* * *
Voice recorder entry #85B
(time unknown, Sunday, July 13, 2017)
* * *
(Frantic footsteps)
* * *
I’m going out on the catwalk. It’s my last hope.
* * *
(The sound of a door opening, then hard wind and rain)
* * *
I can’t stop the bleeding in my leg. I can’t stop the voices. They’re getting closer.
* * *
(Thunder crashes)
* * *
The bloody hammer disappeared from atop my sleeping bag. I hear the echo of heavy footsteps on the stairway. That means he’s coming for me now. Joseph O’Leary is still here. He never left. None of them did. If I can only make it until morning, I can—
OFFICIAL POLICE REPORT
* * *
FILE #173449-C-34
DATE: July 15, 2017
REPORTING OFFICER(S): Sgt. Carl Blevins; Sgt. Reginald Scales
* * *
At 8:47am on Monday, July 14, 2017, the Harper’s Cove Police Department received a phone call from Mr. Ronald Parker, age eighty-one, reporting a missing person and summoning them to the Widow’s Point Lighthouse.
Sgt. Scales and I arrived at the lighthouse grounds at approximately 8:59am. Mr. Parker greeted us at the security gate and directed us to park next to a red Ford pickup truck and a gray Mercedes sedan.
Mr. Parker showed us identification and explained that the Mercedes belonged to a male in his mid-forties named Thomas Livingston. According to Mr. Parker, Mr. Livingston, a well-known author, had rented the lighthouse from Mr. Parker’s company for the purpose of paranormal research. The dates of the agreement ran from Friday evening, July 11 to Monday morning, July 14. Mr. Parker was contracted to return to the Widow’s Point Lighthouse at precisely 8am on Monday to unlock the front door and escort Mr. Livingston from the property.
Pursuant to this agreement, Mr. Parker claimed that he arrived on Monday morning at approximately 7:50am and waited inside his truck until 8am. At that time, he unlocked the front door and called out for Mr. Livingston. When there was no response, he returned to his truck for a flashlight and entered the lighthouse.
On the lower level, he found Mr. Livingston’s cooler still nearly full of food and water. He also noticed a puddle of dried vomit nearby on the floor.
After repeatedly calling out to Mr. Livingston and receiving no response, Mr. Parker climbed the spiral staircase to the lighthouse’s living quarters. There he found a blood-soaked sleeping bag, a video camera, a lantern, and numerous other items belonging to Mr. Livingston. He also noticed a series of strange symbols which had been scrawled on the walls in what appeared to be blood.
Before returning to the lower level, Mr. Parker searched the catwalk for Mr. Livingston. He found no sign of him, save for a Sony tape recorder located on the metal walkway. Mr. Parker did not touch the recorder and immediately returned to his truck where he called the authorities using his cell phone.
After Sgt. Scales and I finished interviewing Mr. Parker, we searched the lighthouse in tandem. Failing to locate Mr. Livingston, we proceeded to search his unlocked vehicle—where we discovered numerous prescription pill bottles as well as a loaded handgun, all of which have been logged into Evidence—before searching the surrounding grounds and woods.
At 9:31am, I summoned the Crime Lab, and Sgt. Scales and I began establishing a perimeter.
As of today, thirty-one (31) items have been logged into Evidence, including the video camera and audio recorder. Additional analysis of the digital files found within the camera and dozens of audio files is underway.
Weather conditions remain sunny and clear, and additional searching of the lighthouse grounds is currently underway.
Sgt. Carl Blevins
Badge 3B71925
PSCYHOLOGICAL EVALUATION
* * *
FILE #173449-C-34
DATE: July 20, 2017
ENLISTED PSYCHIATRIST: Bruce Adachi, M.D.
* * *
The audio and video footage presented to me by the Harper’s Cove Police Department is to remain within their custody following the completion of my analysis.
The subject, as he shall hence be known, exhibits a variety of identifiable symptoms. Hallucinations are common in the evidence. The subject seems to experience auditory (hearing a child singing), visual (the wrecked wooden ship), gustatory (tasting salt in the water), and tactile hallucinations (being touched, bitten). The subject even seems to experience a temporal hallucination, in which his perception of time becomes significantly skewed.
Furthermore, it is evident that the subject experiences a multitude of delusions, primarily persecutory in nature. Often he can be identified as feeling as if he is being pursued or hunted by some impossible entity.
In addition, one can also look to his disorganized speech and behavior. On numerous occasions the subject speaks in gibberish and other times he speaks without any logical thought flow patterns, typical traits of disorganized speech.
In regards to his behavior, there are a multitude of strikingly unusual occurrences, including what seems to be the subject’s subconscious assumption of the identity belonging to a Mr. Joseph O’Leary, as well as that of his deceased father.
To further add to the subject’s psychological profile, his memory seems notably impaired, often unable to recall what he has done just hours earlier (such as when he scales the stairs several times in the middle of the night and has no recollection of it the following morning).
While the presence of what seems to be an additional personality is concerning, the subject has no record of any relevant disorder. He has employed a consistent therapist for the past decade, whom I am currently in contact with; however, their conversations primarily revolved around frequent bouts of depression, with no mention of any of the symptoms present in this evidence.
My professional opinion is that the subject suffers from a form of dissociative disorder (schizophrenia). The subject’s disorder either went criminally undiagnosed, or (what I believe to be more likely) was so mild that it went unnoticed until something related to his recent isolation triggered it to become much more severe. The symptoms present and in conjunction with one another most definitely suggest dissociative disorder (schizophrenia) as the cause of the subject’s behavior, however, without the subject present and alive, no conclusive diagnosis can be made.
This case is, and shall remain, ambiguous.
* * *
From the Office of Bruce Adachi, M.D.
Excerpted from the September 10, 2017, Sunday edition of the Baltimore Sun:
* * *
BESTSELLING AUTHOR’S MYSTERIOUS DISAPPERANCE REMAINS UNSOLVED
* * *
Despite a puzzling lack of new evidence, Harper’s Cove Nova Scotia police detectives still consider bestselling author Thomas Livingston’s bizarre disappearance an active and ongoing investigation.
Livingston was last seen on July 11, 2017 when he was granted entry to the infamous Widow’s Point Lighthouse for a three-night exploration of the paranormal. When the lighthouse’s owner, Roland Parker, returned on the morning of July 14 to escort Livingston off the premises, he discovered that the author was missing.
Livingston left behind all of his belongings, as well as a series of disturbing video and audio recordings, which have led some medical professionals to claim that Livingston was suffering from an unusual case of schizophrenia.
“We really don’t know any more than we did a couple months ago,” said Harper’s Cove Detective Paul Fry. “It’s been a long and frustrating process for all of us, but we aren’t giving up. We will keep searching for answers.”
Lighthouse owner Roland Parker declined comment for this article, but the author’s ex-wife, Audrey Livingston, has been very outspoken when it comes to her husband. “Thomas was a troubled man,” she said. “He was suffering from severe mental and financial pressures, which he refused to se
ek help for. He was desperate for a hit, which is the only reason he went to Nova Scotia and that blasted lighthouse.”
The Widow’s Point Lighthouse, located at the northeastern tip of Nova Scotia, was originally built in 1838 and has been the scene of dozens of mysterious deaths and unexplained disappearances over the past two centuries…
Excerpted from the October 31, 2017 Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) with famed ghost hunter, Rob Elliott:
* * *
TrkorTrt69: What is your opinion of the popular “Thomas Livingston was suffering from schizophrenia” school of thought?
* * *
RobtheGhostHunter: It’s a bunch of shit, that’s my opinion. I’ve heard the audiotapes. To propose that Livingston was responsible for all those voices—his deceased father, Joseph O’Leary, the little girls’ singing—is preposterous. Typical closed-minded pseudo-academic thinking.
Let me ask you this: if the whole thing was nothing more than a text-book schizophrenic episode, where is Thomas Livingston? How did he manage to disappear from a locked lighthouse?
* * *
Hippiechick: Top or bottom? Which do you prefer?
* * *
RobtheGhostHunter: Well, Hippiechick, I prefer it any way I can get it. How bout you?
* * *
SpookyMulder1: What about the marijuana the cops found in Livingston’s backpack?
* * *
RobtheGhostHunter: What about it? The guy liked to smoke a little weed once in awhile. So do I. The police tested it. It was mid-level shit and clean. He wasn’t hallucinating, he wasn’t having a bad trip. Hell, we don’t even know if he smoked any of it.
* * *
JumpingJFlash: What do YOU think happened to Livingston?
* * *
RobtheGhostHunter: I think Widow’s Point swallowed him whole. I think he’s still there in the lighthouse—with the rest of them.
* * *
Deadmanwalking33: Are you still considering spending the night in Widow’s Point?
* * *
RobtheGhostHunter: If I can get permission and do it legally, absolutely. As I’ve discussed elsewhere, I’ve been in talks with Ronald Parker for some time now. He’s not an easy dude to deal with, but I think we’re making progress.
* * *
King13Kong: String cheese…bite it or peel it?
RobtheGhostHunter: Chomp that shit like a hungry gator. And now I’m hungry. Thanks, Kong, thanks a lot.
* * *
WVrednecksrule: Is it true that you might write a book about Livingston’s experience in Widow’s Point? Based on his notes and the tapes?
* * *
RobtheGhostHunter: I can’t really comment on that at this time. Lawyers in fancy suits, ya know. More news soon.
* * *
Moldymulder: What about the Delaney Collins diary? If it existed, why didn’t the police find it?
* * *
RobtheGhostHunter: That’s assuming the police are telling the truth, right? Why haven’t they released the test results taken on the blood found on Livingston’s sleeping bag? Or the blood on the walls, for that matter? Why haven’t they released all of the videotapes? There’s a lot more to this story than meets the eye.
* * *
Camelotfilms: With all that has happened in the Widow’s Point Lighthouse, why would you want to go there? Why risk your life?
* * *
RobtheGhostHunter: Because it’s what I do. I’m an explorer, a seeker. Great discoveries are rarely achieved without great risk.
* * *
About the Authors
RICHARD CHIZMAR is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author.
He is the co-author (with Stephen King) of the bestselling novella, Gwendy’s Button Box and the founder/publisher of Cemetery Dance magazine and the Cemetery Dance Publications book imprint. He has edited more than 35 anthologies and his fiction has appeared in dozens of publications, including Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and multiple editions of The Year’s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories. He has won two World Fantasy awards, four International Horror Guild awards, and the HWA’s Board of Trustee’s award.
Chizmar (in collaboration with Johnathon Schaech) has also written screenplays and teleplays for United Artists, Sony Screen Gems, Lionsgate, Showtime, NBC, and many other companies.
Chizmar’s work has been translated into many languages throughout the world, and he has appeared at numerous conferences as a writing instructor, guest speaker, panelist, and guest of honor.
Please visit the author’s website at:
Richardchizmar.com
BILLY CHIZMAR’s short stories have been published in various anthologies including Fearful Fathoms and Dead Harvest. His essay, “The Role of God in Stephen King’s Desperation” was published in the non-fiction collection, Reading Stephen King. In 2017, he directed/co-wrote/starred in a short horror film, Gone, which has been screened at numerous film festivals around the country. Chizmar was recently named a U.S. Lacrosse Academic All-American during his senior year at the St. Paul’s School and is currently a freshman at Colby College.
Widow’s Point
Copyright © 2018
by Richard Chizmar and Billy Chizmar
* * *
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced in any form or by any electronic or
mechanical means, including information storage
and retrieval systems, without permission in
writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer
who may quote brief passages in a review.
* * *
Cemetery Dance Publications
132B Industry Lane, Unit #7
Forest Hill, MD 21050
www.cemeterydance.com
* * *
The characters and events in this book are fictitious.
Any similarity to real persons, living or dead,
is coincidental and not intended by the author.
* * *
Cover Artwork © 2018 by Bob Eggleton
Interior Artwork © 2018 by Glenn Chadbourne
Cemetery Dance Publications
* * *
Be sure to visit CemeteryDance.com for more information about all of our great horror and suspense eBooks, along with our collectible signed Limited Edition hardcovers and our award-winning magazine.
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Our authors include Stephen King, Bentley Little, Dean Koontz, Ray Bradbury, Peter Straub, William Peter Blatty, Justin Cronin, Frank Darabont, Mick Garris, Joe R. Lansdale, Norman Partridge, Richard Laymon, Michael Slade, Graham Masterton, Douglas Clegg, Jack Ketchum, William F. Nolan, Nancy A. Collins, Al Sarrantonio, John Skipp, and many others.
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