Saturday
Erin called the library Saturday morning. Miss. Simon said she wanted to see Teddy and her that day. Erin said they would try to come around one o’clock. She told Mom about the appointment and she said it was fine.
It was getting close to 1p.m. and the kids were putting on their snow gear.
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“I’ll drive you to the library. The roads are clear and I wanted to go there this weekend anyway,” said Mom.
“Ok. I didn’t feel like walking,” said Erin.
Mom drove them to the library and they went in. Miss. Simon was behind the counter with two other people. Miss. Simon told the others that she needed to schedule Erin and Teddy for volunteer work and she would be back when she was finished. She said hello to Mom as she came around the counter She asked Mom to borrow Erin and Teddy for a few minutes. Mom said she would be in the non-fiction section when they were finished.
Miss. Simon led to kids to a back corner of the library. She pulled out a key and led them into the room.
“I don’t think anyone saw us,” said Erin.
For a moment Erin had forgotten about Miss. Simons abilities.
“Don’t worry Erin. If someone were there I would have felt it. Right now everyone’s on the other side of the library,” said Miss. Simon. “Have a seat guys.”
“What are you going to teach about today? A chupacabra?” asked Teddy.
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“Not today Teddy but that is scheduled for another time. Today we are going to put your training to work. I have a case that I need you to investigate,” said Miss. Simon.
This was the first time Miss. Simon had assigned them to a case. They had solved that first case but that was months ago. They had practice runs with trainers playing evil roles but this was real. Teddy was excited about the case and ready to get started. Erin was concerned; she was worried that it could be dangerous.
“Try to relax guys. I don’t have to be a mind reader to know that your both a little worked up,” laughed Miss. Simon. “I haven’t even told you any details. It’s not as bad as you think.”
The kids laughed a little and tried to settle down. Erin took a couple breaths and said,
“Ok, I’m fine. What do you have for us?”
“It’s a poltergeist, an angry sprit that can manipulate objects. I need you to find it and do what ever is necessary to stop its destructive behavior,” said Miss. Simon.
“Thank goodness. I thought for sure that it would be a vampire. Where do we start?” said Erin.
“The information I have on this case comes from news articles I’ve linked together. Through experience I’ve learned to find paranormal activity
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in what seems to be separate events. This is one of those circumstances. I’m sure this is the spirit,” said Miss. Simon.
She handed the kids an article about a young girl named Janet who was murdered. She was shot and her body was found along the road near the intersection of Joh and Benson Avenues.
“What kind of damage could a girl like this cause?” said Teddy.
“You might be surprised,” said Miss. Simon.
She handed Erin and Teddy a folder of clippings that had a variety of incidents. Fatal car accidents, hit and run, death by natural causes and murders were the subjects of the articles.
“The girls body was found 9 years ago and no one has been charged with her murder. Every year on the anniversary of her murder someone in the area dies. As you can see her 10th anniversary is next Saturday. Unless you stop her someone else will die,” said Miss. Simon. “By the way your mother is thinking about looking for you. You better go meet her.”
“Alright let me have everything you can on the case and we’ll get started. Hopefully we can stop her before next week,” said Teddy.
He took the files and put them in his backpack. Erin and Teddy got up and thanked Miss. Simon for the chance to solve another case
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and she said not to misunderstand that she is the one that needed them. They left the room and walked back the counter. Mom walked up carrying a few books and said,
“Are you all finished meeting with Miss. Simon?” asked Mom.
“Yeah, she was assigning our work for next week,” said Teddy. “Did you get everything you wanted?”
“Not everything but this will do,” said Mom with a laugh.
Mom checked out the books she wanted and drove the three of them home. When they got home Erin and Teddy went up to her room and started going through the material that Miss. Simon had gathered.
Teddy wrote down the names of all the people killed. He was going to check their backgrounds. Anything that linked them could help solve the case. His next step was to organize the deaths by their causes and dates to see if there was a pattern. He made a chart but a pattern wasn’t apparent. There were 4 causes of the 9 deaths; murder in 2003 and 2007, car accident in 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2010, hit and run in 2009 and natural cause in 2004 and 2008.
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Erin loaded a map on her computer and started marking the locations of deaths listed in the articles. She could mark 4 of the 10 locations, including Janet, but she wasn’t sure if the marks were accurate. She needed the police reports to mark the exact positions.
She called Teddy over to have a look at the map. She said the locations might offer some insight to the case. He liked her idea and said he would get the police reports. He knew how to retrieved police reports off the net so he borrowed her laptop and started looking.
He downloaded 4 of the 5 closed case reports. The 2005 car accident was listed as closed but the report was missing. The other 5 cases, including Janet, were unsolved and the reports weren’t posted. The closed cases were the car accidents and the natural causes. The open cases were Janet, the murders and the hit and run.
By this time Teddy’s head was spinning and he needed a break. They decided to get away from the job for a while. Teddy saved the information he had compiled on the computer and Erin gathered all the paperwork and put it in a file in
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her backpack. They left Erin’s room and went downstairs.
Mom and Dad were sitting in the living room. Teddy asked them if they wanted anything from the kitchen. They said no that they were fine. Teddy made two glasses of water and gave one to Erin and they went into the living room.
“Are you watching a movie?” asked Teddy.
“Yeah. It’s an old Schwarzenegger movie that’s one of our favorites,” said Dad.
“What’s it called?” asked Erin.
“It’s called Total Recall. It’s a combination of science fiction, action, and drama with a little comedy mixed in. It just started sit down and watch it with us,” said Dad.
“I’ve never heard of a movie that includes all genres?” laughed Erin.
“Yeah, they made a lot of them in the ‘80s. It was the all in one genre,” laughed Dad.
Mom laughed a little too. It was the movie they had seen on their first date in 1990. To her it seemed like yesterday and twenty years ago at the same time. Now they were watching it with their children, amazing she thought.
After watching the movie Erin said,
“That didn’t seem like a first date movie. It’s not very romantic.”
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“Maybe not but without it you might not be here. Everything worked out in the end so it turned out to be a great first date movie,” laughed Dad.
The break from the case allowed Teddy to comprehend the information he compiled. While watching the movie he was also sorting out the chart of dates and causes in his mind.
A pattern forms when something repeats itself. Teddy thought there had to be one on that chart. He wanted to look at the chart again. He told Mom and Dad that he was going to his room and goodnight if he didn’t see them later. He went up and got the chart out of the file in Erin’s backpack and took it to his room to study.
He looked for similarities on the chart and noticed that the murders and the natural causes each had a 4-year lapse between deaths. Then he noticed the car accidents had a 4-year lapse between the ’06 and ’10 deaths. He felt he was making progress and continued looking.
In ’07-’10 each year had a different cause of death. Murder in ’07, natural cause in ’08, hit and run in ’09 and car accident in ’10, that’s a group, if
it repeats it’s a pattern he thought.
Teddy was pleased with the find but it wasn’t complete. It didn’t track back to the first death in ’02.
’02 was a car accident, ’03 assault, ’04 natural cause but ’05 and ’06 were car accidents. I didn’t fit. He started to think he was looking for something that wasn’t there. It was tedious and confusing. He needed to put it away for a while again.
While putting the chart back in Erin’s room he thought about the police reports that he couldn’t download. Erin needed those reports to finish the map. Maybe the map would reveal a pattern he thought.
He remembered Officer Bishop. Officer Bishop could get the reports. He had helped them on their first supernatural case. If they explained what they were working on he might give them the reports.
He told Erin about his progress on the chart and about maybe getting the files from Officer Bishop. He said they should call him after church and ask to see him. Erin said it was a good idea and they should do it. They had a long day and they were tired so they said goodnight and went to bed.