Spook_me 2020 - Haunted - Chapter 9

[m_findlow]

Title: Haunted
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Gwen, Ianto, OCs
Author: m_findlow
Rating: M
Length: 50,847 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for spook_me 2020 Prompt - Ghost
Summary: The team investigate rumours of a haunted house in rural Wales.

By the time they'd cleared up their dinner plates, Gwen still had a gnawing emptiness in her stomach that hadn't been satisfied by the meager offering of tinned soup and bread rolls, even if the soup hadn't been half bad, with lots of chunky vegetables in it, almost qualifying it as a minestrone like it said on the can.

She'd ended up doing most of the washing up herself. Jack had offered to dry the dishes, but within minutes, he was naughtily flicking the towel at Ianto as he passed, which of course had descended into a tit for tat that ended with Jack chasing Ianto around the kitchen, and then out into the house at large, still armed with his tea towel.

Gwen sighed. Was this what it would be like to have children? Would she spend her whole day acting as arbiter between their quarrels? The thought of a house full of prepubescent boys filled her mind and she shuddered. Rhys would love it of course. Half a rugby team, enough to man a five on five football squad, and more dirty laundry and empty fridges than Gwen could imagine being able to cope with. Maybe just the one child. Two maximum. They'd stop after two, wouldn't they?

Setting the last of the plates in the cupboard and drying off her hands, she peered out through the now darkened kitchen windows. It was almost impossible to see anything out there. If she tried hard, she could just make out the top of the low cobblestone fence that divided the immediate gardens from the graveyard beyond. For just a split second she thought she saw something bright flit between the shadows beyond the cobblestones and then blinked again, realising it was probably just the reflections of the lights in the house bouncing off the glass. This place would get to you if you let it. No wonder people thought it was haunted.

The gnawing sensation in her stomach came back. She rummaged through their bags of supplies and found the remaining half packet of biscuits, taking two and scoffing them. She chewed them whilst staring out through the window, just to be doubly sure she had imagined seeing anything out there. It was so quiet in the house, Jack and Ianto's messing around having descended into silence as well. Probably snogging the life out of one another, she thought, knowing those two. Any excuse for a snog.

A chill breeze rippled up the back of her spine and she shivered. It was coming from the wrong direction to be a draught slipping in under the kitchen door. She looked around the long narrow kitchen, spotting the dark entrance down to the cellar and boiler. It must have been coming in from there. She walked over and stood at the threshold. There were no lights down there, just a set of steep and narrow rough stone steps, leading away into the darkness. Another wisp of cool air hit her in the face, confirming it was coming in from down there and she pulled the door shut, sealing the cold air inside before leaving the kitchen.

Passing through the breakfast parlour and to the main foyer, she admired the view from the tall windows that looked out over the back of the property. The view was much better than that from the pokey kitchen windows, these ones large enough to show off the night sky. There was no moon but it was bright and clear, dotted with a thousand stars.

Now where had those two got to? she wondered. She crossed the wide parquet floors, heading for the sitting room where Jack had left their laptops to monitor the equipment they'd fixed around the house. It didn't take her long to find them, casting her gaze left and seeing them halfway up the long wide staircase. Jack had Ianto pressed up against the wall. To be precise, against a low hanging and rather hideous portrait of some old bag who would have been the nightmare aunt from some drab Jane Austen romance novel. Ianto didn't seem to mind however, his hand cupped rather comfortably around Jack's arse. Their faces were mashed together so close that Gwen couldn't tell which of them had their tongue down the other's throat, or perhaps they both did. Aunty wouldn't have approved.

Gwen coughed loudly, coming to stand at the bottom of the stairs.

Jack pulled away and looked not the least bit surprised by the interruption. ‘Yeah?’

‘I was wanting Ianto, actually.’

His hand was still resting on Jack’s hip, at least having migrated slightly north from where it had been. ‘Me?’

Jack sniggered. 'Who wouldn’t? I’m afraid you’ll have to take a ticket though, Gwen. I got here first.’

Gwen bit down on her vexed sigh. ‘I only need your phone. So I can download those pictures. Unless of course you'd like me to go wandering out there in the dark with my flashlight to get that list of names again?’

At least Ianto attempted to look contrite, pulling his phone from his pocket even whilst Jack still had his own hand resting on Ianto's hip, hindering his efforts.

Gwen climbed the stairs and took it. ‘I'll just start on these. You two carry on. Don't let me, or the investigation, get in the way.’

‘We won't be too long,’ Jack promised her with one of those cheeky smiles, going back in for the kill.

Gwen rolled her eyes. There was really nothing left to say. What Jack wanted, Jack got, and when his mind wasn't on the investigation, there wasn't much going to change that. She supposed she at least had some demarcation in her life between work and romance. She couldn't say the same for them. ‘Make yourselves at home,’ she muttered under her breath.

She drifted back across the foyer and into the sitting room. There was a good fire going in the large hearth at the far end of the room now. Even the tall exposed beam roof was unable to draw away all of the heat up into its lofty heights. To their credit they'd done a good job of making the room cosy and inviting. If you ignored the smell of mustiness and the outdated depictions of horses and hunting dogs done in oil hanging from every wall, it was almost homely.

She ran a cable from Ianto's phone to her laptop, downloading the images and then doing the same with her own phone. Once the images were all on there, she picked up the laptop and carried it over to the large leather armchair closest to the fire and settled herself in it. Where the rest of the house had a perpetual chill about it, now she could feel the radiant heat warming her from top to toe. She curled her legs under her and went to work.

Her first search was for the last occupant of the house. She was intensely curious about the what the police had to say about the tragic suicide. She typed in the name and found the local police report, but frowned as she read through the contents. There was no date of birth, no previous address before moving here to Abercrafen, no known relatives. Nothing. It was as if the police had no idea who he'd been. It struck her as odd, or perhaps just poor investigation on their part. Maybe nobody cared about one sad hermit. Her former colleagues had always said that rural police forces weren't a patch on their metropolitan counterparts, mostly just going there for the quiet life and a way to bide their time until pension age.

She widened her search to Wales Births, Deaths and Marriages records, and whilst there were several listings, none matched the approximate age or location. Frustrated, she knew that tomorrow she'd be putting in a call to the local police station to get a few answers. She might even give them a lesson in how real policing work was done.

‘Anything to report?’ Jack asked, stepping into the room and making himself at home on the far end of the long leather sofa, furthest from her, but closest to the coffee table where his own laptop had been abandoned. Ianto slinked in silently behind him, taking up a spot next to him.

‘Good of you to join me,’ Gwen quipped. ‘Done already?’ She didn't really want to know but it was hard to break the habit of asking.

Jack's shrug was noncommittal. ‘Couldn't convince Ianto here to test out that lovely king-size poster bed.’

Ianto reached over him to take the laptop in hand, setting it on his lap. ‘I believe it was Gwen who pointed out that we came here for business, not pleasure.’

‘I never said we couldn't do both. Speaking of, any chance of some coffee before we settle in?’ Gwen couldn't help but give Ianto a confirmatory look. It was beneath her to ask outright, but she was happy to lend support to Jack's idea.

There was a sigh and a keenly anticipated rolling of eyes. The laptop was passed from Ianto to Jack and he left the room without another word. Gwen's eyes followed him the entire way.

‘Do you ever get the feeling that one day we're going to rue our demands?’

Jack smirked, easing back into the stiff leather. ‘It'll be worth it.’

Next chapter...