GH Chapter 1

The house was like so many others that Luke had visited in the deep south, this was a special job one where his help was really needed and the people would be grateful for his services. He pulled his white sports vehicle up the long drive and parked where a uniform man designated him to do so.

"Mister Visnik?"

Luke shut his car door and turned to the servant, "Yes, please call me Luke."

"Yes sir. How was your trip, sir?"

Luke paused by the rear hatch of his SUV. "What is your name?"

"Martin, sir. I hope I haven't given offense?"

"You have Martin, you have. Call me 'Luke', you do not work for me, you work for the family of the house. You and I are working men and I take it as a grievous offense to be addressed and treated as a gentleman by one of peers."

"Of course s-Luke."

"'Sluke', well that is better than sir." said Luke pulling a large black duffel bag out of the car. "So have you seen this apparition Martin?"

"I have...Luke." after pausing over the name Martin continued, "As recently as a week ago, it appeared to me in the kitchen, raising a saber at me and charging forward."

"Really? What did you do?"

"Why I ran for my life!"

"What did the man...it was a man? What did he look like?"

"Yes it was a man, of all things he looked like a picture of General George Custer! But he was wearing a confederate uniform and seemed to be carrying confederate weapons."

"You could tell?"

"I looked for pictures afterward, the sword looked like it came right out of the book at the public library."

It probably did. thought Luke to himself, out loud he said, "Really? Was the man in the picture the same?"

"No, not at all, the...apparition in the kitchen had blond curly hair, the one in the picture had dark hair and only a mustache, no beard."

"Did anyone else see it?"

"Not at that time, no, but other members of the family are waiting to speak with you."

"Well then, take me to them." said Luke, shouldering his duffel bag.

Holding his hand out Martin asked, "May I take the bag?"

"I got this one Martin, but thank you for offering."

"As you wish. Please follow me."

Martin led Luke up across the front of the house and up to a long, low roofless porch that spread about halfway across the front of the building. There was a fountain in front of the house, on the other side of the three lane drive, but it was not working. The grounds were trimmed and well kept, aside from the fountain.

"Is the fountain broken?"

"No s-.. No Luke. Miss Sonya asked to have it turned off to make the house a little more energy efficient."

Luke raised his eyebrows at this, letting his gaze sweep over the length of the three story mansion that was easily two hundred feet long from the front.

"I know Luke, it seems strange, doesn't it? Miss Sonya was most insistent that we replace the light bulbs with energy efficient models, buy high efficient appliances and limit our use of electricity to where it was needed. Before her father passed on the front rooms of the house were kept lit each night until nine o'clock, which gave the place a lively feel, I must admit. However through her efforts the electrical and water usage of the household have dropped more than thirty percent."

"I can imagine that is a significant savings." said Luke nodding knowingly "Is the family having financial difficulty?"

"Why, no. Not at all. Before she married Mrs. Longstreet earned a degree in finance at Harvard and she quite capable of handling the family fortune."

"That is...interesting."

"She came to the family with her own fortune, of course, but the master's was the greater of them. The missus has done charity work for the last four decades and taken a strong role in shoring up and weeding out corruption in all imaginable places. She might not have been up to date when the master passed, but within six months she was running everything."

"When did Mister Longstreet pass on?"

"It has been, oh, a year and a half now."

"When did the apparitions appear?"

"I see what you are getting at. Not then, we started noticing things a year ago, keys missing, the piano playing at midnight, a garden tractor starting itself in the lawn shed. That sort of mischievousness." The two men continued on into the house together. The air inside was not cold, as Luke had expected. The summer morning he was walking out of was humid and hot, inside it was noticeably cooler, and much drier.

"Geo-thermal?"

"Very good! Yes! Miss Sonya would be impressed!"

"How many staff are employed here?"

"We have a full time grounds keeper, a chef with two assistants, three butlers, a nanny and four full time maids, plus the night crew. I have four counterparts who work when I am not on duty. All of the staff have rooms on the grounds, most of us live here and just go into town on our days off. In addition to this we hire out a few part time positions to help with the gardens and for dinner parties."

"No security?"

"I am security." Martin said, pulling open his smooth black jacket to reveal a well concealed handgun. "As are my counterparts, all of the male staff members are hired from security firms and bonded, all of us carry firearms. I double as the man's man as needed, but visitors are few so this part of my job does not come up very often."

"So there are…thirteen full time staff most of the time, plus the Missus and her three daughters?" asked Luke.

"And Melony's children."

"No husband?"

"It was a bitter divorce. He comes around periodically to have supervised visits with the kids."

"So, two grandkids?"

"Yes."

"How old? Boys or girls?"

"A four year old boy, Taylor, and a six year old girl May."

"Who has seen the ghost?" asked Luke

"Why, everyone! At some time or another, I mean."

"Even the children?"

"Especially the children! Taylor played hide and seek with it all afternoon and then asked his mommy who the new staff member was."

"So it’s not always frightening?"

"Not to the children, the adults..." Martin grimaced, "It’s like it doesn't care for us."

"Interesting. Did your research turn up whose ghost it could be?"

Martin shook his head, "No, I am afraid not. This house has been in the family since the civil war, but no one fought in it, and they weren’t slave holders either. The family money comes from shipping, not farming. When the war started the master was away in England on business and decided to weather the war out there instead, taking an English bride and returning to get the house in order after the war."

"Maybe it was someone who didn't like that this Longstreet didn't participate way back then?"

"The family claims another, much more famous Longstreet, as a distant cousin. Although after the war the general was not well respected for his controversial views on General Lee."

"So perhaps an old rivalry. Hmm." The two men came into a sitting room where several women were waiting for them.

"Missus Longstreet, may I present Luke Visnik. Luke this is Missus Denee Longstreet, her oldest daughter Melony, this is Carmen and finally Sonya."

Taking the oldest woman's hand Luke bowed slightly and said, "It is my pleasure to meet you, Missus Longstreet." Luke followed the introductions around and evaluated each woman in turn. The oldest was dressed in a business suit, sans jacket and did not look like a woman to be trifled with. Her gray hair was cut short only slightly brushing the top of her modest white blouse, the woman looked to be in her late thirties, but Luke already knew she was fifty eight. He was not surprised to see her steely blue eyes evaluating him in turn, he matched her gaze and briefly put a slight glow into his retinas, an impressive trick he learned long ago and one that people seemed to think lent him credibility. The woman was stoic in her response, giving him a small smile before passing him on to continue the introductions.

The oldest daughter, Melony, also looked to be in her late thirties, which was shame because she was only thirty two. She was unpleasantly plump with hair that was prematurely graying from a dark black. She was wearing an over-sized name brand shirt and a mid-thigh skirt that did not flatter her at all. Luke shook her hand and exchanged pleasantries with her before moving on to Carmen, the middle daughter.

Carmen was twenty six, Luke knew she had just completed her master’s degree at Alabama A&M University and was shopping around for a medical school now. The young woman was thin, fit and sported a fine head of almost red hair that verged on brown and not blond. She was dressed as if she were getting ready to play tennis, complete with arm bands and small, fluffy balls on the shoes of her feet.  The youngest daughter, Sonya was nineteen. The baby of the family was following in her mother's footsteps, attending Harvard and studying management, with a financial emphasis. Her hair was almost blond, with only slight traces of auburn. She was wearing jeans, a white blouse and the pervasive flip flops that even the richest of children seemed to prefer over actual footwear.

Once the introductions were done, Luke had not been introduced to the servants, Denee said, "Mister Visnik what would you care to drink?"

"A fruit juice would be nice."

"Valery, please bring him a selection with the tea." the maid ducked out immediately and Denee spoke to Luke again, "How was your trip?"

"It went very well, thank you for asking. I wanted to get here as quickly as possible, but did not want to arrive tired and unable to help you right away."

"That’s right, you drove didn't you?"

"Yes, I don’t like flying, I’ve had some...problems in the air." ‘Which is putting it mildly.’ Luke thought to himself, vowing for the hundredth time never to fly again.

"I seem to recall something about that in the report Martin compiled for me about you."

"My history is very open to inspection. I like to keep it that way so that there are no misunderstandings with future clients."

"We should all be so forthright, Mister Visnik."

"Please, call me Luke."

"And you may call me Denee. I am a little incredulous at what people have said about you, but after a thorough investigation of the phenomena we are experiencing I feel using your service is almost our last hope."

"Oh, not at all Denee! Moving solves this kind of thing most times. I have only had to advise one of my clients to move, when I could not help them."

"I don't recall reading about that."

"It is on my biography online. The Jensen family in New England. There seemed to be a strong poltergeist in the house. I warned them I could not drive it off forever and that it would keep returning, but they insisted that calling me back to chase the thing out instead of moving on. After the third time it returned they finally had enough and decided to sell the place and move."

"Did the next family have the same problem?"

"The next owner was a business owner who was buying up all the land in the area as part of a deal for the race track he had built further south. The last I heard they had demolished the place and called in a Native American shaman to bless the land and return it to the natural state. I haven't heard any complaints from the wildlife in the area."

The women laughed briefly at his small joke, as clients always did.

"So tell me about your problem? Has anything happened in the last week since I spoke to you?" Luke asked, leaning forward slightly.

"Sonya, why don't you tell him." said Denee.

The young woman paused, glancing out the window before looking at Luke and saying, "I was woken up last Sunday night, Monday morning really and the thing was standing at the foot of my bed, castigating me for not settling down and taking a husband to continue my family line. It went on to inform me of my lack of character and immorality for wearing pants, voting and lording over household servants. I tossed a pillow at it and it raised a saber and cut it in half."

"What?!" Luke asked startled.

"Yes, when the pillow was about to hit it, the sword came up and sliced it into two pieces."

"Are you sure it was not a real person there?"

The young lady shook her head, "It wasn't real, the pillow halves flew through the thing's shoulders and landed on the floor behind it."

Luke sat, as if stunned and looked around the room at each woman, briefly meeting Martin's gaze. "I take it no intruders were found?"

"No." Martin answered.

"What did it do after that?"

"Well the guy spoke another few lines to me, but they were so soft I couldn't hear them and then approached me with the sword. I rolled out of bed to the floor and when I got up it was gone."

"Anyone else?"

"No." answered Denee.

"Martin has told me that everyone here has seen the thing a time or two, but only in the last year, had anything happened before that?"

Denee seemed like she wanted to say something, but was holding herself back.

"Anything Denee?"

"Well this was ages ago, long before the children were born, but I seem to remember strange things happening after I first moved to the estate."

Luke smiled, "Like what?"

"Nothing overt. No soldiers, no swords, but other things, like keys missing, lights going on, things of that nature."

"Mister Longstreet grew up here, correct?"

Denee nodded and said, "Yes."

"Did he ever mention behavior like this happening before? Perhaps when he was a child."

"No, never. Nor did his parents, both of whom lived here until their deaths."

"What about the old servants, the ones who retired? Did any of them mention anything strange?"

Martin sighed and Denee nodded at him. Clearing his throat the body guard said, "One of the retired staff, she is in her late seventies now, she claimed the place was always haunted. I didn't find her claims credible."

"Oh? Why not?"

"First, when I spoke to her she demanded money to tell me what she knew. A lot of money for a woman who insisted she only wanted to help. We negotiated to a fee that I wouldn't have paid if I hadn't been instructed to do otherwise and she told me what she knew." Martin's emphasis on the word 'knew' made it clear he thought the stories he was about to relate were just that, "What she told me revolved around slavery. She said one night when she was working late making a snack for the missus she saw a group of slaves in chains trudging through the back yard. Another time in the cellar she came upon a man in chains cowering in a corner silently screaming and holding his hands out defensively in front of him as welts appeared on his body and blood dripped on the floor. I visited the area in the wine cellar there are dark stains there, but we had them analyzed and there were from a Merlot. Every story she told revolved around slaves being mistreated or in agony. She said the pain of their suffering were what cursed this house and until amends were made by the family the haunting would continue."

"From what you told me of the history of this place it never was a plantation, and the owners never kept slaves."

"That is correct and the family name appears in many historical documents. Earnest Longstreet, the owner from 1850 until his death in 1883 was not an abolitionist, but he never owned slaves and he did speak out at least once on the record against their use as 'uneconomical' in the long run. The records before this time are surprisingly complete, other sons in the family who did not inherit the house and grounds were slave owners, but not here. Besides the area is not well suited for any of the cash crops of the south, before the army corps of engineers came in here, the area was mostly swampland. The house was on a rise, but it wouldn't have made a good plantation. As far as the records go back it has been referred to as an estate." 

"Your gut feeling is that she was lying about the apparitions then?"

"Yes. They bear absolutely no resemblance to anything we have seen so far."

"Has anyone put forth another reason for the sightings?"

Denee spoke, "We had the wiring checked, the air quality, even the food. We tried to rule out some sort of hallucinatory cause or mundane reason for the effects, everything turned up normal. That is when we looked into paranormal solutions."

"So you didn't believe in the paranormal before?"

The older woman smiled, "I am not sure we believe in it now. Tell us a little more Luke. We have read what we could find out about you on the internet and Martin ran a background check on you. Your references speak highly of you and we contacted as many as we could, but reading about such things that you are reputed as having done is far different from having you tell us what you've done. So please elaborate on your resume."

Luke treated most of his first meetings with his clients as 'job interviews', so this was not unexpected, that Denee was so very straightforward about things was something he found refreshing...and out of character for a southern gentry. He was saved from answering right away as Valery had returned with a cart of drinks and a platter of small finger foods. He helped himself to a plate of small sandwiches and a glass of apple cranberry juice, then thanked the serving woman and waiting a moment for everyone else to get their food and drinks before he answered.

"My history with the paranormal started when I was a young child, I spoke to people who no one else could see and if some people did strange things at times, well, I just thought that was normal. I do not remember the first time I realized I had power over the ghosts that I found, in fact I don't think I was really aware that my 'friends' were ghosts at all until around the time I was eleven or twelve. My best friend Eric seemed to take for granted that what I told him was true, of course it was that year I learned he was a ghost too. My mother would hear me playing for hours alone, inside the house, outside, everywhere and when she checked on me I was always alone. My parents worried and I had to go see a psychologist for therapy before I even finished grade school. This is history that is not on my resume, but it builds up to how I discovered my unique talents." It was also, Luke knew, a complete misrepresentation of the truth.

"When I was fourteen my world was thrown into chaos, my mother and father dropped me at school and never returned, they were killed in a rollover accident on their way to a normal job on a normal day. My only living relative was a sickly uncle who lived in New York, whom my parents had also made my god parent, so in less than two weeks, I was robbed of my parents, my home and my friends as I relocated to the big city from the small mid-western town I was used to. My uncle didn't drive, so I was also forced to use public transportation for the first time and on the subways, which were always crowded, I met even more ghosts. Eric hadn't made the move with me, even though I had explained where I was going and asked him to come, he said he wouldn't. So I was forced to make new friends, real and otherwise. Four years later my uncle died, also in a car crash, he was being driven across town by a friend to go to dinner and was hit by a woman distracted by her kids in a mini-van. I was barely of an age to assume responsibility for his estate legally, but it was a difficult time and after his death I simply stopped going out. I had not graduated from high school yet, his death was in the winter of that year and I was set to graduate in May, and when I stopped showing up for classes, the school tried to contact me. They gave up surprisingly quickly, except for one teacher, who eventually persuaded the police to get to the building manager to open my uncle's apartment to check on me. Of course I was there, a virtual shut in, I had not left the apartment during that time. There was not a scrape of food left in the house and I had lost almost thirty pounds. The police called human services and I was put into protective custody and wound up being committed for a few months to a sanitarium. Who knew such places still operated?" Luke paused to eat a sandwich and take a drink before continuing.

"After being evaluated by the staff I was given some treatment that got me back on my feet. I finished school and looked at attending college, but I was unhappy with New York. It was too big and I had always felt out of place there. I sold my uncle's apartment and contemplated moving back to Kansas, my uncle had not sold my parents’ home there, he was saving it for me when I came of age. That move didn't seem right either, so I wound up in Maine, where my uncle had taken me every summer while we lived together. The first winter was a vast difference from the temperate conditions of the summer, but I enjoyed it. Portland is so much more intimate than New York was and with the age of the city I found that it had a number of residential ghosts as well. I got into New England University and it was in my studies there that I found I could affect ghosts."

"Affect them how?" asked Sonya. "Physically?"

"I could always touch them and they me, like I said, as a kid I played with them, I thought they were real. But as I grew up I began to see signs that let me differentiate between the living and the dead. What I mean is I could force them out of certain places, my room for instance. I didn't like being woken up in my room late at night, ghosts do not sleep, but I do and resented losing sleep because something wanted to speak with me in the middle of the night and didn't think twice about waking me up. I kept an eye out for places that I never really saw ghosts. Churches for one thing. At my parents funeral and my uncles there were ghosts at the wake, in the graveyard and at the receptions, but I didn't see any in the churches."

"What religion are you?" asked Denee.

"I’m not." Luke responded curtly, "But it seems some ghosts maintain their faith into death and will not enter what they regard as holy places after passing on. My experiments with religious icons held some at bay, but not all of them, so I moved on to new materials. Eventually I found something that worked."

"What?"

Luke smiled, "Trade secret."

Denee frowned and wrinkled her forehead, her eyes growing cold, "So this is how you make your..."

"That was meant as a joke. Precious metals seem to work well, as does lead. Another thing is distilled water, and no, I have no idea why."

"That's it? You could have told us this over the phone!" Carmen said.

Luke's smile stayed on his face and he shook his head again, "No. That isn't it. Let's say you dusted the house with silver or poured distilled water over everything, that would indeed prevent the ghost from moving through the barrier. But which side of the barrier to you want it on? No, the hard part is getting the ghost out of the house to begin with.That is why I am here."

"These things that keep this thing away, will it work? They sound costly or temporary; distilled water dries out."

"I have found that treating a place, a residence or property once or twice is fairly effective. Your house is rather large and there may be a significant cost associated with the procedure, a cost unrelated to my fee at all. In fact I don't even charge a fee. I do this for no charge."

"Your website led me to believe you made your living doing this." said Denee.

"I do." Luke's ever present smile was back again, "I rely on donations from satisfied customers. How much is removing this thing from your home worth to you? I cannot set a price on that and I refuse to do so. However I am not a charity, I will toss the ghost out for you and show you what you need to do to keep it away, but I won't pay for the protections of your home, you will have to bear that cost yourself."

"Ah, I see. I can't believe you drove all this way with no expectation of being paid?"

"I don't think that's true. If I may indulge in a little brutal honesty here?" Luke asked arching his eyebrows, "If there is an apparition I should be able to force it to leave, I have a one hundred percent success rate so far. It would be great to be compensated for my time and efforts to get here. If you would pay for my gas, lodging and meals that, also, would be great. As for my time that is purely discretionary. You would not be the first wealthy client I have aided in the past that didn't pay me a dime. I don't expect to be well compensated; you did not get wealthy by paying windfalls to complete strangers. It is my experience that a middle class family is more generous with their payment than one from the upper class. That being said, I still came. Why? Because this is what I do."

If Denee was taken aback by his words she hid it well. She is a cold, hard woman Luke thought to himself, the youngest daughter looked contemplative and met his gaze briefly. They nodded slightly to each other and Luke went on, "So I think it's best if I begin by taking a look around. Are there any rooms this thing frequents? Any areas where it has been seen more than once?"

"Martin, will you show Luke around?" Denee said to her hired help, turning to Luke she explained, "He knows the specifics and was expecting a question along these lines. The ghost seems to prefer the third floor, our bedrooms are up there, along with many unused rooms. Luke?"

"Yes ma'am?"

"I appreciate your candidness and realize you might be a little fatigued from your long drive. We will be grateful for whatever help you can give us. How long will your preparations take?"

Luke hesitated, "I don't really know anything yet. In the past it has taken anywhere from several hours to a week to convince a ghost to leave their haunting place and the owners have to be prepared to block the property off as soon as I have done so."

"What do we need?"

"I have brought silver powder with me it might be enough to make a perimeter around the house if I get lucky and get rid of the thing today. We could spread it in a half circle around the back of the house now and leave the front half to do afterward, three quarter circle would be better. It needs to be loosely tossed about two to three feet wide."

"Powdered silver? Isn't that expensive?" asked Melony.

"Not particularly. It costs more than lead, but I didn't want to use lead because of the children. I have receipts for it, in case you were in a reimbursing mood. You will need more. It should last forever, but I would recommend laying down more in another month or so."

"Couldn't the ghost just step or fly over it?"

"Stepping no. Has anyone seen the ghost fly?" Luke asked throwing concern into his voice.

The ladies and Martin shook their heads no.

"I have found that most apparitions tend to stick to more mundane modes of travel. If you haven't seen it fly a circle around the house should be sufficient."

"What if it did fly?"

"Then things would get more expensive. I would recommend dousing the roof in distilled water and repainting the house with a paint mixed with the powered silver."

"Would lead based paint work?"

"Yes, but that is not legal anymore."

"I am aware of the danger to my grandchildren, but that type of paint used to be common, it could have interfered with ghosts in the past."

"We are going down a tangent I would be happy to speak to you about after we get your problem taken care of. For now could I have Martin walk me around please?"

"Certainly." Denee, "Most of us will be around or reachable by cell all day, just let us know if there is anything Martin cannot answer."

Luke rose and followed as Martin led him out of the room.

"Shall we start in the basement and work our way up?"

"Yes, that would be good. I want to get a feel for the rooms of the house, I know the appearances have been most frequent on the third floor, but let’s see if I can figure out where else the ghost has been."

"A scientific procedure then?"

Luke shook his head and smiled, looking right into Martin's eyes, "No. I would call it more of a faith building procedure. She trusts you implicitly."

"I know and I trust her judgment about areas she is an expert in."

"What areas would those be? Finance?"

"If you knew her as well as I do, you might be surprised at her range of skills and knowledge."

"A kept woman who married well? I am surprised she has that depth."

Martin looked at Luke for a moment, trying to decide if the man was deliberately trying to antagonize him, he thought he was so he said, "Why the attitude change?"

"You're quick I give you that. I don't normally get confronted with the knowledge I've been investigated when I show up to help. I doubt I told you much that you hadn't already dug up on your own."

"The personal history was new, everyone who know you when you were younger is dead or doesn't remember much about you, even the teachers Kansas said you were a quiet student who didn't cause any problems. The rest verified your integrity. Not many people would admit to spending time in an asylum, nor to feeling like the wealthy pay less because they are wealthy and have an expectation that they are entitled to any services the unwashed masses can provide for them."

"I wasn't quite that harsh in my assessment, but that doesn't mean I was wrong either."

"No, nor does it mean you are right. Some people know the value of good service and pay for it. Perhaps you are only getting what you are worth?"

"And maybe the wealthy are just stingy when it comes to services that are already performed without a contract stating compensation."

They walked through a massive modern kitchen towards a wide door that led to the basement. A dank, almost moldy smell greeted Luke's nose as he stepped down the stairs.

"You could have had a contract, still could, before you did anything. I am sure the missus would agree to a reasonable amount of money."

Luke paused on the stairs and turned towards Martin, he waved his hands into the air to encompass the house and area, "This, Martin, is faith. I think my faith is weakened if I go into a job for money. If I feel my faith is weakened, my abilities will be weakened, then I might start to fail."

"A self-fulfilling prophecy then? You said you were not religious."

"I'm not, I don't believe any of the religions got everything a hundred percent correct. I think most of them got some things right and I do have faith, of a sort. Part of what I do relies on intuition and mine tells me not to set a price when I do a job; not to ask for money beforehand. It tells me to rely on what I am given afterward, to take it, leave and never contact the client again, unless they contact me."

"I could be mistaken, but I thought you were whining about the amount you are compensated just a few minutes ago. Was that a play on our heartstrings?"

"A mere observation, I put it out there to emphasize that I have more reason for not being here than I do for coming all this way. If the old lady stiffs me, I will thank her for allowing me to do my job and move on. Simple as that."

The walked on in silence until they came to the landing at the base of the stairs. They were in a fairly well lit, clean room that had two solid wooden doors off of it and a hallway that appeared to run the length of the house.

"Is your intuition telling you anything now?" Martin asked, with a bit of a smile.

"Yes, actually." Luke moved over to a wine rack and examined it closely he moved a bottle of wine, cheap wine, he noted, and reached back into the space he took the bottle from. The smile dropped immediately from Martin's face as a section of the wine rack swung forward to reveal a hidden passageway behind the rack.

"How did you...?"

"Mister Garad, I find that most people, when confronted by the fact that I might actually have abilities that I claim to have are shocked. I have never been in your house. I haven't seen any blueprints or plans for it and I just arrived in town. I take it this is some sort of 'family secret' then?"

"Only the immediate family and security personal know of it. How did you know it was there and how to get the door open?"

"I just did. Call it a gut feeling."

Martin looked dubious but didn't try and stop Luke from entering the passage. The construction looked relatively new, or at least done in the last ten or fifteen years, which made it new by comparison to the rest of the two hundred year old mansion. The hallway was about thirty feet long and ended in an oily looking steel door.

"It looks like a bank vault. Is it a safe room?"

A curt nodded was all Luke received for an answer. Trying the door he found that it was open and he swung it slowly out until he could see inside the room beyond. The door itself was at least six inches thick and seemed to be made of solid metal. there were rubber gaskets around the edges which probably formed a water and gas tight seal when the door was shut. The room inside was spacious and more of it was revealed when Martin helpfully turned on a light inside. There were two sets of bunk beds and a normal queen sized bed along one wall, there was a sitting area with a thin television mounted on one wall and a kitchenette with a sink, refrigerator and microwave. A table for six was in the kitchen area, opposite of that corner was a door and embedded into the wall across from the door Luke had entered were the rungs of a ladder.

"It is a lot bigger than I imagined it would be. The appliances are a little out of date, so it must have been built around the last recession?"

"It was before I was employed here, but yes it was fairly new when I came on six years ago."

"How long can the family and staff hunker down in here if they have to?

"What does this have to do with our ghost?"

"It was here. It walked in here." Luke slowly walked to the center of the room, there was a large throw rug covering the central floor space. He moved to the center of the red and beige rug and stood there, as if absorbed in thought. Behind him Martin slowly shifted his uniform jacket back and placed his hand over the concealed pistol he wore there. When Luke started moving again Martin eased his hand away from the gun.

"Have any members of the family been down here recently, since the apparition started appearing?"

Martin shook his head and said, "No, none of them have been down here in ages."

"Really?" Luke asked, with surpise in his voice, "They don't usually go places unless people go there too. Have you or the other security guard been down here?"

"Oh, yes, we have to check it monthly, make sure none of the food has expired, make sure the doors are secured against common entry and replace light bulbs, that sort of thing."

Approaching the ladder set into the wall Luke asked, "Does this go up into the garage then?"

"Yes."

"The apparition didn't climb it. I think we are in luck, it seems to be using mundane doors as access points, so we should just be able to seal those off and block it out of the home without protecting the family grounds completely. Come on, let me check the rest of the basement."

The two moved about through the extensive basement and Luke didn't find more to comment on as they went. Finally they came upstairs in another part of the house and spent the rest of the day moving through it room by room. Luke periodically made notes on his small electric hand held and was in the middle of Denee's room when they were interrupted by a serving woman.

The servant cleared her throat politely and said, "Mrs Longstreet sent me to tell you that dinner is in ten minutes and that we are setting a place for you."

Luke stopped taking notes, then frowned and checked the time, "Almost six o'clock already? Where has the day gone? I don't normally work through lunch without noticing." His stomach let out a low gurgle, "Oh excuse me, yes some dinner would be wonderful, thank you!"

The servant left and Luke continued pacing the room taking notes, before finally relenting to Martin's body language and heading down to the dinner table.