"Who are the other 'Smith' families?"

"They are the Bismarks and the Weihls."

"And they're all here now?"

"Yes."

"What does this have to do with Runa?"

"Well, it was her father. He was an outsider but when they moved here, he knew things."

"What things?"

"Like the history of the town and we would see him looking at the marker stones all the time and it was like he could read them. He was so intelligent. He pretended to be just a regular, poor salesman but he spoke with such authority and carried himself so confidently, even more than a salesman would. It was hard to explain unless you knew him. All of us suspected that he might be one of 'them'. The things he could do and the things he would say sometimes. Then he just disappeared one day."

"Disappeared; left?"

"Well that too but no, I mean he went into the bathroom in the clinic and we thought he was in there too long and so we knocked on the door and he was just be gone."

"What?" What the hell?" Grant said.

"We thought we were crazy at first but, it's true. And it happened a couple times."

"What else?"

"He, well, he interfered a lot," Ellie said.

"With what?"

"Well he always was on the wrong side when the ladies book club wanted to do something. We tried to preserve the old granary and he convinced the men in town to tear it down and build that windmill thing. He sold windmills and solar panels, you see. Which; looking back was actually a good idea."

"But he stopped Sable from doing an archaeological dig in the park with a petition. She was wroth. We all were. That's where we know the path of the Rose is leading. There's something in that park."

"In the park?"

"Or under it. I don't know," Ellie told him. "But there has to be. He wouldn't let us near it."

"You think he knew something about the founders?" Grant asked.

"He had to," She told him. "And there were always other mysterious things. He was always meeting with this woman."

"An affair?"

"That's what Molly Walker thought but no one ever saw them anywhere but the old church in town. If you were going to have an affair; well that would be a pretty brazen place to do it."

"Indeed."

"Look, Grant, I'm not telling you this to scare you dear. But you have to know what we're dealing with. That girl might be a lot more trouble than you know."

Grant stood there for a moment. "Why can't I have a normal family?"

"What fun would that be?" Poppy said, walking up to them.

They stopped talking and looked up.

"What is it this time? Did your dad turn his hair blue again?"

"No Poppy," Grant said.

"Oh, Okay. Are you two ready to go to dinner then?" he asked.