"You're on to something here. Someone's trying to steer us in the wrong direction. My first thought was that these photos are doctored, but that makes no sense. Why would she create fake pictures to show someone who asked about the house? And why does Empyrion's name not show up in any records?
"Whatever's happening, you're doing a terrific job, especially since your job doesn’t begin until tomorrow. Keep it up. What you’re uncovering is important in solving our mystery."
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Doc called at six in the morning, apologizing for the early hour. He had a busy day ahead but wanted to return Landry’s call first.
Doc told him Dr. Little agreed to regress Jack, but he would have nothing to do with Tiffany. “What happened to her deeply affected him. He questioned his methods, his training — everything. I reminded him this was one case out of hundreds of uneventful ones in his career. He accepted that but still won’t work with her. Let’s turn to Jack. Are you thinking of using the courtyard again?”
Landry was, but he had to have permission. “I’ll go see the trustee myself,” Landry said. “Maybe I can convince him to allow us in again.” He wondered if the trustee would already know about their experiences at the house yesterday, and if the tall black man had the power to stop them.
Eager to start his official job, Jack was in the lobby when Landry arrived. After taking him to the HR manager, Landry created a place in his office for Jack. An IT guy came through to set up a laptop and monitor, and an hour later the two of them were maneuvering around each other in the cramped space they shared.
“Now that it’s official, I have something to talk to you about,” Landry said.
Jack raised his fingers in a Scout’s honor. “You don’t have to worry. I’ll stay on the straight and narrow. I won’t disappoint you again. I promise.”
“Thanks, and I believe you, but that’s not it. I want to know if you’ll let Dr. Little hypnotize you.”
“What good would that do?”
“Maybe a lot. You know you’re in the middle of all this. You felt the building calling to you long before we met. Whatever role you play, we’re in this together. If you’re game, I’d like to see where it goes.”
“Are you talking about past life regression?”
“Yes, but I want to know more about this life first. I know almost nothing about your past. Maybe you’ve repressed things that will help figure this out.”
Jack shook his head. “I doubt it. My life’s an open book, except for the parts where I drank myself into oblivion. You won’t find answers in my past. My dad was in the military. I was born at Fort Knox, spent every year of grade school in a different state, moved to Memphis with my mom when they divorced, and I enrolled in architecture school there. I took to college like so many others, I guess you’d say. I began drinking and oversleeping, and I flunked out the first semester of my sophomore year. When Mom kicked me out I moved into an apartment in New Orleans with the wrong kind of friends.
“I was a busboy, a fry cook, a stocker, a bartender — a bad job for me, by the way — and my last job was unloading cargo at the wharf by the French Market. I got fired every time, and eventually I quit trying. My friends changed the lock when I couldn’t pay the rent, so I lived on the street for three years until you showed up.”
Landry agreed there seemed to be no link to the building, but Tiffany had none either. For her the answers came during a journey into the distant past and another person’s life.
Jack said, “I’ll do the whole enchilada. At this stage in life, what do I have to lose? I’m an alcoholic hanging to sobriety by a thread, worrying every hour I’ll relapse and disappoint you and myself, and hoping to be strong enough to overcome this disease. If hypnosis will help me find answers, then I’ve contributed, and that’s an important step for me.”
What happened to Tiffany didn’t worry him. “That was a fluke. The doctor as much as said so. He’s done hundreds of these, and he’d have brought her back. I do know one thing. After our visit to the house yesterday, I won’t have Empyrion Richard’s help like Tiffany did!”
Landry was glad when Jack agreed. He could already see the makings of an incredible Bayou Hauntings special. He had no idea what Jack’s past might uncover.
Now it was on to the next hurdle, one Landry didn’t mention to Jack. He wanted to use the Toulouse building, but if the trustee turned him down, there was another possibility, trespassing.
Since he had the passcode, getting inside would be easy. Part of him — the foolhardy risk-taker dressed in red and sitting on his left shoulder — said to hell with legality. They’d be in and out in two hours and no one would be the wiser. It made sense, but the part of his conscience who dressed in white and sat on his right shoulder whispered that he knew better. If something unexpected happened — which was a genuine possibility in that building — then simple trespass could become something much worse. Not to mention the fact that a famous investigator broke the law. Not to mention that Channel Nine would never
