Adelie

The Drivr reached the top of the farm's driveway, and Adelie saw there was already a car parked up by the house. It wasn't the truck that PURE DARKNESS used for deliveries but a small, cherry-red hatchback. The driver-side door was open and it looked like someone was sat in the driver's seat waiting for her.

She thanked the driver of her rental and got out, clutching her shoulder bag. As the car pulled away behind her, she looked at the barn and froze. The huge, heavy door had been smashed off its runners, staved in and split down the middle like someone had rammed it with a truck. The inside was dark, but Adelie could see one of the light fittings hanging down from its mount on the ceiling.

Movement out of the corner of her eye made her flinch, but it was just the witch, Purity, emerging from her car. The enormous hat came with her, unbending as if the space inside the car was much larger than it seemed. In daylight, it was all the more obvious that the creature perched on her shoulder was not a cat.

Tension in her every joint, Adelie crossed the dusty yard to greet her. Arms spread and empty palms open, the witch said, "I'm sorry, it was like this when I got here. I haven't touched anything."

"H-have you been here long?" Adelie couldn't help the stammer. She hadn't been late arriving.

"No, I got lucky with the traffic, don't worry about it." Purity smiled, and for all her otherworldly power, her choice of words and her expression were so mundane that Adelie's nerves actually steadied a bit.

Not enough to stop her jaw trembling, though. "W-what should we do? I sh-should call the p-police."

"Hold on a minute," the witch said as Adelie went to her bag to get her phone. "You should see this first."

Legs still stiff, Adelie followed her round to the front door of the farmhouse. It, too, had been smashed in, the panel bent, the white plastic laminate creased from several heavy blows. The hallway was as ominously dark as it had been at Adelie's last visit.

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The smell hit her before she could realise that she was looking at a corpse. It was rancid, clawing its way up her nostrils like an overheated trash can, and she stepped back, mouth flooding with saliva and the rush of nausea. The witch caught her by her upper sleeve, steadied her through another step away, and then waved her free hand across in front of Adelie's face. For a moment it seemed as if the air glittered in its wake, and then Adelie realised the nausea was receding.

"Sorry, should have warned you," said Purity. "You ok? Apart from the obvious, I mean."

The body lay stretched out from legs still on the carpet inside the hall to an outflung hand right on the bottom edge of the doorframe. The hand was swollen, the skin blistered, green with dark blotches. A black suit was rotting on his back, and the tiles of the small porch were stained with what Adelie realised had to be dried blood.

Standing up from a point just inside the corpse's left shoulder was the handle of one of the farmhouse's kitchen knives.

Swallowing hard, Adelie looked at Purity. The witch said, "I didn't do it, I swear, it was like this when I got here."

"What happened?" Adelie felt her voice squeak.

Her tone all business, Purity said, "If you ask me it looks like some people broke in here and your ghost drove them off."

Struggling to breathe, Adelie mumbled, "So much for 'I mean you no harm'."

"That's not you," the witch said firmly. "You ask me, this ghost was defending your house for you. If anyone meant you harm it's this guy." She pointed at the corpse.

But who would-? That thought got out-raced as Adelie looked again at the suit, the dark hair now scruffy in death, the incongruously clean cufflink glinting from within the remains of the sleeve. She couldn't let on to Purity about Phoebe's mob connection, the witch had already hinted at suspicions about Soot's origin.

"Miss ghost, are you there?" Purity's shout – she'd moved to the side of the door and leaned over to poke her head inside – startled Adelie. The darkness didn't answer. After a moment, the witch shrugged. "Worth a try, but it's the wrong time of day really. And this probably wasn't good for her, too, it might be hard to get her to manifest again."

She took Adelie's elbow and started to guide her away from the house. "Come on, you gotta phone the police, it'll be better if you do it cuz' it's your place. Let's go sit in my car, I'll wait with you till they get here."