The Penitentiary

Wednesday Morning, June 11

The Old Fireman's hall opened at 10 am, so the party visited then. There was no change to the Sixth Sense of Theo nor Mort. So nothing there.

They then headed back to the Fleischer Art Memorial. It was open and the staff very friendly. There was no sign of the vampire ball the night before, though the staff were happy to talk about it. Theo and Mort's Sixth Sense rang plenty of alarm bells near the centre of the facility, but there was no easy way to get below ground to investigate more. However, they suspected that with the strong concentration of vampires here, that there probably wouldn't be any mummy activity. They were also not keen to take on a nest of vampires; even during the day.

Next stop was the Eastern State Penitentiary.

Wednesday Afternoon, June 11

Upon arriving at the penitentiary, the security checks were very thorough.  Visiting hours were 2 pm to 5 pm, so they timed that right. Juan had plenty of his relatives locked up here, so he gave a name for the party to visit: Jose Direction, and they went to the visiting cubicle (with glass screen and telephones) to speak with him. Inmate Jose had some surprising information: there had been a murder last night, in wing B. Jose didn't know many details, but he was in wing A, and the seven wings didn't really mix. But he did know of an inmate Eric Fulby who was in wing B.

So Sledge asked to visit Eric Fulby. Eric was very loquacious when plied with cigarettes. An inmate named Gavin Summerfield had been killed: "he was a prick, so no loss there". Violently. At 2 am.

Mort contacted the coroner. Yes, there had been a murder last night in the penitentiary. And yes, it was messy: the victim, an inmate named Gavin Summerfield, had been torn apart, but not drained. It was put down as just "another prison killing" even though Gavin was alone in a locked cell. But the prison had a rather bad record of "extra-judicial killings" (as the coroner wryly observed), and weren't particularly enthusiastic nor tenacious to have them solved.

"The heart was missing too," added the coroner adroitly.

Mort wanted to come immediately.

"You're not blowing up another damn lung!" snapped the coroner.

"No no. I just want to check his fingernails"

So Mort took off to the coroner's hospital.

While this was going on, Brother Theo, using the full weight of his Episcopalian Benedictine rank, was ingratiating himself into the confidence of the prison chaplain Peter. Peter was delighted to have Theo perform some ceremonies. Theo wanted to bless the cell where the murder took place, and Peter managed to get the Warden Candy Clam to allow this. So those two, plus Sledge, went to the very cell.

The place hadn't been cleaned yet and there was blood all over the walls. It looked as though someone had taken some buckets of paint and hurled them all over the walls and bed of the small cell. Theo's Sixth Sense was actually stronger in the central circle area (where the seven wings' corridors met) rather than in the cell. But they didn't want to tarry in the circle.

On the way back, Theo and Sledge managed to convince the guards to show them the CCTV pictures of the time of the killings. There were no cameras in each cell, but the corridors and the central circle area were certainly covered. Around 1:30 am, a mist could be seen to seep up through the drains in the floor of the central circle. It was quite slow, and when the footage was played back at normal speed wasn't obvious at all. But at enhanced speed, the mist rose, then flowed, with creepy intent, down the corridor of wing B, and into Gavin's cell.

"We get a lot of mist around here," quipped the guard. "It's a damp hole."

Back in the city centre, Theo had joined the coroner and checked out the body of inmate Gavin. Sure enough, under the fingernails, were traces of fibre.

The rest of the party returned to town too. Ebony checked out the Philly Library records of the old city. Apparently, the Eastern State Penitentiary was built in 1829 on an old Unami indian graveyard - that explained the ley-line conjunction.

Some other trivia about the prison: Al Capone and Willie Sutton had been locked up here. In 1924, Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot sentenced Pep "The Cat-Murdering Dog" (an actual dog) to a life sentence, and was assigned an inmate number (C2559), and a mug shot. Pep had killed the governor’s wife’s cherished cat.

Ebony had an idea: "I wonder if the Sixth Sense is stronger in Elfrith Alley now, since last night?"

Wednesday Evening, June 11

Back to Elfrith Alley.

Both Theo and Mort's Sixth Sense was definitely stronger than they previous night. The strongest Sixth Sense reading was at a T-intersection at the mouth of the alley itself. This was next to two apartments: one of four storeys and ten apartments, and the other with six storeys and twenty apartments.

Judicious phone calls to the superintendents in each building revealed some apartments for rent. In the four storey building, there was one apartment on the ground floor. They managed to wangle an after-hours appointment, went in and had a look around. It had a basement which extended under the alley. The Six Sense reading down here was stronger again. They guessed the source must be through the brick wall in the basement of the apartment across the alley (of the six storey building)

Ebony went to the door of this apartment. There was the sound of a TV on inside. She hammered on the door. It opened with a safety-chain. A woman in her thirties answered. She was olive-skinned, with angular features.

"Hello," said Ebony. "I'm doing a survey on apartment living..."

"Not interested," said the woman, as she slammed the door. She had an Egyptian accent.