Haunted Knights

"Do you like dogs?" the woman asked from behind the screen door.

"Love them," I said.

She opened the door, and we walked in to be greeted by her two German Shepherds. Paul followed me, and my friend Justin showed up a moment later.

"Paul, you remember Justin," I said. "He's my only lawyer friend."

Justin laughed. He said to the woman,"So you found some gravestones from the old Great Island Cemetery?"

"They're all over my back yard," she said. "I read one of Lou's columns, and I know that Great Island Cemetery was right across the street from here..."

"Removed in 1919," I said. "Not all of the gravestones were found. Not all of the bodies, either."

"They're this way," she said.

We went out in the back yard. By the alley, she indicated a stone face-down in the dirt. I carefully overturned it and brushed it off. The name was Zachariah Naul.

"Zachariah Naul," said Justin. "Not familiar with that one."
I pulled out the CCGS cemetery index book. "No mention in the records. This is a new one."

"Ah, you brought that," said Justin. "Good job."

"I wanted to come prepared." Paul was using his tablet to take photos of the stone.

Inside the fence was a stone that had been used as part of a walkway. I overturned it, with the lady cautioning me,"Don't hurt yourself."

"Don't worry. If I'm gonna get injured, this is how I want to do it."
The stone was for Clarissa Mahan. I flipped the pages. "No Clarissa. We have a Chrissie Mahan, which sounds way to modern for 1855....The dates match."

"Probably we got that off the terrible handwriting everything was written in back then," said Justin. "Wasn't this from the Mahan Hotel?"
"Could be---This could be the aunt of town founder Jerry Church's daughter. This is big."

There was a footstone with the initials J.R. Sitting on the swing, Paul took the book and flipped through. "I found a John Raab," he called out.

"Very possible," I said. "Nice work."
"We can perhaps have these placed in Highland Cemetery," Justin said. "That would be historically authentic."

"I'll talk to Highland Cemetery," I said.

"This is incredible."

I agreed,"Best Wednesday night I've had in a while."

I pulled my tac vest off the hanger, folded it, and tucked it into my black bag. I packed up my infrared reader and added that, too. Extra batteries, first aid kit, knife....I was ready.

I walked downstairs and then outside to check on the kids. They were all on the sidewalk, riding scooters and bikes, and it appeared that there were at least fifty. Then they slowed down, and it turned out there were only five of them---My son, the little girls from next door, and their cousin.

They gathered around. Seriya said,"Lou! Since you made ghost-hunting shirts for Paul and Serina, can we have some too?"

"I can do that," I said. "I'll teach you guys how to use the equipment, and do some ghost-hunting. How's that?"

Love's eyes widened. "Do you really catch ghosts?"

"I'm with a team. I have an investigation tonight."

"Can I come?" she asked.

I smiled. "This one's just for the adults. It's for the LHPS team."

"Can I come?" asked Paul.

"Not this time, little guy."

"I'm on the team."

"Well, you're kind of the sidekick. You can stay up and wait for me, though, how's that? You can watch TV until I get home."
"Okay."

 As evening approached, I grabbed my stuff, got on my bike, and biked downtown. I rode through Lock Haven to Main Street---I love looking at Lock Haven. All these years, and I am not yet tired of looking at the buildings, the streets, all the unique bits of the city. I parked on East Main Street, and walked into White Knights Game Shop.

Tami was already there, with her kid, Juno. The owner of the building, Alex, shook my hand.

"Thanks for coming to investigate, Lou," he said. "Always good to see you."

"Same," I said. "Thanks for letting us come in. I did the research---That's going to be yours to keep. This place was built for Jacob Kamp and his family. He was a shoe salesman. He lost three children---Two babies, and a thirteen-year-old daughter named Nannie. That was typhoid. They're all buried in Highland Cemetery. So those are my biggest suspects."

"Thanks," said Alex. "That's more information than my wife could find."

"Sometimes it's just knowing where to look." I turned to Tami. "How's the campaign going?"

"It's going," she said. "I'm planning on not going door to door; a lot of people have indicated they hate that. I'll be reaching out to the public by attending a lot of events, instead."
"Good idea," I said as Ashlin came into the shop as Alex was leaving. "You should publicize that's the reason. We still have your sign in our yard. It's stood up to a lot of abuse this summer. Smoke, storms, children...."

Tami grinned. "Come October, I'll have to shell out for a lot more signs."

I heard a small knock behind me, and I turned. Nothing. Just a little, immediate sound by the bulletin board. "Did you---"

"Yeah," Tami said. "I heard it." She set her EMF detector down on the glass counter, and it immediately began to flicker. Green lights went to yellow unpredictably. She said,"Whoa..."
"That's unexpected," I said. "We're starting already. Let me do a test."

I pulled out mine, moved it around the area, and got nothing. I shrugged into my tac vest, pulling on the skull gloves. It always feels good to be in uniform. Tami said,"I'm activating my recorder. July twenty-ninth, at White Nights Game Room. Tami."

"Lou."

"Ashlin."

"Juno."

"Is there anyone here?"

 The lights flickered for a moment, and then stopped.

"I can't see anything that would set off the EMF," I said. "I'm going to go around and get photos."
I circulated around the room, snapping photos with my camera. The place was intensely neat, with dragons and dice and Star Wars characters in every direction. I stopped by a suit of armor, checking around with my EMF detector, and then moved on along the wall, by a herd of Owlbears and a couple of castles.

"This place is pretty well insulated," I commented. "I've been in some old buildings that are just bleeding EMFs. but this isn't like that. I'm not getting much, which makes these flickers especially weird."

"We don't even have an electric register on this counter," said Juno. "Just a small cashbox."

I flashed around with the laser thermometer. "Temperature baseline steady at sixty-nine."

"That's how Alex always leaves it set," said Juno. "It's a little chilly."
"Actually I kinda like it," I said. "In the summer, a lot of the time, wearing the tactical vest dehydrates me. This isn't too bad."

Tami was looking over the Historic Resource Survey Form I'd supplied. "It looks like the family may have run the store in this part, and lived in the back."

"Well," I said,"Why don't we check it out back there, then?"

The back room was a small place, with a sink and cabinets, and four tables set almost randomly, surrounded by chairs. Tami dropped into one, and we joined her around the table. Her digital recorder was already going.

I set mine next to it. "What Knights, first floor rear, July twenty-ninth, 9:01 PM." I gave it a moment while I set my EMF detector down. "Is anyone here with us?"

"Did you live here?" asked Tami.

There was a flicker---Up to yellow. I glanced around. "Nothing electric. Nothing that would set this off."

"Are you Nannie?" asked Tami.

"Are you Catherine?" asked Ashlin.

It went to orange. Just for a second, and then back.

"Catherine did die at forty-three," I commented. "That's awfully young to die."
"Did you work in here?"
Yellow.

"Do you miss your children?" I asked.

Yellow.

"Would you like us to visit your grave sometime?"

Yellow.

"This is a lot of EMF activity," I said. "I don't think I've ever seen the detectors get this active on an investigation."
"It's a good one," Tami agreed.

We folded at about ten, and got packed up. I biked through the city, now dark and much quieter. Up Church Street, along Bald Eagle, and then into Grouse Alley. I parked my bike behind the house and walked in.

Paul was sitting on the couch, watching TV and talking on his phone. Butters and Rosie were curled up with him. He looked up when I walked into the room. "Oh, hi, Daddy. How was the investigation?"

"It was good," I said. "A lot of activity on the EMF."
"Love!" said Paul. "My dad says they might have had a ghost! A lot of activity on the EMF!"

"I'm gonna get changed out of my uniform," I said. "Then I'll be down to join you. Think I'll have a beer---I still have some left from the ones Bre and Tami gave me."

"Okay, Daddy," said Paul. "I'll be right here."