Dead Reckoning

Ashlin was playing Bingo. Ashlin will attend any Bingo game she can get into. So she spent the time before the investigation marking off numbers and winning some prizes.

Chloe was working on the new Instagram. She'd volunteered to make a page for LHPS, so when she wasn't studying for school, she was working on the page.

Jaydann and Alexis, the new two, were looking into some of the old cemeteries. They'd taken an interest in some of the local spots, and had discovered a burial vault very near where they lived.

And me? I have no life. I spent the week leading up to the investigation digging into the history, looking up the building, and packing my equipment. My outfit was washed, my files were copied and packed. Batteries charged.

Ready for action.

"I'm so excited," said Jaydann.

I was with Jaydann and Alexis in the doughnut shop, which appeared to be becoming a regular thing. We were talking about the investigation that night, upcoming.

"I am, too," I admitted. "This is going to be good. It brings back memories for me....Eighteen years ago, when LHPS first formed, the first investigation where we really came together was a funeral home in Cameron County. Now, with our new team members, we have an investigation in an abandoned funeral home in Renovo."
"Full circle." commented Alexis.

Jaydann looked at her phone. "Oh my god, my spirit box arrived! Do you mind....."

I grinned. "Go get it. I know you've been dying for this."
She ran out to her car while I talked with Alexis for a while. Jaydann was back in ten minutes with her package, and I helped her open it with my Swiss Army knife.

She pulled out a compact electronic box with an antenna.

"It came with batteries, too!"

"Let's take a look," I said.

We spent a few minutes testing it out, checking to see what we could do with the box. I said,"Okay, looks like it has a lot of features---Temperature, EMFs, radio reception. Looks as if the thermometer takes a while to warm up---Which is okay; I got a few like that. If you get too close to it---" I held my finger over the device, and a red light came on. "It can detect both infrared and electromagnetic."

Jaydann's eyes shone. "I can't wait to try it out."
"You'll get your chance tonight," I said. "Investigation in a few hours."

Ashlin and I pulled up in the parking lot and got out of the car. Chloe had already arrived, and I gave her a hug, She was talking with Jaydann and Alexis. We gathered together....Me, Ashlin, and the three newest members.

LHPS. Together again....For the first time.

"Is that a Captain America backpack?" I asked Chloe as we got out of the car. "Are you using that for Ghost hunting?"

"Oh, no," she said. "I found it at the thrift store just before the investigation."

"Because that would be really cool."

We had arrived right on time, and we went into the building and met with some representatives of the Renovo Heritage Foundation, and Chris and Kate. The building was owned by Renovo Heritage, and in two halves. One half was their museum and headquarters, and the other half was abandoned Maxwell Funeral Home.

"Let's start with a walk-through," I said. "Everyone suit up."

I tossed Chloe her new LHPS t-shirt. It was just like mine, except with her name on it. She pulled it on over her turtleneck. Jaydann pulled on her ghost backpack. And I got on my hood and gloves, then the bandolier. And Chris led us over.

I heard the others gasp as we walked in the back door. The place was a big, old building, and it was filled with antique items and display stuff from Renovo Heritage. Alexis said,"Wasn't there some old embalming equipment in here?"

"Oh, that's up on the fourth floor," said Chris.

"Fourth floor? How big is this place?"

"This way to the stairs."

Jaydann's EMF detector immediately began going off when we hit the stairs, and we weren't even all the way up yet. Taking photos and readings, we walked up to the fourth floor, which had barely been touched over the years. Alexis gasped as we walked into the room with the undertaking stuff.

"Knew you'd like this," I said.

She looked it over. There were old, dusty needles and tubes, a facal reconstruction kit, and an autopsy table shoved against one wall. Slowly, taking it all in, she said,"Look....At....This."

"I want everyone to get photos, and a baseline on EMF and temperature," I said. Chloe, to her credit, already had her camera out and was snapping photos of everything she could. "Once we get all that, we'll sit down for an EVP session. I'm thinking we split into two rooms. Alexis and Jaydann, you guys can take this one, and I'll go with Ashlin and Chloe to the room down the hall."

We settled in, and I turned on my digital recorder. I sat down on the dusty floor, and we started our session. We were in the middle of asking questions when Jaydann called down,"Lou? We have a lot of EMFs going over here!"

We moved back over into the autopsy room, where Jaydann had her EMF detector on the table. It was flickering, spiking to red intermittently. Chloe laid hers down beside it, and it started doing the same thing.

"Alexis," I said,"You wanted to try laying down on this table. Now's your chance."

Alexis grinned and climbed up on the table, lying down with the EMF detectors. I watched her---It was just like what had happened eighteen years ago, up in Cameron County, except now I was the team leader, and back then it had been me on the table.

2008: I jumped up and lay down on the autopsy table. Everyone kind of choked except for Ailish, who took my picture. "Come on," I said, as I climbed off. "You're all going to see me like that sooner or later anyway. You may as well get used to the idea."

"You have a hard time being a grown-up, don't you, Lou?" asked Theresa.

"I don't know," I said. "I've never tried."

"You know, way back when, I said that if I was team leader, I'd let me do this," I commented. "A haunted autopsy table makes sense. Think of all the tragedies this thing saw over the years. Murders, suicides, accidents...They all ended up here. Have fun, Lex."

I was headed down the stairs with Chloe when Chris came back in below.

"Hey, Lou," he said. "We have some pizza over there, if you guys would like any."

"We can stop over and take a moment," I said. I hit my comlink. "Lex? You there?"

A moment passed. "I hear you."

"They got pizza in the Main building. We're gonna head over for a moment. You're welcome to join us if you like."

We walked over for a break. Chloe sat down on the floor with a bottle of water. Ashlin had a slice of pizza. A moment later, Alexis and Jaydann came in.

"We were getting more EMF activity up on four, Lou," said Jaydann.

"We'll go back over in a minute, and take a walk through the basement," I said. "I'd forgotten about the basement. Want some pizza?"

Chloe had gotten up and was standing beside the photocopier. I walked over the stand next to her.

"Thanks for joining the team," I said. "I'm proud of you."

She smiled.

"Thanks for inviting me."

We walked down into the basement, EMF detectors going. I had my laser thermometer out. "I'm getting a baseline in the fifties. Much warmer here than the rest of the building." I glanced over at Chloe. "You okay?"

"I'm fine."
"Be careful. I'm expendable. I don't want you hurt." I was a little surprised to realize how intensely protective I felt toward Chloe.

"I can be expendable," added Alexis. "I have to work tomorrow."

Hanging from the ceiling was a white shape that I assumed to be a glow-in-the-dark plastic Halloween spider, until I looked more closely. It was an actual spider, covered in bright white mold and hanging from the ceiling.

"Hunh. A moldy spider. You guys see this?"

"Oh, hell no," said Alexis.

"There's a few over here, too," said Chloe.

"What the hell is killng all these spiders down here?"

"You guys often see dead animals?" asked Chris.

"I had a bat fly at me once." I glanced at Ashlin. "Were you there for the bat?"

She grinned. "No, but I've heard the story. I love that."

I felt something dragging on my foot, and looked down. I had a piece of lathe board stuck to my boot with a nail, shoved up into the heel. I pulled it free and set it aside. "Careful, guys. I just stepped on a nail. Watch where you step."
"Are you okay?" asked Chloe.

"I'm fine. I'm glad I wore the steel-toed boots instead of my light sneakers, or I'd be headed for the hospital to get a tetanus shot now."

We finished back up on three.

We gathered in a circle, with a couple of EMF detectors on the floor. Jaydann set down her electronic bell and her new spirit box. She handed out a couple of small cat balls, little round toys that lit up.

"You guys can keep a couple of those," she said. "We have a bunch of them."

"I'll keep one," volunteered Chloe.

"I might hang onto one," I said. "They seem to work. You press the button and roll it in. It's like a ghost grenade."

I heard Chloe giggle beside me. Around the circle, everyone began asking questions, giving some space in between. I walked over to look out the big front window.

Eighteen years of this team. I was the only person who still remained from the beginning. And now we'd come all the way back around, with new members teaming up to investigate a haunted funeral home.

"Jesus christ, Lou!" said Alexis. "You scared me to death! I saw your image on the thermal and didn't know what it was at the window!"

"Thought I'd look out the window a moment," I said. "I know I look good that way."
One of the cat balls, the one nearest me, flickered brightly. Jaydann, standing next to me, looked over. "That wasn't you---"
"No," I agreed. "I was standing too far away." I stepped a little closer and tapped my foot on the floor to test it. Nothing happened. "That wasn't me."

"See how the EMF is staying consistently on two greens? That's weird."
"Usually they flicker. I don't see them doing that very much."

"Can you ring the bell?" Aexis asked. "Just go near it, and it should ring."

"That one might be a bit harder than the EMFs," I commented. "It takes more energy to do the bell than the lights."
"They both work off EMFs."
"Yeah, but---And this is called 'What Lou Thinks He Remembers His Dad Saying'----The lights just operate on electrical energy. For the bell to ring, that has to be turned into kinetic energy, which takes more of it. It's harder, on a physics level."

"Well, yeah, true."

I looked at my watch. "We should probably get packed up and ready to go. This thing has already gone on way longer than I'd expected."

"It's been great!" said Jaydann.

"Yeah, great investigation. But we have a drive home, and it's already nine-fifteen."

She gasped. "I didn't realize that much time had passed."

I grinned. "Does tend to sneak up on you, doesn't it?"

And then he bell went off.

Ding.