Chalk Dust & Broomsticks, Chapter 42

Nick Blunt is feeling haunted. He phones his friend, Geoff Padstow, for reassurance.

The Haunting of Nick Blunt
In death, Alex is a Ka, unable to leave the earthly realm until she can alert Nick to what really happened to her. Her Ka, at first weak, was gaining strength. She had already managed to manifest enough power to lift a hefty statuette in Althea’s office and hit Althea with it during the protest meeting, a morbid "Tit for tat."

Nick was now aware of a supernatural presence. He could feel it in his dreams, and as the dreams got stronger, the Ka got stronger too, almost as if it were feeding on the energy of Nick’s torment. Sleeping pills did nothing to help. Almost as a last resort, Nick confided in his friend Geoff Padstow, the previous Head of the Junior School.

"Geoff, I’m at my wits end, mate. I can’t sleep, but when I do drift off, the most terrible dreams come."

"I’m being pursued by a woman but I can’t see her face," Nick explained. "She’s trying to tell me something, but when I can’t hear, she gets angry and threatening. I think I’m being haunted."

"Your past coming back to haunt you, I expect!" laughed Geoff. He was listening critically to Nick. "Well, it does happen sometimes as a result of a guilty conscience, you know. Are you feeling guilty about anything?"

The Betrayal
Until the arrival of Althea Gardner at Primrose Primary School, Geoff Padstow’s headship had been uneventful and happy. His staff loved him, his children were thriving, and life was good.

Then came the interviews for the headship of the new combined Primary School. To his great disappointment, the job went to an outsider - the brash Althea. Nick Blunt, Geoff’s supposed best friend, had almost warned him not to apply, hinting he should ‘leave this one alone.’ The snub impacted heavily on Geoff, causing him to reassess his life and his future. The circumstances of his emotional life were complicated: they included not only his wife Marie, but also his lover, Gina, who was married to Nick.

"Speak for yourself, Geoff," Nick answered, completely unaware of the impact his decision to employ Althea had on his friend. Feeling betrayed by Nick, Geoff vowed to take steps to prove him wrong, though he hadn't yet acted on that impulse.

"You’ve been to the doctor?" Geoff asked, bringing them back to the present.

"Yes, he gave me sleeping tablets and tranquillizers. I feel so guilty, what with Gina expecting... She can’t get comfortable with me tossing and turning all night."

Geoff suggested he slept in a separate room, but Nick was scared, fearing the moving strip of light and cold presence he had witnessed.

"Can’t you and Gina get away for a few days when she gets out of hospital? Didn’t she tell me once that you had a place in Marrakech?" suggested Geoff.

"That was Alex’s place." Nick's face turned white as he mentioned her name.

"And she’s still missing, I suppose?"

"Yes, the police are as sure as they can be that the remains they found in the boiler house at the school are hers. The caretaker’s been questioned and as good as confessed to removing the remains. I can’t bring myself to believe it – not Alex!" Nick lamented that the remains were all burned. "Unless they can find some fillings from her teeth, or something like it, they won’t know for sure. They did find a necklace."

"You could be under suspicion," Geoff pointed out. "After all, she worked for you, didn’t she?"

"Yes, she was my P.A. We worked together... and I’m fond of her." Nick’s unspoken words hung in the air.

"Great!, just gorgeous – now I get it!" Geoff laughed. "I see. If she is dead, then perhaps she’s come back to haunt you?"
Geoff’s words were a chilling echo of Nick's own private terror.

For years, Nick and Geoff had been inseparable friends, celebrating each other’s successes as their careers climbed. Nick was there when Geoff secured the Headship of Primrose Junior School; Geoff was there when Nick got his promotion to Officer in charge of Governors at the Education Office. They courted, married, and their wives, the statuesque Marie and the sweet Gina, became firm friends, swapping recipes and hosting dinner parties.

Flashback 1997
Over coffee at Puccino’s, Gina confided in Marie: "We’ve been trying for a baby, but so far – no luck. It’s beginning to get me down." Marie, trying to console her friend, suggested a job and offered to mention her to Geoff, who was looking for a General Assistant at the school. This seemingly small act of kindness would unknowingly set the stage for Gina's affair with Geoff - and the consequences that followed.

These small events, coming together at just the right times, lead our story into dangerous waters, but the immediate reason for Geoff’s dislike of Nick lay in their professional rivalry.

Success, as the adage goes, gives power, and power corrupts. Nick Blunt's lofty status at the Education Office gave him new friends, like the delectable Alex, but also gained him enemies, those he trampled on to reach the top.

Geoff’s initial thoughts about the retirement of The Dollhouse’s Headteacher, Mrs. Ogglesby, turned quickly to worry when he heard whispers at a staff meeting. The Chief Education Officer, Martin Thompson, announced that the two schools would be combined under a single, new Head.

Captain Waverley grumbled, "Another cost-cutting exercise."

All eyes turned to Nick Blunt, sitting next to Thompson. Geoff scrutinized Nick's face, wondering if his friend was about to give him the promotion. Then again, there was his capable Deputy, Mrs. Phillips. Geoff determined to sound out Mrs. Catchpole, for answers, but the Governing Body at Primrose had other plans and they didn’t include Geoff.

End of flashback

November 1999

Mrs. Catchpole stretched out her legs and sighed. At 71, she was feeling the strain, especially with the torrent of complaints about the new Headteacher, Althea Gardner.

She had been taken in by Althea, confessing only to herself: ‘Shows how wrong you can be... She will bring down the school.’ A little voice inside her head whispered the truth: ‘Isn’t that what you wanted all along? Wasn’t the intention that once the school failed its Ofsted Inspection, it would be closed, and Ms Althea Gardner would take a job, specially created for her, down at the Local Education Office?’

She realized the plot had gone awry. "The school didn’t fail, that nice Mr. Padstow has moved right away, and now we’re stuck with an immovable object of large size and aggressive tendencies."

She thought of Alex: ‘We all thought it was a vagrant who had slipped in there and died on the night of the Staff Christmas party, but now we have to accept the fact that it IS Alex, or what is left of her!

Relaxing against the cushions of her expensive settee, Mrs. Catchpole thought back to the day of the Staff Christmas Party. She remembered seeing Alex Simmons in the afternoon and at the party in the evening. There was quite a lot of clearing up to do afterwards and most of us were getting on with it, but Alex was in the office with Althea, and they were talking loudly. It almost seemed like they were arguing over something. Althea was striding up and down and the door kept opening and shutting as if someone kept trying to leave.

The afternoon had been chaotic - a maelstrom of excited children, well-meaning but distracting parents, and overworked kitchen staff. She remembered Alex’s car still in the car park when her own husband came to fetch her, confirming Alex was one of the last people there.

Mrs. Catchpole tried to recall every detail. Everyone had been distracted when Miss Poulter’s handbag went missing from the staffroom, spoiling the atmosphere and forcing a fruitless search. She remembered seeing Gerald, the caretaker, working all over the place, but not speaking to anyone except Geoff Padstow and she remembered seeing Althea dragging a large, plastic sack across the playground to the boiler house when almost everyone had gone home.

She fell asleep trying to remember, and in her dreams, the chaos returned. She saw an angry mob trying to push Althea into the playground, brandishing heavy objects. When she tried to help the Head, the mob turned on her, pushing her to the ground. She came to, looking into the weathered face of Gerald, who offered to take her into the boiler house to recover.

“No!” she screamed, waking herself up. She found she had kicked over her footstool and a favourite pot plant, seeing the nightmare as a dark warning against the boiler house.

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Nick's Nostalgia and Terror
As her pregnancy progressed and the scare turned out to be nothing to worry about, Gina was finally feeling better. She smiled across at Nick and suggested a meal out at a country pub.

“It will do us both good,” she said encouragingly.

Nick ran his fingers through his hair, trying to smooth away his perpetual worried expression. “All right, darling. We’ll go to The Fox. You like it there, don’t you?”

He was looking for approval again, thought Gina, frustrated that he always chose the venue. While she let it go to avoid hurting his feelings, she silently vowed to challenge his decision-making next time.

Nick’s ability to make decisions was crucial to his career, and he was used to Gina’s submissive ways. He missed the challenge and direct approach Alex gave him at work.

He knew that if the remains in the boiler house were confirmed as Alex’s, he would be very high on Inspector Stanhope's list of suspects.

Sometimes, he felt her presence as if she was right beside him; a loving, warm feeling that both comforted and terrified him. He missed Alex deeply, her humour and the mischievous laugh she kept just for him.

Now, there were times when the space around him became misty, and he fancied he could smell her exotic perfume again. It felt as if she touched him too, just a soft touch on his hand or his cheek like a breath of wind. The Ka was no longer just a source of fear; it was becoming a sensuous, ghostly reminder of his infidelity and his crime.
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