BAD ONE AND THE CASE OF THE DOUBLE MURDER IN THE THAMES

CHAPTER 8 THE ROOM 2-23

James Livingstone was feeling so good, and it had been a long time since the last time he felt that way. That morning was special, different. Everything was different and new. The environment was clean and agreeable. There were so many new things that he did not even know their names. Sat in his office, it was impossible for him to recognize nothing in there. He was looking at it with surprise trying to put a name to everything he saw. But, that situation did not make him feel uncomfortable. On the contrary, he was astonished and feeling at ease. Once in a while he was smiling and shaking his head from one side to the other, looking so pleased with himself. Perhaps this sensation was caused by the tranquilizers James was taking for his ailment, or maybe the fact of having spent all night talking with his mother, who had died more than twenty years before, made him feel that way. It was the first time he had talked with her after she died from a tropical illness she had caught during one of her many trips. On the other hand he had several ghostly chats with his father after having woken up in the middle of the night. His father always looked the same. He always saw him wearing his red army jacket, waving his shiny saber and riding a white horse with mane flying in the wind.

That was strange to him, since though his father had served in the infantry, he never had a horse. The fact that his mother had not appeared to him in her ethereal form before his father did, was also strange to him, since that woman's holiness was well-known, and it was logical to believe that she should have appeared to him before his father did, for he thought holy persons have certain priorities in heaven. Connor Livingstone's apparitions were frequent. He had always found great pleasure in scaring his son since he was a child, appearing in front of him, turning up like that, with tousled hair and waving that huge sword. But his mother’s sudden apparition only could mean one thing: that he would die soon. Although the vision actually meant something very different and it was going to change the entire order and his personal concept of the universe. That night his mother came to him to confess a jealously guarded secret she had taken to the grave.

James was woken up in the middle of the night by a violent wind that suddenly opened the window of his bedroom, and then a vase placed next to the console furniture fell to the floor. When he heard the noise the first thing Livingstone thought was his father was visiting him at this ungodly hour riding a spirited horse. He was very surprised when, amid the freezing breeze, his mother’s dear figure materialized, dressed in a purple penitence habit of Mary's daughters of the Sacred Heart, surrounded by a shining aura.

Babbling he dared to ask - Mom?? What do you do here and dressed in this habit of penitence? -.

The spectral figure with a pale and sad face said to him: - They have sent me to you to confess a secret I have kept my whole life, but I cannot keep for the rest of my death -.

James was looking at her with exorbitant eyes; not giving credit to what he was seeing and listening. He was astonished mute, not able to say a word. Finally, as if his paralyzed tongue was released, he could say: - And is it possible to know who has sent you here? -.

His mother's ghost pointed slightly toward the ceiling with her index finger.

- The entities from above did it -. She said in a lugubrious voice.

Glancing up, and trying to understand, Livingstone asked - The Entities from above?  And who are they? -.

At the same time, he was thinking that it had been a waste of time to attend catechesis at the parish church when he was a child, where they had not taught him such important things.

- I do not know Jimmy - The ethereal presence clarified - But they are those who decide who can cross from one side to the other and who cannot -.

- Do me a favor, Mom, change your tone of voice: For God's sake! You look like an apparition! -.