“Listen to me,” Levi pleaded. “You don’t understand what’s going on. If I could just—”
“I want you to get out of my car
“Please…”
“Let’s see if powwow has a cure for pepper spray to the fucking face!”
She raised the canister and pointed the nozzle at him. Her thumb was on the button.
“When you were eight years old,” Levi said quickly, “you had a pet turtle named Lucky. You called him that because your father found him in the middle of the Garden State Parkway, crossing several lanes of traffic. He was lucky to be alive.”
“What—” She lowered the pepper spray and stared at him, gaping.
“One day,” Levi continued, “you came home from school and took Lucky out into the backyard. You had a small, plastic wading pool with green and pink fish painted on the sides. You used to let Lucky splash around in it. On that day, Pete Nincetti, the bully from next door, came into the yard and stole Lucky from you. Your parents weren’t home yet, and you were scared of Pete because he was older than you were. You tried to get Lucky back but Pete shoved you down. You started crying. Then he tossed Lucky into the air and hit him with his baseball bat. He did this four more times, cracking the shell and finally knocking Lucky down into a sewer drain.”
Tears streamed down Maria’s shocked face. “Stop it. How do you—”
“You told your parents when they came home. Your father hollered at Mr. Nincetti, but nothing ever happened. The police did nothing. His parents did nothing. Pete wasn’t punished.”
“I…I never told anyone.”
“Wrong. You told Clarissa Thomas, your roommate during your freshman year in college. But what you never told anyone was that three months later, it was you who wrapped the rat poison up in a piece of bologna and fed it to Pete’s dog.”
“Shut up,” Maria sobbed. “Just stop it.”
“The dog vomited blood and died. Pete cried. So did you.”
“Are you some kind of stalker or something? Have you been following me?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know this? Tell me!”
“
She buried her face in her hands. “You son of a bitch.”
“I’m sorry that I had to do this,” Levi said, “but I needed to get your attention. I had to show you proof that this isn’t just the ramblings of a crazy man. I need you to listen to me, Maria. More importantly, I need you to believe what I’m saying.”
“But you just—”
“If it’s any consolation, you might like to know that, years later, Pete was shot in the head by two men named Tony Genova and Vincent Napoli, after he ran afoul of the mob. Despite the severity of the wound, it took him a long time to die. He suffered. His body is buried in an unmarked grave near Manalapan.”
Maria opened the console between them and pulled out a tissue. She wiped her eyes and blew her nose, then tossed the crumpled tissue on the floor.
“How the hell do you know all this?”
“The methods don’t matter,” Levi said. “What matters is that you’ve seen incontrovertible proof that I can do things like that. Things that you don’t believe in. Except that now you’ve got no choice but to believe in them. This was no parlor trick. It’s real. Do you believe?”
She hesitated. “Yes.”
“Good. Because I’ve got a lot more to tell you, and if you’re going to help me, then you can’t have any doubts.”
“Help you? I’m not involved in anything, Levi. I’m just researching a book.”
“No,” he said. “You’re involved. Whether you realize it or not. It feels…right, to me. You’re a part of this. Not by your own hand, but because that’s what God wants of you.”
“I may believe you’re some kind of mind reader, but I definitely don’t believe in God. I was raised to believe in Allah, but I’m not even sure about that anymore.”
“It doesn’t matter. God. Allah. Yahweh. These are all just different names for the same being.”
“Whatever. I’ve heard that before, too. Still doesn’t mean I believe in any of them.”
“Well, that’s unfortunate.”
Maria smirked. “Is this the part where you tell me that’s okay because God believes in me? If so, save the cliches for somebody else. I’ve heard that one before.”
“No.” Levi shook his head. “I’m not going to tell you that. Because by tomorrow night, if we don’t stop what’s about to occur, you’ll have your disbelief resolved whether you like it or not.”
“How?”
“All souls, whether they believe in Him or not, stand before God after they die. And unless we act soon, there are going to be a lot of people dying—us included.”
“What are you talking about?”
