I don't think I was ever so glad to be home as I was that night. Almost as happy as Chase seemed to be that we were back. The agents left promising me that they'd call the next day to let me know if anything showed up on the cameras.

As I shut the door, I knew that they'd also be asking me if the experience had soured me on being their consultant. If I was smart, I'd tell them thanks for the opportunity, but it was just too dangerous, and I'd had enough.

But I'm not that smart. Instead I decided to draw up a better will, and demand that they give me enough time to arrange for child and pet care if they ever wanted me to work with them again. I told them as much when they called the next day, and they agreed to me conditions quite readily.

They were on speakerphone, so I could hear both agents in their office. I idly wondered if it had a nice view. " There was something on the tape..." Mulder was saying.

" And?" I asked.

" And I think that we'll have a hard time proving that it's not a clever fake. Things are pretty hard to see because of the rain."

" Oh." That was disappointing. I'd seen a History Channel special on how hard it is to verify now that computer technology has made spectacularly realistic 'ghosts' a possibility, so I should have thought of that.

" But we have some very adept experts going over it to help verify their authenticity." Mulder told me. " So it wasn't a waste of time, if that's what you were thinking." He added when I'd be quiet for a while.

" No..." I said slowly. " I was thinking about the house. There's something I just don't understand."

" What's that?" Scully asked sounding interested. I bet Mulder had no lingering questions that he hadn't been able to rationalize.

" Well...the girl's diary said that the ghosts returned every ten years to attack the house. Who cleaned it up afterwards?"

" I assume the girl's family did." Scully said, sounding faintly puzzled by the question, as if the answer was completely obvious.

I shook my head, then remembered that I was on the phone. " That only would be true while the family was living there... which we know they hadn't been for seventy years. And we know the ghosts must have visited while the house was empty, since they went through the third floor last night, and she said they'd still had a room left on the second when they left...so who cleaned up the house? And who locked those doors on the first floor?"

" I don't know." Agent Mulder admitted.

I didn't know either. I wondered suddenly if I were to return to the house in a week, a month, or a year, and find it set to right again by parties unknown. The thought made me shudder.

The End

Keep your eyes peal for " The Case of The Jolly Fat Men" set two years later when two new agents show up to pester Shannon and Markie )