The Empty Desk by Steve Lockley

than that.”
    Ned repeated this to Eli, who nodded and turned over the page to reveal another question.
    â€œHow long do you think she’s been dead?” he read again, then added the single word beneath it. “Clothes?”
    â€œOh, yes,” Melinda replied. “I didn’t get any real sense of how long she might have been dead, but her clothes looked a little dated. I would have said that they could easily have been ten or twenty years old. Maybe even older than that.”
    â€œTen or twenty years?” he repeated.
    â€œI could be wrong,” she said. “And there’s always the chance that they were hand-me-downs that had been passed down from an older sister. There was some kind of badge embroidered onto the shirt she was wearing, but I didn’t recognize it. I don’t think I saw anything else that might identify her.”
    By the time Eli held up another question, Ned was becoming tired of being just the middle man, relaying information between the two of them.
    â€œHold on, Melinda,” he said. “I’ll pass you over to Eli. I think he may have a few more questions for you.”
    He handed the cell phone over to the other man, who looked at it for a moment, pressed a button, then placed it down on the desk.
    â€œHi, Melinda. It’s Eli. We’re on speakerphone. Can you hear me okay?”
    â€œHi, Eli,” Melinda answered, her voice sounding a little tinny.
    â€œCan you describe the girl for me? What color was her hair? Anything you can think of could make the difference between being able to track her down and not.”
    â€œBlonde,” she said. “Her hair was blonde. I didn’t really get much of a chance to look at her full in the face, but I would have said she had blue or maybe green eyes. I can ask Aiden when I pick him up from his friend’s house. He might have noticed something else.”
    â€œThat would be great, thanks, but don’t worry if he can’t remember anything straightaway. He might think of something later.”
    â€œI’m going to try to go into the school again sometime tomorrow, but if you manage to find out who the girl might have been, give me a call.”
    â€œNo problem. I’ll call you this evening to give you an update if that’s okay, whether we’ve found anything out or not.”
    The offer of a telephone call was turned into an invitation for them both to drop by the next weekend if they were free.
    â€œIt would be good to catch up,” she said. “It seems like forever since I last saw you, Eli.”

Chapter Twenty
    Dana returned her call later that afternoon, and Melinda was relieved to hear that the children had enjoyed her talk. Dana told her that they had spent a fair amount of time talking about the different things they could make pictures with, that they didn’t just have to use pencils or paint. It sounded like they were going to be making a lot of their own art for the next few weeks at least. Melinda was already looking forward to hearing what Aiden’s own ideas were. She didn’t want to spoil the surprise by asking Dana too much about it.
    â€œSorry I got caught up with that ruckus outside the class,” Dana said. “Boys will be boys, and sometimes it takes a woman to put them in their place. I hope you didn’t hang around too long?”
    â€œDon’t worry. I could see that you were busy and guessed that it might not be a simple thing to sort out, so I slipped away. I hope you didn’t mind.”
    â€œOf course I didn’t. I’m just glad that you didn’t waste too much of your time hanging around waiting for me.”
    â€œNot at all,” Melinda said.
    They were skirting around the reason they both wanted to speak to each other. The talk to the children might have been important and the disturbance afterward a distraction, but it was the ghost who sat at the apparently empty desk that had led