“Nothing much to see here, detective. Very clear case of suicide if you ask me.” 

The man speaking was a well-to-do sort. His suit was clean and freshly pressed despite the late hour and his face was split by a charismatic smile despite the circumstances. The room we occupied had, after all, been the site of a death not one day ago and as he was the owner of the hotel I didn’t see what he had to smile about. 

“That remains to be seen, Mister Ambulan. If you please, would you share what happened here?” 

The man’s smile flickered only slightly as I rejected his assurances but he carried on valiantly in his self-assigned duty. “I’d be happy to, detective, but is that necessary? I’ve already given my statement to the police.” 

“Even so, Mister Ambulan. I find I rather trust the words from a man’s mouth over the text found on a page.” 

“Very well, let me see what I remember.” He said, pacing about for a moment. “Horace arrived some time in the afternoon, smelling of drink and with bloodshot eyes.” 

“You saw this yourself, Mister Ambulan?”

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“Well, no not in person.” He hesitated, “I heard this portion from Mirsha at the front desk.” 

“Please stick only to the parts you saw yourself, sir.” 

“As you  wish. Well in that case I returned to the hotel last evening-”

“At what time, sir?” 

“Oh around nine pm or so, I’m afraid I didn’t look at the clock when I arrived given the circumstances. Mirsha was in a state after room service found the man and told her about it. I calmed her down with some words and told her to call the police. While she did so I went to the room to ensure everything was as she said it was and upon witnessing the body I decided to check his pulse and give him a once over. He was dead, of course. Stiff as a door nail. After that I couldn’t do much but wait for the police. Once the officers arrived I cooperated with them, gave them my statement, and that was the end of my involvement.”

After that I asked him some questions and clarified a few points. Through it all Mister Ambulan was calm and collected, favouring me with an understanding smile as he answered my questions to the best of his ability. At the end of it I could find no persistent errors in his verbal statement and no places where it differed from his written one. 

“So you see detective, it is as I said earlier. It is a shame what the man did to himself but I rather believe that what happened is clear.”

The man had a certain charm about him that would have caused even me to begin believing him if it wasn’t for one thing. The entire time he spoke, the ghost of Horace Whittaker loomed large behind him, screaming inaudibly at the man and doing its level best to tear the man to shreds by throwing its incorporeal fists through his head.

“I find that I must agree with your statement Mister Ambulan, what happened here is very clear indeed. I apologize for taking up so much of your time.”

Indeed, it was clear that whether Horace had truly taken his own life or not, Ambulan was connected to his ultimate fate in some way. The only thing left to do was to find out the extent of Ambulan’s involvement.

This is the case of Mister Horace Whittaker.