The Haunted Organ

One thing Jack Barnes and his friends hadn’t experienced yet was a total stranger asking them to solve a mystery.  So far, they’d had to find all their own cases.  They’d found quite a few, but Jack was waiting for the day when someone would ask them to help.

That day was a drizzly Monday.  At 2:13, the phone rang.  Jack was the only member of his family at home, so he had to answer it.  He was glad he did.

“Are you Jack Barnes?” asked the person on the other end.

“Yes,” said Jack.

“You and a couple friends of yours solve mysteries, right?”

“Right,” said Jack, getting excited.

“Well, I’m Mark Harrison, and I’m in charge of Tacoma Remodeling and Restorations.  Most of our work is calls from other people, but occasionally, I’ll pick up a property and have the guys get to work restoring it, in hopes of making a profit.

“Not long ago, we picked up an old church building in North Tacoma.  The church that previously occupied it had moved into a bigger building, and the old one’s been empty for ten years.  It has some great stone architecture, and I think, if we can get it restored, we’ll be able to do something with it.

“However, something strange keeps happening here, and it’s starting to freak out my workers.  Now they’re flat-out refusing to give this place a look.  I was wondering if you’d mind coming by and seeing if you could figure out what was going on.”

“Not at all!” said Jack.  “Is today a good time?”

“Yes.”

“Good!  I’ll call Kurt and Robbie.  Where is this building?”

The man gave him the address.

“One more question, Mr. Harrison.  Exactly what is the strange thing that’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you when you get here,” said the man, hanging up with a click.

Now, Jack had to come, if only to find out what was happening.  He called Kurt Morris and Robbie Ransom and told them about the call.  They both agreed to be right over.  Jack, Kurt, and Dick made up the Detective Club, and they were always up for a mystery.

Thirty minutes later, the boys found themselves in front of the church.  It was a large, stone building with stained glass windows and a steeple above the door.  A garden that must have looked really nice at one time but was now very overgrown surrounded the place.

Robbie whistled.  “That’s a nice building!” he said.

“It is,” said Kurt, “but it’s what they have to say inside that’s important.  If the building’s what you’re looking for in a church, your focus is not in the right place.”

“Well, right now, no church occupies this church,” said Jack.  “Let’s see if Mr. Harrison’s waiting for us.”  He climbed the cracked cement steps and knocked on the door.  His knock echoed around in the large, empty space behind the thick wooden door.

Almost right away, the door was answered (by Mark Harrison, of course).  He was a tall man, muscular, with short blond hair and a firm handshake, which he used on all three of the boys.  “Thank you for coming,” he said.  “I had no idea what I was going to do about this problem before I thought of you.”

“Just what is your problem?” asked Jack.

“I’ll show you,” said the man.  “Through here.”  He led the boys though another large wooden door into the auditorium.

“Wow,” said Jack.  “This is a nice building!”  The large auditorium was lined with wood paneling.  Several stained glass windows kept it from being too dinghy on the inside.  At the front of the room was the platform, which had several different levels.  Wood paneling on the left and right on the platform had crosses sticking up on top.  At the very back of the auditorium was a pipe organ, not one of the largest ever, but still a good size.

Of course, the building was in the process of renovation.  “We’re working on the paneling on the ceiling,” said Harrison, “which is why this scaffolding is all over the place.  We took out the pews in the meantime; they’ll be put back before we put this place up for sale.”

“I see,” said Jack, noting that the ceiling looked about half-finished.  “Considering that you’re in the process of renovation, though, everything looks normal.”

“Something strange has been going on in here, though,” said Harrison.  “I’ve heard it a few times myself, so my workers aren’t just making up stories.  Every day, it seems—”

He was interrupted by a shrill blast from the organ!

“There!  That’s what I called you all down here to investigate!  Do you see anyone playing the organ?”

The boys all looked to the front of the room.  The organ keyboard, prominently displayed in the center of the platform, could not be played without anyone in the sanctuary noticing.  Yet no one sat at the keyboard!  The blast (a diminished chord, if you’re musical) continued for about five seconds before ceasing as suddenly as it had begun.

“There’s no one there!” gasped Kurt.  “How did that happen?”

“That’s what I was hoping you boys could figure out,” said Harrison.  “It happens every day, more than once sometimes, and its scaring the wits out of my workers.  Three of them have told me they’ll quite before they come back here, and the ones that are still here are getting scared.  I can’t keep having this happen if I expect to get this building done.”

“Did you try calling the police?” asked Jack.

“They weren’t any help,” said Harrison.  “They were skeptical, as you understand, and they told me it wasn’t a crime to play an organ.”

“If it’s scaring off your workers, then something’s got to be done about it,” said Jack.  “Do you mind if we take a look at the organ?”

“By all means!” said Harrison.  “Do whatever you need to do to solve this mystery.”

The three boys walked down the aisle to the front of the auditorium.  Robbie said, “Maybe that wasn’t the organ at all.  It could just be a recording.”

“I’m afraid not,” said Jack.  “There’s a difference between a recording and a real pipe organ.  A recording can’t capture quite all the sound.  That was definitely the organ we heard.”

They got to the organ and began looking it over.  Kurt noticed something right away.  “The keys are covered with dust,” he declared.  “This organ hasn’t been played in a while.”

“It’s been played somehow,” said Jack.  “You’re right; they are covered with dust.  No use looking for fingerprints.  I wonder if this thing still works.”

He hit a key.  Instantly, a loud note sounded until Jack lifted his finger.

“That answer your question?” asked Kurt.

“So it does work,” said Jack.  “Now, let me see if I can figure out what chord that was.”  He hit several notes, trying out different possibilities until the notes started to resemble the sound from earlier.  Finally, Jack figured it out and pushed down the correct keys.

“That sound like it?” he asked.

“It does,” said Kurt, “only there’s something different about it.  The notes are fine, but—”

“It’s the tone,” said Robbie.  “The blast we heard sounded fuller, somehow.  It was as if it had higher notes.”

“You can change the sound on an organ,” pointed out Jack.  “All you do is pull out or push in the stops.”  He pointed to several round knobs on the organ.  (Author’s note: all organs are different; the stops are not always knobs.)

“Hmm,” said Kurt.  “Why would someone bang on the keys and switch the stops afterwards?”

“I don’t think this keyboard was used at all,” said Jack.  “That organ must have gone off some other way.”  He got off the bench.  “Let’s take a look inside.”

“Inside what?” asked Robbie.

“Inside the organ,” said Jack.

“You can do that?”

“Of course,” said Jack.  “There’s usually a door or something—ah, see that little door over there?  Open it up.”

Robbie opened a small door behind the organ, revealing a large black space inside.  Jack led the way through, followed by Kurt, followed by Robbie.

They found themselves surrounded by pipes.  The pipes visible from the sanctuary were but a fraction of the pipes inside the actual organ.  The sizes varied greatly, from gigantic ones many feet long to small, skinny ones that looked like straws.

“This is how they service organs,” said Jack.  “They have this little room back here so organ technicians can get in and make repairs or whatever.”

“I had no idea these things were so big,” said Robbie, looking around in awe.  “How many pipes are there?”

“I’m not sure,” said Jack.  “It varies.  I know that the world’s largest pipe organ has over 33,000 pipes.”

Kurt whistled.  “That’s a lot.”

“It is,” said Jack, “but right now, we need to figure out what’s causing them to play.  Look around and see if you can spot anything out of the ordinary.”

The boys did so but found nothing that looked unusual—that is, nothing that looked unusual inside an organ room.  “I don’t know,” said Kurt.  “Whatever’s causing it doesn’t want to be found.  Maybe we should have an organ expert come take a look.”

“We might have to,” said Jack.  “I can’t tell whether this is normal or not.”

“Before we go,” said Robbie, “Do you want me to take a picture of you and Kurt in the organ?”  He’d brought his camera along.

“Sure!” said Jack.  “Where else are we going to get a chance to?”  He and Kurt got next to each other and both made funny faces.

“Smile,” said Robbie, snapping the shutter on the digital camera.  A bright flash went off.  “It’s pretty dark in here, so I don’t know if it will—hey, would you look at that!”

“What?” asked Jack.

“The picture!  Look how well it turned out!”  Robbie turned his camera around so Jack and Kurt could see the screen.  The picture had turned out very well!  The flash had made it bright as day in the organ room.

“Hah-hah!” laughed Kurt.  “Good face, Jack.”

“You too,” said Jack.  “I didn’t know your camera was so strong, Robbie.”  He continued looking at the photo, then frowned.

“Hey, look at this,” he told Kurt.  “See this wood?  To your left in the photo?  It’s a much lighter shade of brown than all the wood around it.”

Kurt looked.  “You’re right!  It’s definitely a different piece!”

“I wonder if it’s another door,” said Jack.  “Let’s check!”  He crawled over to where he and Kurt had posed for the photo and pressed against the wall.

Suddenly, another small door swung open, revealing a dimly lit room behind!

“Let’s see what’s in here,” said Jack, leading the way through.  Kurt followed. They found themselves not in the auditorium, but in a small room, unlit except for two small windows at the top.  The room had several old candlesticks, banners, chairs, and other miscellaneous objects scattered around it.  But right next to the organ, there was—

“Another keyboard!” said Kurt.

“So that’s how the organ was played,” said Jack.  As Robbie emerged from the hole, Jack hit the chord he had hit earlier.  The sound rang about the small room, sounding exactly like the one the boys had heard upon entering the building.

After that, the case was quickly wrapped up.  Jack and his friends crawled back through the organ and told Harrison about the room.  Harrison, in turn, called his workmen and had them come take a look at it.  Once they saw what was causing the organ noise, they weren’t afraid to work anymore.  In fact, several of them and Harrison staked out the room one day and caught the “phantom organist” as he tried to enter.  Boy, was he surprised!  It turned out to be a rival builder who wanted to do the same thing as Harrison with the property.  Unfortunately, since the rival hadn’t actually vandalized the church or tried to harm anyone, there wasn’t really anything he could be thrown in jail for.  However, his scheme had completely fallen apart; the workers were not the least bit scared of the organ anymore.  In fact, they had the pleasure of pitching him down the front stairs of the church as they ordered him not to come back.

Next time the organ was played, it would be for worship!