Kensington Slade was an investigator who specialized in dealing with weird phenomena. Slade and his assistant Mike were asked by Jane Edmonds, niece and sole heir of the recently deceased newspaper tycoon Madison Hawkes, to investigate Vaux Manor which she believed to be haunted by a howling ghost. However, the Howling Beast in fact followed Jane to Slade's office and even though Kensington was a crack shot the creature seemed unfazed by the two hits from Slade's gun as it tried to escape. After the beast left, Slade and Mike agreed to take the case. Slade mentioned to Jane that he knew her uncle quite well. Mr. Hawke even gave the investigator a rare gold coin from his personal collection.