Purgatech: Adrian's Ghost-hunting Angst

Chapter Nine: Murder In The Red Barn

Murder in the red barn.

The thought crossed Adrian’s mind that he should investigate this. He needed to understand what he was dealing with and the only way he could do that would be by knowing exactly what was going on with the ghosts that he dabbled with.

The one he specifically cared to know more about was the ghost that shouted the words at him.

Murder in the red barn.

So what then could be so important about this statement? Why would it filter with the ghost from there to the afterlife? He went back to his study and googled it.

Murder in the red barn – yielded no results. The same came from: Murder in the red barn Evergreen. So he would have to look deeper than just that. He researched, first, some more history in the town that he thought he knew so well. Little came up from it all, apart from the death at Evergreen Manor, those that followed afterwards and peculiar activities across the town, once it all happened.

There were deaths and murders and strange happenings from seemingly normal people. Some of which, descendants that Adrian now knew. He couldn’t tell if it was just a coincidence or if this town could truly be haunted with something darker than just Evergreen. Still, he wondered if this was some elaborate ruse. With nothing pointing in the direction of a murder in any red barn. It could have been a placed message. Something should have come up apart from the Tom Waits song. There had to be more to it, if the apparition he saw was real.

So he booked his Saturday off for the library. Eliza would be away with friends at a spa day and he would have time to do as he pleased. What he really wanted to do was sit behind his computer, turn on some porn and beat it to something interesting, but knew that this was not an option. He was in this now for the long haul.

“Hi there. Adrian Beck speaking, I was wondering if I could come into the library and do some research on the town’s history?” Adrian asked, after dialling the libraries number and a librarian answered.

“Hello. My name is Matt. May I ask what this would be in connection with?” Matt asked. He was inquiring for the sole reason as to find out why anyone would want to delve into the town’s history. He was interested, too, but it was also a part of his job to know what was going on. The library held secrets of the town that many would prefer never got found out. One such secret was the history of the tow nearing the construction and completion of Evergreen Manor.

“I’m writing a book about Evergreen and would like to have all my facts in line. I’ve googled as much as I can and what I find is that most of the town’s darker nooks are hidden behind walls of nothingness.” Adrian lied. But he was smart enough to know that if he didn’t, he would not get into the door, let alone to the inner sanctum of what he searched for.

“Is there anything you’re looking for specifically?” Matt asked.

“Yes. I’m looking for something relating to a murder in a red barn. I’ve recently come across rumours of one such event and would like to pursue it further.” Adrian replied.

“I can’t say I know of anything in relation to a murder in a barn, but come through when you have the time. I’ll try and pull any files out that I can find.” Matt said.

“Great. I’ll be over in a few hours.” Adrian ended the call.

To finish his morning routine, he had a smoke, a cup of coffee, watched half an hour of Saturday morning cartoons before showering and then got ready. He was excited to head out, but routine was an important thing to Adrian. Ever since he was a child, he watched cartoons. It was one thing that normalized institution could not strip from him and why would he let it? The crazy antics of cartoon coyotes chasing blistering fast birds, the yellow sea sponge, cat and mouse and all the other Saturday morning cast, never really seemed to miss their time zones. Only on the rarest of occasions.

Samuel snacked on a ham and tomato sandwich that he quickly threw together with pepper and mayonnaise before he took to the road. He got crumbs all over the car, with a tomato slice falling in the nook between the car’s gear shift and seat. He told himself that he would pick it out later but deep down knew that this was now the tomatoes resting ground. It would rot and dissolve there.

His drive to the library was pleasant. There was little traffic on the road, Adrian assuming that it was because everyone was taking in a lazy Saturday afternoon barbeque with friends or something of the sort. That made his day easier.

When he finally got to the library, he entered to meet a teenage boy, standing alone in a wide open space, only a small desk separating Adrian from him. His fiery red hair, freckle and pimple spotted face, and relative excitement at seeing Adrian led him to believe that this was Matt. He must have been alone here all day, with libraries slowly becoming obsolete. They were the next Blockbuster or CD. There was nothing you couldn’t find on the internet, apart from maybe the darker side to life, and that gave Adrian the impression that soon, this would all be gone.

“Adrian Beck?” The teen asked.

“Yes, that’s me. I take it you’re Matt?” Adrian replied.

“Yes.” Matt replied, “I’m so excited you came. I’ve never been a part of anything like this.” He said, slurring his words. When he got up from the table, only then did Adrian notice how large he was. With a short cut hairstyle, and thin glasses on his face, Adrian understood why he worked in a library. The nervousness of being among others could be a burden on the socially awkward. Adrian, who for the most part, excluding his belly, was not an unattractive man, always had the feeling of nervousness when it came to people. So he could understand this, the solitude of the library and the pleasures it would bring. What do you do when there is no one that would give you a second thought? You turn to yourself.

And Adrian had a sneaking suspicion that Matt was working on himself. Not in the traditional sense. He was creating the plans to further his life, studying (though he didn’t have good enough grades to become a doctor or a lawyer), setting the groundwork to enter the gym and turn his body into something desirable – not that it was going to ever happen – and read self-help books that were designed to spur on your emotional enlightenment.

This last point was less a deduction than an observation. The book that sat on the table, which the young Matt was reading was titled: Getting yourself together.

With the tagline: How to get fit, get babes and get stuff done.

Adrian wanted to tell him that it never got any easier. That what he was experiencing here wouldn’t fade. Not now, not ever. That with all the help, fitness and care in the world, he would be stuck, trapped in the mind of the obese child he once was, with the shame of insecurity forever lingering in his subconscious.

But that would forever crush Matt’s spirits. It would never benefit him, not in this situation. It would only break him, physically and emotionally and from a man that understood the feelings accompanied by harsh truths, Adrian backed out of it.

“Anything like what?” Adrian asked.

“The book thing. I feel like I’m helping you unlock the Da Vinci code or something, you know?” Matt replied. He was, in every sense of the word, a conspiracy theorist. He believed in all the strange events that built up to Dan Brown’s Da Vinci code and Angels and Demons. What he wanted to do with his life was write, or be a historian. He wanted to uncover the secrets of the universe. He wanted to something special in a world that offered nothing of the sort.

“Well I’m glad you’ve got the fever then.” Adrian said. Somewhere in it all, he forgot about his little white lie regarding him being an author, “It’s not really got anything to do with conspiracies though. I’m writing a biography of the town but I want it to be something unique. I don’t want it to sugar coat the facts. If there’s one dark stone left unturned, then what was the point of doing it in the first place, right?”

Matt’s eyes sparkled with excitement. He wanted to be a part of it, even if it meant hard work. He would later offer his services, in any regard to Adrian and Adrian would accept, taking his phone number even though there wasn’t a doubt in Adrian’s mind, later that evening Matt would have already been forgotten.

“So what do you have for me then?” Adrian inquired.

“Well, I’ve got a few newspaper articles that I browsed through. They’re in the back room so we can go through now. The town’s littered with events like this one at red barn that have been swept under the rug because of their devious nature and dark connotations set towards the town. It all started happening around the time Evergreen Manor was built,” Matt started leading Adrian through the library to the back room. A clipboard hung loosely from a white string, with signatures starting on the page, the last signed over two years prior, “Now we all know what’s going on with Evergreen Manor and that room, so that’s obviously not what you’re looking for, but what I’ve come to conclude is that this must be the root of evil in the town.”

Adrian noticed his tenacity and almost felt bad that this was not real. Almost.

“Okay, so what did you find out about red barn?” Adrian asked. Matt gestured that he sign in, and he did, and then took him through the doorway into the backroom where a bunch of stacked boxes sat on a single table. Yellow stained newspaper clippings were strewn about the table. Adrian wanted to dive right into the first one.

“Well, red barn was an interesting case,” Adrian took a seat, going over the articles that lay about, while Matt continued speaking, “Owen Guthrie, the owner of the land that red barn was on. Until Evergreen Manor was built, he was completely competent, or well whatever that really means.” Matt added, but spoke to Adrian who was lost in his papers, “So what happened was that Owen went a little bit nuts. He was a farmer and obviously had broad shoulders to hide, but he hid them in his wife’s dresses. He killed her too, though. Slit her throat, sleeping next to the corpse every night long after it decayed, seven months before his execution.”

Adrian turned his head up. Matt had obviously already done all his research so maybe listening in wouldn’t be too bad and he could fill in the juicy details alone.

“Right. What happened next? Something about boys?” Adrian asked.

“Yes. That’s exactly what happened next. Owen claimed that he was under a curse when it happened. He abducted and took advantage of a handful of young boys before he killed them too. When the police arrived at his door, he stood, drenched in blood in one of his wife’s black dresses, crying out that it wasn’t him. He started shouted murder in the red barn and begged forgiveness but met his end when the town’s mayor gave the word that he would be executed. At the mention, a member of the town, believed one of the fathers of the boys, and bludgeoned him to death with a rock. No one stopped him.” Matt explained the full story.

Adrian was shocked, unnerved and in some sick way, excited.