He wanted us to investigate a report of demonic activity in Westchester County, a wealthy county just north of New York City.

The caller was Father Hayes, the exorcist for a Catholic diocese in a nearby state. My partner in the Work, Joe Forrester, was putting out candy for trick-or-treaters when he got a call about a haunted house. One of my most harrowing supernatural investigations began on Halloween, 1991. Almost invariably, I get a sudden surge of cases around the end of October, either on Halloween itself or the day before, which, appropriately enough, is called Devil's or Mischief Night. The ancient dread of this date is rooted in more than just folklore or superstition, I discovered after I entered what I now call 'the Work'–investigating haunted houses and demonic possession. To prevent possession, it became the custom to wear a mask or disguise on the Day of the Dead, as this holiday is known in some countries. Early Europeans feared that these marauding spirits had a much darker motive: They were hunting for live bodies to inhabit. To appease ghosts, our ancestors used to leave food offerings outside their homes and sacrifice animals. Halloween has a malevolent history: According to two-thousand-year-old legends, it's the night when spirits of the dead roam the world, intent on playing terrifying tricks.

But awful as the crimes of man can be-and in my sixteen years on the police force, I've seen more blood and gore than you could ever imagine-they're not the only evil that intensifies on October 31. We race from one crime scene to the next, our sirens screaming, locking up the animals who prey on children as fast as we can. At the Forty-sixth Precinct in the South Bronx, where I work as a sergeant, the 911 calls start pouring in. After I became a cop, patrolling dangerous public housing projects, I saw another side of this holiday: Every pervert and nutjob in New York thinks it's suddenly open season on kids. It wasn't always this way: When I was a child, I liked to dress up and collect candy from the neighbors and when I was a little older, I was one of those guys who would go out with eggs and shaving cream, ready for a night of nasty fun.

Sergeant ralph sarchie