Spooked! (Part 3)

Speaking in a cold monotone, Orpet, 21, admitted terrible things. He was a seducer, romancing and discarding a high school girl. He was a liar, denying the facts until they were thrown in his face. And he was a coward, abandoning his one-time sweetheart's body in a wintry forest rather than seek help.

Yet he remained steadfast that he was not a murderer. Marion killed herself when he told her they were through, he said. He had not given her the poison.

And in the end?

Ghost stories tempt us into thinking that buried questions can be answered, that long-ago tragedies can somehow be put right. Look deeper, though, and our assurance vanishes in a wisp of fog. Nothing remains but the mystery, haunting us like a shadowy girl in the middle of the road.