The Thirteenth Room (Kempston Hardwick Mysteries Book 4) by Croft Adam

Author:Croft, Adam [Croft, Adam]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Circlehouse
Published: 2015-02-15T16:00:00+00:00

31

Having looked up a contact for the South Heath Local History Society, Ellis had called and arranged to meet a man called Graham Simpson, who told him he knew quite a lot about the hauntings at the Manor Hotel and could meet him late that afternoon at the Freemason’s Arms in Tollinghill. That would give him plenty of time to get back down to South Heath in time for the paranormal investigation.

Ellis ordered a pint of his favourite beer, Pheasant Plucker, and sat down at a small table near the front window. Fortunately for him, Graham Simpson’s photo was on the South Heath Local History Society website, so he hoped he would recognise him when he arrived.

Just a few minutes later, Graham Simpson did arrive and Ellis did recognise him. The man’s bushy white moustache curled upwards as he smiled and shook Ellis’s hand. Once Ellis had bought him a drink, he sat down and launched straight into what he knew about the odd goings-on at the Manor Hotel.

‘It really is quite a spooky story,’ Graham said. ‘In fact, ITV featured it on one of their paranormal programmes nearly twenty years ago. They even had interviews with the people who’d seen and heard things, which always lends a little more credibility to the reports. Usually it’s just a case of a bloke in a pub telling someone that they heard something from someone else. That’s how these things get blown out of proportion. But with the Manor Hotel, we have the benefit of knowing exactly who saw what and when.’

Ellis leaned in a little closer, sensing that Graham Simpson’s intellect and local knowledge could be very handy indeed.

‘Now, the Manor Hotel — or South Heath Manor as it was called before it was a hotel — was built in the early 1800s as a private house for a chap called John Moreton. After he died, it passed down through the family until it was sold in the 1990s, when it became a hotel.’

‘It’d stayed in the family all that time?’ Ellis asked.

‘Absolutely. Big houses like that nowadays are far too expensive to keep running. That’s why so many become hotels or end up going to English Heritage. Now, the story behind the hauntings is linked to the early 1900s. What do you know so far?’

‘Something about an elderly housekeeper who was accused of poisoning a child. Is that right?’ Ellis asked, feeling proud of himself as Graham nodded.

‘Yep, that’s about it. The woman was called Mrs Fletcher. There’s a record of her on one of the censuses, and then on the next one she’s just not there. Her death certificate shows that she didn’t die for a little while, so the presumption is that she was sacked. Now, this is where the story ties in. As you say, the rumour was that she had been trying to poison one of the children in the household and was sacked for it. In between the census that shows Mrs Fletcher living at

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