On Wednesday, another one of Dan’s shirts went missing. That time it was the one he had laid out the night before for the following day’s work. The following day’s shirt also went missing. When that happened, Dan did an inventory of his shirts. He had nineteen white shirts (another must have gone missing while he was not paying attention), and fifteen shirts of other colours. But, his vests and coats and pants were all still available.

When Dan continued with his inventory, he realised that all of his ties had gone missing. Half of his socks were also missing, but that was normal. One of his scarves was gone, but on further thought, he remembered that he had given it to Isabella about a week prior because she had been outside shivering. So, not all the disappearances were supernatural, but he still needed to talk to Nolwazi.

Nolwazi was not very available on Fridays, but Dan managed to take her out to dinner. He first listened to her talk about her recent hotel developments, her various concerns about recent business in general, her opinions about the menu, and he also offered what little insight he had. But, after giving the insight, he brought up his missing clothes conundrum.

“You say you thought Jefferson was wearing one of my shirts the other day?” Dan asked.

Nolwazi nodded in response, then shrugged. “We both agreed that it seemed unlikely,” she said.

In response, Dan told her about his current clothing crisis. “That’s … six shirts missing, I think, and we’ve had Muriel for a long time, so I don’t think she’d start stealing my clothes now.”

“You used to lose clothes a lot,” Nolwazi said.

“I was twelve,” Dan responded.

“Remember that time we went for a walk at the beach and you took off your shoes and left them on a rock?” Nolwazi asked. “You were so convinced you could just come back and get them. But when we came back that evening, the tide had come in …”

Dan sighed in response. The memory was still a little sad. It had been a good pair of shoes, and his mother had been angry with him for losing them because good shoes cost money. “But I’m older now,” he said, “and I haven’t been walking by the seaside and taking my shirts off. And now every single one of my ties has grown feet.”

“I’ll admit that you aren’t that careless,” Nolwazi responded. “It’s odd. The only question is, what interest would Jefferson have in your clothing? There haven’t been any clothes that have gone missing at the hotel, and it’s really not the sort of thing he does.”

“He’s a ghost who gives you management lessons and refuses to talk about his past, Nolwazi,” Dan said. “Maybe it’s the sort of thing he does. We don’t know enough about him to judge.”

“Still, our relationship is hardly one where I could take him to task, and the accusation would be absurd,” Nolwazi responded. “I’m not sure what I could do about it, except watch what he wears. If he wears one of your ties, I’m sure I would recognise it, unless it was one of the black ones. Those all look the same.”

“I was wondering if you could give him a letter,” Dan said.

“… Perhaps,” Nolwazi responded.

***

Tell us: How do you think Jefferson is going to react to receiving a letter from Dan, asking him about his clothes?