Dead Cold Mysteries Box Set #3: Books 9-12 (A Dead Cold Box Set), Blake Banner [reading in the dark TXT] 📗

if the clothes he was wearing are there. Let’s see what he had on when he disappeared. You can leave your cocoa. It’ll still be there when you get back.”

I took it from her hands and placed it on the sideboard along with mine. As Dehan ran up the stairs, I turned to Kirkpatrick.

“I wonder, Don, if you could deliberately induce one of Jasmine’s trances.”

He looked slightly surprised. “What are you suggesting? That I somehow engineer these experiences? That is absurd!”

I shook my head. “No, that’s not it at all. I am trying to keep an open mind. I was thinking about what Detective Dehan said about the complete absence of proof. If these beings—assuming that they exist at all—but if what they are trying to do is communicate with us, then perhaps we could take the initiative and use Jasmine not just as a receiver, but as a transceiver and communicate to them the predicament they have put us in, and see if we can get some concrete proof of their existence, maybe even solve the mystery of the murders.” I looked around at the four astonished faces and laughed. “I’ve been trying to tell you from the start that I have an open mind. All I want is a reasonable standard of proof. If this can get it for us, we should try.”

Kirkpatrick stared past me at the dining area. I followed his gaze. Jasmine was standing by the table with a pile of plates in her hands, watching us. After a moment she nodded, then turned and made her way back to the kitchen. Kirkpatrick looked back at me. His eyes were penetrating. “What do you have in mind?”

I shrugged, spread my hands, “We simply create the conditions for the trance. We kill the lights, let her lie out on the sofa, and you speak to her. Tell her to relax, to open her mind to the Visitors, to call on them. You know the kind of stuff. I don’t need to tell you. I’m sure you’ve attended a few sessions of hypnotic regression in your time. I guess it would be pretty much the same thing.”

He nodded. “Yes, it is possible, we could do that.”

I went on. “Then, when we have contact, Detective Dehan will put the questions to them and explain our situation. Let’s see how they respond.”

Stuart had been frowning at me. Now he turned to Kirkpatrick. “I have to say I am surprised, Donald, but it does seem to make sense. It is at least worth a try.”

Kirkpatrick nodded. “Yes, I agree.” He turned to me. “What if they instruct you, as they did Paul, to go to the clearing?”

“Then I’ll go.”

“Very well.”

He stood and went into the kitchen. Dehan came out of Paul’s room and crossed the length of the galleried landing to the doors out to the terrace. I watched her unbolt them and step out. A moment later, Kirkpatrick and his wife came out of the kitchen and he led her to the sofa, where she lay down and got comfortable. Upstairs, Dehan came in from the terrace and I went up to meet her. We came down together and I explained to her what I had arranged with Don.

“You want to take care of the questions?”

She looked surprised. “Me? Why?”

I smiled. “I liked the way you expressed it earlier. You put my own thoughts into words very nicely.”

She raised an eyebrow at me. “Jeez, boss, thanks. It’s going to look great on my résumé. Next thing, I’ll get headhunted by the Alien Negotiation team at Langley.”

I laughed and as we approached the group, I said, “What were you doing on the terrace?”

Again, she looked surprised. “I was trying to see how he got down. I can’t figure it. His clothes are all in his room. He must have been wearing pajamas. It’s crazy.”

I nodded. “OK.” Dehan sat close to Jasmine’s head, where she could talk to her when the time came, and I addressed the group. “All right, we are going to see if we can get some answers to our questions. There is a lot that you guys take for granted, but we haven’t got that luxury. We need facts and we need proof, so that is what we are going to try and get. Detective Dehan will conduct the session once Don has induced a trance in Jasmine. Meanwhile, I am going to record it on my laptop. Just try to ignore me, and forget I am here. Detective Dehan is the person you need to be focusing on.”

I went and switched off the lamps from the main console. The only light now was from the fire, and from the moonlight filtering in through the windows. I set up the laptop on the dining table and sat behind it. When I was ready, I said, “Dehan…?”

She turned to look at me and held up her thumb, and I knew that from where they were, I was all but invisible behind the dim glow of the screen. I said, “Whenever you are ready, Don.”

A moment later, I heard a soft cough, and then the gentle murmur of his deep voice as he took her through a relaxation routine that told me he was no stranger to hypnosis.

“As you are listening to my voice, allow your mind to move inside you, and notice how you become aware of all those feelings that are telling you that you are becoming deeply, deeply relaxed… all the way down. That’s right… all the way down…”

Even without listening to the words, the rhythm was soporific. The deep, burnished light from the fire flickered over the group, causing long shadows to waver and dance across the room. Jasmine lay in a deep pool of darkness on the sofa, invisible to me where I sat. His voice droned on.

“…you