The Other Side - J. D. Robb [62]
The Dancing Ghost
PATRICIA GAFFNEY
For Bonnie Gaffney
From the Hartford Courant, June 10, 1895: “Ghost Expert” Says Old House Is “Haunted”
A self-described “spirit investigator” has determined that a long-abandoned house on Portman Street is haunted by ghosts.
“After rigorous testing, using the most modern scientific instruments available, I find the evidence overwhelming,” declared Henry Cleland, president of the World Society for Harmonial Inspi-Rationality. “In all my vast experience with the supernatural, never have I encountered a private residence more patently associated with elements from the spirit world.”
Rumors have swirled around the decrepit mansion in West Hartford for decades. Skeptics laugh, but neighbors and passersby regularly report mysterious sights and sounds emanating from the house, including weeping, knocking, rapping, and the passing of disembodied shapes in the windows.
Last year, the Hartford Society for Enlightened Spiritualism decided to investigate the odd goings-on. According to Mrs. Horace T. Beckingham, the society’s chairwoman, their investigations were inconclusive, and “as a result, we decided to engage an expert.”
Enter Mr. Cleland, lately of Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New Haven, and author of the monograph “Examinations of the Metanormal with Scientific Proofs of the Odic Force.”
“I spent several nights in the house,” said Cleland, “performing experiments and gathering data.”
“He had a lot of equipment, machines and gauges and devices, for detecting things out of the ordinary,” Mrs. Beckingham confirmed. “In the end, it was the photographs that convinced us.”
Cleland would not supply photographs to this newspaper. “They’re proprietary,” he explained. “Plus, I may write a book.”
He and Mrs. Beckingham both claimed the photographs showed “numinous images” and “orbs of pure psychic energy.”
For now, the society has no plans to continue the ghostly experiments, citing financial considerations. “We’re a small organization with limited resources,” Mrs. Beckingham explained. “Ghost experts don’t come cheap.”
Not everyone is convinced the Portman Street house is haunted.
“Ridiculous,” said Arthur M. Mordecai, vice president of Hartford Mercantile Bank & Trust, holder of the house’s mortgage. “Absurd. No such thing as ghosts.” Hartford Mercantile has been trying to sell the mansion for many years. Will its new designation as a “haunted house” lessen its chances of sale even further?
“Of course not,” scoffed Mordecai. “Unless everybody’s gone completely insane.”
14 Lexington Street Paulton, Massachusetts
June 14, 1895
Mr. Henry Cleland
Post Office Box l27-B
Boston, Massachusetts
My dear Mr. Cleland,
Mrs. Horace T. Beckingham was kind enough to send me your new address. I had written to her after reading in the Courant of your extraordinary work in the matter of the haunted house in Hartford, Conn.
I am sure a gentleman of your exceptional background and talents is extremely busy, beset no doubt by appeals from a public eager for your unique skills and advice. Even so, I hope you will entertain one more humble request, and consider a commission not unlike the one you performed for the Hartford Society for Enlightened Spiritualism.
Many of us here in Paulton believe Willow House, my late grandparents’ home, is inhabited by spirits from the beyond. A number of witnesses, yours truly among them, have observed many extremely convincing manifestations that cannot be explained otherwise. I have a personal interest in getting to the bottom of this mystery, and I believe you, Mr. Cleland, are the perfect, indeed the only, person who can help me.
I have taken the liberty of making a discreet inquiry of Mrs. Beckingham, who suggested (with similar discretion) that your time and services might be secured for a certain remunerative consideration. Please see the attached,