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Afraid

It was laughable

He was just the ghost of a man Pathetic Why was he here if he couldn’t even help, couldn’t stand against evil and injustice?

In dreams There was a place for him in her dreanant and sweet and surreal

If he couldn’t er for more than a few seconds, to leave the confines of the house, hoas it that he could pace--or seem to--endlessly and desperately?

Peace, rest in peace…

He couldn’t There was a reason for this pain of si to reued his spectral soul Soood did it do to feel this certainty that he should warn her, that the evil behind his death was still out there, when he was powerless to do anything about it? What had he ever done to deserve this wretched hell where he learned with ony on earth didn’t lie in the pain of living or the pain of death, but in the pain of separation that haunted the heart and soul?

It see always came back to this room The servants’ pantry where he had died

The dead room

So often he stood here, reliving those lastto pretend he was paying attention, looking over others’ heads and seeing her eyes It had been a great party, swiht people, with …

And then the very air had exploded…

But she had been all right Leslie had been all right…

He found hi down for the day The tourists were gone Jeff Green was there, doffing his wig, looking around, arette, inhaled deeply, still keeping an eye out Froarette suddenly flew froarette He stared around the rooarette He put it out at the sink, still looking around, and then he fled Matt could hear the front door slam behind him

And there she was The Colonial wo over the fire She smiled at him

He smiled back

"I was betrayed," she said

"I know, but…"

"They never knew They said I walked away That I left everything…but I didn’t He killed me Shot me in the back And they never knew They never knew" Her face contorted "How could they believe I would have left my child?" She looked hopelessly at hi here in the kitchen, cooking He eary of me, you see, in love with another My dowry made him rich, but he never really loved le shot And then he told everyone I had left him, run aith another man His mistress came to live here then, but she was not happy, either He had betrayed ht the consumption She died, but at least before she did she passed it to hi on his own blood But it was too late It didn’t change what he did to me, what he told everyone I did I saw it all, and yet…"

"Yet you remain here"

"Yes…because I don’t kno to clear my name"

"Where did he hide your body?"

"The basement Beneath the pantry The butler helped hiain she began to work over the hearth And then she began to fade, until she finally disappeared

Just like theprostitutes, this woo Woe Cruelty could not be halted by ti Leslie He knew it Had it been his own determination to write about the disappearances, to make the public aware, that had led to his death? And now Joe was searching for awoman, and he and Leslie were determined to find the truth behind the explosion Was that as putting her into danger, too?

So many sins could be hidden and buried

He found hi why Why he had died there

He found hi that led to the basement and the bones that lay bricked up down there

He felt the ie of his helplessness, and wondered if this was hell The powerlessness, the watching…the fear