Isidora held her forehead with her right hand and stared into the candle flames on the large candlestick in the center of the table.
"Believe me, I'm doing my best, but you can't do it yourself. He's not here anymore. He's gone. I think forever. It always happens like this. Many a stray or lost soul comes just for a little while, tells their story, and disappears away forever. I'll never be able to contact them again. It's useless. But someone else may appear and they will tell us their story. But he will confuse you unnecessarily and lead you down another path."
The young recorder stood up and opened the curtains.
Outside the night was already dark."I have to open the window at least for a little while, or I'm going to choke on this cigarette and candle smoke." The detective retorted annoyedly, gesturing for him to do so.
Isidora turned to the recorder.
"I hope you were able to note and write down everything I talked to him about."
"Of course you do, ma'am, perhaps you doubt my abilities? After all, I have police school..."
Isidora leaned back in her chair and grabbed her forehead again.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean that in a bad way. I'm just wondering if there's any logical conclusion to be drawn from our conversation."
At that, the detective straightened up in his chair and stretched his arms above his head, a sign of total fatigue.
"My dears, we have been here for over ten hours. I am not yet able to give a definite comment on the whole thing and bring it to a close. I must first read all the notes and then put the facts together. Let us see if we can do something about it, because we still have a few things that are unexplained. Without them, we will not get very far. For example, the ghost we contacted mentions his town in his narrative. Well... it's just... what? He mentions an elementary school... what school, exactly, in what town? I have inaccurate information. And then... the cave or rock cavern mentioned, in what woods is it located? All we know is that it's in the eastern region of Slovakia. But that's a very wide search area. We can't get away with that. They won't approve it. We have to have accurate data and only then can we make a plan, prepare a course of action. I have noticed one more strange thing. There was music in the alleged cave, supposedly Internationale. How so?! Only so that there would be some old gramophone or tape recorder that was used in those times. And somebody would have to turn it on to play. Maybe that's what happened. But who? The striga? Or some person who lived through it? I don't think so. It's strange. I suppose it would explain the disappearances of missing children and other people, because to this day we still haven't got a single trace of many of them. You know, I'm a detective and I still have my doubts first and then the facts start to show real results. Well, the alleged socialist-era file was taken with him by those agents and policemen who had his back in the search operation. But, of course, they did not survive this striga attack. So, in all likelihood, we'll never find that file again. Maybe it's long since been soaked in the woods, destroyed... since it was papers. Oh, and that little girl Helen, let's try to go through some of the archives of the elementary school students in those years. Maybe something will lead us to a clue."
Isidora stood up and began to put various small items in her purse that she usually used when contacting departed souls.
"I'm very tired today. I helped as much as I could. I can't do any more. I would like to do it if I could. Believe me, I am not able to do more. I've been helping the police like this for years and I know where the limits are. It's really only possible to make contact with the person once. You can't do it more than once."
The young recorder filed all the papers in a plastic wrapper. The detective politely ended the lengthy session.
"So, folks, thank you for your cooperation. Every effort is appreciated, but sometimes, when there is nothing left to catch, we have to resort to other methods. And Isidora, thank you very much for your cooperation, you have been helping us for over 20 years and your services are already very well appreciated. So let's all go home, it's really late."
The three of them slowly made their way out of the dark room, which serves only one special purpose - to contact lost and errant souls who can help in the investigation of various unsolved cases and mysteries.