'So?'
   'So he sensed quite distinctly, Mr. Woods, that whatever vandalized your bedroom on 
Third Street and killed your wife wasn't human. It was a being of sorts, he's certain of 
that. But it sure wasn't a human being.'
   John responded with a high-pitched grunt of derision that was almost a laugh: hih! 'So 
tell me, Sergeant, where did this nonhuman being come from? Did it walk through the 
walls, or come down the chimney, or what?'
   Sergeant Clay said, 'I didn't say that this would be easy for you to believe, Mr. 
Woods. It's not so easy to explain, either. So give me a break, will you, and listen? 
When we came around to your house the day after the break-in, my brother detected a 
supernatural presence. A very strong presence, believe me. It was almost as strong as if 
somebody else was standing in the room. My brother was ninety-nine percent sure that this 
being came from your son, Lenny.'
   John stared at him. 'What the hell are you trying to tell me? That my nine-year old 
son is capable of paralyzing me and murdering my wife? It's just not physically possible! 
He couldn't! And not only couldn't, he wouldn't!'
   'Mr. Woods,' Sergeant Clay said soothingly, 'we're not saying that your son committed 
these offenses. What we're saying is that something came out of your son; something used 
your son as a way to enter your house. Your son involuntarily acted as a medium, if you 
follow me. He was probably asleep when it happened and didn't even know.'
   Behind him, Detective Clay nodded in agreement.
   John said, 'You're detectives, right? Police officers?'
   That's right,' said Sergeant Clay.
   'You have serious training in crime detection, right? And you're looking for a 
homicidal maniac? And you're talking about ghosts?'
   'Listen, Mr. Woods,' said Sergeant Clay, 'we haven't stinted on this investigation. 
We've pursued it by the book, all the way along the line. We've already interviewed more 
than two hundred potential witnesses house-to-house; we've run the modus operandi through 
the FBI computers. We've analyzed every scrap of forensic evidence, and the autopsy of 
your wife's body was carried out by one of the most thorough and respected medical 
examiners in the country. You can't accuse us on any count of being slapdash. No way. But 
the fact remains that this crime is totally extraordinary, and in our opinion there may 
be something to be said for trying to solve it by lateral thinking.'
   'You accuse a ghost of killing my wife and call that lateral thinking?' John protested.
   'You were the one who used the word 'ghost', Mr. Woods. We prefer to call it the 
paranormal.'
   'The paranormal?' said John, with almost as much skepticism.
   'Well, what happened to you and your wife sure wasn't normal, was it? And we have to 
check out all the possibilities. A dangerous manifestation from a different plane of 
existence is one of the possibilities -far-fetched, I'll grant you, and not very easy to 
deal with, physically or mentally. But we have to consider it -especially since Lenny 
gives out strong psychic vibes. My brother could feel that the moment he met him. Your 
son isn't so much a medium, if you can understand what I'm saying, as a carrier. You 
could almost say that he's infected by some kind of psychic influence.'
   John closed his eyes, trying to absorb all of this. He felt emotionally exhausted. 
'Listen, Sergeant,' he said, his eyes still closed, 'all I want you to do is go out there 
and find the crazy who killed my wife.'
   'I know you do, Mr. Woods, but what I'm trying to tell you is that it may not be 
possible. The killer may not exist in the real world. That's one of the reasons I've come 
here today. I want your permission to put Lenny through some tests.'
   John opened his eyes. Tests? What kind of tests?'
   'We want to see whether he's in some sort of psychic communication with - well, with 
this different plane of existence I was talking about.'
   'Is this official? Do you have the approval of the police department to do this?'
   To be quite frank, sir, no.'
   'Have you even asked them?' Sergeant Clay shook his head. 'Commissioner Lodge is not 
exactly an enthusiastic devotee of paranormal police work, sir. We did try to trace a 
missing woman once using a Dutch psychic called Piet van der Valk, and I don't think 
Commissioner Lodge was overly impressed with the results. Well, there weren't any 
results. We never found her.'
   'Where would these tests take place?' asked John.
   'At the University of Pennsylvania, in the Department of Paranormal Psychology, on 
Spruce Street. Professor Dianne Wesley has been conducting a whole series of tests on 
children's psychic abilities.'
   'And what would Lenny have to do?'
   'Well, he'd obviously have to recreate the experience that led to you and your wife 
being attacked. That's the only way we'd be able to find out what happened for sure.'
   John said, 'Are you putting me on? You want my permission for my son to go through 
that whole experience all over again?'
   Sergeant Clay looked serious. 'I honestly believe that it's the only way.'
   'Well, I honestly believe that it's ridiculous and ill-considered and potentially very 
dangerous. I'm not at all surprised that Commissioner Lodge wouldn't allow it. That boy 
has been through quite enough, losing his mother and then losing his stepmother and 
having me crippled like this. You leave him alone. Good God Almighty, he's already having 
hallucinations that his mother's waving to him!'
   Detective Clay lifted his head abruptly when he heard this, and leaned forward to 
whisper something in his twin's ear.
   Sergeant Clay asked, Ts this true? Lenny's been seeing his dead mother?'
   'Three or four times,' John told him. 'Not that it's anything to do with you.'
   'Mr. Woods, it could be everything to do with us. If Lenny has been seeing his mother, 
that means he could be the focus for some pretty intense psychic activity. You know what 
happens at seances, when people get messages from their loved ones in the spirit world, 
warning them about accidents or forthcoming financial problems or whatever? It's like a 
very high-powered version of that. Lenny's mother could well have been trying to alert 
him that something bad was about to happen.'
   'Sergeant Clay,7 said John, 'do you really believe all of this, or are you trying to 
make a fool out of me?'
   'Mr. Woods, my brother and I believe with complete sincerity that you were assaulted 
by some nonhuman manifestation. Has your son seen his late mother since the attack?'
   'He claims to have done. I told him that it was just a hallucination,'
   'And what did he say to that?'
   'He agreed, I guess. What else could it have been? My first wife had been dead and 
buried for three years. It was a trick of the mind, Sergeant Clay. Lenny's under a whole 
lot of stress, so it's hardly surprising that he's seeing things.'
   Sergeant Clay said soberly, 'You'd better call me Thaddeus.'
   John looked at him, uncertain what the man was getting at.
   "The thing is, Mr. Woods,' Sergeant Clay continued, 'if your son's been visited by his 
mother since you were attacked, then you and I are going to be seeing a whole lot more of 
each other, and if we're going to be seeing a whole lot more of each other, we might just 
as well be first-name friends.'