Welcome To My Tami

It was Tuesday. The kind of Tuesday that falls between a Monday and a Wednesday. I was at my desk with four shots in me. One was lead, and the rest were espresso. And then she walked in.

She was Hispanic, with eyes as dark as my coffee. I set aside the detective novel I was reading and looked up at her. She had the look of someone who wanted something from me.

And me? I'm a paranormal investigator. My name is Lou. 

"Hi, can I help you?" I asked.

"I want the history on my house," she said.

"Oh, I can help with that," I said. "Here. I have a handout on how to learn all that. You're going to have to go to the courthouse and look through the deeds. Now, it's easiest to start with the assessment record---"

"The courthouse?" she asked.

"Well, technically the courthouse annex, on Piper Way. The Register and Recorder's office. That's the best way to get started---"

"I don't understand why you can't just give me the history on my house," she said.

"Well, because it hasn't been compiled yet. That's your job. This is how you find that stuff out. The deeds give you the names of who owned it, and when...."

"I'm not interested in the boring stuff. I want the trauma, the things that happened there."

"This is how you get that," I explained. "This tells you who owned the house. The trauma didn't happen to the house---It happened to the people in it. Once you have their names, you come in here and find their obituaries and cemetery records. And that tells you a lot."

She looked me over. "You seem to know a lot about this."

"It's what I do," I said. "I'm doing it soon for an investigation I have coming up. Haunted houses, you know. That fun stuff."

I walked into the courthouse annex and piled all my stuff in the plastic tray. Once I got past the security guard, I went up to the Register and Recorder's office, where all the documents were. The exciting life of a ghost hunter.

"Hi, Lou," one of the county employees said when I walked in. "Haven't seen you in a while."

"I don't get in as much, now that you guys moved across town," I said. "I should make an effort to stop by more often."

"What do you have going on today?"

"We're investigating the home of one of our team members, for practice. I'm going to do a title search and find out who's most likely to be haunting the place."
She nodded. "How's Paul?"

I smiled. "Paul is eight now. He's in the third grade over at Robb."

"Third grade already? He was just a little baby."

"Yeah, he's been growing. These days he does paranormal investigation with me."

I started on the computer---The most recent deeds are digitized. If they ever put them all on the computer, I swear I'll retire. Two deeds in, and I reached the point where they were on paper, in the deed books. I'm always a lot more comfortable doing it that way.

I started with the deed to Tami and Bre's place, and worked my way backward. It's much easier to trace a property back in time than forward. This turned out to be a straightforward search until the late nineteenth century, at which point the information got a little tricky. I had to go to a will, and then over to the indexes to piece together the final couple of steps.

I buzzed myself into the nonprofit, and found some of the staff sitting in the conference room. Cheyenne, Juli, Hannah, and the one I needed, Lacey.

I handed her a couple of forms. "Here you go, Lacey. Brought these down for you."

"I didn't expect them so quick," she said, and started filling them out.

"Gave me an excuse to get out of work." I sat down at the table. "I'm giving my haunted tours next weekend! Hoping to make some money for this place."
"I'm excited," said Hannah.

"You'll like this," I said to Lacey. "We're investigating Tami's place Saturday night."

"Yeah?" asked Lacey.

"You're into this, too?" asked Hannah.

"I'm the case manager," said Lacey.

"I just did the title search the other day. The place was built about 1869, and as it turns out, it has connections to two high-profile murders."
"Really?"
"Yeah! Isn't that great?"
Hannah seemed slightly nonplussed at the idea that I would get this excited over a couple of murders. "What's been going on there?" she asked.

"Footsteps, doorknobs rattling at night, something was on the roof recently."
"On the roof? What would a ghost be doing on the roof?"
"You never know, with ghosts."

"Did someone die falling off the roof?"

"Now that you mention it...Not that roof, but a fifteen-year-old who lived in the house died when he fell while he was painting Beck's Hotel. I hadn't thought of that until you said something."
She grinned and made a sort of "There. See?" gesture at me.

"I'm gonna have to bring my helmet and get out on that roof," I said.

"Don't get yourself killed," said Cheyenne.

"I didn't die in the tunnel last week; I'm not gonna die on the roof."

Early Saturday evening, I got out my equipment and got packed. I put on my uniform, tactical vest, and skull gloves, and tugged on the boots with skulls. I've had worse Saturday nights.

I love it when the investigation is near my place. I pulled my bag over my shoulder and walked down the street to Tami's. Her wife, Bre, let me in, and the dog, Boscoe, got all excited. I love Boscoe. I knelt down and gave him a hug.

"Got your ceiling repaired," I said. "Classy!"

"Cool boots," said Bre. "Where did you get those?"

"Amazon," I said. "I should not be allowed to have an Amazon account."

"I think that's most of us," said Tami.

"Can you tell the ghosts to knock it off?" Bre asked. "One of them was rattling my bedroom doorknob the other night."

"We can try," I said. "I can't guarantee."

The doorbell rang, and Heather came in. Boscoe immediately went nuts again.

"Where'd you get the awesome boots?" asked Heather.

I grinned. "Amazon. I spend way too much time on Amazon."

"Perfect for ghost-hunting, though."

We all tend to seek out people who understand us. It's why cops mostly spend time with other cops, doctors socialize with other doctors....And me? Well, the best friends I've got are people who will drop everything to look into a haunted house.

Tami began shoveling her equipment into her pockets. She complained,"I need an equipment belt."

"That's pretty much how the vest got started," I said.

"Your tactical vest?"
"Yeah. Way back at the beginning of my career, I tried everything---Belts, bags, packs. Finally I settled on the vest as the most efficient way to carry all my stuff. My vest has enough pockets for me."

Bre and Boscoe left, and the rest of us got prepped for the investigation. I asked Tami,"Is there anywhere that's a hot spot? A central location with a lot of activity?"

"Upstairs hallway," she said.

"Let's get started," I said.

We all walked up to the second floor. EMF detectors out, laser thermometers ready. The cats chased the lasers as we walked. The upstairs hallway was tight, and right away I could see that it had all been sectioned out from several other rooms.

We sat down in the hall. I propped myself against one wall, and set down my recorder. Heather was already starting the intro, so I just clicked on my recorder and let it run.

"Tami's house, upstairs hallway, March eighteenth at 7:22 PM. Heather."

"Tami."

"Lou."

"Is anyone here?"
"Can you tell us your name?"

It went on like that for a while, us asking some low-key questions. The smaller dog, Penny, trotted out into the hallway with her toy, and we took turns tossing it around for her as we did the EVPs. 

"I'm going to run for city council," said Tami.

"Really?" I said. "Way to go, Tami! You'd be the first paranormal investigator on city council. Also, as far as I know, the first lesbian."

"You have my vote," said Heather.

Then Tami's EMF detector, sitting on the floor, shot up to red.

"We have EMFs," Tami said.

"Getting photos." I turned and snapped several shots along the hallway. I frowned at my camera. "I'm already losing battery power, and I know I just charged this."

"Isn't that a sign of a haunting?" Heather asked.

"It might be."

Tami moved onto the stairs, checking with her EMF meter. It lit up in several spots, and I asked,"Are there any wires near there?"
"Shouldn't be. And look, this is not near any walls---It shouldn't be detecting anything out here."

"No, it shouldn't," I agreed. "We have activity."

I stood in Triangle Park, taking five dollars apiece from people. I had a pretty big crowd gathered for my tour---Tami and Bre were there, with Boscoe, the Hispanic woman doing the research on her house had shown up, and a few other people I knew. Plus a whole bunch that I didn't.

I pocketed the money, and stepped in front of the crowd. And as I stood in front of everyone, I had a moment of calm, and I felt something inside surge, like it always did. 

"Thanks for coming, everyone," I said. "You all ready to hear about some ghosts?"

Above And Below

I looked up, and there she was, coming in the door to the library. It had been a while since I'd seen her, since she'd left the team. SaraLee.

I gave her a hug. "Good to see you," I said.

"You, too," she said. We walked back to my desk and sat down.

"So what's new and exciting?" she asked.

"Well, got a UFO sighting. My buddy Chris forwarded the photo to me. A local politician spotted a UFO over Saint Agnes Church, a blinking light that moved."

"Was this recently?"

"Monday," I said.

SaraLee nodded. "Any theories?"
"People are suggesting the Starlink satellite, but there's a tracker for that, and the times don't match up," I said. "And it's the wrong direction for the International Space Station. Paul and I spotted that a couple of years ago. So I'm gonna look into it."
"Cool."
"Oh, and I get to explore a tunnel," I said.

"Ooh, cool. Tell me about the tunnel."

"The radio station guys just bought the Simon Scott Building. Used to be a speakeasy during Prohibition. In the basement, they found a tunnel. It goes north under Main Street, so I get to crawl on in and find out how far it runs."

"You taking anyone with you?"

"I didn't really want to risk anyone else getting knocked out or buried."

SaraLee nodded. "Good point."

"So what's new with you lately?"

"Well, I joined another team," she said. "I was with Interstate, but there was too much drama. We went out to Indiana to do an investigation; furthest I've gone so far."

"That's cool," I said.

End of the workday. I was at my desk, on my cell phone with Mark the Shark, a local radio personality. I was saying,"I've discovered some interesting things about the tunnel, Mark. You thought it might be from the speakeasy days, which is logical. It doesn't appear on the Sanborn Maps, which means it was probably kept a secret. If it goes all the way across the street, it would come out in the restaurant across from you, which used to be the Odd Fellows Hall---It's very possible the two groups teamed up to get around Prohibition laws."

"Well, we'd like to send you in to see how far it goes," said Mark. "When's good for you?"

"Tuesday morning, just about all day Wednesday," I said. "What works for you?"
"I can be down Wednesday about one," he said. "Meet you in front of the building?"

"I'll be there."

After work I rode over to Saint Agnes Church, where the UFO had been sighted. Always visit the site if you can. I stopped in the parking lot, and looked the scene over, comparing it to what I remembered from the photo.

Nope, not quite---That outbuilding is in the photo. Gotta back it off to the hotel parking lot across the street.

I biked over, and stopped at the hotel. Now I was seeing the scene from the photo. I stood for a moment, considering which way was north, west, what time the sun would have been going down.

So it would have been moving roughly northeast. It was sunset, but the sun would have been shining from....Over there. That direction. 

I stood, picturing it, trying to imagine the whole thing. Taking myself through it, one step at a time, thinking about the UFO and what it meant.

After a while, I got on my bike and headed home.

Michelle parked the car and we walked down Bellefonte Avenue. Paul had his little friend Serina from next door with us. I explained,"Tonight is an event at the local coffee shop for the Democrats. Some of the people running need everyone to sign papers so they can run for office. We're going to stop by and sign them, help out the good guys."

"And I want bubble tea," said Paul.

We walked into the coffee shop. The mayor, Joel, was with his band playing onstage. Tif was there, listening, and Paul ran up to hug her. Tami and Heather were there. I gave them a hug, and signed Tami's petition for city council.

I saw the county auditor, and I moved through the crowd and up to her. I said,"I'm gonna find out what that was you saw."

She smiled. "It was about seven-fifty at night, after a meeting. I was with a former county commissioner and we saw two lights---One was blinking, in a line, and the other was squiggly."

"Going northeast, I think? How fast?"
"Yes. Very fast."
"I'm looking into it."

Serena came up to me, with Paul behind. She looked toward the band. "Paul says that's the mayor."

"Yeah," I said. "He's a friend of mine. Want to meet him?"

She gasped, obviously impressed. Joel finished up the song, and came over to us. He shook Paul's hand. "Hi, Paul. How are you?"
"Good," said Paul. "I'm in the third grade now."

Joel grinned. "That's great."

"Joel, this is Serena. She lives next door to us. She's new in Lock Haven."

Joel shook hands with her. "Hi, Serena."

Serena stared at him, her jaw hanging, as if she was meeting with One Direction or something.

"It's okay, kiddo," I said. "You can talk to him."

"Wait until I tell my mom I met the mayor!" she said.

Hearts were coming down, and shamrocks were going up. Zach was behind the desk, changing the monthly decorations. I walked over and picked up a stuffed leprechaun.

"Barb got that last year," said Zach. "She thought we needed more leprechauns."

"This is the only new staff member we can afford," I commented. "Gonna put him to work on desk shifts."

"Well, he will be constantly by the desk."

I crawled under the desk, holding the leprechaun up above desk level. "Top o' the morning to ye," I said in an Irish accent. "What is it that I can be doin' for ye today?....Wait, did someone come in?"

Zach was laughing. I came out from the desk to find a woman standing there, watching the leprechaun, amused. "That was our representative," I said. "What can we do for you?"
"I need a library card," she said.

I let Zach handle that, and slipped out the back door. I got on my bike and rode down to the Simon Scott Building.

For a moment, I looked at it from the front. Old place, built in 1854. it had been a private club for around a hundred years, and recently put up for sale. I walked around the building, getting a sense of it, and ended up back out front again.

I turned and looked across the street. Assuming the tunnel went far enough, and didn't dead-end, and stayed in a straight line, it would end up connecting to the basement of the restaurant across the street.

I walked over and went inside. A bored-looking waitress stood up from the counter and said,"Can I help you?"

"Got a weird question," I said. "Does this place have a basement?"

"Not that I know of," she said. "There's a crawlspace, I think, but I've never been in there. We rent the building, so we don't really have access down there."

I nodded. "Okay. Thanks."

I walked back across the street and stopped at the local hot dog place, the closest thing Lock Haven has to a citywide cuisine. I bought two of the chili dogs and ate them as I walked back to my bike. 

So this told me that there had probably once been a basement, but it had likely been filled in after the 1972 flood. I was making a couple of logic leaps here, but there was some experience backing it up. So unless the tunnel turned, it was likely that I was going to get in there and dead-end after a certain distance.

But if it turned, that was another story, and could be interesting. I made a mental note to add a compass and my laser measurer to the equipment I was bringing in.

Most people think it's pretty exciting to spend the night in a haunted house. This is probably more true if you don't do it every night. Granted, I still get all excited when I'm invited to someone else's haunted house. But every night, once Paul and Michelle are in bed, it's just me and the ghost, up watching movies. And sometimes the hamster.

Emily was running on her wheel when I started researching. I sat at the kitchen table with my laptop. The photo of the UFO looked like a satellite---Everyone was saying that. After some searching, I found a website that listed satellites and when they were visible. I fed in the information for our area---They didn't have Lock Haven, but they did have Williamsport, which was close enough---And started searching.

People think that paranormal investigation is just running around with a camera, more or less. Most people don't get what's involved if you're doing it correctly. In addition to the ridiculous amounts of equipment, you need to research astronomy, geology, biology, history, and all sorts of other areas, because you never know what's going to tie into the paranormal at any given time. 

It took me a few minutes, but I found it. There was a satellite called SL-16 R/B overhead and visible at exactly the time our county auditor had seen her light. The squiggly light nearby was easy enough to explain---A phenomenon called "satellite flare" where the sun reflects off the actual satellite, causing an extra light in the sky and often confusing people. 

"Got it, Emily," I said to the hamster. Then I slipped her a blueberry, her favorite thing.

Figured out the UFO.

Next up, the tunnel.

In the morning, it was a two-hour delay for school. Paul got to sleep a little late, and then jumped out of bed with Butters and Rosie. I had some coffee, and then Michelle and Paul headed out the door to the bus stop, and I grabbed my bag and biked downtown.

Mark the Shark met me at the Simon Scott Building, and unlocked it to let us in. He said,"We have plans to renovate this place and make it a community center. I'd like to see it restored to some of its original historic look. We'd like to get it back on the National Register."

"My advice is to do all the repairs you need to before applying," I said. "There's more wiggle room if you get everything done, and fewer hoops to jump through."

The building was grand, with huge, decorative hallways and elaborate doors. He led me through a couple of them, and down a dark wooden staircase.

"This is the basement," he said. "There's the tunnel."

It was a curved alcove in the wall, with three steps in the floor leading down into it. Beyond that, just darkness.

"Let me get my stuff," I said.

I dug into my bag and began pulling things out. I have a selection of tactical vests---There's my LHPS one, my big deluxe general-adventure one, one vest for UFOs specifically, and one that I usually leave empty just for basic use. I'd taken that last one and filled the pockets with everything I could use to explore a tunnel. I pulled it on, with the fingerless gloves, and then a helmet. I got out my rechargeable lantern and clipped it to my belt.

I stood up, and turned on the lantern, then took a couple of steps down the stairs.

Then I went in.

The floor was dirt, covered with broken bits of wood. I watched carefully to avoid stepping on a nail---I was glad I'd decided to wear my steel-toed sneakers. The lantern cast my shadow on the wall as I walked.

The tunnel didn't go back very far---It dead-ended after twenty feet. I examined the wall, which seemed to be made of the same stuff as the rest of the tunnel. That suggested they were created at the same time. Shining my flashlight on it, I looked it over carefully. At the very end, in the ceiling, was a sort of shaft. It went straight up from the tunnel, then dead-ended in corrugated metal.

I climbed up the wall a couple of feet, to justify the helmet. Reaching up, I tapped on the metal. It was solid, with no give and no echo. Covered in concrete on the high side. 

I dropped back to the floor and took a few photos. At an educated guess, having actually seen the place, this was less a tunnel than an old furnace room or something. Which was still pretty fascinating.

SaraLee stopped by work again that afternoon. I gave her a hug and said,"It's good to see you. I put in that ILL request for you."

"Great. Thanks. Just got back from Eastern State Penitentiary on an investigation."
"What's that, your thirteenth time?"

"Something like that. I met a few new people, and had a good time. How are you doing?"

"I explored that tunnel this morning."

"I was going to ask about the tunnel."

"Seems to be a remnant of the building from when it was first built, an old furnace room or something. I found what may have been a coal chute leading up from it, but it was all blocked off."

"Still. Fun to explore, though."

"Yeah, it was."

"You and me need to go on an adventure soon. Find a haunted cemetery or something."

"Yeah," I said. "That'd be good."