Bad Medicine - Recap

F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, “The rich are different than your or me.” They sure are. They got more money. But there wasn’t enough money to save some the members of Chicago’s upper crust from a fiendish force so dark it could only be called diabolic.

The rich of Chicago, like the rich everywhere, live protected lives. A case in point: Rhonda June Markay. Markay, once Adele Saperstein, returns home late. In 1944 while an aircraft worker, Miss Markay designed her first bra and her fortunes rose from there. Her wealth allowed her to indulge a taste for fine gems and she was reputed to own some of the biggest stones in Chicago. Miss Markay tries to relax after her long day but the tapping of a crow rouses her. The crow smashes its way into her apartment and captures her with its gaze. Slowly she removes a heavy diamond pendant from around her neck and drops it to the carpet. The crow becomes a very tall Indian. He has little difficulty dispatching Miss Markay by cutting her wrists with a knife from her sideboard. As his last act, he collects the pendant she’d dropped moments earlier. All that remains of his visit is a handful of crow feathers.

A day later, on November 13th, Lucy Lapont Addison returns to her home at 1:30am following the opening performance of an opera at a venue she endowed. The woman friends call the “Steel Butterfly” accumulated fortunes like she accumulated husbands. But she wasn’t prepared to find her Doberman pinscher dead on the carpet, its throat torn open. A coyote enters from the next room and Ms. Addison removes long pin from her hair to defend herself. But the coyote enthralls her with its gaze and she does not move. It becomes a tall Indian. As he approaches, Ms. Addison slips a large diamond and emerald bracelet from her wrist and drops it to the floor. Taking the hatpin from Lucy Addison’s flaccid fingers, the Indian stabs her and leaves with her bracelet.

The police have ruled each death a suicide. Carl does not agree; he thinks they’re murders. He cites as evidence that Ms. Markay had just won a proxy suit that would allow her to take over another company, while Ms. Addison was about to add another husband and his fortune to her portfolio. Suicide under those circumstances seems unlikely. Emily pipes up, supporting Carl by claiming that neither woman fit the suicide profile according to a Swedish study. Both had immediate goals to look forward to. But Tony won’t let Carl run with this story; for even if there were a story Carl lacks the tact, finesse and decent attire necessary to mingle with high society. Missing the point entirely, Carl storms off to buy new clothes trailed by Miss Emily’s shout of “Finally!”

The police scanner in Carl’s car calls units in the vicinity of State and Fourth to proceed to 732 State Street. Police are responding to a robbery in progress at the city’s most prestigious gem exchange. Inside the safe has been ripped open and there are diamonds scattered everywhere. The K 9 officer releases his German shepherd and it darts up the stairs. Its barks mix with unearthly growls until it yelps. Officers pound upstairs after it. On the next floor the dog lies dead. Continuing past it Carl and the police see a tall Indian on the landing with arms outstretched. Carl snaps a flash picture and the man’s hands fly to his eyes. The police grapple him but his immense strength scatters them like ninepins. Wincing, the Indian clutches his eyes again. Several police fire at him but do not injure him. Finally disappears up the last of the stairs and onto the roof. As Carl and several officers watch he leaps from the edge. By the time the witnesses reach the ledge the Indian is nowhere to be seen. And a million dollar sapphire has vanished from the exchange.

At the press conference Captain Baker shares the police conclusion that the two gem exchange guards shot each other. Baker cannot explain how the men shot each other, how the Indian escaped or how the dog that killed a police dog escaped. Baker’s theory that the man was a high-wire artist seems unlikely to Carl, for men eight feet tall do not go into that line of work. Asked about the man’s attire, Baker only shrugs and opines that any large city has its share of kooks.

Unconvinced, Carl uses a bit of social engineering. Impersonating a Detective Tagwood, he calls the ballistics lab and learns that each guard was murdered with his own weapon. There was no crossfire.

Al Delgado once cut gems for a living. Then the police got onto him and he did seven at the “Joliet State College of Barbering”. Now he cuts hair, and Carl finds him at the barbershop where he works. But Al has heard nothing about the stones. If they’ve been fenced Al’s usual contacts are not involved. Al does offer a theory. He has noticed this thief passes up smaller stuff in favor of large and very expensive pieces. To Al this means the thief is a collector or works for one.

Carl’s picture of the dead police dog includes tracks left by the animal that killed it. To learn what species of dog killed a police animal Carl visits Reliance Guard Dog to talk with a trainer there. The trainer consults a reference, and returns angrily: it’s as he thought – the animal that killed the dog was a coyote, not a dog.

By itself the Indian costume may mean nothing. But the Indian costume and the presence of a coyote may just mean the thief really is an Indian. To find out Carl visits the Lincoln Park Cultural Arts Center. Dr. Agnes Temple is curator of the American Indian collection there and might be the expert he needs. When Carl sees a display that resembles the man he saw, Temple identifies it as the sorcery costume of a diablero, a strange figure that occurs many times in southwestern Indian lore. They were tribal sorcerers – men who had learned to step into another reality. They had the power to entrance their victims and could transform themselves into animals.

About the time of Carl’s education, November 17th, Mrs. Charlotte Elaine van Piet returned home from the last bridge game she would ever play. A crow lights on her chauffeur’s hat, transforms into a tall Indian, and mesmerizes her. Moments later chauffeur and society matron are just two more victims of the sorcerer. Arriving moments later, Carl learns from one of the officers on the scene that a pearl necklace belonging to Mrs. van Piet is missing and presumably stolen.

Carl suspects where the Indian will strike next. He has robbed his victims of unusual and expensive jewelry. Carl knows of a gem auction that evening but not where and when it will take place. The only way he’ll find out is from the one INS man who does know: financial reporter Ron Updyke. But Ron would never share that information with Carl; there’s too much acrimony between them. With the help of Emily and a bogus telephone call, Carl tricks the time and place of the auction out of Ron.

Carl appears at the Waverly building for the pre-auction reception but he cannot get in even when he affects an upper-crust accent. Guards prepare to eject him but the auction begins before they can do so and Carl slips behind a drape. Once the lobby clears out Carl approaches the doors to the various rooms where he can watch and listen.

Carl watches through the gap between two closed doors as the auctioneer, Mr. Belloy, brings out several very large diamonds, the latest offering from Van Hern in Johannesburg. Flapping noises from the balcony interrupt his pitch but he dismisses them and returns to his bidders. Then the window shatters and a large crow enters and perches on a side table. Its gaze captivates Belloy and his customers. Carl bursts through the doors to see everyone dead and the diablero bent over the display case. The sorcerer turns to face him and Carl snaps pictures; once again the sorcerer winces and clutches at his eyes. He transforms into a crow and leaves as he entered. A guard entering seconds later sees only Carl standing near the window in a room full of bodies and absent of jewelry.

Captain Baker has a lot of questions for Carl. Carl’s description of the diablero meets with the same irate skepticism that colors most of his police encounters. Baker asks Carl what an Indian sorcerer needs with jewelry but Carl hasn’t quite figured that out yet.

While Carl was dealing with Captain Baker, Emily left a message with the booking sergeant: Dr. Agnes Temple had called INS asking for Carl. Carl returns to the museum and Temple introduces him to Charles Rolling Thunder. Mr. Rolling Thunder fills in some blanks, including a most important one: the diablero’s power is in his eyes. Without sight, he is powerless. Carl’s flash temporarily robbed the sorcerer of his powers and forced him to flee. Another important revelation is the legend of the diablero’s sole weakness: he cannot withstand his own gaze. This particular diablero was an ancient sorcerer from the cliff-dwelling Ushoni who stole the ritual treasure that belongs to the gods alone. They cursed him to roam the world gathering gems as punishment. But Rolling Thunder cannot tell Carl where the sorcerer might live now.

Back at INS Carl rifles Ron’s desk. He has remembered “High Rises Take a Nose Dive,” a story Ron mentioned a few days ago about a high-rise office building that has gone largely untenanted. Carl’s theory is that a cliff-dwelling Indian would be most at home in a tall, unoccupied building. Finally Carl finds the story and races to the building, Champion Towers. He tricks his way past the guard by pretending to represent a neon sign company and begins an arduous climb forty floors – the elevator only goes to the fifth floor. Passing the thirty-ninth floor, Carl hears a weirdly atonal, buzzing chant. Picking his way through the skeleton of the half finished floor he tries to locate the source of the sounds. It builds to a crescendo, stops briefly, and begins again. Carl creeps closer and the acoustics change; the chant is the diablero, murmuring in his own language as he offers his stolen treasures to the gods.

Carefully, Carl slips a mirror from his pocket... and drops it! It shatters, very loud in the stillness of a momentary pause in the chanting. The monster looks up and sees Carl. It rises and begins to chase him but a flash picture buys Carl seconds to flee. In coyote form the sorcerer flanks Carl, forcing him into an alcove full of uninstalled bathroom fixtures. Resuming human shape it follows him in. But leaning against the wall are mirrors! Shattering one, Carl seizes a piece and holds it before him. Now the diablero is afraid, backing away as Carl confronts it with the jagged piece of mirror. Groaning in pain, the monster collapses. Within seconds it is a decayed and ancient figure, barely able to move. Seconds after that it has crumbled to dust, and soon even the dust is gone forever.

Nothing is found and the police rule the case closed. But of the stolen jewelry – in Chicago and throughout the long centuries – there is no sign. It has never been seen again… in this world.

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