As the group waited for Chief Potter to arrive , Jenny , Crane , and Jake Wells clustered at the end of the dining - room table , looking over the two journals , while Joe , Jake Pitts , and Alex transferred the footage from their cameras to the computer for later inspection . The others either sat or paced until they all heard the sound of a vehicle turning into the drive . Ashley and Andy , who were nearest the window , flipped back the curtain to see Potter and Gibbs exiting the car , along with an elderly black man who walked with the aid of a cane .

        Andy jumped up from his seat and opened the door before Potter could even ring the doorbell , allowing the three visitors into the house .

       "Thank you , Mr . Biersack ." , Chief Potter said , and Gibbs gave him a nod as they allowed the older man to pass them and make his way to a chair . As everyone else moved back to the living room , she said "Folks , this is my uncle , Bert Johnston . Like I told you before , he was on the force when the last set of murders happened ."

       "It's nice to meet you , sir ." , Diana said as she shook his hand and introduced herself . "Do you prefer Officer Johnston , or simply Mister ?"

       "Actually , it was Lieutenant when I retired , but Bert will do nicely , young lady ." , the older man said with a smile .

       Potter then introduced her uncle to the others , and everyone seated themselves around the room , as Crane approached the older man with the journal that Jon had found earlier .

       "We found this journal during our exploration of the abandoned house down the road , sir . We were hoping that you might read the final entry , and perhaps enlighten us further on the events mentioned therein ." , he stated politely .

       "Kind of a fancy talker there , aren't you , young fella ? You almost sound like a college professor ." , Bert chuckled .

      "As a matter of fact , I taught at Oxford for a time before I left England , sir ."

      "Well , I guess that explains it , then ." , the elderly man replied , before turning his attention to the book .

       He perused the book for several minutes before closing it and saying , with a deep sigh , "Well , now I guess we know how inoffensive little Greg Horton became a multiple murderer . I always kinda wondered if it was something like that ."

      Everyone in the room looked in amazement at the old man , causing him to burst out laughing . "I'm guessing by those expressions that you all expected me to write this off as the scribbling of a lunatic , right ? Well , you never met my wife's momma . That woman did things I still don't understand on more than one occasion , so I'm not nearly as skeptical as most of my colleagues were . There's things that don't belong in this world , and nothing good ever comes of having truck with 'em ."

       "You won't get any argument from us ." , Alex informed him . 

       "Did you know any of the people he mentioned there ?" , Diana inquired .

       "Knew all of 'em . Town this size , everybody knows everybody ." , he replied . "Knew some of 'em better than others . The first two were a couple of no - goods named Billy Jones and Homer Gwaltney . Hadn't thought about them in years , 'til the other day . Almost makes you think that there's something to the idea of someone's personality bein' a genetic thing ."

       "What do you mean by that , Uncle Bert ?" , Chief Potter asked .

       He gave a short laugh , then replied , "Figured you woulda come across that in your files by now , Charlie - girl ! Homer Gwaltney had an older sister named Leda , who married a fella name of Don Soames . Homer was Frank's uncle , and just about as much of an asshole as his nephew . And it had to come from that side of the family , 'cause Don was one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet ."

       Everyone digested this information for a few seconds , and then Jenny prompted , "What about the others ?"

       "Edna Gruber was an eighty - three year old retired telephone operator who played the organ at the Methodist church on Sundays . That's most likely how he got to her , since his granddaddy was the preacher there , and she'd known him since he was in diapers ." , the retired officer told them . "That was bad enough , but the one that really got us was Judy Everett ."

       "Who was she , sir ?" , Crane quieried .

       "Judy Everett was a thirteen - year - old girl who went missing on her way to a Girl Scout meeting . This whole town , and people from every town around , searched for that little girl for three days before a couple of high - school boys nigh about tripped on her out in Wiley Cuthbert's cornfield . I still remember ..." , he said , his voice becoming thick and choked .

       Everyone sat quietly , giving the old man a chance to compose himself , before Potter gently took his hand and said , "Uncle Bert , please tell us what you remember . Maybe there's something that will help us find this guy ."

       He swallowed several times , then said , "I remember me and Harvey havin' to stand there and hold back our friend , to keep him from seein' his baby girl all torn up , and bloated from bein' out in the sun for all that time . You know as well as I do , Charlie - girl , that you kind of get used to seeing things like that . You never get comfortable with it , but you learn to deal with it . But no matter how long you're on the job , you should never have to see one of your own that way ."

       "Are you saying that her dad was a cop ?" , Ashley asked him .

       "Harry Everett was my partner ." , he said , his voice completely flat . "That little girl was my goddaughter . I woke my Susie every night for the next month screaming from what I saw , so there was no way on God's green earth I was gonna let that be Harry's last memory of his baby ."

       After several more seconds of silence , Faith softly asked , "Who was the fifth ? The diary only mentions four ."

       "That's because Vic Dudley didn't die 'til two days after this last entry ." , Bert responded . "He was another troublemaker , a friend of Billy and Homer's . If it'd just been those three , folks might've almost understood , but Judy and Edna never did any harm to anybody ."

       "What precisely do you mean , sir , when you say that people might have understood ?" , Crane inquired .

      "Because those three boys had been tormenting Greg for years . Most of the kids were pretty unpleasant to him , but those three were the worst of the lot ." , Bert explained . "You see , Eli's son Tom was Greg's daddy , and when Greg was eleven years old , the family was coming back from a camping trip when the car was hit by a train at a crossing with no signal . Tom , his wife Ellen , and Greg's little brother David were all killed , and Greg was in the hospital for almost two months . He survived , and came to live with Eli , but the accident messed up his leg , so he walked with a limp , and his face was pretty scarred up ."

       "And since kids can be such little assholes to each other ..." , Alex said .

       "They marked him as an easy target ." , the old man continued . "Calling the poor kid 'Frankenstein' , or worse , trying to trip him up in the halls , knocking him around on his way home from school , basically just being little bastards . That went on until they graduated high school , so you can almost sympathize with the boy wanting to get a little of his own back on them ."

       "Unfortunately , though , the method he picked cost him just about as much as it did the other five people ." , Jenny said .

       "Let me tell you , missy , I've never considered that number accurate !" , Bert informed her . "He may have directly killed those five , or six if we assume he killed Frank , too , but if we count him , I make it nine ."

       "How do you arrive at that number ?" , Diana asked .

      "First , I'm pretty sure old Eli died because he figured out that Greg was responsible for the murders and he couldn't deal with it , so that one was on him , too . Then , a year after we found poor little Judy , Harry's wife Thelma chased a bottle of Valium with a pint of vodka , so he had to see her buried next to Judy . He pretty much went to pieces after that , quit the force and took up professional drinking . He got himself plastered at Willie's Bar one night and wrapped his Chevy around an oak tree , so he joined 'em in the churchyard a little over two years after Thelma died . So as far as I'm concerned , Greg , or whatever he turned into , killed them just the same as the others !"

       After Potter and Gibbs asked a few more questions about the previous night , and listened to their account of the trip to the old house , they helped Bert up from the chair and got ready to leave . As they moved toward the door , Crane moved next to the retired policeman and said ,"If you don't mind , I have one more question before you depart . Do you happen to have any idea how the Horton's might have acquired an ancient Sumerian artifact ?"

      "Let me guess , you're talking about that ugly old mirror in the dining room ." , the old man chuckled ruefully . "Tom and Ellen Horton collected antiques , and I remember Eli saying that Tom got that when he was overseas in the Army . He brought some of the stuff with him when Greg came to live with him , so he'd have some mementos of his folks ."

       Potter and Gibbs walked the old man back to the car , and they departed . After they left , Crane and Jake Wells went back to the journals as the others began preparing dinner . They had been reading for several minutes when Jake exclaimed , "Hey , I think I've got something here !"

       "What have you found , Master Wells ?" , Crane inquired , looking up from the other book .

      "Near the end , the grandfather wrote , 'It seems that my worst fear has become reality , and my dear grandson has been duped by some evil spirit . As a man of God , I have always denied that such things exist , but this is no longer possible . He's tried to hide it from me , but he has changed , and now I can no longer tell myself that he is not the one responsible for the recent deaths .  It was that damnable mirror that Tommy brought back from the Middle East , I'm sure of it . I have made some inquiries , and since the thing is now inside of Greg , I can't send it back there without killing my grandson . But I have been told of a ritual that can hold him in one place , hopefully if I perform it , I can contain him until I can find a way to separate them . I will make the attempt when he returns home . And may God have mercy on both of our souls if I fail .' Sounds to me like maybe he trapped it in the house , but the effort killed him , so he didn't get the chance to try to free Greg ."

        "That would be my guess as well ." , Crane responded . "And he , or it , has been trapped for nearly forty years , without sustenance . So now it is not only evil , but desperate ."

      CC informed them that dinner was ready , so they moved the books aside so Faith and Andy could finish setting the table . As they ate , they shared their findings with the others , and Crane said , "What we need is a means of finding the specific incantation he spoke of . If we can do that , we could contain it again , perhaps even destroy it ."

      Jenny looked up from her plate and said , "What about Katrina's spell books ? Maybe we could find something there !"

     "That is an excellent suggestion , Miss Jenny ! Unfortunately , however , we left them in the vault when we departed , so we cannot utilize that particular resource ." , he answered .

      Noticing the slightly confused looks on the others faces , he looked at them solemnly and said , "Katrina was the name of my late wife . She was a witch , and had several magical tomes and grimoires in her possession , which I have recently transferred to our library in Washington ."

       "We could go back and get them ." , Jenny responded . "If we leave right after dinner , we could grab the books , get a few hours of sleep , and be back by tomorrow afternoon !" 

       As Crane opened his mouth to reply , Alex jumped into the conversation and said , "I agree , but I think you and Jenny should stay here . You know a helluva lot more about this stuff than we do , so if the three of us go , Diana can check in on Molly while Jake and I get everything together , and then grab some zzzz's . Then she can pick us up in the morning and we can jet back ."

      After some discussion , Crane and Jenny agreed to the plan , and as soon as they finished eating , they went upstairs , grabbed a change of clothes , and left , with the others watching from the doorway until they were safely in the SUV .

      Afterwards , the others gathered in the living room to watch a couple of movies , until they were too tired to stay awake any longer . Then , reluctantly , they went up to their rooms , hoping fervently that the wards Crane and Jenny had placed that morning served their purpose .

                           _______________________________________________

         At about the same time that Alex was making her argument for returning to DC , Blasko , the bands manager , was sitting in his living room in Los Angeles flipping channels on his television , trying to find something to watch that didn't suck .

       "I'm fuckin' sick of reality shows !" , he grumbled . "If that's reality , I'll fuckin' pass , thanks !"

      At that moment , his phone rang . He picked it up and saw that the call was from Allan Devashar , the record company exec who had lent the band his vacation house to get away and do some writing .

    "Hey there , Allan !" , he said . "What's up ?"

    "Have you spoken to the boys recently ?" , Allan's British - accented voice inquired . 

    "Not since they left LA , Jon and his assistant are handling things out there . Why ?"

    "Because I had the most disturbing phone call earlier this evening , from the chief of police ." , Allan replied . "She informed me that someone was murdered on my property earlier in the week . I was assured that none of our group had been harmed , but apparently they were the ones who discovered the body . I'm planning to fly out to check the situation myself , and I thought I would see if you might like to accompany me ."

       "Hell yes , I'm packing right now !" , Blasko shouted , leaping from the couch .

       "Excellent ! If you'll give me your address , I'll come round and collect you . We'll be taking my plane , so there's no worry about tickets or flight delays ." 

       He gave Allan the address and hung up , then went to his closet and began tossing clothes into a duffel bag .

      "Fucking wonderful !" , he muttered to himself . "Send 'em to fuckin' Hooterville , and they still manage to find trouble !"

                        __________________________________________________

       Todd Scanlon was at his desk , balancing his bank statement , when his phone rang .

       "Hello ." 

      "Hey , man ! I hear you've been looking for me !" , a familiar voice replied .

      He nearly collapsed onto the desk in relief , and said , "Hell yes I've been trying to get ahold of you ! Where are you , anyway ?" 

       "At this exact second , I'm at the airport in Jersey City . I just flew in from Uruguay . What's going on ?"

       Todd explained what he knew of the situation in Virginia , concluding with , "Mills is there with the new team she's working with , and I know she's one of the best , but this is my little sister we're talking about , man ! I'd like to have as much firepower as possible , so to speak . So do you think you might be able to help out ?"

      "Faith and Jenny are both in the middle of this ?", the voice on the other end of the phone inquired . " You don't even have to ask , buddy ! Faith is almost like my little sister too , you know that . And Mills saved my ass awhile back , I owe her , so I'll head out as soon as I can get a flight ."

      "Thanks , dude ! I owe you big for this !" , Todd replied .

       As he ended the call and walked toward the ticket window , the man raked his fingers through his hair and thought to himself ; 

       "Okay , what sort of weird - ass stuff have I gotten dragged into THIS time ?"