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Fingerprinting A Ghost by Tony Fletcher

© Janet Kay Blaylock

This story, "Fingerprinting a Ghost" by Tony Fletcher is found in the collection titled "Detective Stories" by Philip Pullman.

I really enjoyed this. When I first read the title, I wondered how anyone could fingerprint a ghost. I was interested in the story because of the title, and then in the paragraph about the story before you read it, I saw that the detectives use the "crime-of scene techniques." In previous articles, I discussed the different duties of detectives, uniform police officers, and crime-scene officers.

In this story, Tony Fletcher is the narrator. It is written in first person. Tony Fletcher is a fingerprint expert. He was asked to fingerprint a ghost, but he refused to do the job. He didn't believe in ghosts, and he thought it would make him look foolish.

David Cohen is another character in the story. He is the Secretary of the Manchester branch of the Psychical Research Society.

Sergeant Rowland Mason is also a fingerprint expert.

One day, a woman came to see Sergeant Mason. She told him what was happening in her house. Her son and daughter also lived with her. The woman's husband passed away. The woman told the sergeant that she kept hearing noises. She heard someone playing a violin. She finally asked her son if he had been up in the night playing his violin. He told her that he hadn't been up. He said that it was Nicholas. His mother didn't know who Nicholas was. He told his mother that Nicholas was an old man who played for him.

Sergeant Mason and David Cohen were going to try to fingerprint the hands that the woman said kept appearing at the seance. They were going to use scenes-of-crime technique. Sergeant Mason prepared the scene by dusting the tambourine that kept dancing around the room. During the event, the duster was flung in his face. After the lights were turned on, Mason dusted the tambourine for fingerprints. However, he couldn't find any. The tambourine was clean. He finally decided to take the fingerprints using a chemically charged pad. After that, they decided to have John Cheetham, a photographer take pictures of the ghost. The photographer used infrared lights. They were able to get a picture of the chair, but all that was seen was a crease in the seat of the chair.

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