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Where We Left Off:
A new stranger in town was spotted on the Winchester-Nabu property. One day, he tried to introduce himself to Gus and it did not go well.
The Echo:
When Halloween was only a few days away, one of the cameras picked up a sighting that I had to question. Was the camera picking up the ghost of the white and black stray cat we called Lokai? Back in 2024, we discovered a bone. Lokai, a free-roaming cat with a collar and interesting swirly coat pattern, had not been seen for long time. Our investigation couldn’t rely on anything as irrefutable as DNA leaving Oliver, Gus, and myself to use our best deductive reasoning. We believed the bone had to belong to the cat we hadn’t seen for the longest amount of time—and that was Lokai.
“That sure looks like Lokai right down to the collar,” Gus said while we were huddled around the monitors.
“Go to the video,” Oliver ordered. “See if there are any glitches or irregularities that would note spectral events.”
I did as Ollie asked without question. We know there are ghost cats here. Everyone who spends time inside the residence and offices has seen at least one. The Cook and I firmly believe they are our cats who have passed on. I don’t think it’s every cat, but I do believe a couple of them have left echoes behind—or maybe the correct paranormal term is imprints. I’m not sure of the lingo.
For the first fourteen seconds of the video, Lokai can be seen walking from about the middle of the screen to the lower right. This means the figure was heading towards a road. At 01:50 AM, that was a reasonably safe time to cross, not that it would matter to spectral being. It would likely scare the crap out of any drivers though.
“There,” I paused the video. “That was a glitch, right? When the cat turns his head and looks directly at the camera—there was digital interference.”
“It was something. Maybe we can use our spectral trackers to confirm it,” Gus said. “We should go out. I want to go out. Let’s go out.”
“Gus, you always think you want to go out,” I said.
“Spectral trails don’t last forever,” Ollie reminded us. “Next time we go out, we should try anyway.”
The Plan:
The next day, the wind was a little stronger. Trees of all sizes creaked under the burden. Branches snapped and fell to the ground. The scent of the dead leaves carried in the air. None of that mattered to our regular wildlife guests. The deer are in their rutting season (courtship and mating) and trying to avoid hunters. The tiny critters are busy gathering their food supplies for winter.
If our plan was going to include talking to any of the outdoor creatures about a potential ghost cat, we had to find someone who wouldn’t be consumed with survival.
Other than direct communication with critters, our plan was to take our spectral trackers outside and look for traces of magickal energy. Then we would have to decipher what that energy actual was. This means using our proprietary software along with Oliver and Gus using catnip to connect to the other planes of existence for messages.
The chipmunks were too busy. Neither the red nor grey squirrels were willing to come near us. That meant our best chance would be the birds. Ollie appreciates any opportunity to talk to his avian friends. The ones who showed up, however, were not what he had in mind.
The Mission:
While we tried initiating conversations with the blue jays, sparrows, and cardinals, the sky above felt darker. A spiraling black pattern broke up the sunny blue cloudless sky. We looked up to find a spinning ceiling of circling turkey vultures.
Vultures aren’t surprising. We see them every day. The difference on that was the sheer number of them. Immediately, I knew it was more than four which is a pretty steady number to see together. I started to count. Six. Eight. No, even more.
“Straight ahead in the trees!” Ollie said.
I started back at one. More flew in. I started again. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. I got up to ten. More flew overhead. It felt they were called to this one spot like Highlanders who need to fight to the death for The Prize.
Thirteen. Fourteen. I kept restarting the count as more showed up to perch while others changed position on the tree. The vultures were bulbous black ornaments making sure they had equal distance between each other. I got up to seventeen and stopped trying to count. That’s a lot of vultures.
“I don’t think we can talk to them after Gus got into a fight with one and scared it,” I said. “They might be too afraid of us now.”
“Good job, Gus,” Ollie snarked.
“It wasn’t a good job, Oliver. It was an excellent job. I did my job. I protected this place and the human,” Gus replied.
A conversation with vultures would be ideal in getting answers about lurking spirits. Their connection to the afterlife is strong.
“Maybe they’ll talk to me,” I offered as a suggestion. “You two can study the area northeast of Fort Winchester to look for spectral trails.”
I parked Ollie’s carriage in a prime location for him where Lokai had clearly been. I walked over to the end of a former trail we used to maintain. The dead oak trees where the vultures stood watch weren’t far from there. I couldn’t cross the border lest we get an angry earful from the aggressive neighbors.
By listening for the sounds of carnivores fighting prey, vultures hear a dinner bell. A carcass or scraps might be available to them. I’ve witnessed a wake this large sharing a single raccoon. The entree doesn’t need to be large like an adult deer.
After my conversation with a reluctant vulture, the only one willing to talk to me, I went back to where I left the cat detectives. We saved our results for after lunch back at the office.
“You’ve had lunch and treatos. What did you find out?” I sat on the floor between Gus and Ollie who wanted to spar before their afternoon naptime.
Case Findings:
We agreed that the cat caught on camera was that of Lokai, the cat we haven’t seen since March 2024. Lokai was not raised from the dead via science nor necromancy. This was a troubled spirit—a ghost cat. The data was verified with our technology and confirmed by the vulture. According to the vulture, who did not want to give me her name, the ghost cat is a lost spirit wandering around the area. It does occasionally find its way to its home, but there have been changes to the landscape, so the ghost gets confused from time to time and ends up lost.
Case Status: Closed