Free The Last Revelation Of Gla'aki by Ramsey Campbell

isn't what Frank said, is it? He just wrote to you about his one."
    "It's what I've been led to believe by everybody else." Fairman felt as if the argument had grown as slow as trying to run in a dream. "The sooner I take charge of the book," he said, "the sooner it'll be one less responsibility for you."
    "I don't shirk any of my responsibilities, Mr Fairman."
    "I'm sure I didn't say otherwise. I'm simply trying—"
    "I haven't got time for this. As you say, I have responsibilities," Rhoda Bickerstaff said and immediately rang off.
    As Fairman listened to the hiss of static, which he could have mistaken for the long breaths of the sea, Janine Berry came into the room. "Have you gone past your appetite?" she said like a reproving mother, and when he frowned at her "Don't keep it to yourself. We don't do that in Gulshaw."
    "I'm finding someone isn't as forthcoming as everybody else has been."
    "That won't do at all. We mustn't have anyone giving you trouble."
    "It's Rhoda Bickerstaff. She's in charge of your Leafy Shade Home."
    "I know that." With a look so distant it made her face resemble a mask, Mrs Berry said "Don't let her use that as an excuse. You go up there and don't take no for an answer."
    "She does have plenty to deal with as it is, I suppose."
    "Then like you said, she'll have less when you take what's yours." Before Fairman could object to having been overheard, Mrs Berry turned maternal again. "Just you eat up," she said, "and then I'll show you where to go."
    Fairman gazed out at the fog while he ate, and had the fanciful notion that he was tasting it. A watery hint seemed to underlie every mouthful, though the textures were firm enough. The taste grew more indefinite as he fetched his coat and took the town map to the reception counter. "You go straight there now," Mrs Berry urged, but called him back as he headed for the car park. "You'll be thinking we don't trust you," she said and twisted the key off the ring on the metal club, so vigorously that her fingernails became indistinguishable from the flesh around them. "Now you can come and go like all of us."
    Fairman pocketed the key on his way to the car. He was glad to leave the promenade where the stagnant greyish light appeared to seep into every face, not that the pavements were anything like crowded. He drove up a lane between the Kumbak and the Seesea, across the shopping streets to Edgewood Row, where several large houses had apparently lost their boundaries to form the Leafy Shade. While the single garden wall they shared beside the pavement had been cared for, the wall that backed onto the hazy colonnades of the woods was in some disrepair; more than one gap was wide enough for residents to wander through. As Fairman parked on the road, he saw that one of the vehicles in the grounds was a police car.
    Presumably the crisis was at least as serious as Rhoda Bickerstaff had made it sound. He couldn't justify adding to her problems, however frustrated he might feel; surely even Nathan Brighouse wouldn't expect it of him. He was restarting the engine when a woman hurried out of the central building of the Leafy Shade complex. "Mr Fairman," she shouted. "Leonard Fairman."
    Her gangling run emphasised how tall she was. Her head was disproportionately large, though with a small mouth and miniature chin. She wore a padded coat over a billowing black dress that exposed ankles thicker than he would have thought to see and black shoes too big for the elegance they aimed for. As Fairman left the car she unlocked the tall iron gate. "Mrs Bickerstaff," he said. "I'm sorry, I didn't realise—"
    "No call for an apology. I'm not Rhoda Bickerstaff."
    "Even so, I'm sorry if I'm adding to your difficulties."
    "You're doing nothing of the kind." This sounded closer to an accusation than a reassurance, and her tone didn't change as she said "I'm Eunice Spriggs."
    Her gaze went with the tone, but in a moment it relented—receded, at any rate. "I'm the mayoress," she