Due to the recent closing of all Tattersall corporate offices in North America, a number of previously classified documents have made their way out into the wild. This is one of those documents.
Tattersall Security—Forensic Audit of security footage from “Park N’ Go” parking garage.
Request Source: N, Murphy. Client # CV-20425, limited contract
Request Date: 12/4/2012
Footage Date and Time: 10/20/2012 between 20:00 and 22:00
Narrative Summary
At the outset, it should be noted that this video footage was originally received on a set of three (3) USB drives from the client. We were given assurance that this footage had come directly from the original drive and had not been altered or tampered with in any way. Our own technical analysis has found no indications of alterations to the files themselves, nor any signs of digital or other tampering/alteration with the video and audio content from the way it was originally recorded. This summary will not attempt to speculate as to the root cause of what occurred, but simply what was seen and heard by this auditor.
The first point of interest relevant to this inquiry comes at approximately 20:51. It is at this time that the primary subject, Grace Salinger, enters the parking deck from the walkway on the fourth-floor of the structure. Supplemental reports show that this walkway connects to the office building that Salinger worked at on the date in question. As she enters the garage proper, a musical tone begins to play. Reaching into her purse, she pulls out a cellular phone and stares at it. After several seconds of letting it ring, she answers it.
“Oscar, I don’t want to talk to you.” Her voice is low but sounds strained. She appears to hear some response and then continues on. “I understand what you want. You’ve told me several times. But it’s not what I want, okay? Look…you need to stop this. We’re done. We only dated two months in the first place, right? Just move on.”
She listens again, and while the footage is limited by its angle and quality, her tone and body language show increasing anger and frustration. “That’s not my fucking problem, is it? Now I know your family owns half this town or whatever, but I don’t give a shit. I’m telling you real clearly. Leave. Me. Alone. If you fucking bother me again, I’m going to the cops.”
With that, she appears to hang up the call and stuff the phone back into her purse. Shaking her head slightly, she begins striding toward the corner stairs that go to the lower parking levels. A few moments later, she appears on the second level walking toward her car. She glances around periodically as she goes, but there are no signs of other occupants in the parking garage. Salinger arrives unharmed at her vehicle and enters it. She cranks the car immediately, but sits in the parking space for a span of roughly three minutes before starting to back out of her spot.
It’s then that the lights all go out.
Supplemental reports show no signs of a power failure at the building or the surrounding block during this period of time, and it is worth noting that the security cameras do not shift to auxiliary power or suffer an interruption in service during this two-hour span of time. Rather, the only notable change is the cameras’ automatic shift to infrared or “night-vision” as it is commonly called. This has a notable impact on image quality, but everything remains clear enough to be of use.
Salinger stops her vehicle while still backing out, presumably in response to everything suddenly going dark. She stays in this position for close to a minute. While the purpose of Salinger’s pause can only be speculated, it seems likely that she realized the strangeness of the outage herself. For while her car continued to run, her head and tail lights had gone dark at the same time as everything else in the garage.
She ultimately puts the car in park and gets out while leaving it running. She is seen holding her phone in her hand, tapping at its dark screen as she slowly walks a couple of feet away from the car and tries to look for some light source that actually works. There are none to be found. She then calls out in a high and nervous voice as she reaches back to feel the trunk of her car.
“Hello? Is anyone there? I’m stuck in here in the dark.”
She appears to be listening for some kind of response, and at first, there is none. But then a low sound, almost like that of a cat purring, begins to be heard through the camera’s microphone. This is not electronic feedback, and it is clear the woman hears it too. She seems to think it’s coming from the first floor’s ramp up to where she is parked, and as things progress, it becomes clear she is correct.
The sound is not mechanical, and as it grows closer it gets only slightly louder, but does become much more well-defined. The purring comparison is still apt, but upon closer examination, it is evident that there are several overlapping similar sounds here. Audio analysis has identified twenty-eight distinct audio sources at a variety of different frequencies, with six of those being audible within normal human hearing parameters. It is a strange and unsettling combination of sounds, and Salinger appears to feel much the same, as she begins frantically trying to get back in her car.
Unfortunately, her car door will not open.
Upon first viewing this portion, this auditor assumed that the door was either accidently locked or somehow stuck mechanically. After watching the full video, however, it becomes clear that neither is the case. The door is simply not being allowed to be opened by the thing coming toward the woman through the dark.
It is described as a “thing” because it is clearly not of human or other mundane origin and its exact nature remains unknown. What is known is that even in the dark it is almost wholly invisible. The only thing the infrared cameras seem to detect is a slight shimmer as it moves—perhaps some partial reflection of the infrared wavelengths off its surface or the stirring of dust motes in the air. Whatever the case, it looks to be significantly larger than the woman it is heading straight toward.
Salinger seems to sense its nearness, as she suddenly turns from trying to get the car door open and begins to run. To her credit, she makes good progress at first. Despite having no way of seeing where she was going, her memory of the garage’s layout and overall spatial awareness assist her in making it to the end of the row. She turns to the left, perhaps with the plan of making a break for the stairwell in the far corner, but it is then that she runs into an unexpected obstacle.
Someone has left a car parked at the end of the row.
It’s not in a parking spot at all, but is instead just sitting next to the pillar that marks the edge of the driveway between the rows. And in Salinger’s defense, there’s no reason for her to even know it was there at all. But a lack of fault doesn’t mitigate the result. The woman slams into the back corner of the SUV and bounces off, tumbling to the concrete floor.
She tries to regain her footing, but it’s clear that she’s been hurt or at least had the breath knocked out of her. As she struggles to her knees, the shimmering presence closes the gap and comes to a stop right in front of her. Salinger seems to sense this and freezes, and for several seconds, there is no movement from either side.
Then the chorus of purrs begins to shift and undulate. This again is highly speculative, but based upon the context, it appears the thing is talking to the woman. And incredibly, it appears she understands. This is supported by her response when she begins to speak approximately 45 seconds later, her voice shaking, but still strong and steady enough to be heard and understood.
“So…if I go with you to where Oscar is…and I…dispose of him…then you’re saying you’ll leave me alone?” A rumbling of purrs. “Forever?” Another short rumble. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?” Rumble. Salinger gives a short nod. “I guess you have a point. But how will I find him? How will I…how will I do it?”
Another, longer rumbling purr. The woman nods again. “All right. If you know that will work. But then we’re done, right?” There is nothing but silence for several moments, and then a brief explosion of sound, purring and screeching and something akin to music all warring with each other and sending a crackle of feedback through the speakers before the audio cuts out entirely.
The woman looks horrified, staring in every direction as though waiting for some unseen attack. She looks tensed to run, but after a few moments she lowers her head and gives a resigned nod. Wiping her eyes with a trembling hand, she walks back to her car, the shimmering shape moving along in front as though leading the way. As she reaches for the car door, the lights come back on, and the spot where there was a glittering presence in the dark is revealed to be empty…or filled with something unseen. The door opens easily for her now, and within moments she’s finished backing out of the space and is heading for the exit without further incident.
There are only two other points of real note. First is primarily for context, as this audit is being conducted as an ancillary facet of a private investigation into the death of Oscar Murphy. Apparently on October 21, 2012, his body was found ripped apart in the woods north of his hometown of Empire. The law enforcement investigation turned up no real leads at the time, and this failure led to Murphy’s family beginning a private investigation into the matter. The only other information this auditor was provided regarding the circumstances of his death was that the shattered remains of small wooden box was found near the dismembered corpse.
The second note is something I would have missed if not for the video department’s assistance. When Salinger’s car finally begins its journey to the parking garage exit, its back end is approximately two inches lower than it had been as it first pulled away from its spot. Based on the car model, this would apparently be consistent with around six hundred pounds being added to the back half of the vehicle, as though something unseen had climbed onto the car as it headed out.
The current whereabouts of Grace Salinger and whatever may travel with her remain unknown.
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