This day started off with more progress immediately. After breakfast, we met up at Collin's speakeasy and learned that his contact Fitzy confirmed that Terry Cole was a whiskey runner from Canada operating out of Boston most recently. He had been to jail for a time but escaped during some transport accident. The morning press reported on the death of both Ward and the police officer Evans. The burial was scheduled for Wednesday morning.
While at Ringo's place planning out our day, Young called and made plans to meet us tonight at 8 at Velma's Diner. Max and I went off to Revere to visit the library again to look into Hazeal's death further. Talked to the Librarian, Robert, again and were directed to the archives of local papers from the time of his death. Several hours of research and Max and I uncovered some interesting references. Before dying, Hazeal often spoke of "terrible veined Indians". My own research confirms that several Indian tribes were known to marked themselves up with tribal tattoos that often carried symbolic meaning. More notably, we uncovered an article that confirmed the death of Terry Cole from 1922! I swear though that Cole was there in that car two nights ago.
We drove back midday and met up with the rest of the guys and headed back to Miskatonik University for more research. Collin learned that the local crime lord of Acton was a guy named, Josiah Evans - definitely a relative of the dead cop. This was getting sticky especially if the Terry Cole imposter wasworking for Evans. Ward's office held a book with references to burned Indian tattoos - On Indian Human Sacrifice. We found articles on Cole's escape from the transport on his way to the Arkham Asylum. If his body was found a few weeks after the accident in the crash area, who was the Terry Cole I saw? we packed up the remaining items in the office and left to meet Wilbur Young. Hopefully he would have information we could use to get this material straight.
At 7:45, Young was already seated in the back of the diner in a booth with enough seating for all of us. I did notice a well dressed man, watching and facing the booth. Oddly wearing gloves inside while eating. I determined to create a reason to get up in a few minutes and approach him. for now, I settled in at the table next to the booth to learn what I could from Young.
Young was determined not to get us involved, insisted he had tried to forget everything and was leaving town himself. He confirmed Cole's death but said somehow his body was being "used" by "them" His rantings got stranger and stranger when he spoke of an Indian artifact stumbled upon by Ward while on site in Virginia. He brought the club-like weapon back to the University and gave it to Professor Dunham in biology to study the carvings on the artifact. Apparently, a cult called the "Black Hand" began hounding Ward, Dunham and others. Cole was part of the cult. To learn more about Cole, Young insisted we go see his tailor. We showed him a picture of the tree, that he confirmed was in Virginia and said it was dangerous - if we see it, destroy it. He said Prisca was dead and they wanted to use her as a vessel. His nervousness peaked and he insisted on leaving after already saying too much.
The man at the bar told me to get lost when I talked to him and he then got up and left, and Collin confirmed there were a couple of guys waiting in a parked car outside. We watched as Young walked off. Unwilling to wait around for the tails in the car to act, Ringo went outside and suddenly a shotgun blast smashed the area. I hoped Ringo was alright but during the chaos, I scrambled into the back ignoring the blast of another shotgun shell. Another window smashed in - Adam and Chuck were both heading in that direction - I hoped they weren't victims. I grabbed two knives and followed Collin out the back door of the kitchen,
By the time I made my way around the building, Collin was behind my car, taking shots at someone while I could see Ringo on his butt right behind the door to a car with the shotgun thug right there! What was he doing so close?! The second car began driving away, so I hopped into my car with Collin to pursue. Ringo's calls for our attention though forced me to change my mind. Collin was pissed but Ringo needed our attention. The trunk of the car contained a satchel and a briefcase, but the remains of the shotgun thug were spayed across the front seat. Must have been a precise shot from Collin. The rest of the group was still inside, Chuck took a shot to the shoulder and Adam one in the chest but it looks like Max was quick to tend to them. We gathered up what we could and regrouped at the Safehouse before the cops could arrive.
What on earth have we stumbled into??
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