VOICEOVER: The Black Tapes is in part an exploration of belief and the search for truth, and in part a profile of the founder of the Gottlieb Institute, professional skeptic Dr. Hermann Gottlieb. Our story is progressing in order, week by week. So, if you’re a first-time listener, welcome to the show! Go start at episode one. Don’t worry. I’ll wait.
(Familiar theme music fades in)
From CTC Studios and the WGBH Podcast Network, welcome to the Black Tapes Podcast. I’m Newt Geiszler.
(Theme music plays: acoustic guitar, church bells, a faraway female voice.)
NEWT: Welcome back. We have a lot to get to this week. We have updates on the search for Vanessa Gottlieb, and more from our wayward drummer, Tomás Hawking. But first, we head back to Western Mass.
(interlude music #1 plays)
NEWT: On Tuesday, a few days before we were due to review another black tape with Dr. Gottlieb, we got a call at the studio.
MAKO: Okay. Understood. Yes... Thank you.
(beep)
MAKO: Newt?
NEWT: What’s up?
MAKO: That was the Westfield Police Department.
NEWT: Hm?
MAKO: Tessa Hall has gone missing.
NEWT (VO): On Monday, Tessa had not returned from school. Her parents went to the police that night. Here was what the police told us.
Monday, around 2:30, she was let out as usual to get on the bus. The monitor says she saw Tessa go into the girls’ room. She didn’t see her come out, so she went in to check. No one was in there.
She assumed Tessa had just snuck past her, so she didn’t tell anyone. The bus left. It stopped at the bottom of the Halls' street, as usual, and as usual, Lucille was waiting there for her. But she didn’t come out. She wasn’t on the bus.
And she wasn’t in the school when Lucille drove back. She wasn’t on the playground. She wasn’t in the public library. She was nowhere.
Lucille and Laurie were not willing to speak with us. The police told us some of what was going on, but they were not forthcoming. They asked me and Dr. Gottlieb to come down to answer some questions. Mako stayed in Boston digging into the Vanessa Gottlieb case.
(interlude music #2)
NEWT (VO): I drove out to Westfield, the same place we had gone on our very first case with Dr. Gottlieb, all those months ago. It felt like a very long time.
I met Dr. Gottlieb in the Sheriff’s office.
SHERIFF: So Mr. Gissler, you interviewed the victim recently?
NEWT: It’s pronounced Geiszler. I met her once, three months ago. I didn't interview her. I was interviewing her parents.
SHERIFF: You’re a reporter?
NEWT: (stiff) That’s right.
SHERIFF: What paper?
NEWT: I work with NPR.
SHERIFF: So this was an NPR piece? For the radio?
NEWT: It’s a podcast.
SHERIFF: A what?
NEWT: ...Radio for the internet.
SHERIFF: So you were interviewing them for your... internet show.
NEWT: (angry) That’s right.
SHERIFF: And what sort of questions were you asking her?
NEWT: I told you, I wasn’t asking her questions, I was interviewing her parents--
SHERIFF: (derisively) Right. The “moms.”
NEWT: Excuse me?
HERMANN: (cutting him off) We were speaking with Mrs. and Mrs. Hall about a... stalking they have been experiencing.
SHERIFF: Right, right, I heard about that. The crazy one thinks that “stalker” is what took the girl.
NEWT: (pissed) If you--
HERMANN: (talking over Newt again) And it sounds as if you aren’t taking these claims seriously?
SHERIFF: Actually, that’s why we brought you nice folks in here. Your show is kind of... dark, isn’t it? The material?
NEWT: (restrained) It’s about the paranormal.
SHERIFF: Well Ms. Hall says you broadcast an interview with her daughter.
NEWT: Sort of.
SHERIFF: Any listeners take a special interest in that episode? Any... stalker types?
NEWT: No.
SHERIFF: Any chance your show could have sent some religious nutjob in Tessa’s direction?
NEWT: (barely restrained) No.
SHERIFF: You don’t sound sure about that.
HERMANN: (crisp) It’s impossible. And ridiculous. The idea that Mr. Geiszler could influence a listener to an act of violence is far-fetched. And illogical. It’s the same logic that blames video games for gun violence. It’s misguided at best--intentionally ignoring the problem at worst.
SHERIFF: So we should be focusing on the shadow man, stalking the Hall kid? Is that your suggestion, Professor?
(phone rings)
SHERIFF: Excuse me. (Click) Collins. Yup? She’s here? Okay. Yeah. Send her down.
(click of phone hanging up)
SHERIFF: Alright. Thanks for your time, fellas.
NEWT: That’s it?
SHERIFF: We’ll be in touch.
(sound of chairs moving, standing up)
HERMANN: Please let us know if we can be of further help. We’ll be staying at the Holiday Inn until Tessa is found.
(Door closing. Sound of two sets of feet walking down a hall, click of Hermann’s cane.)
NEWT: (walking) Can you believe that guy?
HERMANN: Mm.
NEWT: What a [expletive bleeped].
HERMANN: Mm. Much as I may agree, you ought to save your obscenities until we actually leave the precinct...
NEWT: Excuse me, but my obscenities will...
(door opens)
(footsteps stop)
FEMALE VOICE: Dr. Gottlieb.
(beat)
HERMANN: (tense) ...Lightcap.
(beat)
NEWT: Uh... Hi. I’m Newt.
LIGHTCAP: (to Newt) Caitlin Lightcap. (to Hermann) How are you, Hermann?
HERMANN: Fine. Excuse me.
(footsteps and cane clicks)
NEWT: Um. It was nice to meet you.
NEWT (VO): That was Caitlin Lightcap, one of the most noted psychics and parapsychologists in the country. I recognized her once I looked her up.
Here she is in a clip on KQED in 1997, back in the heyday of The X-Files, when she was popular on talk shows. She is demonstrating her abilities to a team at Stanford. They have her hooked up to an EEG, which is a machine that measures brainwave patterns. In the next room, there’s a wooden pinwheel with slices of different colors. The researcher spins the wheel, and it lands on a random color. In the other room, Lightcap guesses which color is on the wheel.
RESEARCHER: Okay Ms. Lightcap. Ready?
LIGHTCAP: Go for it.
(Click-click-click of wheel spinning. Click... click... it stops.)
RESEARCHER: What color do you see?
LIGHTCAP: Orange.
NEWT (VO): Remember, the wheel is in the other room, where Lightcap can’t see it. Another researcher goes back and forth, spinning the wheel after each guess. She got the first one right.
RESEARCHER: Good. Next one.
(wheel spins)
RESEARCHER: What color?
LIGHTCAP: Green.
RESEARCHER: Great.
(wheel spins)
RESEARCHER: And now?
LIGHTCAP: Light blue.
RESEARCHER: Very impressive.
NEWT (VO): The test went on for almost twenty minutes. In total, she got 92% correct.
RESEARCHER: Now?
LIGHTCAP: Yellow.
RESEARCHER: Ms. Lightcap, tell me. Do you see the colors, like you do with your eyes?
LIGHTCAP: Yes.
RESEARCHER: Can you tell me how that’s done?
LIGHTCAP: It’s simple. I’m in the room.
RESEARCHER: You’re in that room?
LIGHTCAP: Yes. I’m standing in front of a wheel, like you’d spin at a fair. But smaller. The size of an umbrella. There’s a small, electronic device to the right. And an intern. He looks bored.
RESEARCHER: Yes. That’s our EMF sensor. And Brendan.
LIGHTCAP: I know.
RESEARCHER: Ms. Lightcap?
LIGHTCAP: Yes.
RESEARCHER: Do you feel yourself physically present in the room? Right now?
LIGHTCAP: Yes. If I concentrate.
RESEARCHER: Could you move anything in there? Don’t strain yourself.
(pause)
(sound of something moving... pinwheel clicks)
RESEARCHER: Oh my god.
NEWT (VO): Yeah. It moved. I was fascinated. I asked Dr. Gottlieb about it later when we met in his motel room to discuss the case.
HERMANN: (flatly) Caitlin Lightcap is a charlatan.
NEWT: (brightly) She seems pretty serious to me.
HERMANN: That’s the trickster’s gift. They ease you into a sense of trust, to distract you from the manipulation. It’s the same misdirection magicians use. In her case, the misdirection is her “serious” manner. She seems like a scientist, not a Madame Blavatsky. But she’s nothing more than a fraud.
NEWT: So she’s faking it?
HERMANN: Yes.
NEWT (VO): Caitlin Lightcap has become a sought-after consultant for detectives and police departments around the country. She specializes in missing persons cases. According to her--and the agencies she assists--she has successfully helped locate almost twenty missing people.
NEWT: So how do you explain her record? She’s found a fair amount of people for a faker.
HERMANN: (sighs) Caitlin Lightcap is actually a gifted detective.
NEWT: What? That’s it? A gifted detective?
HERMANN: Yes. She claims she’s had these “abilities" since she was a child. Yet think about when she found success in missing persons cases: the late 90s.
NEWT: So?
HERMANN: The dawn of the age of the internet.
NEWT: So she’s... just using the internet to find people?
HERMANN: Her success coincides exactly with the rise of the information superhighway. Data and personal information being collected and made available at an unprecedented rate. And everyone had access. She finally found the tool to put her skills to use.
NEWT: (hesitant) Well...
HERMANN: What?
NEWT: There was this experiment she did at Stanford...
HERMANN: (chuckles) The colored wheel.
NEWT: Yes!
HERMANN: In the pseudoscientific community, that ability is called “bi-locating.” Supposedly appearing in two places at once.
NEWT: Sure. Okay. So how could she fake that?
HERMANN: Have you heard of the Lightcap Foundation for Higher Learning?
NEWT: No.
HERMANN: It’s her nonprofit organization. It makes a lot of money from celebrity clients.
NEWT: And?
HERMANN: And that foundation funded this experiment at Stanford.
NEWT: Really?
HERMANN: Indirectly, yes. They support the American Institute for Psychic Research, which conducted this experiment.
NEWT: So you think the results are fake, too?
HERMANN: I’d call them unreliable. Let’s say they didn’t monitor their controls as tightly as they should have.
NEWT: Hmm.
(pause)
NEWT: So you two know each other, then?
HERMANN: In a manner of speaking.
NEWT (VO): Naturally, Lightcap had a book coming out. Hidden Worlds: Ghost Studies in the 21st Century. So naturally, she was happy to chat when I got in touch.
I tagged along on day two of her search for Tessa Hall--on the condition that Dr. Gottlieb stay behind. We met up at the Chester-Blandford State Forest, a little ways west of Westfield.
(Sound of feet crunching on gravel, twigs snapping. Trees in the wind, distant bird song.)
NEWT: So you think Tessa might be here? In the forest?
LIGHTCAP: It’s a possibility.
NEWT: Can you see her? The way you could see that color wheel?
LIGHTCAP: No. Not exactly.
NEWT (VO): Despite Dr. G’s dismissal, Caitlin Lightcap doesn’t seem like a fraud. And she doesn’t seem like someone who profits off others’ misery. She’s tall--taller than me--with short hair and sleepy eyes. She’s focused, often inside her own head, but when you speak, she listens closely.
NEWT: How do you approach cases like these?
LIGHTCAP: The first thing I do is get a sense of who the victim is--some people might call this their “essence.” I speak with their family, friends, I familiarize myself with their home, possessions, their social media if applicable. I get a sense of the things they value, the things they want.
NEWT: Like a bloodhound.
LIGHTCAP: It’s not dissimilar.
NEWT: A spiritual bloodhound?
LIGHTCAP: (laughs)
NEWT: So once you have the scent, you...?
LIGHTCAP: I focus on their essence and try to locate it.
NEWT: Via visions?
LIGHTCAP: No. It’s more akin to a pull. A gut feeling. I know that sounds unsatisfyingly unscientific. But it’s what I feel. I get in the car, drive east, and I feel her spirit drifting away. I turned around, headed west, and the pull got stronger. I followed it here.
NEWT: Do you have any sense of the... reason she disappeared? Was she taken by someone? Do you have a sense of them?
LIGHTCAP: She was definitely taken. When I was in her room, I felt an extremely dark presence.
NEWT: Her abductor?
LIGHTCAP: Worse.
NEWT: ...What could be worse?
LIGHTCAP: I couldn’t explain it. This presence was not like any of the kidnappers I’ve encountered in the past. It was not the sensation of a sick person. It was more of a presence of... intent. Deliberation. Long-term.
NEWT: So when did you realize you had this gift?
LIGHTCAP: My first memory of it is at age three, but I believe I’ve had it all my life.
NEWT: You can remember things from age three? That’s unusual.
LIGHTCAP: It’s called HSAM. Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory. The human mind has a great deal of storage and processing power. We don’t make use of all of it. Everyone’s mind has this potential.
NEWT: You mean, with the right tools, I could call up memories from when I was three?
LIGHTCAP: With the right mental discipline? Yes. You could recall details from any day of your life.
NEWT: And with the right mental discipline, could I move a color wheel from another room?
LIGHTCAP: (chuckles) Maybe so. It’s my belief that all people have these gifts to varying degrees, like math skills or artistic acuity. Some people are born to do calculus, but most people can learn basic algebra. I was born with this ability.
NEWT: This ability being extreme recall.
LIGHTCAP: Yes. Among other things.
NEWT: Such as bi-locating.
LIGHTCAP: Yes.
NEWT: Can you talk about how that works?
LIGHTCAP: It takes a lot of concentration. Did you know Vladimir Lenin could bi-locate?
NEWT: Really?
LIGHTCAP: Yes. He wasn’t just an economic and philosophical revolutionary. In 1923, he was old and bedridden. He couldn't to move or speak. Yet, while he was in bed being taken care of, there reports of him being seen in his office in Gorky, or reading in his favorite chair, or going through his papers.
NEWT: Wow.
LIGHTCAP: He died soon after. This is all connected. He had unlocked his mind. That gave him abilities from bi-locating, to leading a revolution, to...
NEWT: To potentially locating a missing child?
LIGHTCAP: Let’s hope so.
NEWT (VO): It didn't escape my notice that Lightcap was aligning herself, however subtly, with that type of genius. But after spending the day with her, I wouldn't begrudge her the title.
Lightcap was a fascinating hiking companion. She was knowledgeable about whole hosts of strange things, flora, fauna, psychology, neurology, history. Whatever I asked, she always had an answer for me.
In a way, she reminded me of Dr. Gottlieb. Like a biazzaro-universe version of him, she had armed her enormous knowledge base and loaded it with the paranormal, instead of against it.
And she was thoroughly un-corny. She has a genuine confidence that gives her a natural charisma. Plus that dash of mystery that makes a dream subject for a journalist. I would have called her the real deal. Would have, if Dr. Gottlieb hadn’t been whispering in my ear.
NEWT: Did you know Lenin could bi-locate?
HERMANN: I’ve heard the legend, yes. Did Lightcap tell you that?
NEWT: Yeah. She was interesting. Apparently Aliester Crowley bi-located too.
HERMANN: (darkly) I’m sure they would have been friends.
NEWT: You don’t like her, huh?
HERMANN: Who, Lightcap?
NEWT: Obviously.
HERMANN: (flatly) I don’t dislike her.
NEWT: (...)
(Beat. Sounds of typing.)
NEWT: I’m starving. Want to go get something to eat?
HERMANN: Alright.
(sound of laptop closing. Newt moves away from mic. Bag unzips.)
HERMANN: Did you enjoy... your hike?
NEWT: (distant, looking for something) Oh yeah. It was lovely. And she was pretty interesting, even for a fraud.
HERMANN: (uncomfortable) Mm.
(pause)
HERMANN: So, are you going to keep recording...?
NEWT: (oops) Oh, right.
(Zipper, Newt moves back to mic. Loud buzz: someone’s phone is vibrating on the table.)
NEWT: Hello? (...) Oh. And when--? Okay. Mhm. Okay. Thanks.
(beep)
HERMANN: Is something wrong?
NEWT: No. That was the police chief. They found Tessa.
---------SPONSOR BREAK #1---------
⏮ ⏯ ⏭
NEWT (VO): Tessa Hall was found by a hunter and his beagle, in an abandoned cabin near a protected wilderness area. It was about ten miles north of where Lightcap had taken me the day before. The police chief did not have the time or inclination to discuss the case with us; neither did Tessa’s parents.
Poking around, we learned that the cabin had been abandoned for at least 80 years. It’s on private property, but spitting distance from the state-protected forest. We spoke to the property owner, who is in her eighties. She said her kids had found it in disrepair, and made a project of restoring it. This was almost fifty years ago. It’s stood empty and deteriorating since then. No one could tell us who built it originally. There are no town records of its original ownership or construction.
Tessa was missing for three days. She was found alone. She was healthy, except that she was hungry, and she could not remember how she got from school to the cabin. She said she had no memories of the past three days at all.
After the initial investigation was done, Caitlin Lightcap was given permission to do an onsite reading. They were pretty short on clues about Tessa’s abductor. She agreed to let me join.
(Sound of feet on leaves, twigs snapping.)
NEWT: So do you know Dr. Gottlieb well?
LIGHTCAP: I don’t know if I’d say I know him at all.
NEWT: But you’ve met? You recognized each other... pretty fast.
LIGHTCAP: We’ve met, yes, professionally. He’s debated me at conferences. He never has anything very charitable to say about my work. That used to bother me; now, I don’t let it get to me.
NEWT: It used to bother you?
LIGHTCAP: Of course. When I was first getting started. He’s always there to poke holes in me and my colleagues’ work. It’s a living, I suppose, for him. I spent a lot of time thinking about why he would do it. Now, I don’t really care.
NEWT: Huh.
LIGHTCAP: But I can see why he interests you as a journalist.
NEWT: Oh, yeah. He has a lot to say.
LIGHTCAP: Really? That’s a surprise to hear. I would have thought he was interesting for what he won’t say.
NEWT: ...I guess.
(Beat as they walk. Crunching leaves and twigs. A stream is heard in the distance.)
NEWT: He doesn’t like talking about himself, that’s for sure.
LIGHTCAP: Yet he talks to you.
NEWT: I think he sees it as the price of doing business. If he’s going to get his “message” out... he has to let me package it.
LIGHTCAP: His “message,” huh? Doesn’t that sound more like the language of a proselytizer than a skeptic, to you?
NEWT: (chuckle) I guess it does.
(Leaves crunch as Lightcap stops walking.)
LIGHTCAP: You want to know what I would do?
NEWT: (stopping, surprised) Yeah?
LIGHTCAP: How many of his black tapes have you seen?
NEWT: Four or five. I know there’s a lot more.
LIGHTCAP: Ask him if you can watch the Karla tape.
NEWT: The Karla tape?
LIGHTCAP: Yes.
NEWT: What’s on there?
LIGHTCAP: I won’t say more. That’s for Dr. Gottlieb to explain.
NEWT (VO): We reached the cabin. It was a lot smaller than I expected. It’s on a slope in the woods--mostly hemlocks, not much underbrush--next to a stream. The streambed is steep and deep, almost a gully. It could have been a waterfall, if the stream was running. But it’s barely a trickle.
The stream forms the border between the private land and the wilderness area. We had to leap across some big rocks to get to the little cabin.
It was pretty dilapidated. 50 Massachusetts winters will do that to you. Even I had to duck to get inside. Inside, it was half-rotted and covered in moss, with nails sticking out everywhere. There were two fold-out “cots” made of wood, attached to the walls with hinges, and a broken table with one stool.
The strangest thing--and the only physical evidence they recovered--was on the walls and ceiling. It was drawings. They were crude, black, sort of like cave drawings. Circles, mostly, with numbers and symbols I didn’t recognize. They gave me the heebie jeebies.
There was a hole in the ceiling, which Lightcap, bending to keep from hitting her head, said was probably the smokestack.
LIGHTCAP: Looks like there was a stove here.
NEWT (VO): She was pointing at the bricks below the hole. There was a pile of ash.
NEWT: Yeah. The owner said her son installed a wood stove when they restored it, but a hunter stole it.
LIGHTCAP: Damn.
NEWT: So, the officer, the one who just let us in, says they found her here around noon. She was just sitting on the stool, not tied up or anything. The door was... well.
NEWT (VO): There was no door on the cabin.
NEWT: ...open. They didn’t find anything except Tessa and the... drawings.
(beat)
NEWT: Caitlin?
NEWT (VO): Caitlin Lightcap was standing in front of the wall, facing away from me. She was looking with her head tilted back, like she was taking in the drawings on the wall and the ceiling. She didn’t say anything. She stood very still.
I went over.
NEWT: Caitlin? What is it? Is everything... Oh my god.
LIGHTCAP: Do you recognize this?
NEWT: Yes. Yes. I saw the same drawing, in Tessa’s bedroom. It was in her closet. She drew it in crayon. This one looks more like charcoal.
LIGHTCAP: No. Tessa Hall did not draw this. And she didn’t draw the one in her closet either.
NEWT: Oh. Who did?
(pause)
NEWT: It kind of looks like it has eyes.
(pause)
NEWT: (hesitantly) Caitlin? Are you good? (...) You’re freaking me out a little.
LIGHTCAP: (quietly) This place is not safe.
NEWT: What?
LIGHTCAP: There is something else here with us.
NEWT: No, it’s just us. What do you mean?
LIGHTCAP: It’s so dark... it’s waited for so long...
NEWT: What is? What’s dark?
LIGHTCAP: ...It’s him.
NEWT: (agitated) Him who? The face in the drawing? What’s it waiting for?
LIGHTCAP: It’s coming.
---------SPONSOR BREAK #2---------
⏮ ⏯ ⏭
HERMANN: A demon.
NEWT: (excited) Really?
HERMANN: Yes. It looks like someone was trying to summon a demon.
NEWT (VO): Back at the motel, I was showing Dr. G pictures of the cabin inscriptions.
NEWT: What about this?
HERMANN: This smudge?
NEWT: Doesn’t it look like the one in Tessa’s closet?
HERMANN: Maybe. I think these are more interesting.
NEWT: These numbers and shapes?
HERMANN: Yes. Do you see the overall shape they’re forming?
NEWT: Um... circles?
HERMANN: No, overall. Look.
NEWT: ...I don’t think I see it.
HERMANN: It’s a pentagram.
NEWT: Oh. (...) Oh. Yes. I see it. ...Sweet.
HERMANN: The face at the center of it? It’s demonic. That face is known in ancient literature as an “elemental.”
NEWT: Never heard of it.
HERMANN: There are several names for it--Asog, Aka Manah. Griogori. It’s an archdemon.
NEWT: Griogori. I’ve heard that before.
HERMANN: Have you?
NEWT: Mm... It’ll come back to me. Go on.
HERMANN: Well, whoever kidnapped Tessa has a dangerous obsession with this archdemon. And with sacred geometry.
NEWT: Sacred geometry? The same as the demon board?
HERMANN: Same genre of symbol, yes. Could you send me these photos? I want to send these equations to my friend.
NEWT: Sure.
NEWT (VO): Later, I was lying in bed, trying to fall asleep by not thinking about the case--failing utterly--that was when it came back to me. Griogori. From the mouth of one Ms. Guth, in the Coventry Public Library a few short months ago.
(audio from Episode 4 plays)
GUTH: Father McEwan said later that he never saw anything like it, not before then and not after. [...] He said the demon possessing her was so powerful he did not have the holy words to cast it out. He called it the Griogori.
NEWT (VO): In the morning, I did some cursory research into the mythos of the Griogori. What I found was all highly conflicting. I resolved to ask Dr. G about it in more detail when we got back to Boston.
Before we went home, I wanted one more look at that cabin. And I wanted a fresh set of eyes on it.
(phone ringing)
HERMANN: (muffled through phone) Hello?
NEWT: Hey Hermann.
HERMANN: Oh. Hello.
NEWT: (airily) I was wondering if you were feeling like a little fresh air on this fine Saturday. I was thinking maybe a scenic hike, maybe through the woods...
HERMANN: ...The cabin?
NEWT: The cabin.
(interlude music #2)
(leaves crunching, twigs snapping)
HERMANN: So you said this cabin was built by the property owner’s children?
NEWT: Re-built. They found it. They don’t know who built it originally. Why?
HERMANN: I wondered if it had any other purpose besides, I don’t know. Hunting cabin.
NEWT: Was there a purpose you had in mind?
HERMANN: Not really.
NEWT: (...)
HERMANN: I’ll reserve judgment until we get there. I don’t want to bias you ahead of time.
NEWT: (...)
HERMANN: (sighs) The photos you showed me raised the possibility that this might be... a church.
NEWT: (surprised) A church? All the way out here?
HERMANN: It’s just an idea. The arrangement of the drawings suggested it. But it’s just an idea. We’ll just... see what’s there.
NEWT: (bemused) Okay.
(beat--forest sounds, footsteps)
NEWT: I asked Lightcap about you.
HERMANN: I’m sure you did. She had nothing very charitable to say, I assume?
NEWT: (makes a neutral noise) Not very uncharitable, either. Mostly that you're a mystery.
HERMANN: I’ve been getting that a lot, lately.
NEWT: (chuckles)
(beat)
NEWT: She told me to ask you about a certain tape.
HERMANN: A tape?
NEWT: “Karla.” She said you would know what that meant.
HERMANN: I’m afraid I don’t.
NEWT: You sure?
HERMANN: Quite.
NEWT: Huh. Okay. I think it’s up here. (beat) Yeah, there it is. Oh. We have to cross some rocks. Is that gonna be okay for you?
HERMANN: Is something wrong with the bridge?
NEWT: What bridge?
(beat, as Hermann presumably points)
NEWT: Oh, my god. The cops must have put that up. Lightcap and I did not see that yesterday.
HERMANN: (amused) Some clairvoyant...
(sound of rushing water)
NEWT (VO): In daylight, the cabin looked different. In a way, less creepy; but inside, it was just as dark. Only a bit of sunlight filtered in through the gaps between the logs.
HERMANN: So this is the face?
NEWT: Yeah. It is a face. Don’t try it, Dr. Pareidolia.
HERMANN: (amused) I wasn’t going to. You’re right.
NEWT: Same one as Tessa’s closet.
HERMANN: Maybe.
(footsteps)
HERMANN: This is interesting.
NEWT: What is?
HERMANN: What’s this?
NEWT: The property owner said there used to be a wood stove there. See the smokestack? Someone stole it a while back. There’s still ash.
HERMANN: No. This ash is fresh.
NEWT: What?
HERMANN: I’m no forensics expert. But ash from that stove would have blown away long ago. This is recent.
NEWT: Oh.
HERMANN: And look at this.
NEWT: What?
HERMANN: Do you see how the sun is coming through?
NEWT: Okay.
HERMANN: Now look at the light it’s casting on the wall above these bricks.
NEWT: ...Oh. It’s a cross.
HERMANN: Yes it is. And this is an altar.
NEWT (VO): I saw it. With the sun rising in the east, the light came through a small cross section of cracks in the wall. And on the opposite wall, right above the bricks, clearly by design, the light formed the shape of a cross.
HERMANN: Someone burned something on this altar. Recently.
NEWT: Holy [expletive bleeped].
HERMANN: (undertone) It’s not polite to swear in church, Newton.
NEWT: (laughs, but slightly nervously) Don’t.
HERMANN: And look at this. If this wall is west... then that means this... This is the north wall.
NEWT (VO): He was pointing to the wall with the symbols and the shadowy face. He went to look at it--the face that had put Caitlin Lightcap into a fearful trance.
NEWT: Okay. What does that mean?
HERMANN: It means this is some kind of door.
NEWT: A door?
HERMANN: See, those numbers on that wall?
NEWT: Yes?
HERMANN: Well, I sent the photos you emailed me yesterday to a friend. She said the top lines are reiterations of the Golden Ratio.
NEWT: Uh-huh?
HERMANN: Mathematicians, scholars, and artists have been obsessed with this ratio for years. There are some who believe it is evidence of intelligent design; others believe it has occult properties. This equation, apparently, is folding the Golden Ratio over and over again, onto itself.
NEWT: How is that?
HERMANN: I’m no mathematician. My best guess is... by doing this, in context with the sacred geometry below, here... Someone is trying to create a devil’s door.
NEWT: A what’s that now?
HERMANN: Medieval churches had something they called a “devil’s door” on the north walls of their churches. When they baptized a baby, they opened a small door in the north wall of the church, to allow bad spirits to escape the child.
NEWT: Why would someone create that here? Could they have wanted to baptize Tessa?
HERMANN: (darkly) Unlikely. This particular door...
NEWT: This particular devil’s door?
HERMANN: It wasn’t designed to let anything out.
NEWT: No?
HERMANN: No. This is on the south wall, not the north. This was made to let something in.
NEWT: ...What sort of something?
HERMANN: Something bad.
(beat)
HERMANN: You realize, of course, that none of this is real?
NEWT: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, of course.
HERMANN: I’ll speak to the police about the ash. They might be able to find out what the kidnapper was burning.
(interlude music #3)
NEWT (VO): Another case, unsolved and open-ended. Was it a church? Who built it? Who brought Tessa there, and why? Was something bad coming, like Lightcap said? Or was it all just runaway mysticism?
I got back to the studio somewhat frustrated. But Mako had news--news about Vanessa.
NEWT: So what did you find?
MAKO: Well, I spoke to the people who were working at the gas station back in 2005. At the time, one of them didn’t have her green card. Her employer protected her, said he was the one working, and she never spoke to the police. Now, she has her green card. She wasn’t willing to go on tape, but she still remembered that night. Things that are not in the police record.
NEWT: What did she say?
MAKO: So, as we know from Dr. Gottlieb, and the police report, they pulled into the gas station at about 9:50 PM. There was no one else in the lot. The attendant was inside, and she heard shouting. She went to the window, and saw the two of them arguing. Loudly.
NEWT: Oh. Wow.
MAKO: She said Dr. Gottlieb came in to pay, looking pretty upset. She didn’t say anything, and he didn’t either. Then she said he got in the car and left.
NEWT: Without Vanessa?
MAKO: No. The attendant said she didn’t see her--she wasn’t in the parking lot. So either she was in the car, or she disappeared in the 60-second window while he was paying.
NEWT (VO): I was pretty shocked. I don’t know what surprised me--that Dr. Gottlieb had left the argument out of his story? That wasn’t out of character, not really. But something about it was... wrong. I asked him about it next time we spoke in the studio.
HERMANN: (shortly) So what are you asking me? Are you asking me if I left her there? If I lied?
NEWT: No. I’m not saying that. I’m just asking you to tell me what happened.
HERMANN: We had a fight. Yes. When I stopped for gas. If you say the attendant saw it, I guess she must have. I don’t remember her.
We were both very upset. ...Furious. We had been having problems before that, and part of the vacation plan was to work through some things. But we didn’t even get there before we started fighting.
NEWT: Work through things like what?
HERMANN: What?
NEWT: What were you... fighting about?
HERMANN: That’s...
(beat)
HERMANN: My wife was having an affair.
NEWT: (surprised) Oh.
(beat)
HERMANN: (...)
NEWT: So--
HERMANN: (clears throat)
NEWT: With who?
HERMANN: I didn’t know. I still don’t. She wouldn’t say.
NEWT: She wouldn’t say who? Or she wouldn’t say...?
HERMANN: She denied it.
NEWT: Oh.
HERMANN: But it was the only possible explanation for her behavior. The secrecy was systematic. Hotels, motels, secret meetings. “Business trips.”
NEWT: So she... denied it. You argued. And then?
HERMANN: She took her purse and walked away.
NEWT: Away?
HERMANN: Yes. She started walking down the highway. I didn’t follow. I waited. I was angry. Then I went in and paid, got back in the car, and drove slowly down the highway. I expected I would catch up with her. Only about 10 minutes had gone by. (...)
NEWT: But...?
HERMANN: But I didn’t see her. She was gone.
NEWT: So... Vanessa didn’t disappear from a gas station. She disappeared from the highway.
HERMANN: That’s right.
NEWT: (...)
HERMANN: You look upset.
NEWT: (grim) I’m not upset you lied about the affair. It’s your personal business, I guess. I am a little disturbed that you let your wife go walk along the highway, alone, at night.
HERMANN: (quiet) You think I haven’t regretted that, every day since?
(silence)
-----------OFF THE RECORD-----------
NEWT: So like... what does this mean for the investigation?
MAKO: (considering) Not much, I don’t think. She still disappeared from, approximately, the same place. The police must have known. And honestly, Newt... it’s not like we’re likely to find something they didn’t.
NEWT: I mean...
MAKO: What we’re looking for is something that has changed in the last ten years. If she’s still alive, that’s what we’ll find.
NEWT: And if she’s not...?
MAKO: Then we’ll probably find nothing.
(pause)
NEWT: Can you believe she was having an affair?
MAKO: Pretty crazy.
NEWT: Yeah.
MAKO: Still... I mean.
NEWT: (laughs) Don’t be mean.
MAKO: I’m just saying. I wouldn’t have traded places with her.
NEWT: Harsh!
(pause)
NEWT: I can’t believe it, though.
MAKO: As in you can’t, or don’t?
NEWT: Can’t. I guess I believe it. It’s just... weird.
MAKO: Are you upset Gottlieb didn’t tell you?
NEWT: I don’t know. I don’t know. I never know what’s going on with that guy.
MAKO: Don’t stress about it too much, okay? Keep it in the show--leave it on the court. That’s what you say, right?
NEWT: (laughs) Yeah. Yeah.
MAKO: I mean, do explore it on the show. That’s the point of investigative journalism. But keep it on the show. That’s where it belongs.
NEWT: Yeah.
-----------RESUME RECORD-----------
(interlude music #1)
NEWT (VO): Before we go, one last thing. We got another email from Tomás Hawking, our wayward Nephi drummer. This time the body of the email was blank. There was an attachment--a short, fuzzy sound file. I’ll play it for you, but I don’t think you’ll get much more out of it than we did.
(fuzzy, irregular sound is heard, like wind blowing into a cheap microphone. There’s a distant voice, sounding like it’s yelling, but too distant to distinguish any language.)
NEWT (VO): What was Hawking trying to tell us? If anything? Had he found the painting, in Italy, or wherever he really was? Or had he just gone off the deep end?
Either way, the clip was ominous. We emailed him back, but he hasn’t replied.
Next time, in our season finale: a real, live, taped exorcism.
I’m Newt Geiszler. It’s the Black Tapes. Things are not as they seem.
⏺ Rec