Tom wiped off a small space on one of the windows, but the decades of built-up dirt and dust would not be cleared away so easily. The outside world remained a dark blur to him. He turned around to face the room, and saw Harry and Katie each sitting cross-legged in front of a laptop.
“How’s it going?” Tom asked.
Harry looked up at the sound of his voice.
“Not much is happening so far. We’re getting some weak readings which indicate a definite aural presence in the general vicinity, but likely not in this room. That about what you’ve got, Katie?”
“Yep.”
“If there was any presence in this room, wouldn’t we be able to see it?” Tom asked. “You wouldn’t need to check any readings.”
“Actually,” Harry said, “we may not necessarily see anything. It depends.”
“Depends on what?”
“On a lot of different factors.”
Harry didn’t elaborate, and Tom let the matter drop. Patricia and Jack were playing a game of War with Harry’s playing cards; they had tried to get Tom interested in a game of three-way Spades, but he had begged off. Tom went over near Harry and leaned down, taking a look at the laptop screen. There were three open windows on the screen, stacked on top of one another, each one taking some kind of measurement. Tom didn’t understand anything he was seeing. He moved over to take a look at Katie’s screen, which looked about the same as Harry’s.
“You’re standing in my light,” Katie said.
“Oh; excuse me.”
Tom moved away. He felt that the night was turning out to be something of a bust. He wasn’t sure exactly what he had expected to happen, and he knew that in some way he should be thankful that nothing had happened, since whatever happened was unlikely to be pleasant, but he couldn’t deny a nagging sense of disappointment.
Tom moved over to where Patricia and Jack were sitting on the floor, taking turns flipping their cards over. They both flipped jacks at the same time, which forced a face off. They each flipped their next three cards face down and another card face up; Patricia won it with an eight of clubs over a five of diamonds. Jack groaned in defeat as she collected the hand.
There was a creaking noise from up above, and everyone looked up at once, but all they saw was the high ceiling and nothing more. Tom looked at Harry, who only shrugged his shoulders.
“Probably just settling noises. It is an old place, after all.”
Patricia and Jack resumed their game, a game which Tom hadn’t played since the fifth grade, while Harry and Katie watched their laptops, both typing something out every now and then. Tom took a seat near Katie (taking care not to block her light again), sitting on one of the overturned suitcases.
“How long have you known the big man over there?” he asked, nodding his head toward Harry.
“Not long,” she said without looking up at him. “I met him about three months ago; Jack introduced us.”
“Only three months, huh? Have you done something like this before? You know, a stakeout for ghosts, or whatever?”
“Nope. This is my first time out in the field. Jack went out with Harry once before. There was this newlywed couple who said they thought their house was being visited. You know, like, visited by some sort of entity.”
“Did anything happen while Harry and Jack staked out the house?” Tom asked.
“No; nothing at all.”
“The sons of bitches were trying to sell the story of their ‘haunted house’ to the tabloids,” Harry chimed in. “They were using me to give them and their story some sort of credibility. To hell with them. At least they--”
Harry fell silent when the bell-shaped object started emitting a low humming noise. Harry, Katie and Tom all looked at the thing as it started to hum; Jack and Patricia were apparently too engrossed in their card game to notice. Harry turned to his computer screen and tapped away for a few seconds.
“What have you got?” Harry asked Katie.
“Nothing out of the ordinary.”
The humming faded away.
“Hmm. Just a little EMF spike,” Harry said. “It seems to have leveled out, though.”
“So, was it…them?” Tom asked.
“Maybe.”
Harry’s repeated failure to elaborate on his responses was starting to wear on Tom’s nerves. Tom stood up, his left knee popping with the effort, and he walked back over to where Patricia and Jack were having another face off.