Marple put out his pipe and briskly considered the case, from different perspectives, and I spotted he was confused over what we were dealing with, and he eventually laughed, confusedly, and eventually just relaxed into his seat.
Outside the traffic and voices seemed to vanish, like into mist, and I sat in deep thought, and it became more intriguing!
His secretary rushed up the stairs and swiftly let the man in the room, without knocking, and I was staggered when I looked around and saw Dr Barrymore, as he shifted wearily forward, and I realized straightaway he was dreadfully ill and he could now hardly even walk, and clearly had serious medical conditions.
I examined him quickly wondering why he had gone to such lengths to get there, and it made me gasp, and I considered the war once again, and the dangers ahead, and wondered if the current events and intense bombings had helped his demise.
Dr Barrymore rushed into a seat, rested, exhausted, trying to recover, but not properly, and I noticed he had some documents he held firmly in his fist.
He observed us sitting around the table drinking and removed chewing tobacco and chewed off a lump, placing the remainder in his interior pocket.
Marple rushed over and got a drink for him, and returned, and placed it in front of him.
“What’s happened?” Marple asked. “What have you?”
“It’s that eighteenth century document and treasure!” he announced, and we looked up, from staring in the fire.
He rested, and continued, “The information on the artifact I’ve been looking for comes from accumulated sources, only known by me, and the individual sources, which have been proven to have occurred in 1568 …”
I was still surprised in what he said, and as I had forgotten of what he had told me at our last meeting, and Marple seemed to come to and recall what transpired.
“According what I’ve found,” Dr Barrymore continued, “Valuable jewels were left near where it was concealed!”
“Near the artifact?” Marple instantly asked, confused. “Was that some form of clue?”
“Perhaps! For centuries the lost jewels have been thought to exist by a few explorers, who have carried out searches.”
“So you still want us to help you find it?”
“I’ve recently located a form of map!” he gasped, trying to rest.
“What do you want us to do?” I asked, curiously.
“I discovered something of significant importance that could be of great interest to mankind! Yes! I will need your help!”
“Mankind!” Marple gasped, and sat back examining him, and silently gulped, and lit his pipe.
“According to legends some people have been found dead after searching for it …”
“They’re just legends?” I joked, smiling.
He nodded, and examined me a little more closely.
For a moment I considered there being a danger and wondered why it would still exist, and doubted the value of the objects, as all the archaeology and museum discoveries were currently usually worthless, except to historians like him.
I knew that he had been given a major clue to its location, and I watched him open the document and remove something from its interior, and hand it over to Marple, and I sat next to Marple, examining the ancient tattered piece of parchment, where there were lines and words scribbled over it, as though the person had been doing something and was in a great rush to finish it!
“What date do you make it?” I asked, amazed at its age.
Before Dr Barrymore replied Marple replied, “Around 1568!”
“So it’s a 1568 map?” I asked Dr Barrymore, and he agreed.
I thought about it but still did not know what it meant, and I wondered what he wanted us to do!
Marple finally finished examining it and placed it on the table, and looked over and asked, “So you want us to find the place on the map? With our experienced investigators …”
“Yes! Marple! I’d really like that! I also want you to search for it when you do, and phone me for any information, which I may be able to provide! I’m sure the treasure is still there, and I’d really just like it to be found!”
What I could not understand was why he was so confident with so little clues, and I wondered if he had been checking such things and proving their authentication, and it occurred to me that if everything he said was true then the accounts of its deadliness could also be true!
Chapter 11
The Haunting
What was incredible was I realized I had not solved anything in my first case and what had happened to me at Craigmillar Road, and I could not grasp what would happen, as every puzzle and mystery seemed to be or was being solved everywhere else, by some means, and Marple forced me into taking another visit there, and ordered me to solve it as quickly as possible.
I realized he had read my report on what had happened and had entirely missed what had occurred and what I meant, and I could not explain any further anything of what had happened and he never seemed to think anything had happened to me, and I realized again that even though he had a great interest in investigating the paranormal he never believed it, and consistently explained it with logical solutions, and he believed that he could explain virtually anything, and as I made my way back to the house at Craigmillar Road I realized that I would really like to find something of that nature, and which he could not answer!
The elderly woman was delighted to see me and did everything to welcome me in and not put me off the case, and at dinner we discussed the case and she told me what had been happening since I left and she told me that the haunting had continued occurring every night at the same time, and had increased since my visit, and that neighbors in the surrounding buildings and streets had witnessed strange occurrences like it, and she showed me mentions of it in newspapers and other publications.
What could it be? I was left baffled, once again! I had considered everything, and only had the metal detector that had activated it, and it never added up to anything!
I realized that the two paranormal investigators had not even known what it was, and I realized that they should be the ones that should solve it, and they could at least witness the occurrence, and information, and I realized from the information they had given that they had not actually given me any mention of such an occurrence, and I was sure that they had not told me of anything authentic of a supernatural nature, and which they had confronted, and I was sure that they had not properly found anything as solid as it, and that their stuff was not really authentic, and going by Marple’s view of them and their work he never believed that they had discovered anything of that nature.
I left the building and got to a phone and called them up, and I explained the situation and the occurrences and Higgins was astounded, and he sounded more astounded than I had heard him, and he was deeply surprised, and was not able to explain anything to me, and he put Oswald on the phone, and he was confused, and they agreed to come and see the occurrence, and they decided to bring their best equipment, and try and help the woman.
It was amazing that I had not fully realized the idea before!
I had been too busy not wanting to go back, and had no interest in finding out what was there, and the damage I had been bad!
It was incredible that all the time I had been with them I never properly explained what had happened, and I still believe they never picked up what I meant.
I recalled how powerful it was, and that their other scientists could also help out, and I told her about them, and their experience, and she was excited at the outcome and glad to have me bring them.
So I phoned Marple and told him of what occurred and he just ignored the occurrences and told me the two paranormal scientists had become famous over the Loch Ness monster story, and he agreed that their technology had vastly improved, and that if anyone could find anything they would be the ones.
Chapter 12
The Paranormal Scientists
Paranormal scientists and technicians rushed back
and forward setting up their new equipment all over the woman’s corridor, while Oswald and Higgins checked everything.
I watched on, and the woman in her living room relaxing, joyously listening to the scientists at work.
They gave me the impression that they might be going to do something or come to a conclusion, and that they might well have found the right location to do it.
I started to realize the implications, and recalled what had happened to me the last time, and that it might be deadly, and I realized that they might find something was there of deadly origins and be of great danger to everyone there and even in the region! Yet when I thought of it I could not realize anything that could do such a thing!
Higgins quickly told the scientists, “Investigate all these walls, the floor, and roof ...”
I felt tiredness from the events of that day and wished that I could have rested.
When I examined the equipment they now had I was surprised at how advanced it had become and at its capabilities and I wondered how they could make a large enough profit to pay for it, but realized it surely was funded somewhere.
Their visit there was clearly giving them far more of an insight and knowledge of things than I had realized, and they had gained a great deal of information from their earlier questioning of the woman, who had been desperate to get them to solve the problem.
I was becoming positive that they had found far more than they had indicated, and were keeping secrets from me.
I wanted to grasp what they all knew that I should know, and I regularly strolled about examining the equipment for clues, and recalled something that I had forgotten and reading about some of the work that the two paranormal scientists had done years ago, after they had given documents on their paranormal investigations.
I recalled their stuff had been surprising, and even alarming, which had drawn my attention at the time, but I recalled that I had just dismissed it later as them using it to advertise their work!
At times I thought they were deliberately putting the psychic research there to cover their real work and discoveries! Whatever that was! They never mentioned anything on other stuff that they did, which I had found existed at occasions, and I had hardly even seen anyone even check them.
They informed me that they were checking for virtually all known forms of disturbance, energy and matter disturbances, in and around the haunted region and I was sure that they could, from what I had heard earlier from some of the other scientists, which just confused me even more later as I could not grasp what they were actually talking about at times, and I realized that so far I just never knew what was there!
Eventually I started to get sleepy and at some point I fell asleep in a chair in my room, after a long day, and I was suddenly awoken from one of the strangest dreams I have had, and thought I sensed something strange, which I could not grasp, and kept trying to awaken myself further and prove that it was the dream and my sleepy state of mind. Yet there was something strange and I felt as though there was something there, but I could not grasp what, and I was sure I had not encountered it before, and I listened to all the scientists at work and their low level conversations, and I checked them outside my door, to discover if anything had been detected.
Suddenly, in the darkness at the end of the corridor, two figures came rushing out, resembling a sort of dream view to me in my tired sleepy state, and the figures turned out to be two of the scientists, who I had thought had left the building, and I realized that they were working outside, checking stuff on their equipment about the zone, and building, and one whispered something in Higgins’s ear, making him look slightly surprised.
Higgins’s face turned dramatic, making me wonder what the hell was going to happen, and I stood staggered waiting for something, anything, anywhere, and even regretting bringing them there, and I saw he was desperate to do something, and he rushed away with the two scientists to where they had been, and outside.
“What are they up to?” Oswald muttered, staring, bewildered.
“This is a hell of a place!” I mumbled, thinking of what had happened to me there before, considering if it could kill this time, and I was glad I had hardly even mentioned the metal detector.
I decided to follow Oswald out the door to them, as I had to know what was there, and if something was going to happen.
When I rushed out the door I was surprised to look up and see drifting currents of snowflakes blow about outside, and it starting to deepen, with gusts blowing over me, and I closed my jacket up and marched after Oswald going towards where Higgins was, and we tried to see what was there but we saw little, and only them bent over something on the ground, hidden away by their figures.
It had been a very long day, and the next day could very well be far longer, and I watched Higgins rush doing something and I wondered what I was missing, and if we should slow down and observe them at a distance first, as if they collapsed like I had done on the last occasion after using the metal detector there I wanted to observe what happened to them and finally know what had happened to me.
The bright snowing sky seemed to darken over the area above them, and I pointed it out to Oswald, as heavy snow came floating down all about the area and we were amazed that it never entered a circle region about them, as though something was stopping it, which I tried to explain as a small thin faint whirlwind forming.
Yet what was it doing there? Was it caused by them causing some form of disturbance there, and within the snowstorm?
Faint tread marks of a car were below the snow on the road, under a layer of snow, and I realized how late it was, and that there were no cars or anything about and it was silent and lifeless.
“What are the thermometers for in the building?” I asked Oswald, after recalling seeing them everywhere, and for something to say, wondering what the scientists were doing with them in such conditions, and to see if I could find out anything.
He swiftly replied, as we moved closer to Higgins, “Where there have been manifestations drops in temperature have been found, discovered before and during the occurrences. Although I have never proven to myself that it happens!”
I wondered if it could actually do other things and had centered itself around where Higgins was.
“It’d be a good way to detect something near you!” I replied. “So a room should theoretically drop in temperature before and during it?”
He nodded firmly, and we marched over to Higgins and the two scientists, observing them not even noticing us and our approach, so absorbed in what was there and what they were doing, and when we got just behind them they suddenly looked up, in another direction, and they started to react strangely, and I realized it was not to us but something else there, and I waited for something to make an appearance.
Chapter 13
The Paranormal
Everyone seemed to grow in determination to find what was happening, and what was there, and I was left staggered, as what was there vanished when we arrived, and Higgins told us they had been monitoring the research equipment one of the two scientists had, which had discovered large power surges of some form of energy from the ground where they had been.
They were left confused without any answer to it, and I wondered what the hell had been there, and if we would be left confused by the incident, and I tried to answer it with everything.
Once back indoors they returned to what they were doing before they left, and I wondered how the two paranormal scientists would explain what had happened! If nothing else happened!
I examined all their equipment for clues, when I got near them, and wondered why the disturbance in the hall had not occurred, as the woman had told us it had continued to occur, and this startled me the most!
From some of the other scientists I heard of the work that two paranormal scientists had recently done, after they had released documents of the investigations on the paranormal investigations.
Their stuff could be surprising, and alarming in places, which drew my attent
ion, and I kept wondering if I had missed something! At times I thought they were deliberately putting psychic research there to cover their real work and discoveries! Though they never mentioned anything of other stuff, which I found suggestions of on occasions.
I could not grasp if they were ignoring me and not giving proper answers to only avoid becoming fake ghost hunters!
Also by the way that they reacted I believed that they might not have anything that could detect anything there, and I finally went to sleep in my room and left them and their equipment to detect anything, and wake me if it did occur.
Later I was unsure and they became unsure if there was anything really there, and I wondered if anything existed that could be used to properly detect anything there, but why had we not seen the ghost formations there, and what had Higgins had found outside?
Presumable if it had emerged its presence would produce effects to indicate it being there – such as altering air currents, gravity, magnetic fields, radioactivity, scent, sound waves, static, and the light spectrum ...
Their equipment was there to check everything to a degree that had not been done, and I realized that they could have chased it away, and I realized that if it had that it would prove it had intelligence, and a fear of something occurring!
Chapter 14
The Hospital
Marple rushed over and got a drink for me and placed it in front of me and returned to the fireplace.
It was incredible! Marple looked more baffled than I had seen him, and I knew we had problems! The serial killer was still killing people and they still never had any clues to who he was, or anything, and they wanted him to solve the case, and not only was the sum of money for solving it now incredible he would get the fame and prestige he wanted, and become a major and historical investigator, if he solved the unsolvable case, and its insolvability was a major factor that kept teasing him, and he seemed obsessed with it, and all his investigators and connections were virtually on the case, checking for anything, and any remote clues.
Monsters from Beyond Reality Page 18