Of That Day and Hour: A psychological thriller (16 page)

“So both doctors! Do you
enjoy your work?”

“Yes, I find it rewarding,
especially when I get to make a positive difference in someone’s life.”

“Is a psychiatrist permitted
to believe in the paranormal?”

“Of course.” She can see he
holds the Devil in his eye.

“And do you believe?”

“After recent events,” She
pauses for effect. “It has to be a resounding yes.”

“Wonderful.”

With the initial tension
broken and smiles all round, Marcus helps Jeff take the cases up to the guest
room. Eve accompanies Sarah into the kitchen, which is in sharp contrast to the
one she’s left behind. The light brown and cream marble floor tiles complement
the solid mahogany cupboards and marble worktops. The fiery heart is a large
stainless steel oven range cooker, framed by two mahogany pedestals, fluted
pillars with ornate capitals carved with leaves and scrolls, stretching up to
the ceiling. The oven backsplash is a large painting on ceramic tiles,
depicting a bird’s eye view of ploughed fields, a small lakeside village and
lush green mountains, topped off with a beautiful clear blue sky.

“You didn’t have to go to
all this trouble.” Eve’s impressed, everything was prepared before they
arrived.

“It’s no trouble at all! To
be honest with you, it’s a great excuse, I love cooking, especially for guests.
I was brought up in a big family where we would all sit around the table at
mealtimes.”

“Do you still get together?”

“Not as often as I would
like.” Sarah says with a twinge of sadness, then raises an eyebrow. “What about
you?”

“It was just me and mom.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Eve shrugs the
past off. “I had a great childhood.” She changes the subject; being a daughter
without a father is something she does not wish to discuss. “It’s a real treat
for us that you’re cooking; we live on a ranch in the middle of nowhere and
cook only for ourselves.”

“A ranch sounds nice, all
that fresh air, green pastures and cattle.”

“So the real estate ads
would have you believe. Think hot air and desert.”

“Oh.”

“Sorry to interrupt.” Jeff
appeared unexpectedly. “The cases are upstairs, would you like to freshen up
before dinner?”

“Yes.” She turns to Sarah.
“How long do we have?”

“Twenty minutes okay?”

“Perfect.”

Twenty minutes later and Eve
helps Sarah bring the food into the dining room. The table has already been
perfectly presented, the silverware polished earlier in the day. Marcus pours
the wine, both red and white. The conversation is jovial and polite as the main
meal is presented. They are given a choice of meat, either honey and ginger
chicken or pulled beef.

“Something must have deeply
troubled you to have brought you to our doorstep.” Marcus understands Jeff’s
swallowed his pride to be here. “Would you be kind enough to enlighten us?”

“Where do I start?” There’s
so much for him to say.

“The beginning’s always the
best place.”

“Well.” He takes a deep
breath. “It started the day Eve phoned me at the university. She told me that
one of her patients, who has become our protagonist, has a knowing.” All eyes
fall on Jeff as he frowns. “He’s also the cop killer Casey Lee Jones.”

“I do recall following his
case.” Marcus knows the name Casey Lee Jones. “His knowing was kill or be
killed.”

“That’s correct.”

“A fascinating defense.”
Marcus is envious, he would love to work with Casey.

“His case rests on what
can’t be proved in a court of law.”

“That he could predict the
future and his ultimate demise.”

“Correct.” Jeff can see the
glimmer of excitement in Marcus’s eyes. “However, Mr. Jones chose to decline
all interviews with Eve until a certain condition was met.”

“Which was?”

“That I was to be involved.
He asked specifically for me by name, yet we’d never met, and Eve had never
mentioned me.”

“Interesting.” Marcus looks to
Eve for conformation. “Was there any possibility that he could access
information through you, or those around you?”

“No, it’s maximum security,
no visitations; total lockdown. I didn’t forward Jeff’s name for any of my
background checks. We hadn’t spoke for a number of years and it would have
complicated matters.”

“I see. So you were Jeff’s
first point of contact, his recruiter.”

“Yes.”

“Recruiter?” Jeff’s surprise
is apparent to all.

“To be able to work at this
level, Jeff, knowingly or not you’ve been recruited by government. Once you
have been recruited you will find you can’t just walk away. May I presume you
were made redundant from your post at the university?”

“Yes...but why do you assume
that would happen?”

“Because that wouldn’t have
been a coincidence. Once you’ve been recruited, all other ties will
automatically be severed.”

“Did you know that, Eve?”
Has she betrayed him?

“No, I didn’t.” She
reinforces her statement with a direct and forceful look into his eyes. “They
informed me that you would be involved for a short time only. I’m sorry, Jeff.
I should have known better.” She feels awful, exposed like this in front of
strangers.

“It’s okay.” He’s relieved;
she's not complicit. “Don’t blame yourself.”

“You see, being in this
game, Jeff,” Marcus pauses to find the right words, “Is like being in a one way
valve: once they let you in there’s no way back out.”

“But once you’re in, you
don’t want to come back out.” Sarah says quietly.

“Yes, that’s also true,
thank you, Sarah.” Marcus smiles at her. “Everything you once believed will be
turned upside down, but in the end you won’t have it any other way.”

“Thanks for the
reassurance.” Jeff’s shaken, not sure he can cope with this extra layer of
reality now added to his already confused world.

“I was quite surprised to
hear that they kept Mr. Jones at the facility; they usually transfer them over
to us.”

“So there are more like
Casey?” This revelation takes Jeff by surprise.

“Oh yes, but there must be
something special about him that they wish to conceal from us.”

“Why would they do that, but
then permit Jeff to interview him?”

“I don’t know, Eve. The
question might be rephrased to 'what does he want from Jeff'?”

“He says he doesn’t want
anything, and that he’s only here to show me the truth.”

“And the truth is?”

“I’m not sure...perhaps what
I have fought against all my life, the reality of the paranormal.”

“But why you?”

“I don’t know.” It’s a
question Jeff keeps asking himself.

“I’ve known you a long time,
Jeff. What’s persuaded you away from your, if you don’t mind me saying, rigidly
scientific viewpoint?”

“Do you remember when we
were children, I told you about the lady who scared me; she watched me in the
street, and walked with a limp; her face was always distorted. Then one night I
saw her at the end of my bed.”

“How could I forget such a
tale! It was your grandmother, if I recall correctly?”

“Yes, and Casey Lee Jones
told me about it.” Shaking his head. “How did he know? How does he know about
my childhood? That’s already been, that’s the past; he had no part in it and
yet word for word he knew every single detail.” Jeff feels like he’s crying out
for help, and looks to Marcus.

“He does have an agenda,
doesn’t he?”

“Yes, but what is it?”
Jeff’s fear is that it’s all a mind game.

“I’m not sure. Maybe he
genuinely wishes to open you up to what you have firmly denied all your life.”

“Possibly.” Jeff considers
this. “When he speaks to me his eyes are not that of a killer; they have
compassion in them.”

“He understands this is a
hard pill for you to swallow.” Marcus has genuine concern for an old friend,
who’s lost the security of his own belief system. “Has he shown you anything
else?”

“This is where it starts to
get really weird. We decided to check out his past and his claims of being a
childhood psychic, and visited his mother in New Orleans. She’s not permitted
access to him, so no conferring could have taken place between them.”

“A sensible decision. Did
she validate his story?”

“Yes. But before the visit,
and without prior knowledge, Casey told me to have a good trip and to watch out
for the step.”

“The step?” Marcus raises an
eyebrow.

“We didn’t understand the
meaning behind his words either, until we visited his mother. She verified all
his claims of clairvoyance; however it was in the cellar that the nail was
finally driven home.”

“What happened?”

“There was a loose step on
the way down that he already knew I would slip on. But that’s not the full
story. Years earlier he’d carved a date on a wooden beam in the cellar, it was
the date we visited. His mother was already expecting us.”

“That can only mean one
thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Your destinies were already
entwined.” Marcus is excited. “There will be much more to come from him.”

“There’s more to tell.” Jeff
can't contain himself; the words spill out. “The day before the visit I had a
premonition.”

“What did you see?”

“The same street, the same
house and Casey’s mom.”

“You never mentioned it to
me.” This is news to Eve.

“I’m sorry, I was
embarrassed to tell you at the time, and in the moment I feared for my own
sanity.”

“I’ll forgive you.” Jeff has
enough trials to face; he needs her support more now than ever.

“You’re in good company,
Jeff. Many people will blame themselves and accept a medical diagnosis of
schizophrenia, rather than face the truth.”

“I did visit the doctor
myself.”

“I state my case. Now was
there any difference between your dream and reality the following day?”

“Only inside the house,
everything outside was identical.”

“What was inside?”

“An empty room, except the
walls were full of dates, names and symbols.”

 
“Can you remember any of them?”

“The dates were very clear
to me and coincided with births, marriages and deaths in my family, although
some were unknown to me as they were future dates. The symbols were general
mythological totems. There was a child depicted in the womb alongside my birthdate,
and there were fragments of sentences but I can’t remember what they said. I
wrote them off as my own subconscious ramblings.”

“That’s fascinating,
considering the date in the cellar is also connected to you.”

“Yes, there was also a
cellar door. It had 'the end is near' written across it in red; in fact that
was the only color in the dream, everything else was monochrome.”

“Did you open the door?”

“No, I woke before I got
chance.”

“Pity.
 
How have you been coping emotionally?”

“Fragile at best.” Jeff
moves his hand, disguising the slight tremor, whilst recalling the experience.

“You will be, any sane
person experiencing the paranormal will question, like you said, their own
sanity first. What did the doctor say?”

“That I was having anomalous
experiences, benign hallucinations, and that I was to take it easy. He insisted
my sense of presence was merely a hypnagogic image.”

“That sounds familiar; if
they can’t pin it on schizophrenia or some other form of disease then it has to
be hallucinations. The mere thought of being diagnosed with a mental illness is
enough to ensure the silence of millions of people.”

“So it’s more prevalent than
we think?”

“Oh yes, but I have to ask
you another question. What did you see to make you believe you were having
hallucinations?”

“That’s quite a different
story. It happened when we visited the Colorado State University for research.”

“This research is restricted
from all libraries, the internet and all media; you wouldn’t have found any
answers there.” Marcus is adamant; to his mind this information requires
restriction.

“What I discovered wasn’t in
the books, but I did find answers in the most unlikely of places.”

“Where?”

“The men’s room.”

“The toilets?” Marcus looks
surprised.

“Yes.”

“What happened?”

“When I walked inside a
cubicle I took some tissue and blew my nose, but immediately I was forcibly
knocked to the ground, like in an explosion. The air was filled with shouts and
screams, and I had to pick myself up off the floor.” Jeff appears vacant as he
recalls his story, he’s talking to himself as much as he is to those around
him. “I walked out expecting to see students running around; instead I found
myself surrounded by men from a different time and in a different place.”