Rooming with a Ghost

I rented a dirt-cheap apartment in New York and found the previous owner, Katrice, still there - a ghost roommate who billed me for everything.

Dinner was twenty-five dollars, dishes cost five, and leaving the light on was extra. Yet when I lost my job, she cooked for free. Before my interview, she washed my only good shirt and left one word: Steady.

We became family through bills and sarcastic notes, until a hidden journal revealed that her former partner, Feldman, had stolen client funds, murdered Katrice, and staged her death as a carbon-monoxide accident.

Feldman returned to kill me the same way. Katrice used the apartment to trap her and spent the last of her strength saving me. Recordings and forensic evidence reopened the case and finally cleared her name.

I thought Katrice was gone forever. Then the familiar lamp lit itself, hot milk appeared, and another bill said payment was due at month-end. She had come home - and our sweetest ledger would never balance.