5 Detective Novels Magazine Cover — page 113: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE GHOST BREAKERS 113 the fact to you,” he said. “You’re suggesting that I repeat my stay at the house and see if somebody falls down the stairs again? Um—and if the same guy falls down again, I could sit on his chest and yell for help instead of leaving him. If he vanishes out from under me, he’s a ghost. That the idea?” “It sounds absurd when you put it that way, I’ll admit.” “And if I became convinced, through another experience, that it was a ghost, you’d take my word for it?” “T would. I took the trouble to investi- gate you, Mr. Rice, before I phoned your office. I’m convinced that you are honest and sincere. I hope you’ll forgive me for investigating you.” | I laughed. “Detectives are so used to investigating other people that it would- n't occur to one to feel hurt because someone investigated him. Fewer con men would make fortunes if investiga- tions were more common.” “Exactly.” said Waldo. “I—uh—must admit that I have been victimized myself in the past. Several mystics from whom I have taken advice turned out not to be disinterested. By the way, is the society going to use you in further investiga- tions of Irene Steiner?” “Who is Irene Steiner?” “A most remarkable medium and a— uh—extremely attractive one. Norman Pollock found her. Incidentally, some- thing she told me makes me particularly interested in what happened last night.” “Something she told you? What?” “Several days ago she told me that an experience someone else was going to nats would have a profound effect on my ife.” I didn’t get it. I just looked at him. “Don’t you see? Frankly, I have been wavering in my belief in the super- natural. It is difficult fully to credit phenomena in seances. But an unusual experience like yours— It would weigh a lot with me to be convinced beyond doubt that you really saw an appari- tion.” Sucker, I thought. No wonder Waldo had been victimized if he was as gullible as all that. A vague statement—“an experience someone else is going to have soon will have a-profound effect on your life.” Anything could be made to fit a vague prediction like that. I went downtown, phoned the hospi- tals and morgue again—without luck— and then went to Norman Pollock’s place to keep my appointment. Pollock, it turned out, merely wanted a full account of what I had done after I left his house the night before, and most of what I told him was just a repetition of my talk with Waldo. I didn’t leave Pollock until eleven. I let him think I was going home. I thought that the fewer people who knew I was going back to the house on Greene Street, the better. I got there, and there was the house with its scabrous front of peeling gray paint, further mottled by the tree’s shadow. A dead house and a dead tree. I hesitated with one foot on the first step of the porch steps when I remem- bered that I hadn’t brought a flashlight with me. [Noe ING was going to happen here tonight, I told myself, so why go in at all? Why not go home and catch up on sleep? At any rate, I told myself, I wouldn’t accomplish anything here tonight. I wouldn’t be able to search the place and I would be at a disadvantage if anything did happen. But what could happen, un- less another manifestation of the super- natural? “Another?” I asked myself. “What do you mean, you dope, by another?” In spite of calling myself names, I was a bit afraid to go in. _That’s why I went. It doesn’t do to give way to yourself in something like that. If you give in once, you’re sunk. The door wasn’t locked. I didn’t need the key, which was still in my pocket. I tiptoed down the hall toward the stairs. Don’t ask me why I tiptoed. It was not because I thought anyone was there. If anyone had been there, they would have heard me, anyway. ° I got to the foot of the stairs, and a voice said: “Hello, George.” “Jan!” I exclaimed. “What the devil are you doing here?” He laughed in the darkness. “T had a hunch you’d show up here.” “Jan,” I said, “I didn’t know I was connicloooks (CO) mM