“As I was telling you, I could feel what the woman felt, see through her eyes, but nothing more. I can’t identify her, I haven’t held any items belonging to her, or at least any that I know of. But as she went tumbling down the stairs, she called out the name Theodore. That’s an old name, not that common now. I feel as though there is something I’m missing, like this woman, whoever she is, wants me to know . . . that’s just it, I don’t know what it is she wants me to know. When you went inside a few minutes ago, the words the attic came to me. I think this woman wants me to look in those trunks. Sounds crazy, but it is what it is. Tell me, Mr. Detective, does this make any sense at all?”

“It’s not too far off from the messages you get during a séance. Maybe you should have the girls over tonight, hold a séance, see if this woman, whoever she is, will try to make contact with you. It’s worked in the past, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t work now.”

Sophie pondered the idea. In the past, séances had always been held at Toots’s place. Since she and Goebel had moved into the house, she’d kept one small room, located at the top of the stairs and around the corner, for that express purpose. Nothing had been touched. The walls were still covered in wallpaper, a faded pattern that neither she nor Toots had been able to identify. It didn’t matter to her, but there was something about that particular room that said leave it alone. In her mind, it had already become her séance room, though she had yet to hold a single séance there. She and Goebel had had several psychic investigating jobs, but they all took place in other people’s old homes and buildings. Old haunting grounds, she liked to think of them.