Thunder rumbled overhead, and the lights 130flickered around us before plunging out. Luckily it was still the middle of the day, so it didn’t go completely black, but the sky outside was so choked with clouds that the room became crowded with shadows.

“It’s lunchtime,” I said. “Dad told me to come and fetch you. We need to go back downstairs.”

“But it can’t be lunchtime,” Rosie replied. “I’ve only been here a few minutes. Here, take a look at this.” She held her camera out to me, and I saw a photo of the Strangers’ Room displayed on the screen.

I took it from her impatiently. “What am I looking at?”

“Can’t you see it?” Rosie whispered.

I glanced at her and was surprised that she looked oddly tense.

“I think there’s a person.” She leaned over me to point at the screen. “Right there. By the window.”

I squinted back down at the photo. She must have taken it before she turned the lights on because the room was full of shadows, much as it was now. They created odd shapes on the walls and across the tiled floor. When I looked at the part of the room Rosie had pointed out, it seemed empty, so I shrugged and 131said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“There.” Rosie jabbed at the screen again. “Right there. That’s a shoulder. And that’s the side of a head and part of a face. There’s someone there, looking out of the window. But the room was empty when I took the picture.”

I looked again, and now that she’d indicated the exact spot, the shadow seemed to morph before my eyes so that it did almost look like there might be a figure standing there, with its back to the camera…

I shook my head and returned her phone. “It’s just a trick of the light,” I said. “Plus it’s barely noticeable. I don’t think that photo is going to be the one to win you any ghost-hunting prizes. Perhaps you should keep looking for a lighthouse keeper’s costume for Dad after all.”

Rosie shrugged and a determined gleam suddenly came into her eye. “If I ever manage to photograph a ghost, I’d bet anything that it would be in this room. Hey, what do you think about having a sleepover up here? We could sneak up after everyone’s gone to bed. Set the cameras running, see if they manage to capture anything—”

“Absolutely not.” 132

She tried to argue with me, but I hustled her down the stairs so that we could have lunch.