Page 62 of The Legend of Lovers Hollow

Skid scowls. “Stan, what do you mean by potentially homicidal?”

“It was a little ambiguous, the method of their demise. Nobody seems to really know exactly what happened that night,” he explains. “What we do know is that all three of them died in terrible circumstances. It was very volatile and emotions were high. It’s the perfect breeding ground for malevolent spirits.Dangerouslymalevolent spirits.”

“But you don’t know for certain,” Rear Admiral Hilary says. “These chaps could be perfectly delightful, and it has been quite some time since we had any fresh blood around here.”

“Hey!” Professor Plume glowers at him. “What am I, chopped liver?”

“Oh, yes, of course,” he mutters. “Forgot about you.”

“Bloody charming,” Professor Plume sulks.

“I’m afraid I don’t really understand any of this,” Edwina says. “There have been dozens of séances, and even those horrid Ouija board things, here over the years. Why now? Why did it wake them up? And how? And why were they asleep? Why didn’t they cross over to the other side?”

“Excellent questions, Eddy!” I congratulate her and turn to Stanley, raising my brows to indicate for him to fill in the blanks.

He frowns. “They weren’t asleep, exactly, they were just, um… dormant, I suppose the word is. I don’t know, that’s not my department. I believe it was the Council of Incorporeal Spirits and Disembodied Souls, one of the original governing bodies of the afterlife that were absorbed by the Bureau back in the nineteen-twenties, that decided it would be safer to not allow the Lovers Hollow trio to roam free.”

Leona makes several quick gestures.

“Not allow?” Edwina translates.

“There was some speculation as to whether they posed a threat to the living and, if so, how much of a threat. An evaluation was carried out and then an evaluation of that evaluation and then a committee was assembled.”

Hilary sniffs. “Bloody bureaucrats.”

“Anyway, it was determined the risk factor could not be determined with any accuracy.”

“After two evaluations and a committee?” I say dryly.

Stanley nods.

“Bloody bureaucrats,” I echo the admiral’s sentiment.

“Okay, so hang on a minute, darling,” Roger interrupts.

Stanley flushes. “Don’t call me darling.”

“Big boy.” Roger winks.

“Oh god,” Stanley mutters.

“Wait a minute.” Professor Plume’s eyes narrow and he waves a finger between them. “The two of you–”

“What can I say?” Roger preens. “He’s got amazing stamina. Didn’t even drop his clipboard.”

Stanley instantly turns bright red, right to the tips of his ears, and clutches said clipboard closer as if using it as a shield.

“Anyway.” Roger waves his hand. “If I’m understanding this correctly, the Council or Bureau or whoever decided that they weren’t sure if Lady Clare, her husband, and her lover were in fact dangerous, so to be on the safe side, they locked them up?”

“We didn’t exactly lock them up, just kind of… knocked them out for a bit,” Stanley says defensively.

“Knocked them out for a bit?” I blink slowly.

“Well, to be honest, the Council was going through a bit of an upheaval and a change of management. They may have been a tad overzealous.” Stanley winces.

“A tad overzealous?” Roger’s voice rises. “You guys locked them up for–”

“Knocked them out,” he corrects.