The Lady in Red
by Cherlyn Gardner Strong on Sep. 23, 2009, under Ghosts and Hauntings, Life, ParanormalLongtime Tucsonans can remember when the El Con Mall bustled with customers, back in the early 80’s. Tequila Mockingbird was a popular bar in the El Con center, where local bands like Street Pajama would perform Thursdays through Saturdays. Levy’s and Montgomery Ward’s served as anchor stores within the mall complex. Osco Drug provided mall shoppers with the convenience of picking up prescriptions, toiletries, or other needed items, before they would head home with too many shopping bags in tow.
Osco appeared to be drugstore like any other in town. Friendly pharmacists filled prescriptions. Cashiers cheerfully rang up customer purchases. The daytime hours in that store rarely raised concern for the employees, except for dreaded trips to the basement.
When a particular item ran low on the shelves, employees didn’t like to go down into that storage area. Every time an employee found themselves in the basement, they would hear footsteps. It sounded like women’s high heel shoes and they made the sound of click-click-click. The employees never stayed very long down in the basement. They would just grab whatever item they needed and run back upstairs, trying not to look back.
A couple of employees however, did happen to see what they thought looked like a woman, but they convinced themselves that their eyes were playing tricks on them. They all gave the same description of a lady dressed in red. They all agreed that her clothing appeared to be from the 1940′s. Perhaps she had been associated with the El Conquistador Hotel, they thought. Aside from the occasional glimpses they caught of the woman in the basement, they all thought that she was harmless. Daily operations were carried out as usual.Afterhours activities, when all the customers were gone, were especially tense in the store for the manager and his employees. It was night time when most of the experiences took place. The manager felt uneasy working alone. His office was on the second floor, which looked down on the store aisles below. He would occasionally hear the click-click-click coming toward his office, but the sound would fade before getting too close. One night, though, the sound didn’t fade. The sound came closer and closer – until it stopped outside his office door. The doorknob began to jiggle. The manager threw the window of his office open, and jumped, landing first on one of the store aisles, then down to the floor. He didn’t bother turning off any of the lights.
Another experience involved two store employees who were performing inventory late at night. The two women worked together in each aisle, each tending to their respective sides of the aisle. Occasionally, the sound of click-click-click could be heard in the distance. After a little while, one of the employees looked toward her colleague to ask a question. She was surpised to see that a lady, dressed in red, was standing directly behind her crouched colleague. The colleague didn’t seem to notice, as she continued to count the items on the shelf.
The lady in red glared down at the store employee, arms crossed, tapping her fingers on her arms. Desperate to alert her colleague, she barely got out the words: “Come here!” The crouched colleague rose and started to walk toward her co-worker. When she noticed the look of horror she was headed toward, she looked behind her, and there she saw the lady in red!
The women fled out of the store, they heard the click-click-click sound, faster and faster behind them, as it followed them toward the door. The women made it into the parking lot, where they fell to their knees and prayed. All the while, at the door, stood the lady in red. The lady in red glared at the horrified women in the parking lot, her arms crossed…and she just stood there, steadily tapping her arms with her fingers…
After Osco was demolished several years ago to make room for the big box stores, there have been no more sightings of that lady in red. At least, not yet…
