The following night, Howard finally found the alchemical notebooks they were looking for. He discovered them shoved underneath a stack of books which was hidden between two other piles of tomes.

'Finally!' Howard thought as he motioned Catherine over to him and covertly motioned towards the notebooks. While Howard did his best to distract the spirit still enclosed in its circle, Catherine slipped them into her oversized handbag. The duo then proceeded to clean the room as they had the previous night.

It was only when Howard and Catherine left and were in the library of Howard's personal dwelling that the two looked at the three notebooks in question. As each of them perused the books, they both found numerous magical icons and formulas scattered throughout.

"Well, these are definitely alchemical notes," Catherine noted as she flipped through the handwritten book she held. "But without the key to the ciphers, they are all just gibberish."

"Let me see if the key from the other notebook works on these," Howard replied. Then, after pulling out his portable and calling up the right application he checked the first few sentences of the notebook he held. "No such luck. Looks like this one uses a different cipher."

"Well then, it seems like we are at yet another standstill," Catherine said with some ire as she slammed her notebook shut. "It looks like you will be asking for another favor from your friend at Lovecraft Aerospace."

"It looks like it," Howard reluctantly admitted. "It's frustrating I know."

"Very," Catherine retorted. "I hope that all of this digging will be worth it. I know you are curious about what Mr. Wiltshire was up to, but we are running into barriers every step of the way."

"That's not too unexpected, however. Remember how long it took to crack the case of the last alchemist we encountered? We just need some more patience."

"A fat lot of good that investigation brought us. The man was just trying to prove the existence of the supernatural, and he failed miserably. I swear he must have made every mistake possible in his research to bumble that one so badly."

"I took the time to read all of his notes. The man was a blithering idiot who wasted his life reading tomes he never really understood. Of course, it wasn't like he had a teacher to guide his studies."

"He also didn't have a drop of Mage Blood in his veins," Catherine commented. "Even with a few traces of it would have let him perform basic alchemy. As it was, it was just embarrassing to see what little he accomplished despite his impressive library."

"At least he had a few nice artifacts... those alone made the purchase of his estate worthwhile."

"How he got his hands on a second class relic of Saint Maynard of Antioch is still beyond me," Catherine commented.

"His undead slaying hammer, even. The Holy Hammer of Antioch."

"Thank the gods it was in the hands of a simpleton before and is now in the hands of a necromancer. Its use could have caused a war between humans and vampires in the shadows the likes of which haven't been seen since the dark ages."

"I just wonder who had it before him, and if they realized what it was," Howard noted. "Ahh, we get off subject and it is very late."

"True. I guess that is my cue to leave then," Catherine replied. However, a playful yet seductive smile formed on her face as she looked Howard in the eyes. "Unless, of course, you prefer me to stay and keep you... company."

---

A few evenings later, Howard and Catherine were sitting on opposing armchairs in the living room of his home. It was after dinner and the two were chatting about the translations that they had received earlier that day from Lovecraft Aerospace.

"Judging from what I have seen so far Mr. Wiltshire was no slouch when it came to alchemy, but he wasn't brilliant either," Catherine observed.

"True," Howard agreed. "He definitely knew what he was doing."

"I'm just wondering about the focus of his work."

"Well, it definitely seems like Mr. Wiltshire was most intent on the study of summoning magic," Howard noted as he read through the deciphered text on his portable.

"Howard, we knew that from the moment we encountered the spirit in the laboratory," Catherine remarked as she read through things on her own portable. "However, what appears to be the earliest notebook seems to be concerned with clairvoyance and scrying. It would seem that his center of attention shifted over time."

"I wonder why," Howard quipped as he read yet another portion of the translated text.

"I think we know why, and we have or quite some time."

"What do you mean?"

"The notebook we found in the library. Wasn't it concerned with Nathan's life?" Catherine pointed out.

"Yes..," Howard agreed. "So he was trying to determine the cause of Nathan's death."

"Exactly."

"But the police determined it was a robbery gone bad. They found him on the street in a rather seedy portion of Arkham with his pockets turned out," Howard explained.

"And the cause of death?"

"Blunt force trauma to the head."

"Well, it seems apparent that this information didn't sit well with Mr. Wiltshire. Why else would he spend so much time and effort researching his son's life? He even called up his son's spirit to get more information."

"That would explain a lot," Howard muttered. "It now makes sense why he would break the rules of magic and call up a spirit claiming to be Nathan."

"Now the question is—" Catherine began, only to be interrupted by Howard.

"Was the information given by the spirit accurate?"

"Bingo!" Catherine replied. "Mr. Wiltshire was no fool. I imagine he double-checked as much of the information the specter provided as he could through both magical and normal means."

"Only then would he determine whether the information was accurate."

"Precisely."

"But the question remains, why did he keep his notes on his son's life in a cipher?" Howard asked.

"Perhaps he was afraid the information could be discovered and used against him somehow?" Catherine postulated.

"Perhaps," Howard said thoughtfully. "We will probably never know."

"True. So, are you satisfied now that we know what Mr. Wiltshire was doing, or do you want to research more into the cause of Nathan's death?"

"I want to find out the truth behind his death of course. He was my closest friend for half my life."

"I was afraid that you were going to say that," Catherine responded with a slight frown.