I have new co-workers. Mainly because I have a new job. I'm working at the downtown print shop now, helping to create books, brochures, business cards, and all sorts of new stuff. I'm in the Hecht Building now---You don't know where the Hecht Building is, so it doesn't matter. And of course, I'm still a paranormal investigator, writer, and tour guide---I'm going to die doing that stuff.
"Oooh, I like the headless ghost," said Emily, at her desk.
Kelli, nearby, nodded. "I like that one, too."
"Headless ghost? Headless ghost? Okay, that's the one I'm going with, then."
"Headless ghost? Headless ghost? Okay, that's the one I'm going with, then."
"I told a friend we're working together now," Emily commented. "He's heard of you and your investigations."
"I get that a lot," I said. "I've been doing this for years."
As if deciding, she scribbled on a piece of paper. "Okay. Here's my address. My parents say they see a woman in white walking in the house sometimes, often in my room. Can you find out about the house for me?"
As if deciding, she scribbled on a piece of paper. "Okay. Here's my address. My parents say they see a woman in white walking in the house sometimes, often in my room. Can you find out about the house for me?"
"Oh, sure, I can do that. I usually go and pull the deeds, and then line them up against the obits to see who died traumatically."
Paul came in. In the fifth grade now, he's been coming to visit me at work after school. I gave him a hug. "Guess what, kid? Emily here has a ghost in her house. I'm gonna go to the courthouse and check it out, figure out who might be haunting the place."
Paul grinned. "Cool. Are you done work yet?"
"Another few minutes."
"While I wait, can I run down the street and get a boba tea?"
I handed him a twenty. "Bring me change."
I turned over the blue chair in my office and began hacking at it with a crowbar. "So, we're gonna have to demolish the sofa downstairs to get it outside," I said.
"Already started," declared Paul.
"Yeah. you began destroying it when you were three." I pried off a piece of wood. "When your mom gets the new sofa, we can move the recliner over where my grandfather's chair is, and move that up here. I can get rid of this one."
Paul looked around my office. "You've been doing some work up here."
"It was getting pretty cluttered. I wanted to make it look more like a workspace, and not so much a storage shed." I took a survival knife and cut through some of the fading upholstery. "I hope we find some sort of ghost story soon. I could use a good haunted investigation."
"We already live in a haunted house."
"Yeah, but I already know everything about this one. Hey. Got a question for you, kid."
"Yeah, but I already know everything about this one. Hey. Got a question for you, kid."
"Okay."
"When you started investigating with me, I gave you one of my tac vests. Your outfit is basically just a smaller version of mine. Do you like that?"
"Sure. Why?"
"I was wondering if you maybe wanted something different, something that was more your own style."
Paul looked over his vest, hanging on our rack. It had a ghost patch, a unicorn patch, and an alien eating ramen noodles. "This is fine. I might add one more patch with Melanie Martinez."
"Okay, if that's all you want, I'll see what I can find."
My next day off, I got Paul out the door and to the bus stop. It was easier than it used to be; once I had him awake, he pretty much walked down by himself. That made me a little sad.
Coffee. Wrote an article. Then I got on my bike and headed down to the courthouse. Second floor was the register and recorder's office.
Deeds aren't that hard to research. Most of the problem people have with deed research is simply not knowing it's available. I had the assessment record in two minutes, the earliest deed in five. And I began to work my way backward.
"Merab McCoy," I told Emily at her desk. "Your place was probably built about 1897, by a man named Orrin Randall. One of his daughters, Merab McCoy, died in 1931. You said you guys have seen an older woman, right?"
Emily nodded. "That's right."
"She died at age sixty-one, from complications from a car accident. She's the most likely to be haunting your house, the obvious candidate. She's buried over in Wildwood Cemetery, which is itself said to be haunted."
Emily smiled. "That's cool. How much is an investigation?"
"Oh hell, we don't charge."
She raised her eyebrows. "Really?"
"I'm very suspicious of any investigator who does. It gives them a reason to claim they found something, even if they didn't, so they can charge a fee. We won't turn down dinner if offered, but even that isn't mandatory."
Emily grinned. "I'm sure we can do pizza or something."
"I was looking into this place this morning. Did you know that our section of the building was a women's clothing store?"
"Apparently the walls were saturated with perfume for a long time," commented Kelli.
"Our building may be haunted," added Emily. "One of the customers told me that there was a murder here a long time ago."
I frowned. "I have a vague memory of hearing about that, but I don't recall the details."
She got online and printed out an article for me. "Here we go."
I skimmed it. "Two murders committed during the commission of a robbery. I have a memory of my friend Matt writing about this years ago."
"I thought murders could cause a haunting," Emily said,"Because they're so traumatic."
"You thought right," I said. "In my experience, you get that sort of thing. You don't get reliable sightings from a ninety year old lady who outlived three husbands. It's always the murders, the suicides, the tragic accidents. You know, if it turns out this place is haunted, I can always bring in some of my equipment. In fact, I usually have a few pieces on me."
"Really?" Emily asked, sounding impressed.
"Sure. We can set a couple of pieces up on your desks, and keep an eye on them. It's the time of year for it, isn't it?"
In the afternoons I'd fallen into the habit of running across the street for a soda and some chips or something. The Hecht Building was us, but we shared it with a furniture store, and on my way out, I dropped in over there. A woman was sitting at the counter.
"Hello," she said. "Can I help you?"
I've gotten far enough in my career that I no longer feel stupid saying things like this.
"One question," I said. "I was wondering if you had any reason to think the place was haunted."
"Oh, sure," she said instantly. "You mean because of the murders."
That took me by surprise a little.
"Well.....Yeah."
"Sure, the place is haunted. Nothing moves around or anything, but we've heard noises in here. Could be just an old building, but you can tell, you know?"
"Yeah, I know what you mean. That answers what I wanted to know. Thanks."
"Good morning, Emily." I walked into the front office and opened my pack. "Got a few pieces of equipment to play with today."
"You do?"
"Sure." I got out my laser thermometer and my EMF detector. "This lights up around electricity. If we see it spike to red, and there's no reason for it, we may have a ghost around. This measures the temperature." I aimed the thermometer at the wall as Kelli was coming through the door, and she jumped back, thinking it was some kind of weapon---It does look like that.
"Whoa!"
"It's a thermometer. It's a thermometer."
She came back in. "Ghost hunting stuff?"
"Yeah, I got the EMF detector here."
"Electromagnetic fields?"
'You got it. Now, I did a little checking----Did you see the newspaper articles I sent you? The murders made the front page for about a week."
Emily nodded. "Been reading them on and off all morning."
"Did you see the one with a diagram about where the bodies were found? It looks like this used to be one big basement with the business next door. They were lying about five feet away from our basement. I'm gonna go down and check on that. In the meantime, I'll leave these on your desk so you can keep an eye on them."
Kelli grinned. "This will be fun."
I walked back through the workshop and down the stairs to the basement. It was a big, long basement, fairly dark, especially at the far end. As I walked through, I looked over the walls.
The eastern wall was made differently than the other one. Definitely newer. It had been built at some point since the murders had happened---At the time, this had all been one basement.
Along one wall was a long room-ish thing built out of plywood mostly. As I passed it, I realized that two of the shelves were covered with oil, which was dripping from the ceiling. I touched it with my fingers; it was oil, allright.
I walked back upstairs and found the boss.
"Don't want to ruin your day," I said,"But we have some sort of bad oil leak in the basement."
"Let's take a look," he said. He takes everything pretty calmly.
We walked downstairs, and he looked over the shelf.
"Where's that dripping from?"
"Up there someplace," I said. Another drip fell from the ceiling.
He glanced at it. "Are we under the cutter?"
"I think we are."
"Thing's leaking oil again. Let me go and take a look at it. We can't even run the shop without the cutter. How did you find this?"
"I....was down here looking for ghosts."
He grinned. "Well, you may have saved us some trouble. Keep it up."
We walked back upstairs. He knelt down by the cutter, and with my Swiss Army Knife, we pried open the front panel. He said,"I'll see about getting this fixed."
"I'd hate to not be able to use it," I said. "I like working the cutter." I had put a magnetic photo of Paul on it my second week at work.
I walked back out to the front office, where Kelli and Emily were still watching the EMF detector.
"I've been talking to them," said Kelli.
Emily grinned. "And it's lighting up. Look."
She pointed at the EMF detector on her desk, and Kelli said,"Is anyone there? Is there anything you'd like to say to us?"
The EMF detector spiked to red as she spoke, and then went down again.
"It does that every time," said Emily.
I smiled.
"Well, guys, we might have somebody here."
I shoved the old chair into the corner of my office, and put the cushions back on it. Paul came in and looked everything over.
"The new couch comes on Wednesday," he said. "I'm excited."
"I know. We'll have to keep an eye out for Ida; sometimes things like that can rile up a ghost."
He looked at the chair. "That's where it's going to go, huh?"
I nodded. "This was my grandfather's chair. I inherited it after my grandmother died. He used to sit and read books in it when I was a kid."
Paul nodded.
"It looks right there."
I smiled.
"Yeah," I said. "It does."