Still twisting the chain back and forth between his thumb and forefinger
to make the crystal spin on the end of it, Jack said,
“All right, Frank, you are now slipping into a very relaxed state, a
deeply relaxed state, where you will hear my voice, no other, and will
respond only to my voice, other….” When he had conveyed Frank into a
deep trance and finished giving him instructions related to the
interrogation ahead, Jackie told him to close his eyes. Frank obliged.
Jackie put the crystal down. He said,
“What is your nam “Frank Pollard.”
“Where do you live?”
“I don’t know.”
Having been briefed on the phone by Julie earlier in the day, aware of
the information they were seeking from their client Jackie said,
“Have you ever lived in El Encanto?” A hesitation. Then:
“Yes.” Frank’s voice was strangely flat. His face was so haggard
deathly pale that he seemed almost like an exhumed corpse that had been
sorcerously revitalized for the purpose of serving as a bridge between
the members of a sayonce and those whom they wished to speak in the land
of the dead.
“Do you recall your address in El Encanto?”
“No.”
“Was your address 1458 Pacific Hill Road?” I. ‘i A frown flickered
across Frank’s face and was gone almost as soon as it came.
“Yes. That’s what… Bobby found…
with the computer.”
“But do you actually remember that place?”
“No.” Jackie adjusted his Rolex watch, then used both hands to smooth
back his thick, black hair.
“When did you live in El Encanto, Frank?”
“I don’t know.”
“You must tell me the truth.”
“Yeah.”
“You cannot lie to me, Frank, or hide anything from me.
That is impossible in your current state. When did you live there?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you live there alone?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you remember being in the hospital last night, Frank)”
“Yeah.”
“And you… disappeared?” :’They say I did.” ‘Where did you disappear
to, Frank?” Silence.
“Frank, where did you disappear to?”
“I… I’m afraid.”
“Why?”
“I… don’t know. I can’t think.”
“Frank, do you remember waking up in your car last Thursday morning,
parked along a street in Laguna Beach?”
“Yeah.
“Your hands were full of black sand.”
“Yeah.” Frank wiped his hands on his thighs, as if he could feel the
black grains clinging to his sweaty palms.
“Where did you get that sand, Frank?”
“I don’t know.”
“Take your time. Think about it.”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you remember checking into a motel later…
napping… then waking up with blood all over yourself.?”
“I remember,”
Frank said, and he shuddered.
“Where did that blood come from, Frank?”
“I don’t know,” he said miserably.
,It was cat blood, Frank. Did you know it was cat blood?”
“No.” His eyelids fluttered, but he did not open his eyes. “I just cat
blood? Really?”
“Do you remember encountering a cat that day?”
“No.” Clearly, a more aggressive technique would be require get the
answers they needed. Jackie began to talk Frank!” ward in time,
gradually regressing him to his admission to hospital yesterday evening,
-then farther back toward the moment when he had awakened in that
Anaheim alleyway in the early hours of Thursday morning, knowing nothing
but his name Beyond that point might lie his memory, if he could be
induced to step through the veil of amnesia and recover his past.
Julie leaned slightly forward in her chair and looked Jackie Jaxx,
wondering how Bobby was enjoying the show.
figured the spinning crystal and other hocus-pocus would peal to his
boyish spirit of adventure, and that he would smiling and bright-eyed.
Instead he was somber. His teeth must have been clenched for his jaw
muscles bulged. He had told her what they learned at Dyson Manfred’s
house, and she had been as astonished and shaken as he and Clint. But
that didn’t seem to explain his mood. Maybe he was still unnerved by
the memory of bugs in the entomologist’s study. Or maybe he continued
to be troubled by that dream he’d had last week: the bad Thing is
coming, the bad thing…
She had dismissed his dream as unimportant. Now she wondered if it had