Read Online The Boy in the Burning House by Tim Wynne-Jones - Free Book Online
Authors: Tim Wynne-Jones
Ads: Link
bracelet. Contacting his parents now living in Brockville, the police were able to ascertain that the boy had been expected home for Christmas but had not shown up.
The house was being used by a neighbour, Wilfred Fisher, to store hay. An inquest will be held into the death, but according to Constable Lorne Braithewaite, there do not seem to be any signs of foul play. Among the remains around the boy were found several beer bottles and a 40 ounce rye bottle, all empty.
Heavy snowfall through the night obliterated any footsteps leading to the building so it was not clear from which direction the boy might have journeyed. Constable Braithewaite noted the next morning that even the tracks of the fire truck and the sizeable area the fire fighters had disturbed in their efforts were completely blanketed by the new snowfall.
Francisâs presence back in the Ladybank area was a surprise. The house had been the last dwelling place of the deceased and his family before leaving the area five years ago.
Jim stopped to rest his fingers. He stared at the photograph, tried to imagine stepping inside a house that had once been your home, at night, with the windows boarded up, and finding it filled to the rafters with hay. It would be like a nightmare, he thought.
Francis had been serving a sentence in the Orillia Reformatory, sent there in 1967 after being convicted in juvenile court of several cases of arson in and around Ladybank. His arrest came about in a most unusual way. In 1967, during the week of August 8-15, the Tufts family had reported a number of strange occurrences. Laverne Tufts claimed that âStove lids danced in the air, the teapots jumped off the stove into the wood box, three flat irons walked down the staircase and dishes pranced on the dining room table.â
A neighbour, Ormond McCoy, declared that a bone thrown out of the home, time and time again, had always returned to the house for no explicable reason.
On the Sunday directly following the report of âGhosts,â a flotilla of cars and the chopper from Ottawa television station CJOH arrived at the Tufts home. âGhost Huntersâ and paranormal experts descended upon the community from as far away as Buffalo, New York.
Believing there had to be a more reasonable explanation for the occurrences, the Perth OPP detachment stationed an inspector on the property for the night. That inspector was Lorne Braithewaite, a rookie at the time, fresh out of Police College. He remembers having tea at thekitchen table with Mrs. Tufts at about 11:0() PM when 14-year-old Francis arrived home smelling strongly of gasoline. When Braithewaite received a call shortly thereafter regarding a fire at a farm down the road and later learned that arson was suspected, he returned to the Tufts household and apprehended Francis for questioning.
Not only did Francis plead guilty to setting the fire, but he also owned up to several other fires in the area. As well, he ended speculation by admitting that he had been the âghostâof the Tufts home. The youth was sent away and his family moved from North Bland ford. Francis is survived by his parents Wendall and Laverne Tufts and his younger brother Stanley, now residents of Brockville.
Jimâs hand was shaking. He reread the last sentence, scarcely able to believe it. Laverne was Tuffyâs mother. He reread the whole article and then stood leaning against the wooden counter, thinking.
The ghost incident had happened when Francis Tufts was fourteen. The white-haired Musketeer had looked around that age â around Jimâs age â in the photo. So Eldon Fisher and Hub had been friends of the fire starter right around the time of the haunting of the Tufts house.
Jim closed the newspaper yearbook. He didnât want to think about the log cabin any longer, or the flames that had consumed the boy trapped inside.
His mother was in town to do her weekly grocery shopping and they had agreed to meet at
The house was being used by a neighbour, Wilfred Fisher, to store hay. An inquest will be held into the death, but according to Constable Lorne Braithewaite, there do not seem to be any signs of foul play. Among the remains around the boy were found several beer bottles and a 40 ounce rye bottle, all empty.
Heavy snowfall through the night obliterated any footsteps leading to the building so it was not clear from which direction the boy might have journeyed. Constable Braithewaite noted the next morning that even the tracks of the fire truck and the sizeable area the fire fighters had disturbed in their efforts were completely blanketed by the new snowfall.
Francisâs presence back in the Ladybank area was a surprise. The house had been the last dwelling place of the deceased and his family before leaving the area five years ago.
Jim stopped to rest his fingers. He stared at the photograph, tried to imagine stepping inside a house that had once been your home, at night, with the windows boarded up, and finding it filled to the rafters with hay. It would be like a nightmare, he thought.
Francis had been serving a sentence in the Orillia Reformatory, sent there in 1967 after being convicted in juvenile court of several cases of arson in and around Ladybank. His arrest came about in a most unusual way. In 1967, during the week of August 8-15, the Tufts family had reported a number of strange occurrences. Laverne Tufts claimed that âStove lids danced in the air, the teapots jumped off the stove into the wood box, three flat irons walked down the staircase and dishes pranced on the dining room table.â
A neighbour, Ormond McCoy, declared that a bone thrown out of the home, time and time again, had always returned to the house for no explicable reason.
On the Sunday directly following the report of âGhosts,â a flotilla of cars and the chopper from Ottawa television station CJOH arrived at the Tufts home. âGhost Huntersâ and paranormal experts descended upon the community from as far away as Buffalo, New York.
Believing there had to be a more reasonable explanation for the occurrences, the Perth OPP detachment stationed an inspector on the property for the night. That inspector was Lorne Braithewaite, a rookie at the time, fresh out of Police College. He remembers having tea at thekitchen table with Mrs. Tufts at about 11:0() PM when 14-year-old Francis arrived home smelling strongly of gasoline. When Braithewaite received a call shortly thereafter regarding a fire at a farm down the road and later learned that arson was suspected, he returned to the Tufts household and apprehended Francis for questioning.
Not only did Francis plead guilty to setting the fire, but he also owned up to several other fires in the area. As well, he ended speculation by admitting that he had been the âghostâof the Tufts home. The youth was sent away and his family moved from North Bland ford. Francis is survived by his parents Wendall and Laverne Tufts and his younger brother Stanley, now residents of Brockville.
Jimâs hand was shaking. He reread the last sentence, scarcely able to believe it. Laverne was Tuffyâs mother. He reread the whole article and then stood leaning against the wooden counter, thinking.
The ghost incident had happened when Francis Tufts was fourteen. The white-haired Musketeer had looked around that age â around Jimâs age â in the photo. So Eldon Fisher and Hub had been friends of the fire starter right around the time of the haunting of the Tufts house.
Jim closed the newspaper yearbook. He didnât want to think about the log cabin any longer, or the flames that had consumed the boy trapped inside.
His mother was in town to do her weekly grocery shopping and they had agreed to meet at
Similar Books
