldn’t find the words for combat amongst the noise in her head. She walked into the living room to find Jennifer sitting on the sofa, eating a packet of crisps from the kitchen cupboard.

‘Well, Halle-bloody-luiah, it rises. Feeling alive again, are we? Right, sit down. We need to pick up our little talk where we left off.’

Beth sat in her chair and looked around the room in a daze.

‘You said I can come and stay with you.’

‘Over my dead body.’

‘Maybe it would have been if I hadn’t saved your life, and anyway somebody’s going to have to look after me, I’m too young to be on my own and I get frightened.’

‘Well, where are your family? Where do you live?’

Jennifer chose to ignore the second question and replied only to the first. ‘Oh, they’re away skiing in San Moritz. They won’t be back until next week. So you see, I’ll have to stay here until then. You’re my friend and I have nobody else.’

‘But, it’s just not convenient, I’m sorry, Jen– Phantom. You must have some family that you could stay with. Why on earth did your parents go off without making arrangements for you? It’s ridiculous.’

‘Oh, I lied to them. I said that I was staying with a friend from school, but that didn’t work out.’

‘Oh, there you go then. You’ll just have to go and see this friend and sort things out with her family. Would you like to use my phone to ring her? I’m sure that if you’ve fallen out, she’ll be just as happy as you to make it up again.’

‘I can’t,’ Jennifer’s voice trembled and her bottom lip crumpled. ‘She died yesterday and in all the fuss her parents have forgotten about me. I don’t blame them, it’s understandable. I don’t suppose they’ve even noticed that I’ve gone.’

‘What? Oh, come on you can’t expect me to believe that.’ She looked at Jennifer’s teary eyes, ‘Really? Phantom, that’s awful. What happened?’ Beth tried to focus. She couldn’t make sense of the words coming out of Jennifer’s mouth and made a valiant effort to keep hold of the conversation.

‘Well, I just left and walked around all night and then this morning I met you and you seemed nice and –’

‘No, I mean what happened to your friend?’

‘Oh, she stepped out in front of a Mazda 323. It was red and had a really cool, Don’t bump me, dude! sticker on the bumper. I think it’s a mistake though, it didn’t look right. I think they should get a re-spray and have it black.’

‘And your friend was killed?’

‘Yes, poor Carrie. It cut her head right off and they had to put it in a separate bag.’

Beth couldn’t believe what she was hearing, if even the gist of the story was true then no wonder Jennifer was acting so oddly. ‘That’s terrible. Were you there? Did you see it?’

Beth didn’t know if the girl was telling the truth or not, but she seemed genuinely distressed.

‘Yeah, there was a lot of blood, like, and all these people ran around the road screaming and getting all hysterical and stuff. So, can I stay?’

She was still spaced out; the pills had made her stomach bilious. She just wanted to go back to bed. What could she do? She felt that she couldn’t turn a distressed child out onto the street without being able to hand her over to a responsible adult. As much as she hated the idea of taking in this odd stranger she had little choice. Her head felt as though it was about to explode. Jennifer was looking at her, waiting for an answer. Her hands were tied.

‘All right, if you’ve got nowhere to go. But only for tonight. I’m going to have to ring these people. They must be worried about you, and on top of everything that’s happened they must be frantic.’

‘Oh, no, it’s cool. I told them that mum had broken her leg skiing and had come back early.’

‘But you said that you didn’t think they’d have noticed that you’ve gone? You said that you didn’t tell anybody.’

‘No, you said that. I said that it wouldn’t make any difference if I was there or not. They won’t notice that I’m not there because they’ve got funerals and stuff to sort out.’

‘Oh, right.’ All kinds of alarm bells were ringing. Had she been thinking straight Beth would have perused the matter further, possibly even called on Social Services for their help but under the circumstances she couldn’t think about her own problems never mind having to deal with somebody else’s.

Beth felt trapped but she felt that she had no choice. The girl was traumatised, they were both traumatised. The accident didn’t seem to have hit Jennifer properly. She’d have to tell somebody that the girl was here tomorrow, but who to tell? Social Services, or her school, yes that was a good idea; she’d ring the school and let them know. But she couldn’t do that until Monday and she didn’t want to be stuck with her until then. Beth felt guilty, the poor kid was going through hell and all she wanted to do was get rid of her. Maybe she could contact Jennifer's parents and explain to them what had happened.

‘Have you spoken to your parents?’

‘Nah, they’ve left their mobiles at home.’

‘Well couldn’t you ring the hotel?’

‘Don’t know where they’re staying.’

‘So they’ve gone away without leaving any contact info in case of an emergency? That seems unlikely; surely they must have left something?’

‘Well, see, my brother was supposed to be at home this week, but something came up and he’s gone away too.’

‘Well can we ring him?’

‘Don’t know his number. What’s for tea? I’m starving.’ It seemed the discussion was going around in circles and Beth gave up. She went into the kitchen on unsteady legs to make something to eat, it gave her thinking time. Jennifer was fussy, didn’t like this and didn’t like that, eventually they settled on pizza and chips.

Her visitor had only been with her for a few hours and already Beth was in trouble with work after ringing in sick while the meal was cooking. It was the bi-annual audit.

Her boss was less than impressed when Beth rang up to call in sick for the following morning. She had never lied to her employer before but said that she had suddenly come down with a stomach bug that had knocked her off her feet. No, she didn’t think she’d be feeling better by the morning. Yes, of course, if she was, she’d come right in. It was something else for her to feel guilty about but at least it was sorted and she could cross it off the worry list.

As she cut the pizza into slices she tried to pull her thoughts into order. Her life was usually so staid and disciplined. She lived by routine, nothing much ever changed and the only unpredictable aspect was Maggie. In just twenty four hours everything had changed and she felt out of control.

What was she going to do about Jennifer? The police could arrive at any minute. She was going to run away. Should she just pack a bag and go while Jennifer was asleep, stick to the plan? The girl wasn’t her responsibility. It was all messed up and she was so tired. Another thought struck her about the girl who had been killed.

Surely there would be a police investigation about that. Jennifer was a witness. They’d want to speak to her, wouldn’t they? Had she been taken to the hospital, checked over? Beth had no idea how to deal with a traumatised teenager. It was obvious that the accident had upset Jennifer terribly, even though she wasn’t showing it much. Her behaviour since the moment they met had been very odd, but then, Beth of all people could understand that.

Where the hell did she go from here?

She wanted to do what she always did when she couldn’t think straight, she wanted to ring Maggie and ask her advice about Jennifer. But, she didn’t need to, she knew exactly what Maggie would say and the tone of voice she’d use to say it. She’d say, ‘For Christ sake, Beth, why do you always let people walk all over you? You’re too soft. Tell her to piss off and find some other sucker to take pity on her. She’s not your problem.’ She couldn’t ring Maggie, it would only complicate matters.

After they had eaten their meal and Beth had picked up the plate that Jennifer put on the floor at her feet she tentatively broached the subject of her stay again.

‘So, Phantom, I’ll sort the spare bed out for you for tonight but tomorrow we are going to have to make some alternative arrangements for you. I work, you see, and I’m just not used to young people. I mean, what about school, for instance?’

‘Oh, that’s no problem, its half term.’

‘Really? Which school do you go to?’

‘Ulverston Victoria high school, why?’

Well, Maggie’s kids go there and I know for a fact that they were off for half term two weeks ago. So that isn’t true, is it?’

‘No, I lied,’ said Jennifer, nonchalantly.

‘Oh, for God’s sake Jennifer, how can I help you when you won’t even tell me the truth?’

Jennifer glared at her. She ran to the window sill and picked up another Wade figure. It was the otter, one of Beth’s favourites. Her father had bought it for her when they visited Lowther Wildlife Park, the year before he died.

‘Don’t,’ yelled Beth, but it was too late, the otter lay in pieces on the carpet.

Jennifer turned around with a smug smile and sang what sounded like a nursery rhyme.

‘Elizabeth Bathory hired me.
‘Put me in a vat of tea.
‘Left me there `till half past three.
‘Wicked Elizabeth Bathory.’

Beth began to cry. ‘I can’t cope with you. I’m sorry, I’ve changed my mind. You’ll have to go.’

‘Oh,’ said Jennifer, slyly, ‘but I can’t, Beth, because, you see, I know what happened last night.’