“
Before we step inside, and I should’ve mentioned this to Jackie, Tony, and Angie earlier, take a look at the long cement slab below the window,” he said, pointing a small flashlight at a narrow flowerbed located beneath the window sill.
We followed him over to it. Most of the slab lay hidden behind a row of rose bushes, just beyond the reach of the security lights’ soft glow.
“
Jackie, would you mind holding this for a moment?”
Tom motioned for her to take the flashlight. Then he carefully pulled the plants away from the slab. Fiona was the first one to gasp this time, and only because she immediately understood what the words and numbers meant, illuminated clearly by the flashlight’s bright beam.
Nathaniel Smith…born January 24
th
, 1893…died July 7
th
, 1945.
“
Now that’s jacked up!” said Justin, while the rest of us…well let’s just say the rest of us were murmuring. Unfinished, nonsensical thoughts, like a Sunday Pentecostal service. “You mean to tell me some dead guy is buried here, in your
yard?
”
“
So it would seem,” said Tom, chuckling. “When I first noticed it a couple of months ago, it gave me a start too. I should’ve told everyone then…. But, as it turns out, no one is actually buried here. At least according to the state archives. Mr. Smith is buried in Chattanooga. Apparently, this is just an extra marker.”
He turned toward us, smiling. It must’ve been a sweet moment for him…all of us with mouths hung open until we realized there really wasn’t a body here.
“
I might add that Nathaniel was the second to last owner of this property, right on up to his death in 1945,” added Tom.
Well, maybe the sucker’s buried here after all. I shuddered for a moment, and Fiona did too. Not a good omen.
“
Come on in, everyone,” he said, ushering us inside. “Let me show the best evidence to Jimmy, and if anyone else wants to hang out afterward, we can look over some of the other pictures and audio recordings I haven’t had time to examine yet....”
I’m not sure if Fiona and I fully heard what he said after that, since our eyes were drawn to the opulence inside. Very little expense spared in outfitting the room with state-of-the-art recording equipment and a large monitor for close examination of visual images and deeper analysis of electronic voice phenomena, or EVPs. Even the long control board and furniture in the room looked expensive. Not to mention the hardwood floors, a second furnished ‘office’ complete with another computer system, and a small bathroom. That’d definitely be a necessity, as it seemed quite possible to never want to leave this place for days at a time, if one had enough paranormal data to review. A small fridge next to the main console would answer the remaining needs a serious investigator might require.
Hell, if Tom had added a sound booth, I might be tempted to commandeer the studio to record my band for a week or two.
“
Is this place
booyakasha
or what?!”
Justin enthused, laughing while laying a damned good Ali-G on us.
“
It’s just
so
sweet, man!” added Tony, sliding down into one of the high-back leather chairs in front of the console. “You’ve definitely outdid yourself, Tom. This will take our ghost investigations to a whole new level, ya’ll.”
“
Yes, it really is something special,” said Fiona, admiringly. “I can’t wait to see what everything looks like using this new equipment, Tom.”
“
Better than my old system,” he said, moving over to the other chair. “
Much
better.” He sat down and turned on the main board, which quietly came to life. Green, orange, and blue lights began to flicker across the console’s face. “Okay, Fiona…Jimmy. Come a little closer and get ready to see something special.”
She and I moved over to where we stood directly behind him and Tony, with Angie and Jackie on Fiona’s right side, and Justin leaning in next to me. All of us waited expectantly for what would soon appear on the 60 inch LCD screen before us.
“
Okay….first off is the image in the window upstairs,” Tom advised. “For Fiona’s benefit, this happened when we were moving around the front of the house, and I pointed the infrared camera toward the upstairs window—the one above the main entrance.”
“
That’s where the younger kids sleep,” said Fiona. “Charlain told me during my initial visit to the house that her children hear voices up there.”
“
Well, that makes a lot of sense in light of what we’ve got here,” Tony advised, and then looked over at Tom, whose expression made it clear he wanted to completely handle the findings from last night’s investigation. “Oops, sorry, Tom….I just got a little carried away.”
“
It’s all right,” he replied, somewhat tersely. “Anyway, here we go.”
At first, only an intense yellow glare from the security flood lamps in the Thompson’s front yard filled the screen, amid a greenish glow from the infrared video. That, and Tom and Tony’s voices commenting on how it sucked to not be able to get any closer to the house without incurring additional problems—like worse camera angles due to the overhanging eves upstairs. Whoever built the place never considered the inconveniences presented for future ghost hunters.
Roughly a minute later, the upstairs window came into clear view. As we noted last night, the curtains were slightly open—most likely the kids’ request to have more than a nightlight illuminating their scary bedroom. A pair of wispy sheers blocked most of our voyeur access inside the bedroom, but still a gap existed in the middle of the window. For our purposes, that’s all we needed to capture the image.
At first, we could only see the green-hazed outline of the house and the reddish outlines from the security lamps’ casings, emitting heat from the powerful halogens. Then a dark red form appeared in the window. Fiona let out another slight gasp.
It rarely happens with this type of technology, as often the forms caught by infrared cameras appear shadowy, undefined as to sex, though clothing such as hats and coats can be determined. Not this time. Facial details of a woman were clearly viewable, and her face was framed by ringlets. Only the eyes remained shadowed, hidden. The portals to the soul…even though her expression was blank, who could say for sure there was no menace implied?
“
Go ahead and run the video forward, Tom,” said Fiona, shifting to the mode the group has come to expect of her. From sweet-natured to the ‘take charge’ individual who has spearheaded NVP’s rise to the top shelf of Tennessee’s plethora of paranormal investigators vying for the more prestigious locations to explore.
He looked back in surprise, maybe under the delusion that last night’s trauma and this morning’s second helping would promote him into the lead role…at least for now. Still, no one questions her direction when she gets into her zone—not even me, her closest confidante.
“
Okay,” he agreed, and the video resumed.
Almost instantly the image dissipated.
“
Good.” She sounded relieved. “Very good, actually. If the image had lingered too long, we would have to consider the possibility of someone playing a prank on us. Though it doesn’t seem like something Charlain would do, we’ve had it happen before. Remember the Miller investigation a few years back?”
“
Yeah, I do,” I confessed. “I’d just as soon forget about that one forever.”
Thought I had, truthfully. So thanks a bunch, sweetie, for resuscitating such an embarrassing memory. We’re probably still the brunt of some jokes about it.
“
I’m still pissed off at those frigging bastards!” fumed Jackie, looking over at Tony for his response, since he was also present for that red-faced moment. But he gave no indication he remembered what’d happened.
Wish I could be like that, or have Fiona’s ability to shrug it off even though it remained fresh enough for her to recall with ease.
“
Well, if the image hadn’t faded away like it did, it’d be easy to disprove,” continued Fiona. “From what I researched in the Cumberland branch of the main library, the face we just saw looks a lot like Lizzy Robertson. I feel so much sadness with this haunting…felt it strong in the house, especially upstairs when Charlain showed me around.”
“
Did any of the other pictures we took turn up anything cool, or mean-like?” asked Justin, still in his Ali-G mode with arms raised and fingers pointed down, like he was casting a gangsta spell.
“
Well, there are some anomalies in a few of your pictures I had developed this morning, Justin,” Tom advised. “Along with a few orbs from Jimmy’s digital memory card.”
He moved over to a desk in the room’s corner, where a pack of photographs sat. He brought them over to Fiona, who opened the pack while the rest of us gathered around her.
“
There could be evidence, at least in these pictures,” she said, pointing out the white, yellow, and red streaks that showed up in several of Justin’s pics. “But the orbs…I’m not sure about them since the house overlooks the river. They could be caused by moisture.”
“
What about this one?” asked Tony, pointing to an enormous orb, solid in its consistency, with yellow and red highlights along its edges.
“
I’m still not sure,” she confessed. “It could represent something, but I’d hesitate to claim it’s a spirit’s essence. Remember, gang, everything we review has to pass the most rigorous skepticism—“
“
And orbs can be caused by anything that refracts light,” I added, inadvertently interrupting her. Not a good habit of mine, and a sure invitation for an admonishment in private. “Water, dust, flying insects—you name it—can be a problem.”
I’m sure my face turned bright red, because I felt fiery warmth spread across my cheeks. All three women, and Ali-G, were looking at me in a way that let me know my transgression didn’t go unnoticed. At least by them. Tom and Tony, both boorish in nature, seemed oblivious.
Great. Just lump me in with the two Neanderthals in the group. Nothing like a slip of the tongue to hasten de-evolution. I resolved right then to do a better job of keeping my mouth shut until safe to open it again. At least in the presence of said company.
“
We could review the images from Jimmy’s photographs, but I’m afraid they are less conclusive than what Justin captured,” said Tom. “Tony’s results proved inconclusive as well.”
“
So, I guess that’s it for the preliminary run-through,” concluded Fiona, placing Justin’s photographs back inside the pack and returning it to Tom. “At least I’ll have something to offer Charlain when we chat this weekend.”
She complimented Tom again about his nice set up, and turned to leave the studio. But, so soon? Maybe she and the girls really did have some clubbing plans. As for me, I needed to leave in the next few minutes, as eight-thirty rapidly approached.
“
Wait a second,” said Tony, whirling around in his chair. “What about the shadow person we caught just before we left last night?”
“
Yes, I almost forgot!” Tom’s excitement peaked. I’m sure he’d kick himself later for the near-oversight. “It should only take a moment to get there, since we caught the figure using the infrared camera. It’s near the end of the video clip currently queued up.”
He was right. It took less than a minute, and since no one had previously viewed this video segment on Tom’s big screen, our collective amazement proved to be the most profound.
“
The figure looks so real…guys, I don’t think that’s a shadow person,” observed Jackie, squinting as if that’d help her see it more clearly.
“
I have to agree,” said Fiona, her suspicion evident in her tone. “Classic phantoms of this genre are featureless, completely. I can see the silver clip on the belt…and it looks like the figure is wearing a complete mask, like what I told Jimmy about earlier today.”
They all looked at her and then me. She held me in her gaze as well, probably wondering how much detail I left out from last night’s investigation. Perhaps she’s a little more irritated with me now, since it might’ve helped her define the images she psychically picked up from Dickey’s office earlier today.
“
It does look like some ninja dude,” I observed, feeling the growing weight of everyone’s stares. “Or—”
“
It could be a female,” offered Angie, drawing some of the attention away from me, thank God. She shrugged her shoulders in indifference. “Look at the figure...svelte in build. Granted, the person’s crouched in the bushes, and maybe it’s other shadows across the chest, but….”
“
She’s got boobs,” said Jackie, picking up where Angie left off.
“
I’m not so sure,” Fiona advised, shaking her head. “If that’s an actual phantom and not physically tangible, then maybe it is female. But if it’s somebody among the living…someone who followed you guys to the investigation, then I’m still convinced a male is involved here. Whoever killed my friends—
our
friends, since ya’ll have gotten to know them too—is a male. A bitterly angry guy.”
Just as she finished talking, a loud noise resounded from the house. At least that’s where I thought it came from, since it sounded like something heavy crashed onto the kitchen floor. Hearing anything outside the studio would’ve been impossible, given the main room’s thick insulation, if Tom hadn’t left the main door open ajar.