The Reincarnationist

Chapter 12

As Josh looked for Gabriella, to give her the professor’s message, the crowd of bystanders grew larger. Josh remembered what Rudolfo had said about the dig becoming a tourist attraction. He looked at his watch. It was 9:00 a.m. Right on cue. The crime scene was going to be contaminated if these people trampled on it. The police still weren’t there to stop them. Shouldn’t they have arrived on the heels of the ambulance? Someone needed to keep the crowds back.

Scanning the gathering, he noticed a trio of nuns, two priests, a group of teenage Goth girls and a tall man holding a pad and pencil talking to one of the nuns. He had thick hair that fell into his eyes, and he brushed it away in a gesture that Josh recognized. Charlie Billings always expressed his impatience like that. Josh was glad to see him-not just because he’d always liked the reporter, but because, having been on assignment with him here in Rome, he knew Charlie spoke fluent Italian.

As Josh made his way over to the reporter, pushing through the crowd, Malachai followed him as if he needed to keep him in sight to keep him safe.

They exchanged greetings, and then Charlie, assuming that Josh was there on assignment, asked who he was covering the story for.

“I’m not here as press, I was here as a guest of the professor. But listen, I need you to-”

“Wait a minute. Do you mean you were here during the shooting?”

Josh nodded, annoyed that he’d inadvertently made himself part of the story.

“Did you see who did this? Did you get a shot of him?” Charlie glanced at the ever-present camera around Josh’s neck.

“I’ll give you all that later, but first you need to help me. This is urgent. This crowd could make it impossible for the police to collect evidence if they get any closer to the area around the tomb. They could be trampling evidence now. I can’t speak Italian, you can. Would you talk to them and ask them to stay back?”

“How ’bout I trade you. I’ll talk to them and you tell me something I can use. What happened down there?”

“C’mon Charlie-” Josh pointed “-look.” The Goth girls were starting to cross the field.

“Okay, but when I’m done, I’m going to find you.” He started off. “You owe me now,” he called out over his shoulder.

Malachai had stepped away while Josh was talking to Charlie, but now he came forward again. “Bastard.” He indicated the reporter. “But I suppose it’s inevitable the press would be here.”

“He’s okay. I know him from way back. If I play it straight with him, he won’t screw us. Listen, I still-”

Loud wailing interrupted as three police cars arrived and officers jumped out.

“The press is the least of our problems now,” Malachai said. “After they figure out who’s who, the police are going to want to question us. We need to work out what we’re going to say about being here. This is going to be an explosive story, and I don’t want the foundation to be part of it.”

Yet another siren sounded as the ambulance readied to take the professor to the hospital. Josh glanced over. Something was holding them up. Now Josh saw Gabriella, fighting to get into the ambulance with the stretcher. The female medic blocked her and then, when Gabriella didn’t back off, physically pushed her away. Gabriella stumbled backward, tripped and fell to the ground. Without looking back, the medic hurried into the ambulance and slammed the door as it took off.

“She needs help,” Josh said, and ran toward her.

Once he reached her side he knelt down next to her. “Are you hurt?” he asked.

“They wouldn’t let me go with them.” She sat on the grass, eyes peeled on the vehicle as it disappeared.

“They didn’t have room.”

“But he’s alone,” she said, sounding dazed.

“He’s going to get the best care they can give him.” It was like talking to a child.

“Is he going to be all right?” She turned to Josh for the first time. As a photographer, he’d looked into thousands of anguished faces, but her pained expression ripped at him in an intensely personal way, which he couldn’t understand.

“I hope so,” he said. “Are you sure you’re okay, though? That was a tough fall.”

She didn’t seem to understand his question.

“You fell.”

She looked around, noticing where she was as if for the first time. Then, brushing off her hands, she stood up.

“I’m okay,” she said to Josh.

“You sure? You seemed pretty out of it there.” He handed her the knapsack she’d left on the ground, forgotten.

“I’m okay. I am. I just need to find out-”

By now, Charlie Billings had made his way over. “Gabriella?” He reached out and touched her arm. “What happened here?”

“Not yet, Charlie,” she said.

Josh was surprised that she knew him, then he remembered that Rudolfo had said she’d been talking to the press.

“Not for the record, then?”

“I don’t think she’s up to it. Give her some time,” Josh said.

“You’re really racking up those favors, you know?”

Josh offered his old colleague a nod.

“Can you tell me how the professor is?” Charlie asked Gabriella, still trying to get something for his story.

“He’s in critical condition, that’s all I know.”

Charlie scribbled something on his pad, and Josh took advantage of the moment to take Gabriella by the elbow and steer her away from the edge of the road and the reporter to her car. As Josh helped her into the backseat, Malachai, who was behind the wheel, said, “Josh, hurry up and get in. I think it would be wise to leave now and avoid the circus while we still can. Gabriella, do you have the keys?”

Focused on Josh, she didn’t answer.

“I just realized who you are. You’re Josh Ryder, aren’t you?”

He nodded.

“You were here the whole time?”

“I was. I’m sorry.”

“Where did all this happen?”

“We were in the tomb when-”

“You were in the tomb with him?” she interrupted. “This happened inside the tomb?”

“Yes.”

“I want to go down to the site…I need to see it.” Pushing past Josh she got out of the car. Both Josh and Malachai got out and followed her. Catching up to her before she got too far, Malachai put his arm around her shoulder and stopped her. “It’s better to leave all this to the police. We’ll take you to the hospital. Come back to the car with me.”

“Not yet. I need to see the site first,” she said, shaking free.

“Let me go with you, then,” Josh said, concerned that she not be alone when she saw the blood, the broken artifacts and the state Sabina was in.

Not answering, or waiting, she took off, but before she had gone five feet, two policemen intercepted her.

The conversation appeared to go smoothly for the first three or four questions, until one of them must have asked something that agitated her, because she gestured wildly to the road, then turned, pointing back toward her car, inadvertently including Josh and Malachai in her gesture.

The policemen followed her glance.

Thirty seconds later, the two carabinieri approached Josh and Malachai.

“Mr. Ryder?” the younger one asked, looking at Malachai.

“No. I’m Josh Ryder.”

He asked him something in Italian.

Josh shook his head. “Sorry, I don’t understand.”

It seemed as if he’d said that to a dozen people already that morning. The language barrier was frustrating. He wanted to tell the policeman not to waste time with him when there was a man out there somewhere who had a gun and an ancient treasure and who was getting farther and farther away, but there was no way he could communicate that.

While this was going on, the carabinieri had their back to Gabriella and so they didn’t notice when she broke away. There were other police on the scene, busily interviewing people in the crowds, but, curiously, none of them were paying attention to the real scene of the crime-Gabriella’s destination, the tomb.

Of course not, Josh realized. None of them knew that the shooting had happened underground.

The policeman, who was still trying to talk to Josh, noticed him glance away and looked to see why. When he saw Gabriella, he called out to her.

She turned. There was fierce determination in her eyes, tear marks and dirt smeared on her face, dust on her clothes. She yelled back something Josh couldn’t understand and then descended into the tomb she had been responsible for discovering.

Josh’s heart lurched as she disappeared. He was desperately worried for her. There was no time to wonder why he was reacting so strongly to a stranger because, at that moment, two things happened almost simultaneously: the group of onlookers broke free from the sawhorses, and all the police took off to contain them.

Josh took advantage of the distraction to race toward the crypt.

“Stop, Josh. Let’s get out of here. Don’t-” Malachai shouted.

“She shouldn’t be down there alone,” he yelled back. He kept going, not knowing if the police were behind him or not. Not caring.

He was only a foot away when he heard Gabriella’s scream coming up from the ground. It was sharp and ragged, and so pained it sounded as if she were being tortured.