Frank De Felitta - Audrey Rose

When he saw the slim figure of Janice Templeton descending the courthouse steps six stories below, Scott Velie knew why he had come to the window. He was curious to know if they would leave the building together. Seeing her now descending the steps alone and walking to the hack stand, the prosecutor began to wonder if perhaps he hadn’t been as much to blame for their breakup as Hoover.

What had she said to Bill, with that lost, haunted look? “You’d really subject your own child to a terrible thing like that?” And how had he answered her? Grinning? “It’s no worse than what you’re willing to subject her to.”

Scott Velie saw the cab with Janice Templeton in it pull away from the curb. A few seconds later he saw Bill Templeton descend the steps and head in the direction of Pinetta’s.

Velie heard himself sigh. There’d be a cold and lonely bed in the Templeton household this night.

Velie knew about cold and lonely beds. The last five years qualified him as an expert.

Judge Langley entered his courtroom determinedly for a change, with a jaunty step and a flourish of robes. Settling himself onto his elevated perch, he silently contemplated his constituency. Another packed house, he was pleased to see. Another day in which Part Seven would fulfill its sacred trust to render justice fairly, impartially, and judiciously and uphold the public’s right to know—the public’s inalienable right to gawk, titter, whisper, and express their oohs and ahs at the drama unfolding before their eyes. That’s what it was, by God! A drama! A goddamn spectacular. A whizbang meller with more thrills, spills, and chills than a three-ring circus.

A note of awe entered the judge’s thoughts. A lawsuit like this one came but once, if ever, in a jurist’s lifetime, and though it was tardy in making its appearance in his own lifetime, it had finally come, and he vowed, by God, to make the most of it. Having his picture taken, having his expert opinion constantly sought after by the press, and, just last evening, being offered that contract by one of the country’s most exclusive and important lecture agencies gave Harmon T. Langley the gloriously buoyant feeling of having at last arrived.

A sudden hush and sense of expectancy in his courtroom encroached on the judge’s daydreams of the good life that lay ahead and caused him reluctantly to wrest his mind back to the day’s order of business.

“If you are ready, you may proceed with your rebuttal, Mr. Velie,” said the judge, his eyes shifting between the battle stations of the opposing attorneys, while, to himself, adding the silent prayer, “And please, God, for my sake, grant them the wisdom to keep the ol’ pot boiling.”

Velie rose and smiled stiffly.

“Thank you, Your Honor. I recall Dr. Gregory Perez to the witness stand.”

At the defendant’s table Brice Mack sat relaxed and comfortable, letting a weary smile indicate his lack of concern over the prosecution’s recall of his own witness. Shortly, however, his smile would become frozen as the import of Velie’s questions gradually unfolded.

“Dr. Perez,” began Velie, approaching the witness with quiet deference, “I understood you to say earlier that hypnosis is a therapeutic tool utilized by most psychiatrists, including yourself, is that correct?”

“Yes. Many psychiatrists employ hypnotic techniques in their therapy.”

“And is one of the techniques used by psychiatrists called hypnotic age regression?”

Perez looked at Velie impassively.

“Yes.”

“What exactly is meant by hypnotic age regression?”

“It is the process by which an individual under hypnosis is brought back to an earlier time in his life and then can reexperience feelings, memories, thoughts, behavior that were characteristic of that period. A person who has been regressed under hypnosis will behave just as though he were literally back at that time.”

As the question was being answered, the prosecutor slowly turned toward the jury box, so that he was now fully facing the defendant’s twelve peers as he put his next question to Dr. Perez.

“How far back can a person be regressed hypnotically?”

“Theoretically, there isn’t any limit, except that one would not use age regression to bring a person back to a time before that person could speak.” The doctor’s voice trailed behind Velie as he began a slow walk toward the jury box. “Theoretically, one could take a person back to infancy, but since he couldn’t speak in infancy, he couldn’t report to you what he was experiencing, so that, normally, when we take a person back under age regression, we usually do it to young childhood in order to recapture memories of events that took place and are now repressed but that may be causing an effect on the adult’s behavior and feelings. In order to try to remove those things that produce neurotic behavior now, we try to recapture the earlier, ‘hidden’ memories through age regression.”

Velie paused at the jury railing.

“But it is possible to regress a person to infancy?”

“Yes.”

“Is it possible to regress a person to a time prior to infancy? To some stage, say, of fetal development in his mother’s womb?”

Perez hesitated.

“It’s theoretically possible to do so, provided there is consciousness and awareness, but again, there would be nothing one could learn since a fetus cannot relate its thoughts and feelings.”

Velie gripped the jury railing, pressed his body forward dramatically, and clearly enunciated, “Dr. Perez, is it possible through hypnotic age regression to take a person back beyond the fetal age, beyond the barrier of current existence, and into a past existence?”

The question elicited a burst of nervous laughter from the doctor.

“Well, there are those who have claimed to be able not only to regress patients back prior to their birth but actually to regress them back to different personalities.” His words tumbled forth in rapid staccato. “They have had patients claim, under hypnosis, that they had lived before, at another time and with other identities and who, in the hypnotic state, had spoken languages that they did not know in the awakened state. To answer your question, is it possible to do this, I would have to say, theoretically, yes, it is possible. It is believed by some and disbelieved by others. It’s a controversial issue, but there are people who have claimed to be able to regress patients into other existences.”

Velie’s eyes made a circuit of the arena, covertly studying the reactions of reporters, spectators, and, particularly, the defendant and his attorney, who were engaged in a subdued, yet energetic discussion. It seemed to Velie that Hoover was restraining Brice Mack from objecting, and he was pleased to see the noxious effect his questions were having on his youthful opponent, who seemed ready to jump out of his skin at suddenly finding himself on the receiving end of his own horseshit.

“Dr. Perez,” said Velie, turning back to the witness “if this court asked you to attempt it, would it be possible for you to regress a subject back beyond the barrier of this life and into a prior existence, if indeed such a thing exists?”

Perez shrugged nervously.

“I have never attempted such a thing.”

“Would you be willing to try?”

Perez stirred restively.

“I would be willing if the court wanted me to.”

Brice Mack, incapable of further restraint, exploded from his seat.

“Objection, Your Honor,” he shouted. “This is pure speculation! It is obvious what the district attorney is leading up to, and I register my strongest possible objection. It is not only highly irregular, but a cheap and tawdry attempt on the part of Mr. Velie to influence and inflame the jury!”