Seeking leads to explain why anyone would want to snatch Violet's M'Gee from his hospital bed the Investigators elect to go through his old case files and first check his desk at the precinct.

A key is found which is traced to a locker at Grand Central Station, the main rail terminus in New York. A business card for Charles Hawtrey - Antiquarian bookseller is also found.

That afternoon the newspapers report a large fire at the old refinery outside Innsmouth. Fire crews struggle to reach it as the roads are so poor and there appears to be widespread damage.

Heading to Grand central the Investigators find that a couple are watching the station as is a British man and watching him is a cadaverous elderly looking man.

The couple have large lips and unnaturally wide bulbous eyes but look very human. They head to an oyster bar.

Confronted by the investigators the lady introduces herself as Asananthe Waite. While speaking with the investigators she turns to look at a man in a booth taking rather too much interest in her conversation and, with a look, appears to put him to sleep.

They then leave.

Seeking a less formidable target two of the investigators grab the British man while another two approach the elderly ghoulish gentleman.

He just says he wants Asananthe and says he has no interest in the rest. They let him leave and he later returns with four or five pale skinned companions.

Approaching the locker the investigators see another man nearby, but he turns out just to be a drunk. They retrieve the files, which are written in a rudimentary substitution code for later study.

Wesley and the others go over them later. For a homicide detective, Violets M'Gee seems to investigate a lot of non-homicide cases.

One of his investigations is at the death of a man called Michael Morgan, who had bought a book from Charles Hawtrey and was found bolt upright in bed with a look of terror on his face. It was in January 1923 on the night of the dark of the moon.

Other cases are described but none appear to link with anything that may account for Violet M'Gee's attempted abduction.

The investigation appears to have stalled, but fear not; the worst is yet to come.