The Hypnotist

FORTY-ONE

During the flight to Los Angeles, Nicolas Olshling watched movies on one of the portable DVD players the steward handed out while Lucian spent most of the time sketching, not as much because he wanted to as because he felt compelled to. Without his choosing which of the women to draw, it was the old woman from Persia and the young woman from ancient Greece who accompanied him on this trip. It made sense: these two were tied to each other. Across centuries and long distances, both were connected to the statue of Hypnos.

Lucian knew from his extensive reading on the subject and what Dr. Bellmer had reiterated that there are no coincidences in reincarnation. We’re given a chance to get our actions right every time we come back, a chance to finally learn our lessons and the lessons of the universe.

If he accepted that, then he’d be able to accept that he was working on a case involving a sculpture that he might have interacted with in two past lives-a piece of art connected to the deaths of two women, Iantha and Bibi. Two deaths he-or whoever he’d once been-had been responsible for.

And if Lucian didn’t accept it? Then his unconscious had creatively used the case he was working as a springboard into fantasy. That was the much more likely scenario; it was both credible and logical. Except that presented a conundrum: if he didn’t trust what was happening in Dr. Bellmer’s office then he couldn’t trust that Emeline was the host for Solange’s reincarnated soul. Either regression was possible or it wasn’t, and for different reasons he was as desperate to believe it was as he was to believe the opposite.

A little more than five hours after the plane took off from New York’s Westchester County Airport, Lucian looked at his watch as the wheels touched down. 8:40 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. He never changed his watch when he traveled out of his time zone.

The Matisse Monster had stipulated a six-o’clock meeting, which gave them twenty minutes to unload the crate. “Not bad timing, despite the traffic delay leaving Manhattan,” he said to Olshling as the plane taxied toward an oversize hangar.

Lucian hadn’t requested a representative from the museum, but they’d insisted. Someone from the staff always accompanied artwork when it traveled to and from another institution for shows-or, in this case, for use as currency.

There was high security in place inside the hangar, including four fully armed guards, two of whom held lean, muscular German shepherds on short leads.

“Full court press,” Lucian said.

“Every shipment from the Met gets this greeting.”

As they started to disembark, one of the shepherds growled and his handler said a few sharp words.

“Damn, I told them no dogs,” Olshling said under his breath.

“I’ve known you for a long time, but this is news to me. You have a problem with shepherds or all dogs?” Lucian asked.

“Any dog whose teeth are bigger than mine.”

The wooden crate was in midair, on its way down, when Lucian’s phone rang at exactly 6:00 p.m., 9:00 Eastern.

“James Ryan here,” Lucian answered in a clipped, clear voice.

“Code word Klimt. Where are you?” It sounded like the same man who’d called Tyler Weil in New York to set up the exchange. Lucian knew they’d never get a trace on the call. Not even the Matisse Monster could defeat the location-tracking capability of a cell phone unless he was on a virgin line that had never been used before to accept any incoming calls. And so far that was just what he’d done.

“In the hangar at LAX.”

“At VIP courier?”

Lucian had advised Olshling to arrange this delivery the way he arranged any transport-use the same courier service and work with them the same way. Do nothing out of the ordinary. So it was no surprise that the man on the other end of the phone knew the name of the courier.

“Yes.”

“In about five minutes two trucks will pull up in front of the hangar. If anyone is standing outside other than you, they’ll keep going. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Please open the crate. Have the man driving the forklift bring it outside, leave it on the lift, leave the lift running and go back inside. We have someone on one truck who will take care of inspecting and loading the sculpture.”

“Not until I’ve seen the paintings.”

“Impatient?”

“No, cautious.”

“We’ll deliver the paintings to the hangar after we’ve inspected the sculpture.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t let you have it before I look at the paintings and ascertain that they are the same ones I saw last week.”

“You’re going to have to.”

“I have strict instructions from the director of the Met. The museum is going against years of policy by negotiating with you at all. If you want the sculpture, I need to see the paintings first. Keep the second truck away. Just send the first-the one with the paintings. If I see two I won’t come out.”

“Be outside in five minutes, alone, with the forklift and the sculpture with the crate open,” the man on the other end of the phone reiterated, and then hung up.

Olshling, who’d picked up most of what was going to transpire from what he could hear of the one-sided conversation, asked, “What do you think he’ll do?”

“He’ll let see me see the paintings. He wants this sculpture much too badly to risk losing it now.”

“As long as he doesn’t think to look for the tracking device.”

“It would take hours for him to find it and he can’t afford to take hours. He’s got to get it and get out.”

Wasting no more time, Olshling issued orders, and in less than five minutes the open crate was on the forklift and outside. Two minutes after that, all the workmen from VIP and the guards were back inside the building. Six seconds later, the doors to the hangar slammed shut with a metal boom.

Lucian was now standing alone, outside in the late-afternoon Los Angeles sunshine, next to a crate that dwarfed his six-foot-two frame. Almost immediately he spotted a single FedEx van heading his way. When it stopped in front of him, a uniformed driver hopped out.

“Mr. Ryan?” he asked in an easygoing voice as if he were there to pick up an ordinary package.

“Yes.”

“Come with me.”

Lucian followed him around to the back of the truck, judging which of his bulges were muscle and which might be concealed weapons, so he could be prepared. He knew that Matt Richmond and half-a-dozen local FBI agents were strategically placed on the tarmac with long-range rifles ready to shoot out the truck’s tires if Lucian got in and it took off while he was still inside, but ultimately he knew he could rely only on himself.

After opening the double doors, the driver gestured to Lucian, who climbed in, where a second FedEx man sat on a jump seat. Beside him was a stack of four crates.

Behind Lucian, the doors banged shut.

“You have ten minutes,” the FedEx agent said gruffly.

“I need more time than that just to open the crates.”

“They’re already open.”

As Lucian pulled out the first painting-the Klimt-and as he began inspection of the painting, he made a slight clucking sound with his tongue against the roof of his mouth, the way James Ryan always did when he scrutinized artwork.

“The light in here is terrible,” he said as he held a magnifying glass up to the painting’s surface. “Can you open the doors?”

“No can do.”

“Well, I can’t do my job if I can’t see better than this.”

“I’m not in charge. Just following orders.”

“I’d appreciate it if you would call whoever is in charge and tell them I need more light.”

The FedEx agent didn’t make a move.

Lucian pulled the second painting out of its crate. It was the Renoir. He was still examining thirty seconds later when the agent said, “We’ve gone past your time, Mr. Ryan.”

“I need more light and I need more time. Call your boss. I’m not going to work against some arbitrary time clock.”

This time the FedEx agent did pull out his cell phone. While he made his call, Lucian continued examining the Renoir, slowly, methodically, as if his life depended on his opinion of this painting being correct.

“My boss says it’s too bad, but you’re out of time,” the FedEx man said, still holding the phone up to his ear.

“Let me talk to him,” Lucian said tersely, frowning with indignation.

“He wants to talk to you, he says-” Whoever was on the other end must have interrupted, because the man abruptly handed Lucian the phone.

“Hello?”

“Mr. Ryan, I said you could have ten minutes. You’ve taken fifteen.”

“The light in this truck is deplorable. You’re asking me to verify that these are the same paintings I saw in the hotel with unlimited time and under much better conditions.”

“I’m a man of my word. On my family’s honor, those are the same paintings you saw in the hotel.”

On my family’s honor? That was a phrase you didn’t hear often from a criminal, Lucian thought. “I need more time.”

“My man has instructions to escort you from the vehicle in five minutes. It’s up to you whether you go with or without the paintings. If you aren’t sure they are authentic, leave them and take my sculpture back to New York. But understand I’m not going to make this offer again. What is it, Mr. Ryan? Are you going with or without the paintings?”