Sam and Donnie took the notes, correspondence, and all the other relevant bits from Philip Hoffman's home office. They returned to Sam's office and there they began to spread the notes, photos, documents, everything they had found in the case thus far, on every available horizontal surface. There were letters on the floor, bills on the desk, photos on every chair. Lisa's desk was completely covered and the floor barely had any space to walk.

  "Now here's the tough part," Donnie said. "Here's the part where it all comes together. You understand what we got here, somewhere, might be the answer. We've got to fish through this sea of bullshit and see if we can find the truth. Most investigators suck because they won't do this part."

  Sam began with what she considered the most interesting and promising piece of evidence: Hoffman's notebook about the contract he was creating with Bathym the Vast. The notes were clear and the wording of the contract was specific. This effect would cause a space to be larger on the inside than it was on the outside. Bathym the Vast had the power to do so. As a Duke of Hell, space was within his domain. There were already contracts whereby sorcerers could bring themselves across vast distances by simply offering precious gems to the demon. This new contract would be revolutionary and whoever created it would hold a tremendous new power.

  The work was unfinished though and would explain why Hoffman was so keen to find collaborators among the diviners. Anyone working with him would share in the new ability.

  The notebook documented months of early attempts at the contract language, revisions, new ideas scrawled in the margins. They mentioned sharing the research after too many failures and dead ends were discovered. It was clear that Hoffman was losing his patience and reaching the limit of his own ability.

  Diviners were like cats. They didn't want to spend too much time together. You couldn't get them all to go in the same direction. Working together wasn't natural for them. They were secretive and prone to backstabbing each other. It's one of the reasons that sorcery was not more widespread. Why share your secrets with someone who could turn around and use them against you?

  Hoffman's first collaborator was a man named Harold Maris. He was referred to in the notes mostly as Harry. As time wore on and their successes didn't add up but their failures did, Maris's name appeared less and less. A few more weeks of blank entries went by until the notes again began to mention a collaborator, David Wilson this time. The transition stuck in Sam's mind. Who was Harold Maris? Was he replaced on the project or did he voluntarily leave? If he was replaced would he be bitter? Would he be bitter enough to kidnap or kill?

  "Hey, Donnie, come take a look at this," Sam said, indicating the journal entries and the point at which Maris was eventually replaced with Wilson.

  Donnie read through the notes and raised his eyebrows at the same realization as Sam.

  "This is a strong lead, Sam," he said. "But still pretty circumstantial. It's the best we've got so far."

  Sam began to pore through every document looking for any other mention of Harold Maris. She looked through all the letters Hoffman had sent out across the country looking for qualified collaborators among the diviners. Most were rejections; some were completely ignored. None mentioned Maris. Sam wondered at that, given that they had worked so closely on the early parts of the project.

  Sam reviewed the dossier she'd built for David Wilson. His was leaner and reflected that they did not find very much information at the man's office. There was no mention of any diviner called Harold Maris.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "All right let's take a look at the picture we got here, Sam," Donnie said. "We have a valuable project. Hoffman is trying to do something nobody's ever done before. He has trouble so he starts writing to other diviners, seeing if anybody wants to collaborate on the project. He finds a willing partner, this guy Maris. He and Maris work together but they fail. Hoffman blames Maris, cuts him out of the project.

  "Then Hoffman finds Wilson, a local, so not only does he have a collaborator interested but it's a local guy. Maris could have been jealous or greedy, whatever the case; he doesn't want to be cut out of the project. Then the other two men disappear. I guess it's pretty clear we got to go talk to this Maris guy."

  "Yeah but we don't know where this guy is," Sam replied. "As far as I'm concerned this is pretty solid. Guy gets pulled off the project. He don't want to play nice after that. You don't want to piss off a sorcerer, am I right?"

  "Yeah, that's right, but we can't just go busting heads yet. We gotta build up a case. We gotta have evidence. We gotta find out where he is. You got any ideas about that?"

  "Yeah, well maybe we can go and ask my sorcery teacher a thing or two about Mr. Maris. He knows everybody, especially if they know bindings or contracts. He's the one that hired me to look into this. He'll know where Maris is."

  Sam thought about the sigil she had found on David Wilson's floor. It might be nothing but she could get Emil's advice and at the very least find out what it was.

  "Alright, but listen, once we start to move on a suspect, that's when the folder work is done. This is a solid lead. It's the only lead we got.

  "Maris, if he is responsible, cleaned out Wilson. It looked like he would have cleaned out Hoffman too, but he didn't find this notebook. He didn't know to look for the secret compartment.

  "This also doesn't explain how he managed to get two grown men without anybody noticing him out through busy neighborhoods, busy buildings, and all the shit that he took too."

  "Actually it might," said Sam. "Bathym the Vast. He's a Duke. They were working with the bindings for him.

  "One of Bathym's powers is to bring a person from one place to another in exchange for a gemstone. If Wilson had gemstones among the items that were taken, it would explain how he'd gotten them out of there. Offer a gemstone up, use a binding for Bathym and a contract for movement, and you can be anywhere you want to be."

  "Alright," replied Donnie. "Looks like that might be another point in favor of Maris being the culprit. If he was working with Hoffman in the beginning, he'd have known bindings and contracts for Bathym. Stands to reason, right?"

  "I think so," said Sam.

  "Once you move on a suspect, that's it. You got to have your ducks in a row. You got to have your evidence ready. Otherwise you got nothing. Organize all this, pull it all together, and then we'll head over to your teacher's place."

  "All right I'll see you tomorrow, boss," said Sam. Donnie smiled at the little gesture of respect.

  Sam pulled all her notes together, sat down with a cigar, staring at the dossier she'd built up around the case. She was struck by how simple it seemed now that she'd done it, how straightforward and obvious the investigative process was. Now that someone had shown her and yet she had never thought of it herself. Case after case she'd worked on, putting herself in danger without need. Now the folder in front of her signified progress. She was becoming a proper investigator. Soon she'd be ready to take on a case by herself.

  The next day Donnie met Sam at her office. They made their way over to Emil's place. Sam knocked on the old sorcerer's door. He opened it, looked like he hadn't slept. His eyes were bloodshot, his face covered in worry. It didn't stop him from being an asshole.

  "Samantha, what is this? You are always doing something that is annoying. Why are you bringing strange people to my house? I am trying to be busy and you don't even... you know I have a phone, don't you, Samantha? You could be calling before you come over. You could be saying 'Hello Emil! How is your day? Good morning! Did you get good sleep? No? OK, I am sorry I bother you another time!'

  "But instead you're bringing a stranger man over. I assume this is about what I hired you for because otherwise I tell you to go home but I think it's important. Did you bring a gift? Maybe wine? No. No surprise. You bring wine like one time. I suppose the stranger man is gift. You're going to tell me the stranger man’s name?"

  Sam took a breath before responding.

  "Emil, can you please open the door and let us in."