A/N: Hi, y'all. Here's the final chapter.
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When they knocked at the terrace house number 25 of Alpine Lane in Moss Heath an hour later, a tall bearded man answered the door.
Alex Morrison stared inquiringly at the good looking couple standing at his doorstep. "Yes? Can I help you?"
The two AC-12 officers showed him their warrant cards.
"I'm DI Kate Fleming and this is DS Steve Arnott. We're from the Central Police."
"The Central Police?" The man was surprised. "What's this about?"
"Do you mind if we go inside, Mr. Morrison?" Steve said. "This won't take long, I promise."
After a slight hesitation, Alex pulled open the door wider to let them through. "Do come in then. Just mind where you step, though. My kids' Legos. They're everywhere."
"I understand." Kate smiled, seeing the happy clutter on the floor; tiny Lego blocks and Barbie dolls and Avengers action figures were strewn all over, its trail leading from the front hall into the living room. "I have a young son myself, so I knew how hard it is to keep a tidy house."
A pair of a boy and a girl were loudly bickering over the remote of the family television. Alex quickly came over to claim that thing. He turned off the television before placing the remote on the top shelf out of his kids' reach.
"Behave, you monkeys. We have guests. Go up to your room," he told them, pointing at the stairs.
"But Daddy…" the children wailed in response.
"No buts. Just go. Or I'll skip tonight's bedtime story."
The boy and the girl ran upstairs, giggling and shrieking at each other the entire way.
Alex shrugged helplessly at Kate and Steve. "I have another set of twins on the way. If they are as bad as those two….God help us!"
As if on cue, a heavily pregnant woman entered the room, wiping her damp hands on a towel. "Honey, who are these?"
"It's the police, Nora."
"Oh." His wife looked puzzle. "Is there something wrong?"
"I don't know yet. Can you make us some refreshments, love?" Turning to the two coppers, he asked, "Would you like tea or coffee?"
"Tea will be fine, thanks," Kate said for them both.
As his wife left for the kitchen, Alex urged his guests to take their seats. "So, what can I do for you?"
Steve glanced at Kate and she nodded back, giving him her consent to initiate the interview. Clearing his throat, he said, "Mr. Morrison, firstly we apologize for coming here without a prior notice."
"That's alright," Alex said with a shrug. "You're lucky you caught me this evening. We'll be leaving for my in-laws' tomorrow. My wife is due any day now, so I need to send the kids to stay with their grandparents before I take their mother to the hospital."
"Congratulations is in order then."
"Thank you. But, seriously, what's this all about? Why are you here?"
"Mr. Morrison—"
"Just call me Alex."
"Okay. Alex." Steve nodded. "Actually, we came here to talk to you about Stella, your previous wife."
The other man instantly turned pale. "Stella? Why? Has she…has she been found?"
Steve exchanged looks with Kate before answering, "No, we haven't found her. Her remains, I mean. We understand that she had been missing since 2009, and there was a witness that saw her jump from the north bridge."
"Yes, that was what I was told." Alex looked visibly upset. "Look, why do you bring this all up if there's no new updates? What's the point now? Don't you know how distraught I was that day when I returned home after a long work trip to Nice, only to discover that my house was besieged by police and reporters? My boys had been found dead in the bath tub and they said that Stella killed them!"
Steve gave the man several moments to calm down before he kindly said, "We know that, Alex. We can't imagine the sheer horror that you went through. And we're awfully sorry that we have to raise this matter again. But something didn't add up, and we need to find out what it was. That is, if you wish to help us. We are not forcing you. We just want to close this case for good."
Alex looked up, wiping a lonely tear off his cheek. "I thought the case was already closed. Stella was declared dead by the court about seven years ago, right before I married Nora."
"Yes, we know," Kate said. "It said so in the files."
"Then why are you really here?"
"Tell us about the old house."
"The old house?" Alex stared uncomprehendingly at her. "That bloody cottage? What about it?"
"It belonged to Stella?"
"Yes, it was under her name, bequeathed to her by her grandmother after that old woman passed away in her sleep. The damned house had been in her family for many years."
Alex paused when Nora entered, bearing a tray of refreshments. Steve quickly rose to take the tray form her.
"Thank you for all the trouble, Mrs. Morrison."
"Oh, it's nothing." Turning to her husband, she gave his shoulder a squeeze. "Are you okay, hun?"
"I'm fine. Do you mind heading upstairs and look in on those two monkeys? Make sure they don't dump their books into the toilet again."
"Of course. I'll leave you all to talk then," Nora said and waddled out of the room.
Kate took control over the teapot and cups. "I'll be mother. Go on, Alex. You mentioned that Stella's grandmother left her the cottage."
"God, I hate that house," Alex groused. "But we had no other choice. I was between jobs at that time, so money was hard to come by. We couldn't afford the rent anymore, so Stella suggested we moved into her grandmother's cottage not long after the old lady died."
"What about Stella's parents? Where were they?" Steve asked.
"Long dead, when Stella was still in school. She lived with her grandmother until we got married." Alex smiled sadly. "Stella called her grandmother Grandma Annie, and she loved her dearly. Honestly speaking, the first time I met Grandma Annie, I thought there was something fishy about her. She rubbed me off the wrong way, I guess. A strange old biddy, that. No wonder her husband just up and left her."
"Why did her husband leave her?"
Alex shrugged. "I have no idea. Maybe he had an affair with another woman, or he was finally getting tired of Grandma Annie's strange ways? Who knows? All I remember was what Stella once told me. Her grandfather suddenly didn't appear for dinner one day when she was fourteen. When she asked Grandma Annie about it, her grandmother told her that he went to travel around the world with some of his friends. And that was that. The issue was never raised again."
Steve was deep in thought for a while before asking the next question. "You said just now that you hate that old cottage. Why is that?"
There was deep pain in Alex's eyes as he recalled the hard time he had spent in Grandma Annie's house. It had never felt like a home to him, even after he had brought his family to live there for almost a year.
"I never felt comfortable living there," he said. "Yes, it was Stella's childhood home, but even she sometimes expressed her wishes if we all could stay somewhere else. I promised her to find us another house after I got better wages, though it would take some time. I should've just moved us all to my parents' house then, but I didn't. I thought I could take care of it without scaring Stella and the boys. If I only knew how wrong I was."
Kate leaned forward, interested to know more. "Take care of what, Mr. Morrison?"
Instead of answering, Alex looked at her and asked, "Do you believe in ghost, DI Fleming? I don't, but even I couldn't ignore the unexplained incidents in that old cottage."
"What kind of incidents?" Steve asked, almost afraid to find out.
The other man swallowed hard. "Well, sometimes I saw a dark shadow looming over me, when there was no reason for it to be there. Every now and then, I heard strange whisperings when I was together with Stella. Didn't know where that sound came from, and Stella said she didn't hear any of it. Her behavior also changed, slowly yet steadily, right before my very eyes. Stella was no longer the happy-go-lucky woman that I married. She started to have unpredictable mood swings, which she took out on our sons. Those poor boys."
Fresh tear streamed down his cheek, which he quickly wiped away. "And then there were those scratches."
Steve's eyes widened. Without looking at Kate, he could tell that she was also astounded by this new info.
"What kind of scratches?"
"They were real nasty. I always found them in the morning when I woke up. I had them on my back, down my arms. Sometimes on my chest. I still have no clue how I got them. We didn't even have a cat, for Christ's sake."
"How did those scratches look like?"
Alex was clearly baffled by Steve's question. "You really want to know? Why? What is it to you?"
"Please, Mr. Morrison. Just humor me."
"Um…okay, if you insist," the other man reluctantly said, "They always appeared in three long bloody lines. Real painful every time I discovered them. They even got infected once so that I had to take myself to the hospital. The doctors there thought I had lost my damned mind when I said I truly didn't know how it happened."
Steve threw Kate a meaningful look as if saying, See? I told you.
"I started to find excuses to stay out of the house," Alex added. "I took longer shift at work, which got me far away from home for several extra days. I didn't take extended rest period between assignments so I didn't need to spend more time there. I knew I wasn't being fair to Stella and the boys, but I could no longer sleep under that same roof. It was frightening!"
He looked up and stared straight at Steve. "Whatever it was in that old house that was destroying our family, it wasn't human."
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Steve let himself into his flat when the glowing numerals of his microwave's digital clock read 22:23. Shoving his front door shut, he then tiredly leaned his forehead against it.
After the day he had just had, he was strangely exhausted and feeling sick to his stomach. Above all, he was scared shitless.
"Hey, Short Legs! Bad day at the office?"
Steve jumped in fright, whirling around at the sudden familiar voice.
Shane Arnott, an SAS Major with the British Army, was grinning back at him like an idiot.
"Did I startle you? Sorry, little brother. I forgot to text you earlier," Shane was happily saying, "I'm just dropping by before I head back to base. I've been to see the folks. Mum and Da sent you their love. She also made me deliver to you her best chicken korma. I already put the Tupperware inside the fridge. You can heat it up tomorrow—"
He ceased speaking when he finally noticed his younger brother's ashen face. "Hey, look. I'm real sorry if I freaked you out. But I have the spare key and all and…Stevie, is something the matter?"
The younger Arnott started to tremble so hard that he was unable to speak coherently. Shane was caught by surprise when his brother went into his arms and held on tight, as if trying to tap the older man's inner strength.
Understandably, Shane was worried, but he kept his cool and asked, "Tell me what's wrong, Stevie. How can I help?"
And so Steve told Shane everything.
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The next morning when Steve woke up, Shane had already left. There was a short message on a post-it note, stuck to the fridge that said, "Base. Oven."
Steve instantly understood that his brother had returned to Hereford, where the SAS headquarters was based, and some breakfast had been left heating for him in the oven.
Later, at half past 7.00, Steve stepped out of the elevator at the AC-12 HQ. However, before he could even reach his workstation, Kate suddenly accosted him.
"Morning, ma'am," he greeted her.
"Right, morning. Come with me," she hurriedly replied before rushing towards Discussion Room 2. Puzzled, Steve had no other choice but to follow her.
Kate held open the door for him. After he entered, she quickly shut the door and locked it. Steve raised his eyebrows at this.
"What's going on, ma'am?"
"Have you heard the news?"
He shrugged. "What news?"
"I heard it on the radio on my way to work just now. The early morning news at 7.00."
"Okay…"
"It was Stella's cottage."
"What about it?"
"It caught fire around 2.30 this morning. The whole thing burnt down to the ground!"
Steve's mouth dropped open as he stared at Kate in great shock. "What? Are you sure?"
"Of course, I'm bloody sure!" she hotly replied. "They mentioned its exact location, and how the fire brigades had some problems to get there because the path is too narrow for those big fire trucks. But they still had to douse the fire in case it started spreading to the surrounding woods. It is now under control though, thank God."
"Jesus, Kate." Steve looked torn between relief and disbelief.
"Yeah, I know the feeling, mate. I'm still shocked myself," she said. "But there's more."
What, there's more?
"I've contacted some people at the local station in charge of the scene because they suspected an arson, even though no type of accelerant has been found yet. They told me that while putting out the fire, the firefighters discovered a hidden chamber beneath the cottage. And inside the chamber, they found a real old human skeleton."
If Steve was shocked then, he was terribly shaken now.
"What the fuck?" he swore. "You're kidding, aren't you?"
"Would I joke about this, mate?"
"But this is…" Steve rubbed his neck, feeling slightly queasy. "Shit. What on earth is going on? What does this mean?"
Kate shook her head. "I wish I had the answer to that. Sadly, this only brings up more and more questions. Whose skeleton was that? How did she/he died? How long had it been there? Seriously, Steve, what the hell have we just stumbled into?"
Steve leant his hips against the discussion table as if seeking support for his suddenly unsteady legs. "Could the skeleton belong to Stella's missing grandfather? Maybe he never left after all?"
"Now that is a real disturbing thought," Kate replied with a shudder. She then straightened up as he pulled herself together. "Anyway, nothing much we can do about it. Let the forensic or the anthropologist team do their stuffs. Hopefully this will bring closure to everyone. To you, to us, and poor Alex Morrison."
"I hope so too."
"Alright. That's over and done with. I think," Kate said next. "Let's focus on urgent matters at hand. DI Evans' interview is within a couple hours. You ready?"
Taking a deep breath, Steve replied, "Yeah. Just give me a minute."
"Okay." Kate patted his shoulder before she headed towards the door. "Try not faint in here, DS Arnott. I'm definitely not your knight in shining armor."
Steve gave her a weak grin for that.
After she left, he took out his mobile phone and logged into a personal email under the username 'Shortlegs', and discovered one notification in the draft box. He clicked on it to find a cryptic message from his elder brother.
It simply said, "Exorcist."
And Steve instantly understood everything.
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THE END
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Stay tuned for more LOD stories. And stay safe out there. Keep social distancing. Let's continue to fight this pandemic together. Later, guys.
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"Is that why you murdered him?" – DS Steve Arnott
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* ABBREVIATIONS:
AC - Anti Corruption
DI - Detective Inspector
DS - Detective Sergeant
SAS - Special Air Service
