The Witching Hour (Lives of the Mayfair Witches 1)

"I'm taking her, Aunt Bea."

"You may drive along beside me, if you wish," Carlotta said as she bowed her head and placed her cane before her, "but I am walking alone."

Once the glass doors of the restaurant called Commander's Palace had shut behind them, and Rowan had realized they were now in a faintly familiar world of uniformed waiters and white tablecloths, she glanced back through the glass at the whitewashed wall of the graveyard, and at the little peaked roofs of the tombs visible over the top of the wall.

The dead are so close they can hear us, she thought.

"Ah, but you see," said the tall white-haired Ryan, as if he'd read her mind, "in New Orleans, we never really leave them out."

Twenty-seven

AN ASHEN TWILIGHT was deepening over Oak Haven. The sky was scarcely visible anymore. The oaks had become black and dense, the shadows beneath them broadening to eat the last of the warm summer light that clung to the dim gravel road.

Michael sat on the deep front gallery, chair tipped back, foot on the wooden railing, cigarette on his lip. He had finished the Mayfair history, and he felt raw and exhilarated and filled with quiet excitement. He knew that he and Rowan were now the new chapter yet unwritten, he and Rowan who had been characters in this narrative for some time.

For a long moment, he clung almost desperately to the enjoyment of the cigarette, and watched the changes in the dusky sky. The darkness gathered itself everywhere now on the far-flung landscape, the distant levee vanishing so that he could no longer make out the cars as they passed on the road, but only see the yellow twinkle of their lights. Each sound, scent, and shift of color aroused in him a deluge of sweet memories, some without place or mark of any kind. It was simply the certainty of familiarity, that this was home, that this was where the cicadas sang like no place else.

But it was an agony, this silence, this waiting, this many thoughts crowding his brain.

The lighted lamps in the room behind him grew brighter as the day died around him. Now it was their soft illumination falling on the manila folders in his lap.

Why hadn't Aaron called him? Surely the funeral of Deirdre Mayfair was over. Aaron had to be on his way back, and maybe Rowan was with him, maybe Rowan had instantly forgiven Michael for not being there--he hadn't 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.