The others nodded, other than Campbell who was still trying to work out whether Judd was as squeaky clean as he professed.
“If Ben is someone who died a long, long time ago, and if there is no reason to find anything about who killed him, then I propose, with Maria and Campbell’s permission that I use hypnosis to suppress Ben Walker, which should stop him waking when Christopher sleeps.”
Judd paused, expecting someone to say something and then continued.
“But if Ben had been murdered and if it took place in the recent past, then we should consider what to do next.”
“Tell the police?” suggested Esther.
“If Ben Walker can name his killer, then bingo, tell the police and let them do the rest, and then after the killer’s been put away, you can hypnotise Christopher to stop Ben from waking,” added Esther.
“You wouldn’t even get the chance to be laughed out of court, because it would never get to court,” said Campbell.
“Campbell’s right, I don’t think evidence from a two and a half year old boy under hypnosis would gain a conviction. We could offer what we know to the police, but I wouldn’t expect them to do anything with it” said Judd
“You seem to know a lot about the law?” said Maria in an accusatory tone.
“I’m just using common sense Maria, however, I do have some knowledge of how the law works, as I am a trained Forensic and Investigative hypnotist.”
“Which means you do what?” asked Esther.
“I use hypnosis to gain information and evidence from witnesses, that they would otherwise not have remembered, and that evidence could be used and accepted in court.”
“You kept that quiet,” said Campbell.
“If you’d taken the time to read my business card, you would have seen it written on the back.”
“There’s one more thing I need to mention,” added Judd.
“I don’t know how long I can speak with Ben Walker until he flakes out. If you remember last time he was only with us for around five minutes before he faded, so we need to draw up a list of questions for him based upon what I’ve suggested this evening.”
The meeting had been heated at times, but eventually it was agreed that Tom Judd should continue to hypnotise Christopher. A date was set for the following Saturday.
Chapter one hundred
Markland Garraway’s home
8.15pm
Friday 25th May
Markland Garraway had returned to work just over twenty months earlier after being signed off as unfit for work due to nervous exhaustion and acute arthritis. His mental state of health had improved, but the arthritis was as bad as ever and showed no signs of remission.
He still held the rank of Detective Chief Inspector, but hadn’t been an active detective since 2009, when he was removed from Ben Walker’s murder case.
He’d spent the last eighteen months running training courses for constabulary staff and had gained the respect of many as a great mentor to new recruits to the force.
Every day was a struggle, his body was riddled with the illness and every joint from his neck down to the soles of his feet hurt. He took Methotrexate daily to ease the pain, but even on a good day the pain was almost unbearable.
Garraway was a fighter and he was determined not to give in to the pain which had got worse over the past few months due to the additional stress he’d been under since his wife, Joan, left him at the end of March.
She could no longer stand being with him. They had become distant since his breakdown and she’d struggled to deal with his mood swings and drinking. He’d been off the bottle for over a year, but the damage had been done and she’d moved out to stay with her sister until she found a place of her own.
Garraway had been married to the role of Detective Chief Inspector and Joan had always played second fiddle. Since she’d left him, and because he was no longer an active detective, he had become a very lonely man.
His part time work as a trainer was all he had and he did his best to make the most of it. But occasionally his pain was so bad he couldn’t even dress to go to the office and today was one of those days.
He lay on his bed and called the office to tell them he wouldn’t be in. Luckily he had no training sessions booked and it would have been a day of administration, which could wait until the following week. He put the phone on his bedside table and stared at the Artex patterns on the ceiling.
The death of Ben Walker had never left him. The unsolved case was something that had tormented and consumed him and had been the cause of his breakdown. Although mentally he was in a better place, he knew he wouldn’t be happy until Walker’s killer was found. What’s more, he was desperate to be the one to close the case. He had no faith in Colin Matthews, his former partner, and had barely spoken to him in over a year.
Deep down he knew that somehow he would still be involved in solving what had been the most extraordinary murder case of his career.
Chapter one hundred and one
Thomas Judd’s Practice
The Quiet Area
2pm
Saturday 26th May
The entourage had grown to include Samreen, who joined Claire, Esther, Campbell and Maria to be present when Tom Judd hypnotised Christopher. Samreen wasn’t just there to witness Christopher’s hypnosis, she was there to distract him after he’d been brought around from the trance so the adults could discuss what happened after Judd had hypnotised him.
There was an air of tension in the room, which Christopher could sense and it was making him unhappy. Maria didn’t want to be there when he was under hypnosis as it distressed her to hear Ben Walker’s mature voice coming from her little boy. She’d asked Esther to step in to stop the process if things got out of hand.
The camera was set and was ready to record the proceedings, but Christopher didn’t want to climb onto the hypnotist’s chair. Maria couldn’t stand to watch her son as his bottom lip began to quiver.
“I don’t want to go on the chair again, I don’t like it anymore.”
He was pulling at Maria’s heart strings and she was considering stopping the whole thing before it had even begun.
Samreen walked over to the scared little boy and crouched down to his level.
“What’s the matter sweetie? You’ve done this before.”
“There are too many grownups,” he said as he hugged Misty.
“You know you’ll get another nice toy if you let Tom make you go to sleep.”
“I don’t want another toy anymore.”
“Tell me what you would like and I’ll get it for you.”
Christopher looked at her with his big blue eyes and sad little face and thought about what he should ask for.
“I want to go to Thomas Land.”
“I’ll tell you what, if you let Tom make you go to sleep I’ll take you to Thomas Land next week, what do you think about that?”
Samreen glanced toward Maria who nodded and smiled.
“OK,” replied Christopher in a deflated tone.
Samreen lifted him onto the chair as Tom hung the picture of Thomas the Tank Engine on the wall. He looked at Samreen and mouthed ‘thank you’, Samreen smiled and walked away from the chair.
Tom pressed the record button on the camera and began to hypnotise Christopher.
Chapter one hundred and two
The Awareness
Ben Walker stirred from the state of inactivity in which he spent most of his strange existence and observed the misty whirlpool of light he’d seen before.
He could hear Tom Judd’s voice, and as before the voice was coming from the direction of the light.
“Hello Ben, its Tom, can you hear me?”
Ben concentrated his thoughts and focused his attention towards the light and replied.
“Hello Tom, yes I can and it’s good to hear you again.”
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Maria couldn’t bear to listen and had retreated to the of
fice while Claire, Samreen, Esther and Campbell stayed with Tom and Christopher in the Quiet Area. All four of them sat in silence as Ben Walker’s words came from the little boy’s mouth.
Judd was commanding the situation, but he was nervous. He knew that the window of opportunity to talk with Ben was likely to only last for a few minutes before he faded away. In his hand he held a list of prepared test questions to work out whether Ben was the real thing, or something dreamt up by Christopher’s subconscious mind.
“Ben, I hope you appreciate that this is a rather unusual situation and I guess this is just as strange for you as it is for me.”
“It is strange, and you need to understand what it’s like from my point of view, you’re the only person I’ve spoken to since I was killed.” Christopher’s head gently nodded as he spoke.
Ben Walker was not only controlling the words that came from Christopher’s mouth, he was also influencing his body movements.
The gravity of the moment was exerting tremendous pressure on Judd to get things right. It was all about words. It was all about asking the right questions and dealing with the answers appropriately. He didn’t want to upset Ben as he didn’t know how this may affect Christopher. He needed to tread carefully.
“I guess we’re both in the same position,” replied Judd.
Samreen was shaking as she sat next to Claire. She felt as if she was taking part in a strange movie scene.
She glanced at Campbell and Esther and wondered how they were able to remain calm. She looked at Claire who attempted to smile, but the smile didn’t happen.
If Esther and Campbell looked calm, then it was not how they felt. Campbell was on a knife’s edge. The stress of the moment was almost too much for him.
Esther had been in many situations when her professional responsibility had required her to remain in control, especially when she had dealt with distraught parents who were beside themselves with worry over their child’s health. She was using her skills to remain level headed as she listened to Judd talk with the stranger whose voice was coming from Christopher.
“I need to be completely honest with you Ben, and I hope you understand the situation from my perspective.”
Christopher nodded.
“I need to be sure that you are who you say you are and not a creation of Christopher’s subconscious mind.”
Christopher nodded again.
“I have a few questions for you and if you answer them correctly I think we can agree that you are real and not a character made up by Christopher.”
“I hope I pass the test, as I would hate to think I’m the figment of someone’s imagination……….by the way, can I ask, how old is Christopher?”
“He’s just over two and half years old.”
As Judd replied, he realised that Ben had to be the real deal. There was absolutely no way that a child’s mind could create this all on its own. It was just impossible. Judd was now convinced it was more than possible that Ben had been reincarnated and Christopher’s body was the host. His mind was made up before he’d asked the questions.
“OK Ben, here goes with the questions, I hope you’re good with mathematics because the first one is about multiplication.”
Judd adjusted his glasses and read from the sheet of paper.
“Ben, what is eight times twelve?”
“You had to go and choose the twelves, I always struggled with the twelve times table.”
The room fell silent, other than the sound of breathing, as Christopher’s head moved from side to side. He had a look of concentration and frowned before answering.
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Ben hated maths. It was one of the few subjects in which he didn’t do well. He’d struggled to get a low grade in his GCSEs at Whitcroft School.
‘OK, twelve, twenty four, thirty six, forty eight, um fifty eight…..shit, no start again’
Ben worked through the tables and focused his attention away from the swirling light so Tom Judd couldn’t hear his thoughts.
He tried again, and this time formed an image of fingers, he needed something to count on.
‘Twelve, twenty four, thirty six, forty eight, sixty, seventy two, eighty four, ninety six’.
He focused his thoughts back to the light.
“Ninety six Tom, eight twelves are ninety six.”
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Campbell was the only one who hadn’t been breathing whilst Judd asked the question. Without realising he had been holding his breath in anticipation. As soon as he heard the correct answer he exhaled a lung full of air, which was loud enough to make Esther turn around and glare at him.
“OK, Ben, ninety six is correct, now we’re getting somewhere.”
The next question that had been agreed upon was based on history. It was a question to which most people, even school children would know the answer.
The problem with a history question was if Ben had died before the historic event had taken place, he wouldn’t know the answer. This was a chance they’d decided to take.
Judd lifted the sheet of A4 paper, adjusted his glasses and read the next question.
“Question number two, when was the Battle of Hastings?”
“I’m sorry Tom, I can’t do dates, or times. It’s something I’ve lost all concept of. I can’t even tell you when I was born, the year I died or how old I was when I was killed, I’m going to have to pass, sorry.”
An air of disappointment filled the room. Perhaps the maths question was just luck and Ben really was only a figment.
Christopher lifted his head as Ben began to speak.
“I may not be able to remember the date but history was one of my strong points.”
“OK,” said Tom, “what do you have for me?”
“The battle was between Duke William of Normandy and King Harold’s Anglo Saxon army and the Duke’s guys won.”
Everyone gasped.
Judd looked at the rest of the questions and was about to ask another.
Esther leaned towards Campbell and whispered in his ear.
“Is it really worth asking any more questions? I don’t think Christopher would know anything about the Battle of Hastings, I don’t know that much myself.”
Campbell waved at Judd to get his attention and mouthed to him ‘no more questions’. Judd squinted and mouthed back ‘what?’
Campbell repeated, but this time he whispered, just loud enough for Judd to hear him.
“No more questions, I think we know Ben’s for real.”
Judd looked around the room and the others nodded. They all knew that Ben was genuine. There was just no way Christopher could have answered those questions.
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Christopher had been under hypnosis for less than five minutes, but already Ben was losing his focus. The swirling misty light was beginning to fade as his energy drained. He was determined to stay alert and was desperate to be given the chance to tell his story.
He stared into what remained of the fading light and concentrated with all his might to bring it back.
He thought of the story he had to tell and the anger he felt because of his futile death. The anger and rage began to stew and consume him.
The light began to return, it wasn’t as intense as it was before, but it was getting clearer and Ben could make out the swirling mists as they grew in strength.
Judd’s voice was back and he sounded as clear as a bell, clearer than before.
“OK Ben, I think that’s enough of the questions, we’re all convinced you’re real.”
“We? Did you say we? There are others who are with you?”
“Yes, there are.”
“Who are the others?” asked Ben curiously.
Judd told Ben who else was in the room and that Christopher’s mother was finding the whole thing too hard to deal with and was in another room.
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Maria was standing by the door of Judd’s office. The door was slightly open and she was listening to what was happening in disbelief. She silently opened the door wide enough to step into the Quiet Area. Nobody saw her enter or noticed her as she stood at the back of the room. Everyone was too consumed with what was happening to pay the slightest bit of attention.
“OK Ben, we would like to know when you lived. We don’t know whether your death was in our time, or a long, long time ago, before anyone in this room was born.”
“More questions?” asked Ben.
“OK, fire away, but make sure it doesn’t take long, I don’t know how much longer I can keep going, I’m starting to ebb a little.”
Judd looked down at the list of questions that he and the others had come up with to allow them to work out when he had lived and decided to use an idea that Campbell had thought of.
“Ben, when you were alive, did you like sport?”
“I loved sport. I spend a lot of my time remembering the sport I played. Cricket was my speciality, I played for Horfield in Bristol, and I was also a keen rugby player.”
“So not a football fan then?” asked Judd.
“Football was my passion, I watched every City home game at Ashton Gate……… but I was a useless player, nobody would have me in their team.”
Judd laughed.
“Sorry to hear that. Did you follow the World Cup?”
“You bet, ever since I was a kid. I was never able to fill a complete sticker book though.”
Judd was now sure that Ben had been alive in recent times, or at least the last seventy years or so.
“What was the last World Cup you remember, who won?”
Instantly Ben answered.
“Italy beat France. The match finished one all and went to penalties.”
“You seem extremely sure about that.”
“I was there, I went with my father to Berlin. That year I was confident for England, but it never happened. My dad and I had a brilliant time, one of my favourite memories.”
“Is this another memory you replay often?” asked Judd.
Christopher nodded.
The Hill - Carla’s Story (Book Two): A Paranormal Murder Mystery Thriller. (Book Two) Page 9