Occult Investigator. Bob Psy.D. Johnson

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СКАЧАТЬ the brooch was because she was so fond of seeing it on her. Mary answered Silvana quite matter-of-factly; “Oh I think I may have lost it…perhaps at the café during one of my episodes. It was much too ostentatious anyway. It’s probably burned and lost in the fire now. I won’t miss it much. It’s a small price to pay for peace of mind. Wouldn’t you agree?” Mary asked smiling.

      EPILOGUE

      The cause of the Velvet Room café fire was never discovered, although according to New York Fire Department records, arson was not ruled out. Langley was not a suspect and insurance fraud was ruled out because there was no obvious motive – the business was doing well.

      We phoned Mary Montrose some months later and asked if her paranormal experiences were truly over. She said everything was fine and she was completely free of any odd occurrences. She mentioned that she had contacted Langley about rebuilding on his now burned out lot. “Oddly enough,” she said, “Each time he planned to rebuild his business on the land something inevitably queered the operation. It didn’t surprise me however. So I’m investing and we agreed to build a community center. Langley’s happy with that. He told me that he could sleep nights again. Seems he was having some difficulty,” Mary said.

      CHAPTER 2 – NORMA VASQUEZ’S AFTERLIFE DETECTIVE

      Paul Vasquez was cheating on his wife Norma for nearly two years and like most low lives he thought he’d never be caught – especially not by his father-in-law who had died four years before the couple was ever married.

      The young Bronx mother of three knew that Paul was having a torrid affair with another woman, ruining her marital relations and causing her family great distress. The problem was that each time Norma confronted her husband he flatly denied any wrongdoing, and when pressed on the issue either completely ignored Norma or became so agitated that she became fearful that he might become violent. In fact, the situation got so out of hand that she could no longer ask him anything about his life outside of their Bronx apartment. He would flail his arms in the air, scream at her and throw things around their cramped apartment at the mere mention of his private life. But Norma’s accusations were not unfounded. On many occasions she found love notes in his clothes, and he’d often stay out late hours smelling of a woman’s perfume when he returned. Norma lost count of how many times the phone rang and as soon s the other party heard her voice they would hang up. All classic signs of philandering, albeit sloppy ones. But despite Paul’s uncaring for his family, or his arrogance about being caught, he never bargained for his wife’s major ally to be her father. Not so out of the ordinary one would think, but Norma’s father died of a massive heart attack before the couple had ever announced their engagement. And he returned from the dead to set matters straight.

      CRY FOR HELP

       In a fit of panic one Friday evening after a particularly nasty argument with her husband Paul that left Norma bruised both physically and emotionally, Norma ran to her closest relative in her Bronx neighborhood on East Tremont Street. Aunt Carmen always took a liking to Norma since she was a chubby child in their middle class world. Carmen knew how the other children’s teasing affected little Norma who, although slightly overweight for her age, had classic Latin features and flawless skin that blended into a stunningly pretty face. She would tell Maria not to cry about being teased and that one day she would grow up to be a beautiful woman who all of the men in the world would want to date. She told Norma that one day she would be married to a wonderful man who would care for her for the rest of her life. But Paul, Norma’s high school love and eventual husband, was not that man, and in fact was nothing but a constant source of her misery. So Norma’s cry for security once again turned to her aunt Carmen whom she knew would make things right in her life.

      Despite Norma’s repeated attempts to make things work with her husband, he couldn’t be reached. She was at the end of her rope when she visited Carmen one Friday evening to ask for help. Norma knew that Carmen wise a wise woman for sure, but she also remembered the many neighborhood stories about Carmen’s “powers” – her ability to use the magic of Santeria spending hours at the neighborhood Botanica watching her aunt console the locals with sage advice, special instructions for the use of charms and powders and of course the candle magic offerings to the Catholic saints that most of the faithful knew could right almost any ill.

      Norma was sure that Carmen had a potion or candle that would help make Paul change his ways, or at the very least let her find out who this other woman was who was running her family life. She could at least then confront the other woman and have some closure.

       And Carmen didn’t disappoint her niece. She provided her with her strongest talismans and mixtures. She used the reading of animal parts and bones as she performed her most powerful candle magic, offering many devotions to the Roman Catholic saints known to aid in family and marital problems of all kinds. But nothing worked. Paul continued to play around, Norma was abused and their children suffered. Carmen told Norma she had only one last chance, “We must ask for help from the other side my child,” she told her. “We must seek the advice of the dead – they can see all on this earth. You must ask them or your life will continue in pain. It is your only resort.”

      THE HAUNTED HUSBAND

      Our telephone rang at X-Investigations just before 7PM on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving holiday of ‘99. My Czech assistant, Silvana had already left for the weekend and I was gathering the paperwork I was planning to look over during the holiday to prepare for my lecture on using occult magic in the business world at the Borough of Manhattan Community College the following week. I hurried to answer the phone in hopes that it was a telemarketer or not very important so that I could begin my holiday. But Carmen Garcia’s urgent plea in broken Spanish to assist her and her niece using the “eyes of the dead,” was too intriguing and fascinating to blow off for anther turkey day. “This is X-Investigations?” Carmen asked after a moment. “You are knowledgeable about the afterlife and how we can summon the dead to help us?”

      It was a good 30 seconds before I could get a word in edgewise. Carmen at least let me answer that this was in fact X-Investigations, but the moment I said that I understood her plea, she cut me short and began to ramble about her niece Norma’s domestic predicament and that they had exhausted all known regular and magical aids. I managed to discover that they wanted to conduct a séance to contact someone that Norma trusted to help uncover why Norma’s husband Paul was cheating on her and with whom. “It is very important to my niece and her children that we take care of this problem soon,” Carmen said. “I have used all of my magical knowledge but nothing is working for us.”

      I laid down my briefcase and sat back in my chair, resigning myself to the fact that I wasn’t going anywhere this Thanksgiving eve. I discussed at length Carmen’s knowledge of the occult, especially the ways of Santeria, and what spells, talismans, etc. she had tried to overcome Norma’s problem. Carmen was indeed an expert in the ways of her craft, citing ancient tribal remedies and ceremonies that I knew were authentic from my prior research into the field. She told me of the Orishas – the gods of Santeria – and the offerings she sacrificed to them. She also hinted at the ways of Voodoun and the necromantic powers of controlling the dead. But what struck me most was how defeated Carmen sounded. She was obviously concerned with her niece’s welfare, but she was also frightened of something else. I later discovered that Carmen had a twofold reason for wanting to conduct the séance that involved her own occult powers as well as Norma’s requests. This made the case that much more interesting to me so I decided on the spot that X-Investigations would assist Carmen and her niece and attempt to reach the “other side.” What I didn’t bargain for was that my decision would put Silvana’s and my sanity in jeopardy - and thrust our very lives in danger.

      I asked Silvana to call on Norma the Friday after Thanksgiving at СКАЧАТЬ