The Spirit is Willing (An Ophelia Wylde Paranormal Mystery) Read Online Free

dark. The book, however, remained on the floor.”
    “Fascinating,” I said. “What became of the book?”
    “Charlie swept the cursed thing up and hid it, I know not where. By that time, I was on my knees, praying, eyes shut tight.”
    “Did you know the man?”
    “No.”
    “Can you recollect any clues, in the manner of his dress, perhaps?”
    “He was wearing the kind of western garb common some fifteen or twenty years ago, I suppose. A dark vest and checkered trousers. Oh, on the vest was pinned a note. It said, ‘Here hangs a horse thief.’”
    “You say the ghost came the first time in April,” I said. “How many times has it appeared?”
    “Every Monday night, at a few minutes after eleven.”
    “The same scene is repeated? The finger pointing?”
    “And the book,” Molly said. “No matter where Charlie hides it, it is always found open in the middle of the parlor floor.”
    “This is extraordinary,” I said.
    “I’m not sure that’s the word I would use.”
    “I mean it is of note,” I explained. “This is a haunting in which a physical object is compelled. I have heard of doors and windows opening by themselves, but never of objects being carried or somehow compelled to appear in a certain location. Has your husband removed the book from your home in an attempt to forestall these Monday visitations?”
    “I suggested as much,” Molly said. “But Charlie insists the book remain in the house, under his care.”
    “Then he is hiding something.”
    Molly recoiled as if wounded.
    “The thought must have crossed your mind,” I suggested.
    She shook her head.
    “Another woman?”
    “No, he would never.”
    “Perhaps he is in debt, or in ill health . . .”
    “Nothing like that. I would know.”
    “Has he done anything unusual or out of character in the last few weeks, apart from this business of the ghost and the book?”
    Molly thought for a moment.
    “He did buy an insurance policy,” she said.
    “With you as the beneficiary?”
    “Yes,” she said. “It was quite an expensive policy, worth five thousand dollars, and I told him we couldn’t afford it, but he was adamant that I be taken care of in case something happened to him. This was a few weeks ago.”
    “About the time the apparition first appeared?”
    “Yes,” she said. “He brought the policy home and pressed it into my hand in a rather strange way. I still have it, in my bag.”
    “May I see it?”
    The certificate was printed on good-quality paper with an elaborate fine-lined drawing of Athena with her shield, making it resemble a bond or a bank note. Scrolled across the top was WESTERN MUTUAL LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY OF LEAVENWORTH, and in the right hand corner it said, Policy No. 784 .
    I handed back the policy.
    “Where is he now?”
    “At the Saratoga,” she said. “He’s been drinking some since the ghost first appeared. It eases his nerves, he says.”
    That can’t be good for him, I thought.
    “Have you shared this with anyone?” I asked.
    “No,” she said. “I’ve been afraid to.”
    A silence passed between us. Then, she asked, “Will you help me?”
    “Yes, if you’re willing to know the truth,” I said. “You asked earlier if I talked to ghosts.”
    “That’s what I read in the newspaper,” she said. “The story of the murdered girl found on the Hundredth Meridian marker by the railroad tracks. You talked to that poor girl’s ghost, and you and Mister Calder tracked her killer clear to Texas.”
    “I appreciate the publicity our friends at the Dodge City Times have given us,” I said, “but the facts of what I have come to think of as the Case of Revenant No. 1, the Mystery of the Girl Betrayed, were somewhat different. There were certain details that were of necessity excluded from the newspaper account.”
    “Certain details?”
    “It is true that the murder was solved in approximately the fashion the newspaper reported,” I said. “There was, however, more to the climax of the