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An uneasy feeling swept over Jackson, but he calmly set the newspaper back on the desk and looked at Adaic story," he said "It sounds likely that the poor woman did commit suicide, and the senator is in denial I’m afraid I’ve seen other instances in which a woman could not accept the loss of her child"

"Many people are insistent that the house is haunted," Adahost committed this murder?" Jackson asked He leaned forward in his chair "I’hosts, Adas ofa woh places, though he’s still only a state senator He absolutely insists that his wife did not commit suicide," Adam said

"Does he suspect murder?" Jackson asked

"The house was locked, no los were open, and the gate to the courtyard was locked as well"

"Soate," Jackson suggested

Adam nodded "That’s possible, of course But no witnesses have coht have happened The death was determined to be a suicide fairly quickly Are you familiar with the city of New Orleans, the French Quarter or Vieux Carré, specifically?"

An ironic shosts, voodoo and fantasy But soreat ht then You work in behavioral science Don’t you agree that people’s beliefs can create actions and reactions?"

"Yes, of course Son of Sa hiood defense"

"Always a skeptic," Adam said "And yet you’re not really, are you?" Now, Adam smiled

"I am a skeptic, yes Am I open to possibility? Yes," Jackson said carefully

"You know, both of your parents were a believers," Adam reminded him Jackson hesitated

Yes, they had been believers, both of theher power, and it didn’t matter what path someone took to that power Jeremiah Crow had been born a h his ancestry had been so mixed God alone knew exactly what it was He had loved the spiritualism of his People, and his lican, his ion wasn’t bad; it was ion; and a ious choice didn’t matter in the least if it was his path to decency and rerandhlands of Scotland, and her tales of witches and pixies and ghosts had filled his childhood Maybe that’s why it had been while he was in the Highlands, and not on his Native American dream quest, that he had found himself in a position to question life and death and eternity, and all that fell in between

"You’re here because you are the perfectto refuse to investigate what see to assuo to New Orleans and find out exactly why this woood chance that, no matter what the husband wants to believe, she co, Jackson, most people will believe that she committed suicide It is the most obvious answer But I want the truth Senator Holloway has given his passion to s happen often when the rest of the country sits around twiddling its collective thuh the economy and the environment, and co in politics, barely forty, and if he doesn’t bury hirief, he will continue to serve the A our politicians have lacked heavily in the past fifty years--coton need hiroup"

"If it’s nment, I’ll take it on," Jackson paused "But…do I really need a unit?"

"I believe so I’roup to dispel or perhaps prove the existence of ghosts in the house They all have their expertise as investigators as well"

He was quiet, and Adam continued, "When several ot to the ranch house quickly enough to save Lawson and Donatello No one knehere the Pick-Man was killing his victients to be at the ranch house"

Jackson felt his jaw lock, and despite the tiood agents As, forty-five, experienced, and yet vulnerable no matter how many years of service she had seen

He’d felt that he’d seen Sally; drea there at the house

And it had been that dreaht him to the ranch house, and there he had discovered that she had been the first to die

"I shot the Pick-Man," he said "He’s dead"

"That was the only chance Lawson and Donatello had, since, had he seen you before you warned hih Donatello’s chest," Adam said "Trust me, I’ve watched you for years, Jackson I actually knew your parents"

That was surprising