The Paradise Prophecy

by Robert Browne

  “I’ll explain it all when we get there.”

  “How about you explain it now and we can pretend we waited.”

  He looked at her. “Let’s just say that what happened here isn’t an isolated incident. That’s why I warned you.”

  “You’re gonna have to give me a hell of a lot more than that.”

  “At Gabriela’s apartment. I promise I’ll tell you everything.”

  Callahan gave the cab driver the address for Gabriela’s high-rise.

  There was something about LaLaurie-his inflexible will, perhaps-that made it impossible to turn him down.

  Or maybe it was the pain behind his eyes. She’d noticed it the moment she pulled that blindfold free, only to see it compounded by his little parlor act at the crime scene.

  She had to wonder if it had something to do with the scars on his wrists, and was beginning to think that the file Section had given her had been heavily redacted.

  He was damaged goods, no doubt about it, and she couldn’t help thinking that whatever that damage was, it was somehow related to what he’d seen in that storeroom.

  If LaLaurie was convinced Gabriela’s death wasn’t an isolated incident, then Callahan needed to know why. And as much as she wanted to smack him around until he finally broke down and told her, she decided to let him play this out.

  It wasn’t like she had anything better to do.

  They were greeted at Gabriela’s front door by Rosa, who frowned the moment she saw Callahan. “Mr. Ruiz is not available.”

  “We just want another look around,” Callahan said.

  Rosa shot a wary glance at LaLaurie, then she reluctantly let them in. Callahan ushered him into the living room, surprised by the way his face lit up at the sight Gabriela’s collection.

  “My God,” he said, crossing to the cases full of artifacts, his gaze immediately drawn to something of interest. “Look at this. Do you know what this is?”

  Callahan didn’t really know what any of it was, but she was momentarily caught up in his enthusiasm and joined him at the glass. He gestured to a small, greenish cross that looked as if it had been carved from stone, a crude figure of Jesus with outstretched arms adorning it.

  “A bronze pendant,” he said. “Seventh century, Roman Byzantine period. Soldiers used to wear these to battle. It must’ve cost her a small fortune.”

  “She had a big one, so I’m sure it wasn’t a problem.”

  LaLaurie moved on to the next item as if he were the proverbial kid in the candy shop. “And this,” he said, pointing at what looked like a tiny, oval picture frame. “An antique silver reliquary with a Saint Leonard relic. This has to be over six hundred years old.”

  He went on this way for a few more minutes, pointing out each artifact and explaining what it was. Reliquaries, engravings, rare manuscripts, altar cards.

  He certainly seemed to know his stuff.

  As she listened, Callahan spotted a new item inside one of the cases: the stone figurine of an angel fighting a dragon. The one she’d taken from the box on Gabriela’s bed yesterday. Rosa must have found it there and decided to put it on display.

  She pointed it out to LaLaurie. “What about this? Any idea what it is? Besides the obvious, I mean.”

  LaLaurie nodded. “It looks about seventeenth century to me. It’s from Revelation. Saint Michael fighting the dragon Satan in a war in heaven.”

  A sudden memory tumbled through Callahan’s brain.

  You’re part of Michael’s army.

  “Did you just say ‘Michael’?”

  “The patron saint of chivalry. Louis the Eleventh founded an order in his name. You’ve never heard of him?”

  He sent you here to spy on us.

  “I’m sure I must have, but I’m not big on religious icons.”

  “Well, the victim sure was. And maybe she wasn’t such a Barbie doll after all.” He gestured to the cases. “Nobody builds a collection like this unless they’re very serious about their faith.” He paused. “Or they’re trying to protect themselves.”

  “Against what?”

  He looked at Callahan. “Against exactly what happened to her.”

  He was about to turn away when Callahan grabbed his arm. “Professor, you’ve strung this out long enough. Do you have information pertinent to this investigation or don’t you?”

  “Where’s her copy of Paradise Lost?”

  Callahan sighed. “In a room off her bedroom.”

  Before she could say another word, he found the hallway and headed straight to Gabriela’s bedroom without even the slightest hitch in his gate. Callahan followed, and by the time she stepped inside, he was already moving through the walk-in closet toward the hidden room in back.

  When she caught up to him, she said, “How did you do that? How did you know where to go?”

  “This room has an energy. I could feel its draw.”

  He stood just inside the doorway, taking in Gabriela’s prayer room the same way he’d taken in the crime scene, and the look on his face wasn’t easy to describe. Surprise. Awe. But also some uneasiness there.

  He gestured to the painted blue symbol on the wall.

  “You didn’t tell me about this.”

  “You didn’t give me a chance to. You know what it is?”

  “It’s a sigil.”

  “A what?”

  “A sign, or a seal, with a very specific power and meaning. They’re used in ceremonial magic. Even its color is significant.”

  “So what does it mean?”

  LaLaurie found the copy of Paradise Lost where Callahan had left it atop the prayer desk. He leafed through it until he came to Gabriela’s highlighted passages. He read for a moment, then looked up at Callahan.

  “What it means,” he said, “is that you were right about Gabriela having an obsession. First the figurine, then the painting, and now all these notations in Book Eleven. But the obsession wasn’t limited to this book.”

  “Then what?”

  “Not what. Who.” He gestured to the wall. “That sigil represents the Archangel Michael. And blue is his color.”

  You’re part of Michael’s army. He sent you here to spy on us.

  “And what about the notations in the book?”

  “They’re all in chapter eleven. Which is the part of the poem where Michael comes down from heaven to give Adam and Eve a message from God.”

  “Okay,” Callahan said. “So we’ve established she had an obsession. What does that have to do with her death?”

  “Pretty much everything.”

  “How so?”

  He reached to the shelf beneath the prayer desk, pulled out the books that were stacked there and pointed to the first one. “The Lesser Key of Solomon. A seventeenth-century grimoire.”

  “Grim-what?”

  “Grimoire. A textbook on magic.” He showed her the next book. “Forbidden Rites. A manual on summoning spirits.” And the next one.

  “Angels, Incantations, and Revelation. I think that’s pretty self-explanatory.” He looked at her. “Are you sensing a pattern yet?”

  She thought about what Martinez had said. “You think she was practicing black magic?”

  “Magic is just magic. It’s the intent that makes it black or white, and there are varying shades in between.”

  “You almost sound as if you think it’s real.”

  “Oh, it’s very real.”

  Why did she know he’d say that? “I’m afraid you’re looking at a bit of a skeptic, Professor, and I’ve already had my fill of superstitious nonsense for one case, so unless you have some concrete answers for me . . .”

  “This is about as concrete as it gets. The way it looks to me is that Gabriela was trying to summon up an angel and it backfired on her.”

  Oh, brother. Should she even bother?

  “Backfired?”

  “She got the wrong angel,” he said.

  Callahan wanted to scream, but couldn’t quite muster up the energy. She was just too tir
ed to argue anymore.

  The best thing to do, she decided, was to let this guy have his say, then put him on the next plane back to looneyville.

  But she had to admit she was curious. “What do you mean by wrong angel? Aren’t angels supposed to be good?”

  “It’s all about intent. Just like the magic.”

  She thought about Martinez’s paranoia. “I always thought demons were the bad guys.”

  “They’re the same thing,” LaLaurie said. “The ancient Greeks thought of demons as benevolent spirits. Even Christians acknowledge they’re nothing more than the so-called fallen angels. So what you’d call a demon is simply an angel who’s made some bad choices.”

  “Why do I think my old catechism teacher would view this a little differently?”

  “Most of what you hear in church was cobbled together by people who were long on faith but short on knowledge. And most religions are a jumble of ancient folklore, inconsistencies and convoluted logic.”

  “Yet here you stand, talking about angels and demons as if they’re as common as wheat toast.”

  “Because this isn’t about religion.”

  Callahan frowned. “I think you just lost me there.”

  “Religion is simply a byproduct of people trying to explain the inexplicable. What I’m talking about here has nothing to do with any particular faith, and everything to do with reality. And angels are quite real. They just happen to occupy a different plane of existence than we do. Most of the time, at least.” He paused. “The trouble starts when we try to invite them home for dinner.”

  “Okay,” Callahan said. “For the sake of argument, let’s pretend you aren’t one sandwich short of a picnic.”

  “Thanks. I appreciate that.”

  “The bottom line is that you’re saying Gabriela tried to summon up an angel and got more than she bargained for.”

  “Not just any angel.”

  “Then who?”

  LaLaurie indicated the symbol on the wall. “I thought we already established that.”

  You’re part of Michael’s army.

  “Saint Michael?”

  He nodded. “But I have a feeling it wasn’t Michael who answered her call.”

  “You said what happened to Gabriela wasn’t an isolated incident. What did you mean by that?”

  “Exactly what I said.”

  “And how do you know this?”

  “Because I’ve seen it happen before.”

  LaLaurie was damaged, all right. Somewhere around the left temporal lobe.

  Maybe that would explain why he was on indefinite leave from Trinity Baptist College.

  Callahan had let this guy say what he had to say, and no words she uttered in response would express the depth of her disappointment. Or annoyance. Maybe she was the one who belonged in the looney bin for letting it get this far.

  Time to wrap up this nonsense, put this guy on a plane back home and go to bed.

  “Thank you for your insight, Professor. I just have one more question for you. One that might actually elicit a rational response.”

  “You don’t want to hear the rest of it?”

  “I’ll leave that for you and your psychiatrist to sort out. But you do seem to have a lot of knowledge about Christian artifacts, so maybe you can tell me the significance of . . .”

  She stopped herself as she looked at the wooden cross atop the prayer desk and noticed that the necklace was gone. “What the hell happened to it?”

  LaLaurie was at a loss. “To what?”

  “The Saint Christopher medal. It was hanging here yesterday.”

  The look on LaLaurie’s face went from mild confusion to sudden surprise. “What kind of Saint Christopher medal?”

  “What do you mean, what kind?”

  “What did it look like? Did it have anything on the back?”

  Callahan nodded. “Some initials and an etching of a beetle.”

  LaLaurie stiffened. “You’re sure about that?”

  “Why? Does that mean something?”

  “It could change everything.”

  “How?”

  “I need to see it. Right now.”

  “I just told you, somebody took it.”

  “And you don’t have any idea who?”

  As a matter of fact, she did. She doubted Alejandro had the emotional energy to do much of anything at this point, so that left the housekeeper. Rosa.

  Turning, Callahan moved back through the bedroom and down the hall, LaLaurie at her heels. She called out Rosa’s name, and a moment later, the woman appeared in the kitchen doorway, a quizzical look on her face.

  Callahan said, “Gabriela had a Saint Christopher medal in her prayer room. Did you take it?”

  “Yes, Senhorita. In preparation for the funeral.”

  “For the funeral?”

  “Yes. She told me if anything ever happened to her, she wanted it buried with her.”

  “Did she say why?”

  “I think it was very important to her. Very personal.”

  No kidding. Callahan told the housekeeper to bring it to them and Rosa disappeared down another hall, returning a few minutes later with the necklace in hand.

  “You won’t keep it, will you?”

  “We just want to look at it for now,” Callahan said. “But I can’t make any promises at this point.”

  Rosa handed her the necklace and Callahan passed it on to LaLaurie.

  He nearly froze in place as he took it, staring at it intently. Then he turned it in his fingers, looking at the etching on the back, his hands trembling, his face going through a dozen different changes before settling on complete and utter astonishment.

  “CSP,” he said quietly. “I was wrong about Gabriela. This is about much more than a summoning gone haywire.”

  “You know what those initials stand for?”

  LaLaurie’s face was pale again, but there was an odd excitement in his expression, as if he’d stumbled across a cache of hidden jewels.

  “She was Custodes Sacri,” he said softly. “That’s the only explanation. No one else would have this. No one. Not even a collector. And that’s why she was trying to summon Michael. She probably spoke to him on a regular basis.”

  “What the hell is Custodes Sacri?”

  He turned the disk in his fingers again, gaping at it, then looked up at her.

  “I think it’s time for another drink,” he said. “Something a lot stronger than orange juice.”

  19

  Have you ever heard of Archbishop Jacobus de Voragine? Or the Golden Legend?”

  Callahan had decided to let this play out a little longer, mostly because LaLaurie had been so bowled over by the discovery of the medallion that she couldn’t help getting caught up in his passion.

  Maybe she’d been too quick to judge this guy. LaLaurie’s belief in otherwordly phenomenon didn’t make him any different than half the world’s population, so what could it hurt to practice a little patience, buy him a drink and see what else he had to say? There might be something amidst all the nuttiness that she could actually use.

  She took him to her hotel bar. LaLaurie had ordered Tullamore Dew, and Callahan had settled for a glass of the house pinot.

  “I’ve heard of the Golden Rule,” she said. “Do unto others and all that?”

  “This is different. The Golden Legend is a collection of stories compiled by the archbishop in the thirteenth century. Stories about the greater saints of the Catholic church.”

  “Like Saint Michael.”

  He took a sip of his drink. “He was one of them, yeah. But the one we’re concerned with right now is Saint Christopher. Do you know his story?”

  “I know he’s the patron saint of travel, but that’s about the extent of it.”

  “According to de Voragine, Christopher was a Canaanite warrior who wandered the countryside in search of a great king to serve. But when he finally found one, he quickly discovered that the king lived in fear of the Devil-which, to Christoph
er’s mind, meant that Satan must be a greater king.” He paused, took another sip. “So Christopher threw in with Satan, only to find that despite all of his power, the rebel angel was deathly afraid of someone called Christ.”

  “So let me guess,” Callahan said. “He became a Christian.”

  “Right. And to serve Christ, he spent his days down at the river, helping people cross against a dangerous current.”

  Someone near their table laughed, and LaLaurie shot him a look, annoyed by the interruption. He waited a moment, then continued.

  “Then one day, a boy walked up to Christopher and asked for his help to cross the river. So Christopher hoisted him up on his shoulders and gave him a ride. But despite his size, the boy was heavy. Christopher nearly lost his footing and barely managed to hang on. Once they were safely across, the boy kissed his forehead and thanked him. Then he said, ‘I am the king you serve.’ ”

  “Jesus?”

  LaLaurie nodded. He had been holding Gabriela’s Saint Christopher medal in his hands as he spoke. Now he it held it out, pointing to the etching of the man carrying a child on his back.

  “And that’s why Christopher was named a saint.”

  “Okay,” Callahan said. “But what does this have to do with Gabriela’s death, or her being-what was it?”

  “Custodes Sacri Peregrinatoris. Guardians of the Sacred Traveler.” Callahan balked. “Seriously?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  “Sounds like a crappy eighties’ kid show.”

  “Far from it,” LaLaurie said. “And by most accounts, they’ve never existed. You’d be hard-pressed to find anything about them in the usual literature. But there are one or two fringe accounts out there. You just have to know where to look.”

  “So who are these guardians?”

  “A group of men and women who are said to have been chosen by the Archangel Michael to help those who want to make the journey from sinner to servant, just as Christopher did.”

  “Are they all Catholics?”

  LaLaurie shook his head. “Custodes Sacri transcends religious ideology. They come from all walks of life. All cultures, all faiths. But each of the chosen has made the journey as well-Gabriela being a prime example. From drug addict to Christian superstar in a few short years.”