Page 51 of Equalizer
Calvin remembered Luca Conti, the mobster whose people seemed to know too much about the missing bodies and thestregawho had been prominent at their meeting. He felt sure that Owen’s thoughts went in the same direction.
“Why would the body thief stick around Chicago with the show instead of hopping a train out of town?” Owen asked.
“Maybe someone promised him that doing a job for them would put him back in the Mob’s good graces,” Calvin said. “Obviously, they lied.”
“Or there are different players who are at odds with each other,” Owen proposed. “Because if the body thief was already with the show and they wanted to sabotage the acts, he’d be valuable. Why kill him off?”
Calvin’s mind raced as he tried to put the pieces together. “They might have thought he was compromised and didn’t want him getting arrested and spilling what he knew to the cops. Or they might not have planned to cause more deaths when they took advantage of the accident.”
Steven looked from Calvin to Owen, trying to figure out their conversation. “Please tell me you don’t believe the stories about the mad doctor.”
Both Calvin and Owen turned to look at him. “Mad doctor?” Owen asked.
Steven licked his lips and glanced around again to make sure no one was close enough to hear. “It’s just loose talk, the kind that goes around the barracks when men have time on their hands. But there’s a rumor that either a witch or a mad doctor is stealing bodies to bring them back to life.
“We heard a lot of talk like that near New Orleans, about Voodoo and dark magic,” Steven went on. “It really spooked the crew, and I think they were happy to head north after that. But up here, everyone’s chasing the latest new invention and scientific breakthrough. A mad doctor reviving the dead fits right in.”
Their pause made Steven look from Calvin to Owen. “Oh, no. That stuff isn’t real, is it?”
Owen sighed, and Calvin guessed his partner hadn’t wanted to explain too much to Steven, although that now seemed unavoidable.
“Not exactly,” Owen said. “Have you heard about the galvanism displays? The quack who is making sides of beef twitch with electricity?”
“Yes.” Steven paled. “I’m hoping that’s not tied up in this somehow.”
“We believe it is,” Calvin said. “Along with a fair bit of dark magic.”
“I can accept being able to see ghosts, but magic? That’s just in fairy tales.” Steven looked perplexed when he searched their faces and found they were serious.
“Real magic isn’t like in the penny dreadfuls,” Owen replied. “There are a lot of reasons witches keep their abilities hidden. But magic, combined with galvanism, might enable an unscrupulous doctor to use a body part from a fresh corpse and reattach it to a living person—at least for a while.”
Steven reached for a flask in his back pocket and took a swig. “I wish I thought you were kidding.”
“We’re not,” Calvin replied. “We’re actually part of a branch of the Secret Service that deals with the supernatural. That’s what brought us to Chicago. Because if someone is mixing medicine and magic, it’s not the godsend it might appear to be. There are a lot of ways for it to go very wrong. Not to mention being illegal.”
“The witch would likely gain a fair amount of control over the person getting the replacement part in order to sustain the magic. That could be bad in a lot of ways,” Owen picked up. “It’s back-alley stuff, unregulated, no rules. And while it’s awfulenough to steal pieces from dead bodies, there’s the potential for someone to ‘custom order’ a part to better match the host body.”
“Rather than taking a chance on a homeless person who might not be healthy, getting a body part from an athlete could be attractive,” Calvin added.
“You’re serious.”
“We came to Chicago to track down rumors, and if there is a mad doctor, we’re here to shut him down,” Owen said.
Calvin could practically see the wheels turning in Steven’s head as he wrestled with the unfamiliar ideas and then had them fall into place.
“Okay. I guess you learn something new every day, huh? I don’t understand everything, but I want to protect my people. What can I do to help?”
A glimmer of pride flickered in Owen’s eyes, and Calvin’s liking of the security chief increased. “Keep your eyes and ears open,” Owen replied. “And contact us if you get a lead. The folks we think are behind this are dangerous—Mob and witches—so don’t try to go up against them on your own. That’s why the feds got sent in—us.”
“What now?” Steven asked. “My job is to keep the people here safe. I don’t want them getting killed to be replacement parts.”
Calvin weighed the options. A public venue like the rodeo was difficult to secure with spells because so many strangers needed to come and go. Protective charms might help, but they were unlikely to hold up against a powerful witch and only worked if the owner of the talisman kept it constantly on their person.
“Stay alert, and let us know if you see anything suspicious,” Owen replied. “We’re working this from a couple of angles. Once we pull the pieces together, we’re here to shut it down.”
“I just want to keep my crew safe,” Steven said. “I’ll help any way that I can. And—thank you for taking me seriously. I can’t tell the show management. They’d think I’d been drinking and laugh me out of their office.”
Skepticism and downright denial about the occult always made the job of protecting civilians more difficult.
