Blood Passage Read Online Free PDF

in reincarnation. It’s a lot more important to people than you might think.” Josh tapped the table with his finger. “Studies have shown that at least twenty-five per cent of Americans believe in reincarnation.”
    “ Hindus and Buddhists?”
    Josh shook his head. “The same studies have shown that over twenty per cent of American Christians believe in reincarnation.”
    “ That’s a surprise,” Hank admitted.
    Josh spread his hands. “There you go. Once you get past the initial barriers of skepticism and cynicism, there’s some very interesting ground to explore. These children tend to be precocious and begin to talk at an early age. They start speaking about past life memories between the ages of two to five and stop talking about them between the ages of five to eight. In some cases they eventually forget these early memories, which is not unusual since five to eight is the age span when children begin to forget most of their early childhood memories anyway. During the period when they do recall these memories of a previous life, seventy-five per cent of these children recall the manner in which they died when they were the previous personality, and in seventy per cent of these cases the death was violent and unpleasant.”
    “ A con job,” Hank said. “They’re fed their lines by parents who want little Johnny to be something special.”
    Josh nodded. “Our investigations are designed to root out this kind of fraud, and it does happen. We have a lengthy checklist that we go through with a whole scoring system to analyze the case. We consider the accuracy of the information, unusual behavior in the child such as specific phobias or preferences, birthmarks or birth defects that somehow connect to the previous life, the intensity or spontaneity of statements, exaggerated claims by the parents, and all that.”
    “ But you’re telling me that in some cases you’ve proven these kids were reincarnated?”
    “ No, you have to remember we’re not trying to prove that reincarnation actually happens. That’s not our objective. We’re not True Believers or anything. We’re conducting objective, rational research into a surprisingly recurrent phenomenon among children and letting the evidence suggest possible causes. Reincarnation just happens to be one of those possibilities.”
    “ Nicely put. Sounds like a direct quote from somebody’s dissertation.”
    Josh grinned. “Okay, busted. But like I said, Dr. Walsh insists that we be very precise in how we say things. We’re scientists.”
    “ So that’s what brought you to town,” Hank said casually, taking out his notebook and pen. “Somebody’s kid started remembering stuff he couldn’t possibly know, and you came up here to check it out.”
    “ Yeah, that’s right.”
    “ You understand, don’t you, that when you start poking into an open homicide case the police are going to want to know why you’re interested, right?”
    “ Yeah, I get it. I didn’t before, but believe me, I do now.”
    “ I’m going to need to know the identity of this kid, so we can look into it. If somebody has information about a homicide, even a three year old kid, we’re going to need to check it out.”
    Josh nodded.
    “ So who’s the kid?”
    “ His name’s Taylor Chan. He’s actually t hree and a half.”
    Hank jotted down the name on a fresh page of his notebook. “Parents?”
    “ His father’s Dr. Michael Chan, an assistant professor of economics at State University. His mother’s Grace Chan. She’s a real estate agent in Springhill. They live at 46 Parkland Crescent. I think that’s the right address.” He looked down and grimaced. “Oh yeah, my notebook was stolen. Wait, it’s in my PDA.” Josh took out his PDA. His thumbs rocked back and forth and he nodded. “Yeah, 46 Parkland.”
    “ Thanks.” Hank wrote it down. “How’d they come to get in touch with you about their son?”
    “ After Taylor started making all these unusual