Constable & Toop by Gareth P. Jones

the dog came out with the bedpost between her teeth.
    â€˜Good girl,’ said Tanner, playfully trying to get the bedpost off her. ‘Good girl.’
    They stepped through the wall into a large school hall where they were instantly accosted by the ghost of a woman wearing a green dress and a blood-soaked apron, her red hair tied up on top of her head.
    â€˜Och, at last, you’ve come,’ she exclaimed. ‘I was beginning to think I’d been forgotten about. I suppose General Colt sent you.’
    â€˜Yes,’ said Lapsewood. They were standing in amongst rows of wooden desks. It took Lapsewood back to his own school days. Tanner was happily patting Lil’ Mags. ‘Are you Doris McNally?’
    â€˜I was the last time I checked, aye. Try telling this school that, though. It thinks I’m its ghost.’
    Lapsewood looked down at the list. ‘It says it should be Janey Brown.’
    â€˜You don’t need to tell me that,’ said Doris, holding up her copy of the London Tenancy List. ‘I’ve been visiting Janey for years. Poor girl was locked in the cellar as punishment for talking. Only the schoolmaster forgot about her, didn’t he? She died of starvation, her poor frail body discovered by a teacher a week later. Sad story, but a lovely girl. Not one of the moaners. The ones who die in their own homes are always worse. It’s always the wallpaper with that lot.’
    â€˜What happened to Janey?’ asked Lapsewood.
    â€˜I wish I knew. When I got here, Janey was’ne here.’
    â€˜But we checked. The school is not infected,’ said Lapsewood.
    â€˜I guess the Black Rot must go when the building gets a new Resident,’ replied Tanner.
    â€˜Infected? Black Rot?’ exclaimed Doris. ‘What are you two blathering about?’
    â€˜It’s happening all over London,’ said Lapsewood. ‘Residents are going missing.’
    â€˜I think I’d have heard about something like that,’ replied Doris. ‘I’ve been working as an Outreach Worker since you were still breathing air into your lungs.’
    â€˜Of course,’ said Lapsewood to Tanner. ‘She wouldn’t have learnt about it until she stepped into an infected house.’
    â€˜By which time it would have been too late,’ agreed Tanner.
    â€˜I’ve no idea what you’re on about, but since you’re here this place can have one of you as its new Resident.’
    Doris turned to Ether Dust and flew at the outside wall but, rather than flying straight through it, she rematerialised as she smacked into it and fell to the ground with a thud. Tanner laughed. Lapsewood walked over to give her a hand up.
    â€˜I’m sorry,’ he said.
    â€˜I can’ne be stuck in this place for the rest of eternity. I did’ne die here. There are rules about these things.’ Doris leaned against the outside wall. ‘I’m a prisoner,’ she said with a sigh. ‘I’m a prisoner, stuck in here with these wee bairns repeating sums for all eternity.’
    â€˜I’ll go back to the Bureau and submit my findings,’ said Lapsewood. ‘I’m sure General Colt will find a way to get you out. He did send me to find you after all.’
    â€˜There’s nothing to be done. Of all people I should know that.’
    â€˜Of course there is. They can probably get Extraction documents or something. You do work for the Bureau.’
    She shook her head sadly. ‘I’ve done this job long enough to know that all you can do for a Resident is support them, because the house will never let them go. You make out like you’re helping. You listen to their complaints, but there’s nothing you can actually do.’
    Lapsewood patted her back awkwardly and said, ‘I will do something about this. I promise.’
    â€˜Thank you,’ said Doris. ‘But I don’t think there’s anything to be done.