Last October, I got an email from a woman named Kate, claiming to be the new owner of my late grandpa’s Los Angeles home.

The emailer said her young kids complained about a scary-looking ghost that appeared in the back bedroom, with fingers missing from its left hand. The kids were shaken, and she was wondering if I could help.

Her email pleaded: “Any idea what this might be, by chance?”

At first, I thought this was a scam: a phishing email themed to the Halloween season. But the details in her message made me wonder.

My grandpa, who died at 92, had a condition that made his fingers curl up. Looking at his hand straight on, it might look like some digits were missing.

The detail that the ghost was scary-looking matched up, too. Toward the end of his life, my grandpa was skinny, pale a

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