Death Holds a Seance

The Detective Ladies help the Brentons, an elderly couple, involved in predictions at a séance given by Madame Zarkofski: a ‘valuable item’ the couple expected to find in a village The Detective Ladies help an elderly couple involved in predictions at a séance given by Madame Zarkofski: a ‘valuable item’ the couple expected to find in a village cemetery wall is not there. The Ladies decide the medium is a fraud and there was no ‘valuable item’, or one of the others at the séance got there before them. They visit the cemetery and find an empty hole in the wall and discover a male rider was seen looking there on the day before the Brentons. When quizzing the vicar they learn years ago a ruby stolen from an Indian Hindu statue was brought to the village but disappeared. While the Ladies attend another séance, they meet all the suspects. One of them, Knowles, is told he is going to die in four days. When visiting him, and accessing he is innocent of any theft, they convince him Zarkofski is a fraud and he agrees to help expose her. However, he dies at the appointed time. The Ladies believe he has been poisoned and she is arrested. They then discover an altruistic young woman from the first séance meeting, disguised as a man, took the ruby from the wall and is one her way to India to return it to the statue. Realising Madame Zarkofski is in fact innocent, the Ladies get her released – followed by having their fortunes read.