Colonel Dash cleared his throat. “Something in your room? Would you care for me to check it? What, exactly—”
“The ghost. I saw the ghost.”
“In your room?” Zeb said. “Can I see?”
“See?” Bram demanded. “What nonsense—?”
“By your leave, ma’am,” Dash said briskly. She nodded, and he went through the door. Zeb followed him in.
Elise was clearly not sharing a bedroom with her husband. There were various feminine accoutrements around the place—pots of things, brushes, garments. The room had panelled walls, a bed, a dressing table, a wardrobe, another door. There was no ghost.
Dash began to look around as Zeb opened the other door. “Bathroom,” he reported. “Nobody in here.”
“Nobody in the wardrobe,” Dash said.
Zeb squatted low. “Or under the bed.”
Bram, from the doorway, said, “You expect to find a ghost under the bed?”
“Someone dressed as a ghost, possibly,” Dash said. “What exactly did you see, Mrs. Bram?”
“A figure—a grey robe, like a monk. I couldn’t see its face.”
“And did the ghost come and go through the door?” Dash asked, his voice dampeningly practical.
“I don’t know where it went or where it came from. Itappeared. The room was empty, the door closed. I was putting things away in the bathroom when there was a rush of cold air and the gas flickered and went very low. I turned, and saw it, just there in the corner.” She pointed.
“Close to the mirror of the dressing table,” Bram observed. “A mirror, the curtain, an unexpected shadow: all that might create an effect in the mind—”
“I did not imagine it,” Elise said, with teeth.
“So you were standing by the bathroom door, facing it,” Zeb said. “What happened?”
“I screamed. It raised a hand and pointed at me and its hand was just bones. A skeleton,” she said, sounding incredulous at her own words. “It crooked its finger at me,beckonedme, and it whispered.”
“What did it say?”
“It said—It’s none of your business what it said,” she snapped, rather more like her usual self. “It reached for me with its vile whispering, and I ran for the door, as anyone would have. I got out just as Bram came out of his room.”
“And did it follow you?”
“Of course not,” Bram said. “I have not moved from the spot. Nothing—nobody—came out.”
Zeb exchanged a glance with Colonel Dash. They both walked to the corner.
“What are you doing?” Bram demanded. “This is my wife’s room, you know.”
“Looking for a hidden door.” Zeb wondered how one went about looking for hidden doors, and tried knocking on a panel, since people did that in books. It sounded very like every other time he’d knocked on wood. Colonel Dash ran his hands over the joints.
“Hiddendoor?” Bram said.
“Nobody came out, so either they’re still in here, or there’s another door,” Dash said. “Stands to reason. You know this house. Any secret passageways?”
Bram’s mouth open and shut a couple of times. “Good God,are you all mad? There are no secret passages!”
“So where’s the person who was in here?” Zeb asked.
“There was nobody in here!”
