“But if they do? What then?”
“No way they can connect this to us,” Eddie said.
“We better hope not.”
Eddie got in the car and sat behind the wheel. Sweat frosted his face and his stomach continued its protest.
“You okay?” Floyd asked as he climbed in the passenger seat.
“Mostly.”
“Let’s see what you got,” Antoine said.
They stood near the Ford’s trunk beneath the tree where they always made such exchanges. Eddie popped open the lid. Antoine peeled back the dingy canvas covering the corpse. He gave a start.
“What is this?” Antoine asked. “What the hell’d you do?”
“We didn’t do nothing,” Floyd said.
“He hit a tree,” Eddie added. “All we did was snatch him from the funeral home.”
Antoine looked at them. “You did what?”
“We figured it was better than digging him up tomorrow night,” Eddie said. “And he’s a day fresher.”
Antoine shook his head. “Don’t you think they’ll miss him? At the funeral?”
Eddie explained the closed casket service, the logs they had slipped inside. He closed with, “Clean and simple.”
Antoine smiled. Sort of. “That’s actually pretty clever.” He looked back at the corpse. “Not sure he can use this though.”
“Sure he can. The rest of him’s fine. Only twenty-eight and just forty-eight hours dead.”
Antoine hesitated, and then said, “Okay, get it moved.”
Again, he stood back and let Floyd and Eddie do the work. Once the transfer was completed, Antoine handed them the two-fifty, climbed in his car, and drove away.
Eddie followed him down the drive to the road. When Antoine turned right toward Pine Creek, Eddie went left. In the rearview mirror, he watched until Antoine’s taillights disappeared around a curve, then swung onto the gravel shoulder and pulled a quick U-turn.
“What’re you doing?” Floyd asked.
“I want to know where he’s going. Who he’s delivering the body to.”
“You think that’s wise? He might see us.”
“Not if we’re careful.”
Eddie raced back up the county highway, until he saw Antoine’s taillights disappear over a rise in the road. He flicked off the headlamps.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Floyd said. “And don’t run into nothing.”
Tailing Antoine was a snap. His was the only car on the road and once in town they could easily stay a couple of blocks back and follow his every turn. Just south of downtown, he climbed a steep drive to a massive antebellum home that possessed views over the town and the entire valley.
Eddie pulled to the side of the road. “What the hell?”
“Ain’t that Dr. Bell’s house?” Floyd asked.
“Sure is.”
Eddie watched Antoine’s car slide around the side of the mansion and toward the large white barn behind. The car came to a stop and the taillights went dark.
“What on earth does Dr. Bell need with a corpse?” Floyd asked.
Eddie thought about that but couldn’t come up with a reasonable idea. “Let’s go grab a beer and think on it.”
“I ain’t sure this is a good idea,” Floyd said.
“Me neither,” Eddie said. “But we got to know what’s what.”
“We do?”
“Ain’t you curious?”
“Course I am. But I don’t want to get caught neither.”
“It’s three in the morning. Ain’t nobody up and about.” Eddie motioned toward the mansion. “Not a light nowhere.”
Over a few beers at Floyd’s place they had decided that a look inside Dr. Bell’s barn was in order. Took Eddie a while to convince Floyd but finally he gave in. He always did. They parked in McGill’s lot, walked the two blocks to the edge of town, crossed the county road, and eased into the trees a couple of hundred yards from the Bell Mansion. They worked their way to the back side of the property, hopped the fence, and now stood near the barn’s corner, the rear of the mansion in full view. Bell’s Caddy sat near the back door.
“Now what?” Floyd asked.
“Find a way inside.”
That proved easy. The large double doors were closed but the lock hung loosely and unlatched in the metal loop. The door squeaked softly as Floyd pushed it open, then closed, once they were inside. The air seemed musty and laced with a slightly sweet, almost medicinal odor.
Eddie swept the interior with his flashlight. One large room, no loft, a series of tables lined up cross-ways in the center. Open bins filled with plastic barrels and stacks of cardboard boxes, alternated with tall lockers along the left wall. To the right, a massive industrial mixer sat near a low gas stove topped with four metallic stock pots. Along the far wall, shelves held rows of Dr. Bell’s Body Tonic.
“What the hell?” Eddie said.
“You don’t think...?” Floyd fell silent as if he couldn’t finish his thought.
Eddie walked among the tables. A few bone fragments and what looked like strips of leather lay on one. An electric meat grinder and two stainless steel blenders on another. A black plastic jar labeled “Bone Meal” caught Eddie’s eye. He lifted it, shook it, spun the lid off. Floyd directed his flashlight beam inside. A fine, grayish-white powder.
“What the hell is all this?” Floyd asked.
Eddie did a slow three-sixty before responding. “Looks to me like old Doc Bell is grinding up bodies and putting them in his tonic.”
Dr. Bell’s Body Tonic was famous. The drug store downtown had an entire shelf devoted to the various mixtures. Each touted a specific health benefit. Printed right on the label in big, red letters. Some made your brain better; others built muscles or cleaned up your liver or kidneys. Still others were for fevers or bowel regularity or to build stronger bones. Dr. Bell’s stuff could fix your whole damn body.
“Your mom used to give us that shit,” Floyd said.
“I know.” Eddie scratched an ear.
“What are we going to do?” Floyd asked.
“Ain’t much we can do. I mean, we been stealing bodies. Not like we can tell another living soul.”
“Exactly.”
The voice came from behind them. The cousins spun that way. Dr. Thomas Bell and Antoine stood in the doorway. Eddie hadn’t even heard it open.
“We was just curious,” Eddie said.
“Like the cat?” Bell said. “Didn’t work out well for him, did it?”
“We don’t mean no harm,” Floyd said. “And we ain’t going to say a word. We was just...” His voice trailed off.
“Just what?” Bell said.
Eddie stared at him, racking his brain for something to say, something that would get them out of this. He came up empty.
“Looks like we have ourselves a couple of fresh ones,” Antoine said.
Eddie now noticed the gun Antoine held in his hand. “Look, we don’t want no problems.”
“Probably should’ve thought of that before you came snooping around,” Antoine said.
Bell laid a hand on Antoine’s arm. He waved his other toward the tables. “What do you think of all this?”
“I don’t rightly know what to think,” Eddie said. “This ain’t what I expected.”
Bell nodded. “It’s really quite simple. My product, my tonic, is better than all the others because it contains what the body needs. The right mixture of proteins and minerals for good health.”
“’Cause it contains body parts?” Eddie asked.
Bell smiled. “See, you do understand.”
Eddie glanced at the jar of ground bones again. “I suppose.”
“The only question is, what are you going to do?” Bell said. “Now that you possess this knowledge.”
Eddie glanced at Floyd, getting a blank stare in return. “Ain’t much we could do. Or would, for that matter.” He shuffled his feet. “I mean the folks’re already dead and gone. Ain’t no harm in using them to make others better, I suspect. It’s not like the dead would know.”