I peered anxiously out of the gates once more, but Brooke's arrival didn't seem imminent. I didn't fancy being out there alone much longer, which was ridiculous, I knew. "I want to go inside because it's cold." I said out loud, as if it would make the statement true, but my wavering voice sounded far from convincing. I turned and began to trudge back in the direction of the front door, a small beam of light bouncing off the ground ahead of it as I'd left the door half-open.

I didn't know what to think about Lottie, so the easiest option was to think nothing at all. Instead, I began to hum, filling the silence. Before long, I was singing softly beneath by breath.

"So, Annie are you ok, are you ok, Annie..." My voice trailed off as I got further to the house, my ears perking up.

Annie might be okay, but someone inside McMahon Mansion definitely wasn't.

I broke into a run, reaching the door and slamming it shut behind me. All I could hear was wailing. Ear-splitting, terrifying wailing, like some kind of horrific nightmare come to life. It reverberated around the walls, coming at me from all directions. It was so loud, so shattering, so consuming, that for a moment I just stood there, drowning in the pure noise of it.

Then I shook myself. Come on, Amber, think. I ran over to the switches, fingers fumbling over them until I reached the one I wanted. "Sorry, Brooke," I murmured before pushing the mansion into complete lockdown. Just to check, I tried to flip the switch backwards, but it had locked into place. I was sure Kristen had some sort of back-up to reverse it if necessary, but for now, I was content in the knowledge that nobody could get in - or out.

Okay. What's next? My brain cells sparked back into life, and the answer became clear; locate the source of that dreadful wailing.

I jumped up the stairs, ignoring the slight cramp in my side that had started to develop, and made a beeline for Kristen's room. I figured only one person had the authority to bring the house down like that, and as she was meant to be resting I suspected she'd retreated to her bed by now. It seemed I wasn't the only one able to put the pieces together, because as I veered around a corner I ran smack bang into none other than Reagan.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" She gasped, clutching her chest with one hand and holding her phone, which had been turned into a kind of torch, in the other. Even in the bad lighting I noticed her face was flushed red and her dark hair was full and wild looking. She'd probably just rolled out of bed after hearing the noise, although it was strange that she was still wearing her uniform. Still, she'd had a busy day, and after all, I'd fallen asleep in my pantsuit myself.

"It's alright. I think we're all on edge tonight." I grimace in an attempt to be sympathetic, but she still looked scared out of her wits. Slightly disappointed, as I hoped we'd gotten past some of the awkward stage earlier, I added, "Shall we go see what's bothering Kristen?"

I took the last few remaining corridors and made it to Kristen's room. My hand paused on the doorknob for a split second, remembering my forbidden entry hours earlier. But the jewellery wasn't important at that moment, and besides, Reagan was hovering behind me in a way that made me feel pressured to sort everything out. So I straightened my stance and relaxed my shoulders and strode confidently into Kristen's room because I had every right to find out what was bothering her.

I hadn't even noticed that the wailing had stopped, mostly because the aftershock of it was still in my ears, but when I saw the beautiful, glamorous, icy, bitchy Kristen McMahon sitting sobbing her heart out with her sheets tangled up around her I was very aware that the loudness has ceased, leaving something much more frightening in its place. I knew that Kristen, probable killer of her father, did not deserve my sympathy. That thought, that fact, excused my cold-heartedness at not having any to give to her. But I knew I had to act the part, because if I didn't, I would never get to the bottom of this.

I sat down on the bed beside her, but she barely seemed to notice. Hesitantly, I reached out and placed an arm on her shoulder, and she crumpled into me, sobbing and sobbing. Reagan simply stood and stared, her dark eyes wide with astonishment, as if she was having a hallucination. I felt inclined to agree with her, because the woman I'd met with earlier would never have allowed herself to be in this position. I waited until the tears eased up a little before asking quietly, "What happened, Kristen? What's wrong?"

"Itwasher."

Her words were too muffled for me to make out. I pushed her off me a little, freeing her mouth up. "Sorry?"

"It was her." The wailing returned, her voice growing louder, completely hysterical. "It was her, and she back, and she's real..."

"Who, Kristen? Who was it?" Reagan prodded, her eyes still wide but with a kind of sick excitement mixed in as well now.

"Mum! It was Mum!" She practically screamed, her body going into violent tremors. "She's going to kill me!"

***

"Okay, Kristen, just sit down, and drink your hot chocolate, and we can talk in a moment." I tried to keep my voice as level as possible, despite the fact my hands were shaking like a leaf. Somehow Reagan and I managed to get Kristen down to the kitchen without any fatal injuries, a miraculous move I can barely believe that we accomplished. She looked a lot calmer now, with a stylish green throw around her shoulders, sitting at the table sipping from a mug. The tears had stopped, the only evidence they'd been there at all being a few tracks down her face.

Obviously, all the servants had woken up, but Reagan had done an excellent job of assuring them everything was under control and to go back to bed. She'd fabricated a story about Kristen noticing another important jewellery piece being missing and having a complete fit, which Claudia and Gibson had accepted way too easily. "Ben looked suspicious," she had reported, "but I got him to go back to bed eventually."

Now, I pulled her aside, leaving Kristen alone for a second to collect her thoughts. "I'm not going to insist that you leave," I said quietly. "Because you seem okay to me, and you've helped a lot already. But for God's sake stay quiet while I talk to her."

"What are you going to ask her?" She said immediately, seemingly fascinated. "You're going to get her to reveal all her secrets, right?" She sounded way too excited about that; I didn't know if I trusted her to be there at all. But she had earned her spot at the table. Her quick thinking with the others had helped buy me some time to talk to Kristen, which I was thankful for.

"Yes." There was no point beating around the bush, and she would find out anyway. "Come on. Remember what I said."

"Oh, I won't interrupt." She smiled, and I wondered again what her interest was in all of this, how it all aligned with her own hopes and dreams. I knew pretty little girls like Reagan didn't appear to pose a major threat to society, but every smile hid something, and I felt like Reagan's was hiding more than most.

I dropped into the seat beside Kristen, Reagan mirroring me. "Want to tell me why you were wailing? And why you think your dead mother is going to kill you?"

She flinched at the words, a reminder of how she'd let her guard down, how she'd showed me her weaknesses. Her fingers curled more tightly around the mug, her eyes focussed on the contents. Then something seemed to snap in her. Her eyes sprang up to meet mine, her gaze steady. "I saw my mother's ghost," she said, her voice a little rough from all the crying and screaming. "I saw her, just like my father claimed. She was holding this knife, this massive, bloody, dripping knife, poised right over my heart. And she was wearing the hospital gown too, exactly as he described. She disappeared, but I know she's coming back. She's coming back to kill me."

One word had caught my attention in all this. "Claimed?"

"Yes. My father claimed to see her." She repeated, only edging me further along.

"You say claimed. Even after seeing her ghost, after screaming blue murder, after experiencing the exact same thing as your father, you say he claimed it. Not that it happened to him, or that he saw something, but that he claimed to see something." My eyes narrowed. "Almost as if you don't believe he saw the ghost at all."

A gleam returned to her eyes. "What are you trying to suggest, detective?" She challenged me, daring me to say the words out loud.

That was all I needed. From the very second I'd set eyes on the mysterious case of Kristen's father, I'd been convinced there was no ghost involved in it. I was certain that Kristen had killed her father, and even if we'd both seen ghosts tonight, even if it was entirely probable the same could have happened to her father, I still felt that my initial feelings were right. I trusted my gut instinct, and my gut instinct told me all along that no matter how many ghosts were wrecking McMahon Mansion now, there was none guilty of killing that man.

"You know your mother's ghost didn't kill your father." I made the accusation I'd been holding onto for so long. "You know, because you did it."

Her mouth crumpled into a devilish smile, and for the first time that night I recognised the woman sitting in front of me. Kristen settled back more comfortably into her chair, taking a sip of hot chocolate unconcernedly. It unnerved me how even after my statement, she seemed entirely in control. "Well then, Amber," she drew out, the smile growing wider. "I guess you're not as terrible a detective as you made out."

______________

And so part two begins. I actually can not contain my excitement at having finally got onto Kristen's 'confession', for want of a better word. Don't worry, there's still plenty to come - Kristen continues talking in the next chapter and some more action is coming soon too. I feel really motivated to write now that I've gotten onto the part where everything starts making sense (kind of... I have to keep some mystery in it!), so I hope updates will be more regular. I'm off for about a week now for half-term, so I'll probably have another chapter or two up soon. Thank you for reading, I hope you're enjoying the story!