The Reincarnationist

Chapter 69

This soul needs to follow another soul in whom the Spirit of life dwells, because she is saved through the Spirit. Then she will never be thrust into flesh again.

– Secret Book of John, The Gnostic Gospels, 185 A.D.

Friday, 1:05 p.m.

Malachai pulled up in front of Gabriella’s house and sat in his car waiting. Less than two minutes later, she and Josh came out. They stood on the driver’s side, talking to Malachai through the open window, filling him in on the kidnapper’s instructions and going over their plans. Malachai was going to follow them in his car. If he lost them, he’d call on his cell. Once Gabriella got directions for where the switch was going to be made, Josh would call and give him the information. And most important, once Malachai was sure Josh and Gabriella were with the kidnapper, he was going to alert the police so in case anything at all went wrong, they had help.

“But you’re going to explain to them how careful they have to be,” Gabriella said.

“I will, don’t worry,” Malachai said soothingly, the way he talked to the children before he hypnotized them.

And then Malachai asked Josh if he could see the stones.

“Gabriella has them,” he said, giving her the option of whether or not she wanted to take them out. But she opened her bag, extracted a padded envelope, took out the tissue-wrapped package and handed it through the window.

Malachai unwrapped them, and hunched over them. Josh couldn’t see the stones, or his mentor’s face, but from the incline of Malachai’s head and his stillness, Josh could tell he was doing what he’d done when he’d first seen them-just kept staring.

A minute went by.

“I’d like to alter the plan. When we get there,” Malachai said to Gabriella without looking up at her, still staring at the stones, “I’d like to be the one to make the exchange. I’m not emotionally involved, and I’m less likely to do anything rash. The kidnapper said you could bring someone with you. He’ll be expecting you to be with a man.”

“No,” Josh said. “I’m going in with her.”

Now Malachai looked up and gave Josh a stern glance. “These should have been mine. If I can’t have them, at least let me be the one to turn them over.”

Josh looked at his watch. “We need to go,” he said.

Malachai rewrapped the stones and, reluctantly, Josh thought, handed the package back to Gabriella. She gripped it as if the feel of it was keeping her from losing her mind. Then he took her arm, and the two of them walked over to her car.

They spoke only perfunctorily until they were on I-95, heading east, not even knowing their final destination. After thirty minutes, Gabriella’s phone rang and the kidnapper gave her an address off exit 8. Gabriella’s tension electrified the air. Occasionally, Josh checked the rearview mirror and saw Malachai’s Jaguar, three or four cars back, but wasn’t worried about losing him. They had cell phones.

At 2:25 p.m., Josh pulled into a parking lot at a Dunkin’ Donuts on the Post Road in Stamford as instructed, and they sat silently and waited, watching Gabriella’s phone.

The overbearing scent of fried bakery goods wafted into the car but didn’t defuse the nervousness that Josh was sure he could smell. Fear and tension has its own stench. It emanated from soldiers in battle. From prisoners on trial. From mothers whose children were in mortal danger.

When the phone rang again she reached for it so quickly it didn’t ring a second time. She listened, said yes, then hung up and looked out the window and pointed across the street to a large stone church sitting on top of a small hill. It had a circular driveway, tall spires and a bell tower.

“They’re in there. Right in there.” Her voice wavered.

Josh drove to the end of the block. The light was red. He stopped.

Gabriella clenched and unclenched her fists. She didn’t take her eyes off the church when she spoke to him. “There is no way that anything has happened to my baby, is there?” Her voice was wrenched from a place so deep inside her it sounded as if it had traveled miles to get to the surface.

“Whoever did this doesn’t want Quinn, remember that,” Josh said. “He doesn’t want any more problems. He just wants the stones. That’s all he ever wanted from the beginning. He didn’t want to kill the professor or the guard. They just got in the way. No one is getting in his way now. He just wants the stones and the mantra. That’s all. The stones and the mantra,” he repeated, talking to her the way he had heard Malachai talk to the children when he was helping them relax into hypnosis. “The stones and the mantra.” As he said it, he wondered if the man he was talking about was Alex Palmer. Was he behind the original robbery and this kidnapping? Was Rachel staying away from him until this was over, as she’d promised?

The red light was lasting longer than seemed possible. Gabriella rolled down the window and leaned out, so far that Josh’s instinct was to hold her back.

“The last thing Quinn needs is for you to get hurt,” he said.

Was she even hearing him?

“Gabriella, let me do this for you.”

She didn’t say anything.

The light switched to bright, glaring green. Josh put his foot on the gas and eased out. There weren’t any other cars on the street but he still went slowly. They were almost there. He didn’t want anything to happen now.

Ten yards.

Twenty yards.

Thirty yards.

Josh took a left into the long driveway. Drove another twenty yards and then pulled up in front of the church. They both got out of the car. He went around to meet her.

“For Quinn’s sake-” He held out his hand.

“I need to be in there.”

“Stay in the back, in the shadows.”

She still hadn’t handed him the package that held the stones and the mantra.

“I promise Gabriella, I’ll bring her back to you.”

She extended her hand. It was shaking, violently.