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So that’s why the Havenswood identity didn’t check out when Carol put the police on to it, Paul thought They’d have had to go all the way back to the 1800s in order to find the Havenswood family

County records for that period probably don’t even exist anytruck appeared out of the mists ahead, and Paul passed it For atires drummed on the side of the Pontiac, and the noise was too loud for Grace to speak above it

When they had passed the truck, she said, "Since 1865, Laura has been pursuing revenge through at least two and probably three other lives Reincarnation, Paul Can you believe in that? Can you believe that in 1943, Laura Havensas a fifteen-year-old girl naht before her sixteenth birthday she tried to kill her mother, as Willa Havenswood reincarnated?

It’s a true case Linda Bektermann went berserk and tried to ax her mother to death, but her irl instead Laura didn’t get her revenge And can you believe that Willa is now alive again and that she’s our Carol this tiain, too?"

"Jane?"

"Yes"

Together, Carol and Jane cleaned the cabin in an hour and fifteen irl was an industrious worker who took great pleasure in doing even a lasses of Pepsi to reward the easy chairs that faced the mammoth fireplace

"It’s too early to start cooking dinner," Jane said

"And it’s too wet out there to go for a walk, so what gaood to you is fine with ame closet and take your pick But first, I think we really should get the therapy session out of the way"

"Are we going to keep that up even on vacation?"

the girl asked She was clearly uneasy about it, though she had not been noticeably uneasy before, even on the occasion of the first session, the day before yesterday

"Of course we’ve got to keep on with it," Carol said "Now that we’veand probing a little bit every day"

"Wellall right"

"Good Let’s turn these chairs around to face each other"

The fire flickered off to one side, creating dancing shadows on the hearth

Outside, the rain rattled ceaselessly through the trees and pattered on the roof, and Carol realized that it did sound like even more fire, as Jane had said, so that they seemed to be totally surrounded by the hiss and crackle of flames

She needed only a few seconds to put Jane into a trance this tiirl needed alress to a period at whichsilence didn’t disturb Carol as it had done before

When the girl spoke at last, she used the Laura voice "Mairl’s eyes were squeezed shut Her voice was tight, tense "Is that you? Is it you, Ma, the girl became visibly more tense She hunched her shoulders, fisted her hands in her lap Lines of strain appeared in her forehead and at the corners of her mouth She leaned away from the back of her chair, toward Carol

"I want you to answer some questions," Carol said "But you must be calm and relaxed first Now, you will do exactly as I say You will unclench your fists You will--"

"I won’t!"

The girl’s eyes popped open She leapt up out of her chair and stood before Carol, quivering

"Sit down, honey"

"I won’t do what you say! I’ what you tell me to do, sick of your punishments"

"Sit down," Carol said softly but forcefully

The girl glared at her "You did it to me," she said in the Laura voice "You put me down there in that awful place"

Carol hesitated, then decided to floith it "What place do you ly "I hate you"

"Where is this awful place you spoke of?" Carol persisted

"The cellar"

"What’s so awful about the cellar?"

Hatred seethed in the girl’s eyes Her lips were peeled back from her teeth in a feral snarl

"Laura? Answer irl slapped her across the face

The blow stunned Carol It was sharp, painful, unexpected For an instant she simply couldn’t believe that she actually had been hit

Then the girl hit her again Backhanded

And again Harder than before

Carol grabbed her adversary’s slender wrists, but the girl wrenched loose She kicked Carol in the shins, and when Carol cried out and sagged for an instant, the girl went for her throat Carol fended her off, though not easily, and atteet up from the armchair Jane pushed her down and fell on top of her She felt the girl bite her shoulder, and suddenly her shock and confusion turned to fear The chair tipped over, and they both rolled onto the floor, flailing

The flat land through which they had been driving began to rise and for hills, but theway off

If there had been any change in the weather during the last half hour, it had been for the worse Rain was falling harder than ever; the hard, fat pellets of water shattered like glass on the roadway, and the ah Paul kept the speedohtfully "Just a fewtoday, but that’s wild Reincarnation? Where in the devil did you come by this theory?"

As the windshield wipers continued to thue on the rain-puddled pavement, Grace told him about the telephone calls fro-dead reporter, the prophetic drearim battle with Aristophanes "I am Rachael Adams, Paul That other life had been revealed to me so that I can stop this murderous cycle Willa did not start the fire I started it accidentally There is no reason for the girl to seek revenge It’s all a irl, Jane, while she’s regressed to her Laura phase, I can persuade her of the truth I know I can I can stop all of this here, now, once and forever Do you think I’? Senile? I don’t believe I am In fact, I know I’e experiences recently that confir you"

"You hit that one on the head, all right," he told her

Nevertheless, reincarnation--being born again in a new body--it was a stunning, soul-shaking thing to accept There is no lasting death Yes, that was eists

"Do you know about Millicent Parker?" he asked her

"Never heard the na even harder He turned the windshield wipers up to their highest speed

"In 1905," he told Grace, "Millie Parker atteht before her sixteenth birthday Like the Linda Bekter Millie, instead of the other way around Purely self-defense And here’s what you ht not realize: Under hypnosis, Jane claimed to be Laura, Millie, and then Linda Bekterain, in the Millicent Parker case," Grace said, "the girl’s desire for revenge was frustrated Yes I knew there must be another life between Laura and Linda"