Now!' said Jedson, looking once more from the putty figure to his model. It's just as ugly as you are. Why did you take that picture?'
He did not answer, but slunk farther back in the circle, his face nastier than ever.
Talk!' snorted Jedson, and twisted a foot of the doll between a thumb and forefinger. The corresponding foot of our prisoner jerked out from under him and twisted violently. He fell heavily to the floor with a yelp of pain.
You were going to cast a spell on this place, weren't you?' He made his first coherent answer. No, no, mister! Not me!' Not you? I see. You were just the errand boy. Who was to do the magic?'
I don't know- Ow! Oh, God!' He grabbed at his left calf and nursed it. Jedson had jabbed a pen point into the leg of the doll. I really don't know. Please, please!'
Maybe you don't,' jedson grudged, but at least you know who gives you your orders, and who some of the other members of your gang are. Start talking.'
He rocked back and forth and covered his face with his hands. I don't dare, mister,' he groaned. Please don't try to make me-' Jedson jabbed the doll with the pen again; he jumped and flinched, but this time he bore it silently with a look of grey determination.
OK,' said Jedson, if you insist-' He took another drag from his cigarette, then brought the lighted end slowly towards the face of the doll. The man in the circle tried to shrink away from it, his hands up to protect his face, but his efforts were futile. I could actually see the skin turn red and angry and the blisters blossom under his hide. It made me sick to watch it, and, while I didn't feel any real sympathy for the rat, I turned to Jedson and was about to ask him to stop when he took the cigarette away from the doll's face.
Ready to talk?' he asked. The man nodded feebly, tears pouring down his scorched cheeks. He seemed about to collapse. Here - don't faint,' Jedson added, and slapped the face of the doll with a finger tip. I could hear the smack land, and the chap's head rocked to the blow, but he seemed to take a brace from it.
All right, Archie, you take it down.' He turned back. And you, my friend, talk - and talk lots. Tell us everything you know. If you find your memory failing you, stop to think how you would like my cigarette poked into dolly's eyes!'
And he did talk - babbled, in fact. His spirit seemed to be completely broken, and he even seemed anxious to talk, stopping only occasionally to sniffle, or wipe at his eyes. Jedson questioned him to bring out points that were not clear.
There were five others in the gang that he knew about, and the setup was roughly as we had guessed. It was their object to levy tribute on everyone connected with magic in this end of town, magicians and their customers alike. No, they did not have any real protection to offer except from their own mischief. Who was his boss? He told us. Was his boss the top man in the racket? No, but he did not know who the top man was. He was quite sure that his boss worked for someone else, but he did not know who. Even if we burned him again he could not tell us. But it was a big organization - he was sure of that. He himself had been brought from a city in the East to help organize here.
Was he a magician? So help him, no! Was his section boss one? No - he was sure; all that sort of thing was handled from higher up. That was all he knew, and could he go now? Jedson pressed him to remember other things; he added a number of details, most of them insignificant, but I took them all down. The last thing he said was that he thought both of us had been marked down for special attention because we had been successful in overcoming our first lesson'.
Finally Jedson let up on him. I'm going to let you go now,' he told him. You'd better get out of town. Don't let me see you hanging around again. But don't go too far; I may want you again. See this?' He held up the doll and squeezed it gently around the middle. The poor devil immediately commenced to gasp for breath as if he were being compressed in a strait jacket. Don't forget that I've got you any time I want you.' He let up on the pressure, and his victim panted his relief. I'm going to put your alter ego - doll to you! - where it will be safe, behind cold iron. When I want you, you'll feel a pain like that' - he nipped the doll's left shoulder with his fingernails; the man yelped - then you telephone me, no matter where you are.'
Jedson pulled a penknife from his vest pocket and cut the circle three times, then joined the cuts. Now get Out!'
I thought he would bolt as soon as he was released, but he did not. He stepped hesitantly over the pencil mark, stood still for a moment, and shivered. Then he stumbled towards the door. He turned just before he went through it and looked back at us, his eyes wide with fear. There was a look of appeal in them, too, and he seemed about to speak. Evidently he thought better of it, for he turned and went on out.
When he was gone I looked back at Jedson. He had picked up my notes and was glancing through them. I don't know,' he mused, whether it would be better to turn this stuff at once over to the Better Business Bureau and let them handle it, or whether to have a go at it ourselves. It's a temptation.'
I was not interested just then. Joe,' I said, I wish you hadn't burned him!'
Eh? How's that?' He seemed surprised and stopped scratchin' his chin. I didn't burn him.'
Don't quibble,' I said, somewhat provoked. You burned him through the doll, I mean with magic.'
But I didn't, Archie. Really I didn't. He did that to himself - and it wasn't magic. I didn't do a thing!'
What the hell do you mean?'
Sympathetic magic isn't really magic at all, Archie. It's just an application of neuropsychology and colloidal chemistry. He did all that to himself, because he believed in it. I simply correctly judged his mentality.'
The discussion was cut short; we heard an agony-loaded scream from somewhere outside the building. It broke off sharply, right at the top. What was that?' I said, and gulped.
I don't know,' Jedson answered, and stepped to the door. He looked up and down before continuing. It must be some distance away. I didn't see anything.' He came back into the room. As I was saying, it would be a lot of fun to-'
This time it was a police siren. We heard it from far away, but it came rapidly nearer, turned a corner, and yowled down our street. We looked at each other. Maybe we'd better go see,' we both said, right together, then laughed nervously.
It was our gangster acquaintance. We found him half a block down the street, in the middle of a little group of curious passers-by who were being crowded back by cops from the squad car at the kerb.
He was quite dead.
He lay on his back, but there was no repose in the position. He had been raked from forehead to waist, laid open to the bone in three roughly parallel scratches, as if slashed by the talons of a hawk or an eagle. But the bird that made those wounds must have been the size of a five-ton truck.
There was nothing to tell from his expression. His face and throat were covered by, and his mouth choked with, a yellowish substance shot with purple. It was about the consistency of thin cottage cheese, but it had the most sickening smell I have ever run up against.
I turned to Jedson, who was not looking any too happy himself, and said, Let's get back to the office.'
We did.
We decided at last to do a little investigating on our own before taking up what we had learned with the Better Business Bureau or with the police. It was just as well that we did; none of the gang whose names we had obtained was any longer to be found in the haunts which we had listed. There was plenty of evidence that such persons had existed and that they had lived at the addresses which Jedson had sweated out of their pal. But all of them, without exception, had done a bunk for parts unknown the same afternoon that their accomplice had been killed.