She paused. “I don’t know. But I do remember picking”, up this friendliness I mentioned. Their initial encounter was not one of fear. I had the impression that none of the young people were afraid at first.”
“I want to ask you about a card now,” I said. “You mentioned that you read people’s cards. Are you talking about playing cards?”
“You can use most anything. Tarot cards, a crystal ball. It doesn’t matter. These things are tools. It’s whatever makes it easy for you to concentrate. But yes, I use a deck of playing cards.”
“How does that work?”
“I ask the person to cut the cards, then I begin to pick one at a time and tell what impressions come to mind.”
“Were you to pick the jack of hearts, would there be any special significance?” I asked.
“It all depends on the person I’m dealing with, what energy I’m picking up from this individual. But the jack of hearts is equal to the knight of cups in tarot cards.”
“A good card or a bad card?”
“It depends on who the card represents in relation to the individual whose reading I’m doing,” she said. “In tarot cards, cups are love and emotion cards, just as swords and pentacles are business and money cards. The jack of hearts would be a love and emotion card. And this could be very good. It could also be very bad if the love has gone sour or turned vengeful, hateful.”
“How would a jack of hearts be different from a ten of hearts or queen of hearts, for example?”
“The jack of hearts is a face card,” she said. “I would say this is a card that represents a man. Now a king of hearts is also a face card, but I would associate a king with power, someone who is perceived or perceives himself as in control, in charge, possibly a father or something like that. A jack, like a knight, might rep someone who is perceived or perceives himself as soldier, a defender, a champion. He might be sour who is out in the world doing battle on the business front Maybe he’s into sports, a competitor. He could be a lot things, but since hearts are emotion, love cards, would make me say that whoever this card represent there is an emotional element versus a money or work element.”
Her telephone rang again.
She said to me, “Don’t always trust what you hear, Scarpetta.”
“About what?” I asked, startled.
“Something that matters a great deal to you is causing unhappiness, grief. It has to do with a person. A friend, a romantic interest. It could be a member of your family I don’t know. Definitely someone of great importance in your life. But you are hearing and maybe even imagining many things. Be careful what you believe.”
Mark, I thought, or maybe Benton Wesley. I couldn’t resist asking, “Is this someone currently in my life, someone I’m having encounters with?”
She paused. “Since I’m sensing confusion, much is unknown, I’ll have to say that it isn’t someone you are currently close to. I’m feeling a distance, you know, necessarily geographical, but emotional. Space that is, making it hard for you to trust. My advice is to let it go, don’t do anything about this now. A resolution will come, and I can’t tell you when this will be, but it will be all right if you relax, don’t listen to the confusion, or act impulsively.
“And there’s something else,” she went on. “Look beyond what is before you, and I don’t know what this is about. But there is something you aren’t seeing and it has to do with the past, something of importance that happened in the past. It will come to you and lead you to the truth, but you will not recognize its significance unless you open yourself first. Let your faith guide you.”
Wondering what had happened to Marino, I got up and looked out the window.
Marino drank two bourbon and waters in the Charlotte airport, then had one more when we were in the air. He had very little to say during the trip back to Richmond. It wasn’t until we were walking to our cars in the parking lot that I decided to take initiative.