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."