forgiven himself yet-and was coming here to be with him, and they would talk together tonight, talk over everything in this safe and wholesome place.
But there was one more folder to read, one more sheaf of notes, obviously intended for his eyes. Better get to it now quickly. He crushed out the cigarette in the ashtray on the little camp table beside him, and lifting the folder into the yellow light, he opened it now.
Loose papers, some handwritten, some typed, some printed. He began to read.
COPY MAIL GRAM sent to TALAMASCA MOTHERHOUSE LONDON from Aaron Lightner
August 1989:
Parker Meridien Hotel
New York.
Just completed “casual meeting” interview with Deirdre Mayfair’s doctor (from 1983) here in New York, as assigned. Several surprises.
Will send full handwritten transcript of interview (tape was lost; doctor requested it from me and I gave it to him) which I will complete on the plane to California.
But want to communicate an extremely interesting development, and ask for a file search and study.
This doctor claims to have seen Lasher not only near Deirdre but some distance away from the First Street house, on two occasions, and on at least one of these occasions-in a Magazine Street bar-Lasher clearly materialized. (Note the heat, the movement of the air, all fully described by the man.)
Also the doctor became convinced that Lasher was trying to stop him from giving Deirdre her tranquilizing medication. And that when Lasher later appeared to him, he was trying to get this doctor to come back to First Street and intervene in some way with Deirdre.
The doctor only came to this interpretation at a later time. When the appearances were happening he was frightened. He heard no words from Lasher; he received no clear telepathic message. On the contrary, he felt the spirit was trying desperately to communicate and could only do it through his mute appearances.
This doctor shows no evidence at all of being any sort of natural medium.
Appropriate Action: Pull every sighting of Lasher since 1958 and study each carefully. Look for any such sighting when Deirdre was not in the vicinity. Make a list of all sightings and give approximate distance from Deirdre.
As it stands now, preliminary to such an investigation, I can only conclude that Lasher may have gained considerable strength in the last twenty years, or has always had more strength than we realize; and can in fact materialize where he chooses.
I don’t want to be hasty in drawing such a conclusion. But this seems more than likely. And Lasher’s failure to implant any clear words or suggestions in the doctor’s mind only reinforces my opinion that the doctor himself was not a natural medium and could not have been assisting these materializations.
As we well know, with Petyr van Abel, Lasher was working with the energy and imagination of a powerful psyche with profound moral guilts and conflicts. With Arthur Langtry, Lasher was dealing with a trained medium, and those appearances and/or materializations happened only, on the First Street property, in proximity to Antha and Stella.
Can Lasher materialize when and where he wants to? Or does he merely have the strength to do it at greater distances from the witch?
This is what we have to discover.
Yours in the Talamasca,
Aaron
P.S. Will not attempt sighting of Rowan Mayfair while in San Francisco. Attempted contact with Michael Curry takes precedence this trip. Phone call earlier today from Gander before I left New York indicated Curry is now a semi-invalid in his house. However please notify me at the Saint Francis Hotel if there are any new developments in the Mayfair case. Will remain in San Francisco as long as required to make contact and offer assistance to Curry.
Notes to File, August 1989
(Handwritten, neatly, black ink on lined paper)
I’m aboard a 747 heading for the Coast. Have just reread the transcript. It’s my firm opinion that there is something very unusual in this doctor’s story. As I review the Mayfair file hastily, what hits me is this:
Rita Mae Dwyer Lonigan heard Lasher’s voice in 1955-56.
This doctor claims to have seen Lasher a great distance from the First Street house.
Maybe a casual meeting between Gander and Rowan should be attempted so that Gander can try to determine whether or not Rowan has seen Lasher. But it seems so unlikely …
Can’t attempt this myself. Absolutely cannot do it now. Curry situation too important.
Feelings about Curry … I continue to believe that there is something very special about this man, apart from his harrowing experience.
He needs us, there’s no question of that, Gander is right about that. But my feeling has to do with him and us. I think he might want to become one of us.
How can I justify such a feeling?
1) I have read over all the articles pertaining to his experience several times, and there is something unsaid here, something to do with his life being at a point of stasis when he was drowned. I have a strong impression of a man who was waiting for something.
2) The man’s background is remarkable, especially his formal education. Gander confirms background in history, especially European history. We need that kind of person, desperately.
He is weak in languages, but everyone today is weak in languages.
3) But the main question regarding Curry is this: How do I get to see him? I wish the entire Mayfair family would go away for a while. I don’t want to think of Rowan while I am on Curry …
Michael quickly leafed through the rest of the last folder. All articles on him, and articles he had read before. Two large glossy United Press International photographs of him. A typewritten biography of him, compiled mostly from the attached materials.
Well, he knew the file on Michael Curry. He put all this aside, lighted a fresh cigarette, and returned to the handwritten account of Aaron’s meeting in the Parker Meridien with the doctor.
It was very easy to read Aaron’s fine script. The descriptions of Lasher’s appearances were neatly underlined. He finished the account, agreeing with Aaron’s remarks.
Then he got up from the porch chair, taking the folder with him, and went inside, to the desk. His leather- covered notebook lay there where he’d left it. He sat down, staring blindly at the room for a moment, not really seeing that the river breeze was blowing the curtains, or that the night was utter blackness outside. Or that the supper tray lay on the ottoman before the wing chair, just as it had since it arrived, with the food beneath its several silver-domed covers untouched.
He lifted his pen and began to write:
“I was six years old when I saw Lasher in the church at Christmas behind the crib. That would have been 1947. Deirdre would have been the, same age, and she might have been in the church. But I have the strongest feeling that she wasn’t there.
“When Lasher showed himself to me in the Municipal Auditorium, she might have been there too. But again- we can’t know, to quote Aaron’s favorite clause.
“Nevertheless the appearances per se have nothing to do with Deirdre. I have never seen Deirdre in the garden of First Street, nor anywhere, to my knowledge.
“Undoubtedly Aaron has already written up what I’ve told him. And the same suggestion is relevant: Lasher appeared to me when he was not in the vicinity of the witch. He can probably materialize where he wants to.
“The question is still why. Why me? And other connections are even more tantalizing and nerve-racking.
“For example-this may not matter much-but I know Rita Mae Dwyer Lonigan. I was with her and Marie Louise on the riverboat the night she got drunk with her boyfriend, Terry O’Neill. For that she was sent to St. Ro’s, where
