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?"