Part 3: A Collection of Searches
Saturday, October 15
There is much wondering about whether the bodies and gravestones are.
And further wondering about what the group policy should be if they
run into the reporter. If they do, Tommy will distract him - Tommy's
a war hero, and should still be photogenic. How should the sheriff be
dealt with? Play straight with him? Well, it'll be troublesome to
explain the vampire theory part, but explaining that the group is
working for Mrs. Oakes isn't so bad. Perhaps the relatives of the
missing people should also be spoken to?
Gerti, Charlie, and Roderick go to search through the papers in the
funeral home study and safe; this requires some Ellen management, as
at first Ellen locks herself in the office and then runs off with some
random papers. She can't get at the papers in the safe, though, which
have the backup of the funeral home records. The three lock
themselves in the study; Gerti starts trying to compile a list of who
was buried where, Roderick looks at the financial records, and Charlie
searches the office.
Meanwhile, Tommy, Eddie, and Dr. Schreber have gone to speak to the
sheriff. They are fobbed off for the moment onto Deputy Bob Reynolds,
who happily lets Eddie volunteer for a portion of the
search-for-the-hobo. The sheriff eventually gets off the phone to
talk with them - basically, he says that he doesn't hold with any
detectives breaking into people's houses or harassing people, and this
is a police investigation, so they should bring their info to the
police rather than take the law into their own hands. No, they don't
get to see the coroner's report. Eddie's psychological guess is that
if the Valiants bring him something useful, they might be given
information directly related to that, but that he's not going to be
generally forthcoming about all the details of the investigation.
Gerti constructs a chart of who has been buried in the re-used graves
- one of the open graves belongs to Emil Schergen! Charlie finds a
diary hidden in the secret drawer of the desk, in which Mr. Oakes
angsts about the necessity of disinterring the old graves. Roderick
doesn't quite manage to parse the financial records, but is very
disturbed by the diary entry, which refers to scattered bones. What
scattered the bones? Muscular worms? Tommy's archaeological opinion
is that the bones would at least partially rot in the damp New England
soil, and what with collapsing-in coffins and possibly haphazard
gravediggers, you might well see some messing up of intact skeletons.
Eddie mentions the assignment to go and search the woods.
"You're not spending a day on a useless expedition. I'll do
that." - Tommy
"Your brother is *much* better at spending his time uselessly in
the woods." - Dr. Schreber, to Eddie
Dr. Schreber heads to Greenfield to talk to Dr. Rohrs, a surgeon at
Greenfield Memorial, who did the autopsy for the coroner. Gerti sends
a shopping list, including lamb for dinner and a silver cross to
protect her from vampires. Dr. Rohrs says various things of
interest, including that there were approximately-human bite marks on
the remains, and that the deputies had described the blood stains as
being "blood all over" and thus he had not realized that there was
insufficient blood. Also, the strength involved was exceptional, as a
chair leg was pretty much impaled completely through one victim's torso.
Tommy and Charlie head out to search the assigned bit of woods. After
getting a ways in, they hear someone following - after setting up an
ambush, and being themselves ambushed, they determine that it's Ellen.
They bring her along, though Charlie has to carry her a lot.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Oakes has begun to become worried that she hasn't seen
Ellen for a while. When she fails to find her out in the cemetery, or
in the study, she panics and then calls the sheriff. A deputy is sent
over, who arrives not long before the return of the harried searchers.
They're scolded for not returning her immediately, but Mrs. Oakes is
mostly just relieved that Ellen wasn't killed / kidnapped by the
monster. Tommy and Charlie, feeling put upon, head to Peter's to
start in on his bourbon.
Gerti shows around her compiled list of graves; Roderick and Eddie
decide to poke around in Emil's grave. Roderick doesn't
psychometrically determine anything, though that's probably all for
the best. While Roderick is climbing around in the grave (it's tidied
up and squared off), Mel Razen shows up. This time, he's not
interested in Eddie's claims that he can't be in the cemetery without
permission from Mrs. Oakes, claiming that cemeteries are basically
open to the public, and that this one in particular has not been
officially closed. Eddie is similarly unmoved by Mel's suggestion of
trading information - he finally leaves, saying that they can read
about it in the papers the next day.
Charlie notes the new piece of jewelry Gerti is wearing, and is upset
that Dr. Schreber is giving her things. He rants to Tommy ("Look
at Junior!"), who tries to be sympathetic without being
encouraging. A strained dinner is had, in which Tommy mutters to
himself that Dr. Schreber is hardly the most likely candidate for Secret
Father of Junior.
Dr. Schreber fills everyone in on the state of the body ("Not over
dinner, Juergen!"). Roderick declares that Emil Schergen is a red
herring - surely they wouldn't have finished cleaning up the grave
while they were being attacked by a vampire! All the evidence
suggests that he did not leap from the grave onto the gravediggers,
and this is confusing. Why the time delay? They weren't even killed
(probably) at the grave. So what did kill them? Gerti is still
fixated on it being Schergen.
Charlie has a Fish Dream. Gerti and Charlie and Junior are happy
fish, in their happy fishbowl, swimming around and around. Then, over
the bowl, Dr. Schreber can be seen, fishing in the bowl with a silver
worm...
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