Ghost Squad

As the spooky music begins, the announcer's husky voice is heard over footage of supposedly haunted locations, "Tonight on Ghost Squad our intrepid detectives of paranormal activity explore the site of a gruesome crime - the Scotsdale abortion house massacre! And you are invited to tag along...if you dare!" 

Ghost Squad is the most popular of all of the paranormal exploring shows on cable, and the credit goes to their likable cast. They try not to take it all too seriously, even though they regularly gather some startling evidence.  

Blake is their leader, or Dr. Blake, as they call him. He's in his late twenties, tall, muscular, with shaggy dark hair and an ever-present three-day-old stubble. His arms and legs are covered with tattoos of all of the famous Universal Studios monsters - you know - Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Wolfman, and others. He's a regular on the weekly tabloids, usually paired with the latest starlet. In fact, just last week Lindsey Lohan spent the night hunting ghosts with him, at least that's what was posted on Twitter by TMZ.  

Lori is the typical geek in the bunch. She's in her mid-twenties, not a small woman, but not really fat. She has brown hair in Moe Howard bowl haircut, a small diamond piercing in her nose, and an unbelievable knowledge of all of the technology that you see on these shows, you know, the thermal cameras, night-vision goggles, and recording devises that can detect the slightest ghostly whisper. 

Buster handles the rest of the technology-related duties. He and Lori are an on-again, off-again couple. He is about 280 pounds, six foot two, 26 years old, with big goofy glasses, frizzy light brown hair and beard. Think Seth Rogan when he was half-baked. He's always shown with a camera in his hand, and rumor has it that he is usually the first one scared, so they try to put him alone in the dark as much as possible. The fans love that! 

Rounding out the crew is Jill. She plays the "reporter" role on the show. A former cheerleader, she is also in her late twenties, tall, shapely, blue-eyed and blond, with a smile that can tame any ghost. Her Texas twang seems to make her even more attractive. According to People Magazine, she alone is responsible for the show's high ratings, especially with the frat boy set. It's rumored that this is her last season, as a network drama or news gig may be in her future. 

Now, at this particular location in rural Pennsylvania, they are going for a big score. Everyone has known about the legendary abortion house murders for a long time, and it took a while to cut through the red tape to get permission to finally investigate this old mansion. In fact, they're planning to make this their big "sweeps week" episode. 

So, let's back up a bit and I'll give you a little back-story on these murders if you don't already know the handed-down drama. As the story goes, in the wild and drunken roaring twenties, sexual freedom had an awaking. It was the first era of "free love" and the free-flowing alcohol added to the taboo activities. Now, at that time, birth control was pretty much non-existent, so girls that found themselves "in a family way" had only a few choices. Some went off to convents to secretly have their babies, which were then put up for adoption. Some were married, as guys opted to "do the right thing," while others simply had their children and were marked with the awful stigma of the time. And, as a last resort, there was abortion. 

Abortion, as you know, was thought of as sinful, murder, unforgivable. And, for many it remains that way today. Yet, for these girls, it was their only escape. At this "hospital" located at the end of a dark, rural road, Doctor Clement relieved hundreds of girls from their pregnancies. At the same time he amassed a small fortune. The going rate was two hundred dollars. The exorbitant fee was usually covered by wealthy fathers trying to protect their family name, or by men trying to protect themselves from the wrath of the business end of a father's shotgun.