“He was the eldest of the victims,” Doc Adams said. “He’d suffered a cold this summer—a serious one that affected his lungs. While he seemed quite recovered, I believe it must have made him vulnerable.”
“Indeed.” Eleazar glanced at the old man, Rene. “Then with my assistant’s aid and the mayor’s approval, I will return this boy to life.”
“When?” Browning blurted.
Eleazar smiled, indulgent. “He will be back in time for your wife to serve him dinner.” The smile faded, his gaze growing troubled. “There is, however, one other?—”
Eleazar stopped, looking sharply toward the door at the back of the room.
“Sir?” Doc Adams said.
“I thought I heard something. Is anyone back there?”
Browning shook his head. “My wife left that way before we began. The room was empty.”
“So there is a door?” Eleazar rose and walked to it, swinging it open fast and peering in as the others scrambled to their feet.
As Eleazar strode through, Browning hurried after him. He found the man in the back room, looking about. Browning could see into the kitchen, where the rear door was closing.
Someonehadbeen there. Eleazar hadn’t noticed it, though, and Browning didn’t point it out. Browning was not about to do anything to upset him. Not after what he’d just said about…
Charlie.
Browning’s gaze swung to the coffin, the largest in the room, two chairs placed in front of it, where he and his wife had spent the night.
His wife. Dorothy. What would she say? Her heart might break with joy.
Eleazar strode over, scattering Browning’s thoughts.
“There’s no sign anyone was here,” Browning said. “Perhaps mice? Or coons in the eaves.”
“I’m sure it was nothing,” Eleazar said. “I’m a touch anxious about what I have to say next. My fears likely got the best of me.”
“What you have to say?” Browning paused. “Yes, you were saying there was something else.” His heart thudded anew.No, please, nothing else.Nothing that would stop this man from bringing Charlie back.
Eleazar was walking again, moving to Charlie’s coffin.
“Is this him, then?” he asked. “Your boy?”
Browning stayed where he was. He wasn’t looking in that coffin. If there was a chance he could see his son alive, he didn’t wish to see his corpse.
Was there a chance?
Dear God, let it be possible.Let his boy rise from that coffin, not the pasty-faced child with the mottled lips and eyelids, that sick child, that dead child. Let him rise as Browning remembered him.
Browning cleared his throat. “Yes, that’s Charlie.”
Eleazar smiled. “He’s a fine boy. Well-formed. Don’t you agree, Rene?”
Browning had not even noticed the old man there. Rene leaned over the coffin, and something in his face made Browning go cold. He wanted to leap forward. Yank the old man back. He swallowed hard. Rene nodded, jowls bobbing.
“You have a fine boy, sir,” Rene said, and there was nothing in his clouded old eyes but kindness.
“Thank you.” Browning turned to Eleazar. “You said there was more?”
Eleazar nodded. “Another price, I fear. One that cannot be negotiated.” He walked back to Browning. “I said earlier that I use my powers sparingly because that is the Lord’s will. There is another reason. The second price. Unlike our Lord, I am but a mortal man. I cannot return the soul to a body for nothing, as he did. There must be an exchange.”
“Exchange?”
