The Light in the Attic

The Whittier sat patiently for quite some time waiting for her renovations to begin. The new owners found themselves with a logistical challenge. Water had been shut off for years and power was only on in sections of the main floors, primarily for emergency lighting. While trying to restore power so work could begin, they discovered that the streetlights and park lighting were tied into the buildings electrical. When the building was built the owner didn’t want the entrance to open onto Jefferson Ave. He wanted a more private entrance but there was not a side street adjacent to the property. They solved that issue by building their own street. That meant they were responsible for it, which included lighting it. Needless to say, it took some time to restore full power.

One fall night I received a call from Brandon that had just driven past the Whittier on his way to another post in the area. He reported that there was a light on at the top of the tower closest to the water. He said The Whittier looked like a lighthouse. All three towers only had partial power on the main floor. The only power to the upper levels was for emergency lighting. Those lights were not visible from outside. Without full power running to the three towers or any streetlights, it was pretty dark. One light was making a huge difference as it shined over the Detroit River.

The first thing I did was call the guard on duty for a safety check. He confirmed he was fine with no unusual activity to report. My greatest concern was that vagrants had broken into the building seeking shelter or looking for copper. I called in road supervisors and a few other armed officers to help sweep the property. We started on the first floor and worked our way up. We split into teams covering both stairwells and meeting in the central hall checking rooms along the way.

While on one of the upper floors, Brandon went into one of the rooms. I was completely overwhelmed with panic. To this day I cannot tell you why. It was such an intense primal fear. I began calling his name. Everyone could hear the panic in my voice, but he didn’t answer. Another officer said he would go get him. The anxiety increased, I started yelling no and telling them to get out of there. Darrin asked me what was wrong. I told him I didn’t know but they needed to get out there right now. I ran to the doorway calling for them to get out of there. Darrin went in for Brandon, after the first officer came out without him. Finally, they came out, with Darrin pulling Brandon out by the arm. I told them we needed to get out of there immediately. As we were turning to walk back down the hall, we felt the building shake and the loudest crashing noise coming from behind us. We turned around and saw Brandon emerging from a cloud coming from the room. The entire ceiling had collapsed. I asked Brandon why he had even gone in there. He didn’t know. He said he just felt like he needed to go in there and he had no idea why. Like something was drawing him in. That was the only section of ceiling on the entire property that had collapsed. After we composed ourselves, we continued our sweep.

We made our way to the top floor without further incident. There was no sign of squatters or destruction. There wasn’t a light on anywhere. We checked the penthouses. The Crow’s Nest was undisturbed and extremely eerie in the dark. We made our way to the Mayor’s Suite. As I stepped through the double doors onto the checkered marble floor of the vestibule, I would swear to this day, I heard a woman scream. I thought that we had walked in on a female. I hurried into the “sitting room” expecting to see the boys having a female detained. It was the strangest thing. I saw the room come to life. It was like watching a movie. The colors were so vivid. The room was bright and furnished. Everything was pristine. There was a man sitting at a large, ornately carved wooden desk. Another man stood by the fireplace. A few other people were in the room. They were all dressed in formal evening wear. There was an older lady on the couch wearing a hat decorated with rhinestones and a fur wrap. Then there was the young blonde to the left wearing a red dress with fringe. As we locked eyes, the scene dissipated. I couldn’t believe what just happened. It only lasted for maybe 3 seconds then it was gone. I was so dizzy I almost fell over. Kareem grabbed my arm to steady me and asked if I was ok. I told him I was fine and asked if they found the girl. He looked at me like I had completely lost my marbles. “Didn’t you hear her scream?” He was stifling a chuckle when he said, “no, that is the wind whistling around the corner of the building”. I shook it off and paid attention to my surroundings. The wind whipping around the corner was hellacious, and quite frightening. That is not what I heard, close, but not quite.

After a thorough search, the Mayor’s Suite was found safe and secure. No evidence of any squatters, or any attempted damage. She sat frozen in time, like the rest of the property. So where was the light coming from? I called the officer on duty, as we had him remain at his station. I had him go outside and to see if the light was still on. It was. So, what did we miss? There had to be another floor above the penthouses. Now we had to figure out how to get there. We found another staircase in what we thought was the mechanical room behind the elevator. It was obviously just an access staircase. Half of us stayed behind while the other half went up. There was a small landing with a steel door at the top of the stairs. It had obviously hadn’t been open in a few decades. It took three men to pull it open. When they stepped inside, they were in the middle of an attic. There was nothing stored in there. It was only about 7ft tall and was meant to house duct work and conduit. The duct work ran along the floor, so they had to step carefully. Brandon headed toward the light and Darrin went to the opposite side to make sure no one was up there. Kareem stood just inside the doorway holding a light, and Rock stood on the landing holding the door open. They didn’t find anyone or anything disturbed. Brandon asked if he should turn the light off. I told him yes. There wasn’t a light switch so Brandon figured it must have an old pull string. As he was reaching up to pull the chain to turn the light off, he realized it wasn’t even connected to electrical. He could clearly see the wires from the fixture just hanging there, not connected to anything. He yelled to Darrin to get to the door quickly. He pulled the cord and the light went out. They sounded like a herd of elephants coming down the stairs. They only thing Brandon would say is “I’m going outside for a cigarette”.

We made our way back down to the main floor. I checked in with the officer on duty. Everything was fine. The boys were already outside. Brandon was leaning up against his car smoking in silence. I walked out to thank everyone for helping and send them to their posts. That’s when I heard Brandon say, “holy crap!” He was white as a sheet and looking up at the building. We all followed his gaze. The light was back on. Brandon firmly stated, “If you want to go turn it off, be my guest, but I am not going back up there. The light fixture doesn’t even have electricity running to it.”

We were all in agreement that the light could stay on as long as it wanted. It did. That light burned as long as we were there. It really did make The Whittier seem like a lighthouse. Eventually, I stopped seeing it as something anomalous as started seeing it as a beacon that she was still standing. I haven’t been there in over 15 years, but it wouldn’t surprise me if that light was still on.