The Accused and the Damned: Book Three, the Eddie McCloskey Series (The Unearthed 3) (23 page)

“Based upon the evidence gathered at the scene, eyewitness accounts, and other peripheral evidence, the Ketcher residence was most likely haunted and it is possible that the ghost of Mary Oliver, former resident who passed away in that house, killed Mrs. Ketcher.”

“Let’s unpack that for the jury. What evidence was gathered at the scene of the crime that would lead you to believe that?”

“During my investigation of the house, with multiple eyewitnesses present, writing appeared on the wall as Ms. Barbitok testified to earlier.”

The lights in the courtroom flickered again as they had earlier during Gracie’s testimony. Green paused until they returned to full strength.

“Perhaps someone else is trying to tell us something,” Green said.

The DA erupted out of his chair. “Objection!”

Judge Metnick shot Green a nasty look. “That’s enough, counselor. Any more stray comments like that and I’ll hold you in contempt.”

“I apologize, Your Honor. My sense of humor, for better or worse, comes out at strange times.”

Metnick’s eyes bulged. “I don’t want apologies, I want assurances, Mr. Green. You know you just crossed a line. Do it again and I’ll hold you in contempt.”

“You have my word, Your Honor.”

Judge Metnick faced the jury. “For the record, members of the jury, Mr. McCloskey is the witness offering testimony right now, not counsel. Mr. Green is permitted to ask the witness questions. He is not permitted to make off-hand remarks and observations like he just did. You are to give that last comment no weight in your minds. I want you to forget about it.”

The judge looked at Green again. “Proceed. And be professional.”

“Mr. McCloskey, can you explain what eyewitness accounts you were referring to a moment ago?”

“Anson gave a detailed statement to the police after they arrested him, describing what he and his wife experienced in the home. In addition, another individual by the name of Giles Tyson conducted an investigation of the house and discovered some evidence of a haunting. Mrs. Ketcher spoke about this haunting with her pastor. Finally, Mrs. Ketcher sought the services of Ms. Magloin, a psychic. I was in here listening to Ms. Magloin’s testimony but I’ll repeat the salient point for the sake of the jury: Mrs. Ketcher went to see Ms. Magloin because she herself, a non-believer in the paranormal, was worried her house was haunted and ultimately came to believe it was. Based upon what I discovered while investigating plus the eyewitness accounts, I believe the house was haunted.”

The double doors to the courtroom suddenly swung open. Eddie looked over Green’s shoulder to see who was about to enter, but no one was there.

Green looked nervously from Eddie to the judge while several members of the jury shifted uneasily in their seats.

“Proceed, counsel,” the judge said.

“Mr. McCloskey, you say it’s possible that the previous homeowner who is now deceased killed Mrs. Ketcher.”

“That’s right.”

“Can you explain that to the jury?”

“I’d be happy to.” Eddie turned in his seat to face them directly. “The previous homeowners were Mary and Lee Oliver. Mary passed away several years ago. Before she did, in the year or so leading up to her death, she developed early-onset dementia. She grew increasingly confused and her periods of lucidity became less frequent and shorter. Mr. Oliver explained all this in the sworn statement you played for the jury earlier.

“As Mr. Oliver testified, he euthanized his wife while she was in the thrall of dementia in her own home.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Eddie saw one of the jurors cross herself.

“Hauntings are extremely rare and almost all the time they can be explained away by natural or man-made causes. I agree with Ms. Barbitok in that regard. However, there are some general principles of haunting that Ms. Barbitok failed to mention.

“First, ghosts are geographically limited. If the house was haunted, then it’s likely it was Mary Oliver. The inverse is also a principle we use. It’s unlikely that any stray, random ghosts wandered into the Ketcher residence and took up shop. No one else has lived in that house except for the Olivers and the Ketchers. During the Olivers’ ownership of the home, no one else died there except for Mary and there were no traumatic experiences that would account for a subsequent haunting. To summarize, if there was a ghost in that house then it almost had to be Mary Oliver’s spirit based upon our current understanding of the paranormal.

“Second, while it’s true that most hauntings are residual in nature, when it comes to intelligent hauntings, spirits tend to retain their last set of characteristics just prior to death. To put that into context, if Mary Oliver was haunting that house then she was likely the Mary Oliver that died in that house—sixty-seven years old, demented, in pain, dead by the hands of her own husband. It follows then that the spirit of Mary Oliver had its own moments of dementia and lucidity, anxiety and anger.

“Third, there are no hard and fast rules for ghosts. The field of paranormal investigation is still in its infancy. We don’t know much and what we do know is open to debate. The principles I’ve just set forth are only guidelines. The evidence accumulated by the experts over the last thirty to forty years tends to support those principles but a lot has changed over the years. Ghost hunters were ready to debunk alleged poltergeist activity across the board up until a few years ago, and now it’s considered possible again.

“Beyond that, we get into more hypothesis than theory.”

“Mr. McCloskey, before we get into the hypothesis part of your testimony, you did hear Ms. Barbitok’s testimony?”

“I did.”

“So you heard her testify that there is no evidence that ghosts kill people?”

“I did.”

“And do you agree or disagree with that?”

“I agree that it’s never been verified by any scientific investigation. But that’s not the same thing as saying it’s never happened. And we can’t dismiss accounts from the nineteenth century and earlier out of hand as she would like. I agree they should be treated with a healthy dose of skepticism but they shouldn’t be summarily ignored.”

“But, Mr. McCloskey, during the investigation in Pennsylvania where you uncovered a conspiracy to commit fraud, you said one of the things that led you to doubt the claims was the idea that ghosts don’t kill people. Isn’t that true?”

Green was right. Talking out both sides of your mouth was difficult. “That is true but I was speaking generally, not literally. It’d be like me saying, Nobody reads anymore. Obviously people still read. The point I’d be trying to make is that fewer people are reading. What I should have said was, ghosts generally don’t kill people.”

“I see. Now, will you explain to the Court why you think it’s possible that Mrs. Ketcher was killed by a ghost?”

“By applying the guidelines I discussed a moment ago, you can see how it’s possible. We have several people, including the prosecution’s own expert, observing what is likely paranormal activity in the Ketcher home. If there was a ghost haunting the residence, it is likely to be Mrs. Oliver because ghosts tend to be geographically limited. Mrs. Oliver’s spirit would have retained her state of mind around the time of her death. Her spirit would have been confused, demented, possibly in some kind of pain. She would not have understood necessarily that others had moved into her home. She would not have understood why Mrs. Ketcher attempted to remove her from what she saw as her home. Her last living memory would have been of her husband killing her. Now we know that Mr. Oliver did that out of love for his wife, but did Mary Oliver understand that in her final moments?

“Then we get to the fact that Mrs. Ketcher possibly attempted to reverse-possess the ghost. Based upon Anson’s statement to the police and Ms. Magloin’s accounts and testimony, we can safely say that Mrs. Ketcher was trying to do something to remove the spirit from the home. Ghosts are unpredictable if they are anything. Very often they’re connected to this world because of and by an emotionally traumatic experience. Mrs. Oliver’s last emotional experience on this planet can only be speculated on, but we do know she was euthanized by her husband. If she didn’t fully comprehend the reasons behind his actions or if she had a change of heart…you can begin to see her state of mind as a spirit. Hurt, demented, possibly vengeful. For all we know, it’s possible she saw Anson as her husband and Mrs. Ketcher as another woman. That would explain the aggressiveness toward both the Ketchers.”

Green questioned Eddie for another fifteen minutes. Spencer objected from time to time but they put on a good case. The real test would be cross-examination.

* * * *

Spencer smiled at him. “Mr. McCloskey, you testified earlier that you worked for almost a decade with your brother starting from when you were eighteen and then you resumed paranormal investigation last year. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re thirty-three now?”

“Yes.”

“So what were you up in those intervening five years, if not paranormal investigation?”

“Objection.” Green stood. “No relevance, Your Honor.”

Judge Metnick frowned. “You have introduced Mr. McCloskey as your expert witness. His qualifications as such are therefore subject to examination. Mr. Spencer is allowed to explore Mr. McCloskey’s work experience.”

Green sat back down. He’d told Eddie before the trial began that this dark period in his life would come out during his testimony.

“The witness will answer.”

Face the jury. Green’s words echoed in his mind. For Anson’s sake, Eddie needed to garner as much sympathy as he could.

“On our last job together, my brother was murdered. Until that time, he’d always been my support and life line. After he died, I fell into a self-destructive pattern, bounced around from job to job until finally I was arrested and convicted for possession of illegal narcotics. I was sentenced and served less than a year, getting paroled early for good behavior. After I was released, I cured my disease through rehab.”

“So you were convicted of a crime?”

“That’s right.”

“And during that time, you were not involved in paranormal investigation at all?”

“I was not.”

“So if you were only in prison for less than a year, what were you doing for the other four years when you weren’t involved in paranormal investigation?”

“Odd jobs. I bounced around. It took me some time to get my act together.” He flipped a look at Gracie. “But now I like to think I’m making up for past mistakes like Ms. Barbitok over there.”

Some smiles from the jury. He had their sympathy.

“Let’s talk about your last investigation with your brother.”

Eddie stiffened. He hadn’t expected the DA to go there.

“Objection,” Green said. “Again, relevance?”

Judge Metnick pointed a finger at Green. “Mr. Green, your expert’s experience in the relevant field is important for the jury to consider, so I’m going to allow counsel to explore it. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“This court has been very lenient toward the defense. I’ve allowed testimony based solely on hypotheticals and suppositions. Therefore, I’m going to extend some latitude to Mr. Spencer in cross-examining your witness especially regarding something as tangible as his experience and qualifications. Are we clear?”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“Go ahead, counselor.”

Spencer moved closer to Eddie and leaned against the rail fronting the jury box. “You testified a moment ago that your brother was murdered. That was during your investigation, right?”

“Yes.”

“Can you explain how it happened?”

Eddie steeled himself. The passage of time had dulled the pain, but the old feelings of loss and guilt were still there.

“We were investigating activity at a residence where a triple-murder had occurred. Through our process, we discovered that the boy who previously lived at the house and who witnessed the murders was haunting the home.”

“And that boy, who you claim was haunting the house, was alive, was he not?”

“He was.”

“I don’t understand. How was he doing that?”

“No one understands. It’s the only incident of its kind that’s ever been recorded, as far as we know.”

“Can you clarify what you mean by haunted for the jury?”

“I can.” Eddie didn’t like where this was going. “He was residing in another home while his spirit either visited or still resided at the former residence.”

The jury watched him with skepticism.

Spencer returned to his table and opened his briefcase. Eddie couldn’t see what was inside. “And how did you come to that conclusion? That the boy was haunting the house through spiritual or psychic means?”

“It was a long, complex investigation. I’d have to start at the beginning.”

“Please do.”

Green stood. “Your Honor—”

“Sit down, counselor. The witness will answer the question.”

Judge Metnick faced Eddie and there was nothing friendly about his look.

“The current homeowners reported paranormal activity in the home. We began like we always do, by trying to reproduce the phenomena and by researching the home’s history. It was a fairly notorious crime, at least locally, so we already knew about it. We conducted our tests. We met with the boy and the boy’s adoptive family. During our investigation, we picked up some EVP. The voice on the EVP matched that of the boy. So we knew the spirit was his and that he was responsible for the haunting.”