You have a scary story to tell us, I understand.
Look, a kid caused all of this. I was coming through the revolving door at the Hotel Moravia’s front entrance when the boy handed me this doll. Have a look.
This was given to you?
Yes. Nothing supernatural or magical about it. It was a ten-year-old kid’s prank. Except the scrawny kid didn’t talk to me. In fact, he looked away from eye contact and made a sign of the cross as he handed this to me.
And he told you that you have only two more days to live, you say?
That’s right, Detective Partre.
It isn’t pretty, but it’s not unlike a lot of these voodoo dolls in N’Awlins. But as a doctor you see how absurd this is, right?
Sure, a bit of bone and feathers, but it gave me a cold chill. I stuck it in my pocket, and the momentary distraction helped lead me to trip and fall through a section of plate glass window.
And that’s how you got cut up like this and landed in the hospital?
Yes. The nurse said a piece of glass just missed my carotid artery, and I also got a nasty infection. But it’s not why I called you guys: being out of circulation means I can’t check into what I came here to consult on.
You accepted that doll
Which is?
Above all, to find out why a perfectly healthy man is dying in the next room, dying of some unknown cause.
Listen, Doc, if you believe in these curses, you can make ’em come true. I have interviewed your patient, and he does one hundred percent believe. And he had been failing fast.
I know. His doctor has consulted with me, although I have not seen the patient. Fortunately he seems to have turned the corner.
Yes, and you seem to have gotten a bit worse since you came in here. So what do you want us to do about it?
The point is, I want you to find that kid who gave me the doll, and ask him to lift the curse.
Look, Doc. No can do.
But why?
There was no kid. I’ve seen the security camera footage of that incident at the front-door. You accepted that doll from the man ahead of you at the door, and that just happens to be the guy in the next room!
