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The kitchen was hot, stifling

She felt herself being pulled along by forces she could not coht: Is this what I want? Do I really want to floith this and discover the truth and turn my little world upside down? Can

I handle it?

The stench of nonexistent srew louder

I guess there’s no turning back now, she thought

She held her hands up in front of her face and Stared at themata Her hands were bruised, abraded, bloody There were splinters of wood embedded in her palms, splinters fro, long ti, Paul had been at his desk, writing, for alun to flow smoothly He snatched up the receiver and said, a bit impatiently, "Yes?"

An unfamiliar female voice said, "Could I speak to Dr Tracy, please?"

"Speaking"

"Oh Uh nothe Dr Tracy I’ for is a woman"

"It’s my wife you want," he said "She’s out of town for a few days Can I take a e?"

"Yes, please Would you tell her that Polly called froham & Crichton?"

He jotted the name down on a note pad "And what’s this in reference to?"

"Dr Tracy was here yesterday afternoon with a young girl who’s suffering from amnesia

"Yes," Paul said, suddenly more interested than he had been "I know the case"

"Dr Tracy was asking if we’d ever heard of anyone naht She told ather"

"It seemed to be a dead end yesterday," Polly said, "but now it turns out that one of our doctors is faha for my wife to call you back, why don’t you just tell me what you’ve co to her"

"Well, sure, why not? See, Dr Maughaht this property eighteen years ago and personally oversaw the restoration of the outside and the renovation of the interior He’s a history bug, so it was natural for hi he purchased He says this place was built in 1902 by a hter na"

"You haven’t heard the best part," Polly said, the eagerness of a gossip-ht before Millie’s sixteenth birthday party, Mrs Parker was in the kitchen, decorating a big cake for the girl Millie snuck in behind her and stabbed her in the back four ti ever since he’d written Polly’s name on the note pad One broken piece popped out of his hand, spun across the top of the desk, and fell to the floor

"She stabbed her ownthat he had not heard correctly

"Isn’t that soha to the newspaper accounts at that tiirl used a short bladed knife It didn’t sink in far enough to do really ans or blood vessels were affected Louise Parker--that was the rab a irl off with that But I guess Millie ed straight at Mrs Parker again, and Mrs Parker had to use that cleaver"

"Jesus"

"Yeah," Polly said, obviously enjoying his shocked reaction "Dr Maughahter’s throat Pretty irl’s head clear off Isn’t that a terrible thing? But what else could she do? Just let the kid go on jabbing that knife into her?"

Stunned, Paul thought about yesterday’s hypnotic regression therapy session, which Carol had recounted for him in some detail He remembered the part about how Jane had clai out her answers to questions and had written that she was unable to talk because her head had been cut off

"Are you still there?" Polly asked

"Oh Uhsorry Is there h?"

"Yes," he said "You’re absolutely right That was enough More than enough"

"I don’t know if this information is of any help to Dr Tracy"

"I’ to do with the girl she brought in here with her yesterday"

"Neither do I," Paul said

"I irl can’t be Millicent Patter Millicent Parker has been dead for seventy-six years"

In the study, Grace stood at her desk, looking down at the open dictionary

REINCARNATION (re’-in-kár-na’shen), n 1 the doctrine that the soul, upon death of the body, comes back to earth in another body or form 2 rebirth of the soul in a new body 3 a new incarnation or embodiment, as of a person

Bunk? Nonsense? Superstition? Bullshit?

At one tio, those were all the words she would have used to write her own irreverent definition of reincarnation But not now Not any longer

She closed her eyes, and with only the slightest effort, she was able to bring back the i it; she was there, ha with her fists on the cellar door She was not Grace Mitowski now; she was Rachael Adams, Laura’s aunt

The fire scene was not the only part of Rachael’s life that she could recall with perfect clarity She knew the wohts, her hopes and dreams and hates and fears, shared her hts and hopes and dreams and fears and secrets had been her own

She opened her eyes and needed a moment to refocus them on the present-day world

REINCARNATION

She closed the dictionary

God help ht, do I really believe it? Can it be true that I’ve lived before? And that Carol’s lived before? And the girl they’re calling Jane Doe?

If it was true--if she had been permitted to recall her previous existence as Rachael Adams in order to save Carol’s life in this incarnation--then she asting valuable ti how in God’s na to make them believe her