Unplugging his thumb drive,Giles quickly dressed, grabbed a bagel from the breadbox on his way out the door, and hoofed it over to the studio. Maybe the engineers were already aware of the problem, and he just hadn’t known about it. But if they’re not aware of the problem, I have evidence right here to prove it. He patted his pants pocket, just to reassure himself he had the flash drive with him.
Heather looked up when he arrived and smiled. “Oh, good!
I was just about to message you again, to find out if
you knew about your nine a.m.”
“Yeah,
I got it late last night. Sorry I didn’t respond.” He
gave her a rueful grin. “I’m not used to getting
notifications. It’s something I’ll have to adjust to.
Say, are any of the engineers here yet?”
She
checked the clock-in tablet. “I thought I saw…yes. Lou’s
back there. I think he has an eight o’clock job. When
you go through the door, look in the window. If he has
his headphones on, don’t bother him. And be watchful of
the ON AIR sign above the booth.”
He
thanked her, entered his code on the tablet, and let
himself into the inner area. He found a man sitting at
the computer console in Booth Three. The ON AIR sign
wasn’t on, and neither was the guy wearing headphones,
although they were draped around his neck. Knocking on
the window, Giles signaled to the man when he glanced
up.
Can I come in?
The man waved for him to enter, and Giles opened the
door. “Hey, hi. I’m Giles Noft. You’re Lou, one of the
engineers?” He extended his hand, and the older man
shook it.
“Lou
Parmenter. You must be new. I think I got a nine o’clock
with you today.”
“Yeah.
That’s right. Listen, I have a quick question. Have you
had any problems with bleed-over, or unusual voices
being recorded along with the narrator?”
Parmenter narrowed his eyes. “What kind of voices? You
mean reverb?”
“No. I
mean like a ghost voice.”
The
man went from being curious to openly perplexed. Before
he could ask anything further, Giles pulled the thumb
drive from his pocket and handed it over. “I came in
last night and did some personal recording. When I got
home and was listening to it, I heard a strange voice
that shouldn’t be on the file.”
Lou
took the thumb drive and plugged it into the computer.
Slipping on his headphones, he played the recording. A
look of surprise crossed his face and he gave Giles the
side eye. Pausing the playback, he removed the
headphones. “There’s a woman’s voice on there, all
right. Clear as day. And you swear she wasn’t in the
booth with you when you recorded this?”
“I
swear.” On a hunch, Giles glanced up at the ceiling.
“Are there video cameras in this place? If there are,
you’re welcome to check out the tapes. I swear I was
totally alone the entire time I was recording.”
Lou
scrunched up his face. “Does the voice sound familiar to
you? Could it be someone you know? Someone who might be
playing a trick on you?”
“A
trick on me how? It’s not the voice so much that puzzles
me. It’s the fact that whoever she is, she’s reading my
script! It’s like she has a copy of it, and she’s
following all my cues! And, no, I’ve never heard her
before in my life. Not that I can recall, anyway.”
“And
you say you did all the recording here last night?”
“Yeah.
In Two. I spoke to Valling yesterday morning, and he
gave me the dos and don’ts on what was expected
beforehand.”
The
man leaned an elbow on the console. “If you don’t mind
me asking, why are you using our equipment? Why not make
your own soundproof booth at home, get a decent mic, and
record it there? You could do it for a whole lot less
than the amount of money you’d spend here renting out
space.”
“I’ve
done that,” Giles admitted. “But I live off of one of
the main thoroughfares in the city. A lot of the noise
from the sirens and all filter into my recordings, no
matter what steps I take
to avoid it.”
“I
know what you mean. I got the same problem at my place,
only it’s the El going by the next block over.” Lou
scratched his goatee. “In Two, you said?”
Giles
nodded.
“Okay.
When I’m done here, I’ll go check it out. In the
meantime, have you done any more recording other than
what’s on this drive?”
“No.”
“In
the past, when you’ve done some work at your place, did
this woman’s voice ever pop up?”
“No.
Never.”
“Here’s a suggestion. Try recording some of your stuff
at your place and see if she shows up. Then come back
here and use a different booth. It could be happening
just in Two. If that’s the case, I’ll talk to Monaghan.
He’s our all-around engineer and fix-it guy.”
“And
what if it happens again, no matter where I record?”
Giles questioned.
Lou
snorted. “Then you might be haunted,” the man replied.
And he
was dead serious. |