Monday, 13 November 2000
Artemis Black arrives in Winterset around midday and tracks down
Elise and Jane at the butchers. Black is quite famous after the
Discovery Channel programme, and Victim Schmictim has raced
up the New York Times bestseller list. Black quickly smarms his
way into Richard Midden's confidence (against the advice of his
doctor, Luke Lewis, and the local psychologist Dy Cox).
Midden dreams of people he has never met who do good and bad things.
He has uncontrolled feelings, sees shapes and colours and noises.
Since he went on the sedatives six weeks ago he has not had any
dreams. The last dream he had was of a tunnel in a barn with a group
of people wearing robes and carrying torches. Someone was in pain.
Black asks to see Midden's dream diary, and arranges a spot of hypnotherapy
with him in the evening. The agents suspect Midden could be a psychic
like Agent Hudson.
Blackthorne meets the other agents and they discuss the town. It
is like a nirvana for the best of the best. Luke Lewis is a renowned
doctor, Dy Cox a lauded psychologist. The principal of the school,
John Banner, is a note educationalist. The local taxi driver, Joseph
Morris also excels in his field. The local policemen Sebastian Murphy
and Michael Bailey are highly decorated. Something screwy is going
on here, but the agents disagree whether it is a good or bad thing.
The agents check into local guest house run by Martha Church. The
only other guest is Wilson Guthrie. The rest of the afternoon is
spent at the library going through backfiles of local newspapers
and births, deaths and marriages. It seems that people are born
in the town, go out and make a big name for themselves in their
field and then come back. But why? Black also goes through the dream
diary.
While Josh and Artemis have dinner, Elise and Jane decide to act
spontaneously and follow leads that Trask would never have thought
of. They release Elayna's puppy Sparky and follow it. It leads them
to three people who look like tramps. One definitely is a tramp
(Alex) the other two have the look of two people pretending to be
tramps. The puppy goes over to an enormous man who sees Jane and
Elise and introduces himself.
His name is Mike and he is a very bad at lying. His slender companion
is called Gabe. Gabe is very out of place, looks freezing and is
wearing Gucci shoes. Mike seems to have a military background. Mike
knows a lot about them - he knows their names, and what they are
in town for. He reveals that he and Gabe have been in town for two
months and are in town "under orders" and cannot help
the agents. He will not say any more, but there is something quite
benevolent in his demeanour. Jane is able to infer from what he
doesn't say that Elayna is still alive. As Mike seems to know so
much about the group, Elise takes a wild stab in the dark and asks
him who Artemis Black's maternal grandfather is. Mike says that
it is the person they most suspect it to be. He then hurries them
away from the scene.
Elise and Jane return to the guest house. They find a strangely
designed stiletto in Jane's coat pocket (obviously put there by
Mike). It is about fourteen inches long, vaguely pyramidal and tapers
to a point. There is intricate scrollwork along the blade, a slight
cross guard and images of scales on each of the three faces. The
handle is made of ivory, this is obviously a ritual weapon.
Jane and Elise inform the others about their encounter. Alfred
Brickman is the man suspected of being Black's grandfather. Has
Mike confirmed this? Josh doesn't trust these two and says they
should have been arrested. He and Artemis now appear to be friends.
Winterset is having a bizarre affect on them.
Tuesday, 14 November 2000
Wilson Guthrie has been in the guest for two weeks without leaving.
Elise approaches him but he is not talkative. The agents get suspicious
and obtain his fingerprints from a glass. They get the results very
quickly. Guthrie died two years ago in a helicopter crash (he used
to be a marine). He came to Winterset by a very circuitous route,
the starting point of which has been removed from airline records.
The agents plan to confront him this evening.
The agents discuss Mike and Gabe. Could they be archangels (Michael
of War and Gabriel the Messenger)? Blackthorne poo-poos the idea
as ridiculous as the existence of God, but the rest of the agents
are open to the idea. It would explain how they knew so much, and
the 'higher power' Mike claimed to be working for.
Jane goes for a run around the town, hoping that some lead will
spring out of nowhere. She encounters Agatha Cooper, a local grief
counsellor. Cooper wants to talk about Jane's problems, but Jane
asks her questions about Elayna. She discovers nothing of use.
Elise speaks to the cabby but learns nothing. She gets her haircut
by town gossip Marcy (a gay man) but other than hearing the town
described as "very, very" doesn't discover anything of
use.
Artemis and Josh go back to the library and research farms in the
area (following up the bard aspect of Midden's dream). They investigate
farms that have been recently sold. Only two fit this category.
The Yales left because they didn't like it here (odd in itself)
and were replaced by the Woodleys. The old Vauntings place is now
the home of the Westwood Charity. The farm was left empty when the
last Vaunting died. The research the Westwood Charity - it is apparently
a charitable organisation that researches into the betterment of
mankind. That place has "Cult" written all over it, comments
Jane.
At 18:30 Black hypnotises Midden and gets some results. Midden
speaks of the farm as "feeling close". It was a brown-painted
building of exposed timber. He describes the people in the robes.
They wear the symbol of the Illuminati. In his dream Midden saw
a young woman who was being held prisoner by nine robed figures,
one of which had more ornately designed robes. The girl was pleading
while the robed figures were chanting. The chanting really disturbed
Midden who has to be brought out of the trance. The agents determine
to go to the Westwood place this evening. But first they need to
question Wilson Guthrie.
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