This guy...
He was rotten to the core.
Locke thought to himself as he translated the man's words through lip-reading. His gaze drifted to the side, landing on the voodoo doll he had placed on the desk.
If he hadn't personally dealt with Nina Bell and made sure she didn't even get a ticket to Hell, he would have suspected he had brought back a fake doll.
Nina Bell was completely gone.
Whether looking at it from the side of science or the side of the supernatural, she was gone, erased entirely.
However, this voodoo doll was still useful. After using holy water to cleanse the malicious spirit trapped inside, the doll had essentially become an empty vessel.
Or rather, it was now a portable, supernatural prison.
If some magical entity crossed him in the future, all Locke had to do was stuff them into this voodoo doll. As long as the doll remained unbroken, they would be permanently sealed inside.
Locke liked to call it a form of eternal mercy!
Because the doll's original spirit had made a contract with a demon from Hell, it had, in a sense, received a hellish exemption. Therefore, the summoning pull of Hell didn't exist inside this voodoo doll. As long as the doll stayed intact, the prisoner within would achieve immortality in a completely different sense.
So, Locke decided to keep the doll.
Who knew when it might come in handy?
For instance...
George?
Locke chuckled at the thought, his eyes returning to the surveillance monitor. On the screen, Nick Rice pulled two dolls from his pockets and handed one to each of the Bells.
The prison guards naturally noticed this.
They pushed the door open and stepped inside, clearly preparing to escort Nick Rice out.
Nick Rice spoke up, "This is the final gift from their daughter, and it's their last request. You can check them; they are just two regular dolls."
Because of his status as an Assistant District Attorney, the supervising official in charge of the execution and a prison priest discussed it briefly after hearing his explanation and chose to allow it.
Watching the whole scene from his study, Locke had already pieced together exactly what kind of underhanded stunt this Nick Rice was trying to pull.
If Locke's theory was correct...
Nick Rice had likely formed some shady agreement with the Bell family a long time ago. After Nina Bell died and he secured the doll containing her transformed vengeful spirit, he had used it to completely terrify the District Attorney.
George had dug up the details two days ago.
Nick Rice's promotion had been personally signed by the District Attorney. Then, the very day after the promotion went through, the District Attorney had suddenly collapsed during a meeting and was rushed to the hospital.
A few days ago—to be precise, the exact night Locke went to steal the voodoo doll—the District Attorney had passed away from respiratory failure.
In all likelihood, Nick Rice had gone to the hospital that night to commit murder.
Why did he have to do it himself?
It was probably because the negotiation fell through. Most likely, it tied back to his failure to recruit Locke. So when he discovered the voodoo doll was missing, even though Locke had intentionally staged it to look like a standard burglary by taking few other items, the guy hadn't reported it to the police. Instead, he had quietly kept up appearances.
And right now?
Nick Rice had probably learned from Nina Bell's vengeful spirit before it died that the minor demon was gone.
He had likely researched a ton of information regarding sacrifices and contracts, and he was terrified that once the Bell couple sacrificed themselves and found out the truth—that he had lost their daughter—they wouldn't let him off the hook.
This was backed up by Nick Rice's browser history and his library checkout records.
Wait, no!
Locke raised an eyebrow.
*Tsk.*
Locke recalled the very first sentence Nick Rice had spoken to the Bells just now. If Nick Rice was truly worried, he would have let the Bell couple sacrifice themselves to the exact same demon their daughter had used. But doing that now would result in a completely hollow sacrifice.
Yet, Nick Rice had explicitly said, "A demon"?
Locke felt a bit of an envious sting.
"So this Nick Rice didn't just know a lot, he actually managed to hook up with a completely different demon? He's planning to use this method to have the Bell couple offer their sacrifice to the new demon he found?"
The Bell couple thought they were sacrificing their souls to gain power for themselves.
But in reality...
They were simply being sold out by Nick Rice. Once the sacrifice kicked off, they would realize to their horror that they had suddenly become the tribute Nick Rice was offering up.
"Wow."
Locke's thoughts spun rapidly, and he clicked his tongue in amazement.
"When it comes to screwing over their fellow humans, these kind of people actually quite talented."
Locke found the thought rather amusing. His gaze then shifted back to the observation room, locking onto Miriam Shelton, who had been invited by Nick Rice on behalf of the Bells.
So...
Now that he had deduced Nick Rice's motive, figuring out the rest wasn't difficult at all.
The Voodoo Compendium!
Nick Rice had undoubtedly learned about the human-skin-bound Voodoo Compendium from Nina Bell. After his initial attempt failed, he set his sights on Miriam Shelton, who had also come into contact with the book.
After all, a demon granting you power was one thing, but whether you actually knew how to use it was an entirely different story.
It was just like a bank loan.
The bank gives you a loan, so you have the money, but if you don't know how to spend it, you can't exactly blame the bank. At a time like that, you need a specialized guide on how to blow through cash.
As for how Nick Rice tracked down Miriam Shelton?
It was probably through the sacrifice.
After all, the exact time Nick Rice called Miriam Shelton was the day after the voodoo doll went missing, which also happened to be the day after the District Attorney suddenly died of respiratory failure.
It was highly likely that on that very night, Nick Rice had hooked up with a demon willing to grant him power by sacrificing the District Attorney.
Right at that moment.
The people in the surveillance room suddenly covered their mouths in horror.
Locke snapped back to reality and looked at the screen.
Inside the electric chair chamber, as the timer went off and the power surged, the inmates didn't instantly drop dead like previous prisoners. Instead, they began violently convulsing in the chairs, their eyes bulging wildly. The two glass eyes of the dolls in their hands began to glow with a bizarre, terrifying brilliance.
The Bell couple seemed to realize something was wrong as well.
Their furious, wide eyes stared dead at the observation room, where people were hiding their faces, seemingly unable to bear the sight.
With a loud *bang*, a wave of panic erupted in the observation room.
Miriam Shelton cried out to God and sprinted toward the exit along with the rest of the crowd.
The sight of eyeballs literally exploding from a skull was just far too bloody.
But while Nick Rice kept his head lowered, covering his face, the gradual curve forming at the corners of his mouth completely gave him away.
In fact...
After Locke adjusted the camera angle and read his lips, he could clearly see Nick Rice's thick lips moving slightly as his head stayed down: "I'm glad you like it. I will bring you more souls, my master!"
This was definitive proof.
Locke remained completely unmoved by the gruesome scene unfolding in the execution room. Compared to what happened on the Argo, this didn't even come close. His attention was firmly fixed on the two dolls that had dropped into the mess of flesh, their eyes growing increasingly eerie.
Excellent.
Give them a quick wash, and they would make two more excellent containers.
Without a doubt, in this overlapping historical timeline, he would be the merchant who reaped the final reward.
*The snipe and the clam clash, and the fisherman reaps the rewards!*
Just then, the surveillance feed was cut off. Obviously, the prison administration had taken emergency measures after seeing such a horrific accident occur.
Locke chuckled, drained the rest of his bourbon, and stood up. Putting on his coat, he swept the voodoo doll from the desk into his inventory and headed straight out the door.
...
In Queens.
Just a street away, you could see the roadside café near Rikers Island Prison.
Nick Rice walked over carrying two cups of coffee, handing one to Miriam Shelton, who was sitting there looking incredibly pale.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Shelton. That must have been terrifying for you."
Miriam Shelton offered a weak thank you and forced a small smile, looking up at him. "So, am I allowed to leave now?"
A few days ago, this Nick Rice had tracked her down at the museum. He introduced himself as an Assistant District Attorney and claimed he used to be the Bell couple's defense lawyer, saying they wanted her to be there to see them off one last time.
Miriam found it incredibly hard to understand, considering she had never had any dealings with them whatsoever.
They belonged to two completely different worlds; their lives didn't intersect in the slightest.
But Nick Rice had been extremely aggressive, hinting that if she refused to show up, the District Attorney's office might start looking into her.
Miriam occasionally took on private, off-the-books appraisal jobs where she asked no questions and gave no names, simply using her expertise to make some extra money to provide a better education for her daughter.
If the DA's office started targeting her, it would be bad news.
So, after a moment of silence, Miriam chose to come today.
But she never could have anticipated that the scene would be so shockingly horrific.
Right now, she just wanted to go home and hug her husband.
But...
Nick Rice simply shook his head.
Seeing this, Miriam Shelton frowned slightly. "What? Mr. Rice, you promised—"
Right at that moment.
An Audi R8 pulled up smoothly to the curb, and the window rolled down.
"Mrs. Shelton? Oh my God, is that you?"
As he spoke, Locke opened the car door and stepped out.