Haunt Dead Wrong by Curtis Jobling Read Free Book Online Page B

the Major kicked it? Have to say, though, this is like searching for a
needle in a haystack.’
    ‘Chip’s a nickname for Charles, right?’ said Dougie.
    ‘Right, but there’s no point in looking for him. He’s not the focal point of my search. There’ll be nothing connecting him to any local woman. All I have to go on is
Ruby, and there were forty of them alive in the town around that time.’
    ‘She’d have been somewhere between fifteen and thirty-two years of age I reckon,’ said Dougie. ‘The Major said she was younger than him.’
    ‘That brings the number down to twelve lovely ladies.’
    ‘How many were married?’ asked Stu. ‘I mean, during the war years.’
    ‘Before or during? There’s quite a difference.’
    ‘I dunno. Look for both.’
    The fingers tapped away, Andy squinting through his glasses as he inspected the monitor.
    ‘You think the Major’s still here because of this Ruby lass then?’ said Stu.
    ‘Possibly,’ said Dougie. ‘The pattern seems to be great love or great trauma keeps ghosts here.’
    ‘Or both together,’ I added, but he didn’t respond.
    ‘Alright,’ said Andy. ‘Six were married before the war had begun and three more of them married during the war years.’
    ‘What years were they married?’ asked Dougie, thinking hard now, his brow knotted.
    ‘Two in 1940 and one in ’42. Is that important?’
    ‘Yes. We can rule those three out also. The Major told Will that he was born in 1910 and died when he was thirty-three years old. So the Ruby he was in love with must have been single in
1943, by my reckoning.’
    ‘Good work, Sherlock,’ I said, hopeful for a reaction, but got zilch back. Dougie continued talking.
    ‘So, we have three left. What happened to them?’
    Andy shrugged. ‘Two of them married after the war, the other remained a spinster until her death in 2001.’
    ‘So,’ said Stu, spinning the DVD rack, ‘our mystery lady’s one of those three?’
    ‘Can we rule out the one who passed away?’ asked Andy.
    ‘Why?’ asked the vicar’s son.
    ‘Well, if it
is
love that’s keeping the Major here, then doesn’t it make sense, with that Ruby having died, that he’d have joined her? Crossed over to the other
side when she did?’
    ‘We can’t rule her out,’ said Dougie. ‘If it
was
her, and we can’t be sure, then it doesn’t necessarily hold true that with her passing the Major could
move on. I don’t think ghosting’s as simple as that. He could be here until the next millennium, patrolling those hospital corridors.’
    ‘She sounds dodgy to me,’ said Stu, as I manoeuvred closer to Andy, beside Dougie. My old mate glowered at me briefly, disapproving of my proximity, but I ignored him.
    ‘Dodgy?’ asked Andy, leaving the three remaining ladies highlighted on the screen. ‘Why’s that?’
    ‘Imagine, not telling someone your name? What was she hiding?’
    ‘She may have been hiding nothing,’ said Dougie. ‘Just being flirtatious. Mysterious.’
    ‘Perhaps she came from an important family,’ said Andy. ‘Could’ve been controversial if folk knew she was seeing a GI. After all, not everyone welcomed the
Yanks.’
    I was half listening to them as they discussed the various possibilities, but my attention was focused on the computer monitor, specifically the women’s names.
    Stu smiled smugly and shook his head. ‘You two muppets aren’t seeing the big picture. What if she was
married
? Have you not thought about that? Her bloke could’ve been
overseas, fighting. Or he could’ve been the local butcher, who knows? What I’m saying is that the fact she never told him her surname casts a massive question mark over who it might be.
We could be back to looking at twelve again.’
    ‘Call off the search,’ I said. ‘I think I’ve found her.’
    ‘You what?’ said Dougie, his first words to me for three days. ‘What makes you think it’s her and not any of the others?’
    I pointed a shimmering blue