Ch 3 Discovery

Here we introduce a new character who has an interest in what happened to Zoe.

The Discovery

The man called Panoptes stepped quietly down the old wooden stairs to Gerald Winters' basement. It had been easy enough to bypass the house's security system. With the house unoccupied, the owners had let the service run out, counting on audible alarms to scare off vandals. Winters' sprawling home had been on the market almost since the day it was released to his heirs. A large yard and high privacy hedges had rendered stealth almost unnecessary in the dark of night.

Panoptes cast the beam of his flashlight around the room. All visible evidence of the murders had been removed, as had many of the unusual modifications the old man had made to the basement. That was fine; he was here for something else.

The basement was partially finished, and wood paneling lined one wall. A single floor lamp and overstuffed armchair sat in the corner by an end table which supported a pile of books. Panoptes crossed to it quickly, and turned on the lamp. The stack of books was uninteresting. Hemingway, Dickens, and a few recent novels. The spines were uncreased and the leather bindings of the classics were still redolent with oil. Staged to give prospective homeowners an idea of the decorating potential of the infamous murder scene. Panoptes chuckled under his breath, and moved to the wall.

The black clad man moved down the wall, tapping the panels with the back of his flashlight. Not far from the chair, he found a spot that rang a bit differently than the rest of the wood. He smiled and placed his face close to the panel. The light of the flashlight revealed small symbols carved into the darker edges of the panel, themselves darkened to match the wood around them. Panoptes recognized sigils of concealment, protection, and wards against fire. It was a well designed hiding spot, assuming the wards were active. Now they were just a higher class of graffiti.

A few minutes prodding found an equally well concealed latch, and the foot-wide panel swung open to reveal a bookshelf decorated with more mystic symbols. These meant business. Forgetfulness, death, and even fire had been layered over the bookcase. Winters had clearly meant to protect the books from prying, even if that meant their destruction. The shelf itself held only two books. One was new, a full sized book with a hand-bound look about it, covered in colorful decoupage tissue paper. Panoptes wondered if one of the man's grandchildren had made it for him, perhaps for Christmas.  A quick glance confirmed that it was filled with hand written notes in a pedestrian hand. They were of relatively recent vintage, as the smeary ball-point ink made clear. The other book was more immediately interesting. Its bindings were in beautiful shape, and almost certainly much younger than the book itself. The title page declared it to be Die Bindung von Dämonen, written in 1609. The facing page was fancifully illustrated with a man, arms aloft, standing within a complicated circle of symbols. Above him loomed a hideous creature with the head of a jackal, muscular torso, huge hands ending in claws, and the hooves of a goat.

An amused smile stole over Panoptes' face as he took the two books back to the arm chair. It seemed he'd come all this way for nothing after all. The quaint image in the book suggested the tome was just another forgery, probably created by its author to bilk some gullible priest or would-be magus out of their money. Still, he was a trusted investigator because he was thorough, so he settled into the comfortably overstuffed chair and began to read.

When he was done, the sun was high in the sky and Panoptes' expression was anything but amused. He'd been surprised at the completeness of the information contained in the grimoire, and even more so by the achievements suggested by the contents of Winters' journal. He drew out his mobile phone and dialed.

"Mnemosyne," said a female voice.

"You were right, he did contact us a few years ago. It also seems he wasn't just fooling around. Things here were further along than we expected. If we don't take a hand, I think the situation could become troublesome," said Panoptes. "Not only does it seem that his ritual was a legitimate summoning, he was targeting the gifted."

"Very well," the woman replied. "Send me your report through the usual channels, and wait for advisement."