Above the Vaulted Sky - Page 85

                ‘Do you want us to leave, Yates?’ I ask.

                He pauses. ‘I want to show you things,’ he says. ‘All I ask is that you’re interested. I thought you of all people would be, Easton.’

                ‘I am, Yates,’ I continue. ‘But this isn’t healthy. People are important.’

                Yates puts his head in his hands. ‘You just don’t understand,’ he moans.

                I sit down on one side of him. Elle sits on the other. We share a look.

                ‘Why don’t you show us what you’ve found, Yates?’ Elle suggests, resting her fingers on the sleeve of his jumper. He seems to jump like he’s just been touched by a live wire.

                ‘Thank you, Elle,’ he says, the air of a teacher returning to his voice. ‘I’m glad someone’s interested.’ He glares at me.

                I sit back, my brows knitted together, wondering what I did wrong.

                ‘Thacker was obsessed with the idea of ghosts,’ Yates explains. ‘See here…’ he points at the open manuscript in front of him. ‘In the story, Rory appears to Cecily in the attic of the manor where she’s a servant girl. Thacker wrote next to the line Hidlebrand Manor. I know for a fact that Thacker once lived at a place called Hildebrand when he was a young boy. He speaks of a ghost that appeared to him, a lady in white. I think The Alchemist is part auto-biographical.’ He looks to me, then Elle, his eyes alive with fervour. ‘Isn’t that amazing. Our very own Robin Thacker was visited by a ghost.’

                I think for a second. ‘We were told by someone that Thacker might have known something about how to make ghosts visible,’ I explain. ‘We were visited by someone, a man who could jump between life and death…’

                I was going to explain further, but Yates starts. ‘But…but…that’s it,’ he says. ‘That’s the key to the whole thing!’

                He starts leafing through the pages of the manuscript like he’s been possessed. I’m worried he’ll rip the pages.

                ‘He wrote these words,’ Yates says, pointing at the bottom of one page. ‘And I couldn’t understand them. It was driving me mad, Easton!’

                I follow his finger and read. ‘Only when we walk the tightrope across the limbo between life and the shadow of death will be find the great beyond. To travel between states is the key.’

                It’s like Thacker’s speaking to us from beyond the grave. I wish I could find him. He must be living somewhere as a ghost just like us.

                ‘What’s he doing here?’ asks Yates, surveying Graham for the first time.