“Think carefully now, and tell me what happened next.”

“I got all the way down. Reckon they’s about twenty-five steps, something like that. Got to the door and tried to open it, but it was dark down there and I couldn’t see much. Light’s back up near the top. Kept twisting the knob and pushing, but couldn’t get the door to move, not one bit.” She shuddered. “I don’t like being shut up like that in the dark. I’s about to go back up when I heard the door up there open.”

I didn’t prompt her when she stopped. I could tell she was reliving the experience.

After a moment she continued. “Saw somebody step inside. Had to be her, because the skirt was so wide. That was about all I could see. Then she said something like ‘Why you wanna go in here?’ I didn’t hear nothing right after that, then she said, ‘Well, if this is the best way to catch them at it, okay.’ She took a couple steps down, and then…” She stopped and shuddered again.

I waited and nodded encouragingly when she looked at me. She took a deep breath to steady herself. I could sympathize with her, because I was seeing that scene play out in my mind, and I knew what was coming next.

“She came down a couple steps, I guess, then all of a sudden, I heard her grunt real loud, and she came flying down the stairs. Groaned when she landed, and then she was quiet.” She rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “Reckon I could use some water, Mr. Charlie.”

“Right away.” I jumped up to get it for her.

When I brought it to her, she had her eyes closed. I touched her gently on the shoulder as I set the glass in front of her. She nodded, then took the glass and drained two-thirds of it. “Thank you.”

“Do you feel like telling me the rest of it now?” I asked gently.

She drew another deep breath. “I couldn’t move, I was so scared. Then I figured I’d better get to her to see if they was something I could do. But when I touched her I knew the spirit had done left her. They wasn’t a thing I could do for her. After that all I wanted was to get out of there. Couldn’t go up. Her and her skirt blocked the stairs, so I started banging on the door till somebody heard me and let me out. Thank the Lord you come along when you did.” She drank the rest of her water.

“What do you think happened? Do you think she tripped, maybe caught her foot on her skirt and fell?”

“No.” I barely heard her.

“So somebody pushed her?”

Azalea nodded, eyes averted.

“Could you tell who was on the stairs behind her?”

After a nearly imperceptible pause, she whispered, “No.”

Had it not been for that slight hesitation—so slight I might easily have imagined it—I would have believed her. As it was, I was convinced she wasn’t telling me the truth.