Monday, October 28 - "Somethng's In The Attic?" ... 68
When I awoke this morning I had to ask myself it the events of the previous night really happened, or was it all just a dream. Before I could haul my arse out of bed and hit the shower, I had to satisfy my need to put some closure to the entire affair. But the closure I sought would not come this day.
At the request of Wilma, Cassie and Edna, we gathered up some of our surveillance equipment and attended at the tavern for what Ben and I assumed would be another waste of time. We set up three video cameras at various points in the attic. Our audio equipment was centralized in the middle of the room. Cassie suggested that we conceal the equipment, but Ben shot that down with his comment that if there were any ghosts up there they likely wouldn't recognize our 21st century apparatus to begin with. Apparently the girls did not find any of this at all amusing so Ben and I ceased with the jokes. The five of us took up seated positions against the back wall, adjacent to the staircase. Cassie again suggested that a close proximity to the exit was a good idea ... just in case.
By 11:00 P.M. we had already been sitting for an hour and had nothing to show for it. Ben was getting restless and wanted to call it off. The girls insisted that we stay longer. I struck a compromise with them when I suggested that, in all the horror movies I have seen over the years, the ghosts usually made their presence known at midnight. It seemed to be the common denominator in the genre. I extended that curfew to 12:30 and all agreed.
12:30 rolled around and nothing happened. The girls, although relieved, seemed a bit disappointed. I really hoped that something exciting would occur ... perhaps a mouse scampering across the floor. Anything that would break the monotony and scare the shit out of the girls in the process, especially with the videos running. But alas, it wasn't to be. We abandoned the room and retired to the kitchen downstairs for a night-ending cold glass of lemonade.
It was about 1:15 when the girls retired to their adjacent rooms while Ben and I locked up for them. Due to the hour and the work involved, we decided to leave the equipment upstairs and pick it up later in the day. I couldn't remember if we had shut it all down or not so I went back up to make sure. When I approached the camera on the far side of the room I noticed that the lens was pointing upward towards the ceiling. I wondered how long it had been like that. Obviously Ben had not secured the collar on the stand and the back weight of the unit succumbed to gravity and slid down, aiming the lens upward. I cut the power and covered the lens with the cap. I then approached the remaining two cameras and saw that they too were in the same inverted position. Now that was weird. Ben can be a bit of a scatterbrain at times, but to leave all three cameras unsecured like that was hard to believe.
When I got back downstairs and mentioned it to him, Ben insisted that he tightened the collars of all three cameras as he was adjusting the focus. He reminded me that he has done the video work for years and adjusting equipment during setup is a reflex action. It isn't something that would ever be overlooked. The odds of all three units being neglected in such a manner is virtually impossible.
Ben looked at me. I looked at Ben. We both looked at the locked door to the attic.
Follow the adventures of Ben and Vern as they wield their way through one thrilling case after another in the exciting and entertaining detective novel series:
- P.E.Eyes - A Ben and Vern Detective
- P.E.Eyes - Balthazar
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