A Hampstead MYSTERY

Still hearing strange noises at night, Mary-Anne was determined to find out  what – or who – was causing them

THE STORY SO FAR: Mary-Anne is staying with her great-aunt Rose, an eccentric former actress, in her huge house on the edge of Hampstead Heath in north London. She’s there to help Rose sort through years’ worth of memorabilia from her career, and also to unearth a manuscript Rose was given by a recently deceased writer with whom she had a brief affair many years earlier. During her first two days with her aunt, Mary-Anne meets Sara, Rose’s nosy neighbour, and Arthur, an attractive, friendly local. Sara tells Mary-Anne not to trust Arthur and that he is squatting in the empty house next door to Aunt Rose’s place. Arthur denies it, claiming Sara is just jealous because he once rejected her advances. Meanwhile, Mary-Anne has spent two sleepless nights convinced there’s a prowler in her aunt's house.

Huddled in bed in the dark, Mary-Anne held her breath. She was sure she could hear the creak of floorboards again outside her room.

Silently swinging her feet onto the floor, she crept across the room and opened the door. She peered into the dense shadows of the landing and was suddenly blinded by a bright light a torch!

‘Who's there?’ she yelled, shielding her eyes with her hand. She saw the blurred outline of someone backing towards the stairs. Then the figure turned and fled, switching off the torch as they went.

Dazed momentarily by the glare, it was a few seconds before Mary-Anne could give chase. By the time she reached the hallway, there was no sign of the intruder.

She was about to start checking the other downstairs rooms, when she noticed that the door under the stairway was ajar. She assumed it led to a cellar, but she’d never seen her aunt go down there.