Inspector Paul and the Mystery of the Disappearing Colleague

The mystery's afoot, my dear Watsons.

Something's been troubling me soon after I received a letter announcing the arrival of a new colleague.

Not very long after, the unsubstantiated rumour started going around the hospital that our department's being haunted by an unseen spectre. Fortunately for us, not the creepy ghostly kind with icy claws out to drag us screaming into the bowels of hell. Our phantom's a far more benign sort. Seems this particular ghoul of ours slips in and out of the workplace without any of us knowing, randomly dropping items, letters and assignments on our desks in between his brief hauntings.

No one has been able to work out the message he sends though.

In fact I actually recall catching a glimpse of the faint shadow fading in and out in the early mornings during ward rounds. Muttering vague indistinct premonitions and warnings before staging an equally sudden disappearance. And the occasional manifestation again in the evenings before we all break to go home.

Simply mysterious.


Making a run for it.
Perhaps connected to the letter I mentioned earlier? Deductive Holmesian logic would obviously tie the letter to the familiar shade.

But I doubt myself. Surely this daily apparition could not be my missing colleague, could it? Didn't expect the invisible man to come join me.

Lately I've dubbed him Sir Spectre since he's hardly ever around. Even though Sir Spectre's reputedly reported to duty - at least that is what's written in the letter on hand - I've been basically holding the fort alone for the past week or so. Some days he's so often missing from action that I'm starting to believe that he's a figment of my fertile imagination. In fact his frequent prolonged disappearances from the workplace has made me doubt his very existence!

Hence the need to hold the letter in hand as proof.

Though it obviously falls to me to keep Sir Spectre solidly here in our realm of existence instead of flitting about. Though I tried very hard not to be a despot, obviously I need to crack the bitch-whip. So much for remaining happily neutral. Maybe a trap to keep him at work? Or steel manacles to chain him down? Now what do you suggest?