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.hey," he said, looking even more worried."I'm not gonna be charged, am I? You know, for aiding and abetting or anything like that?"Laika fixed the man with a cold stare."I may be back," she said, not smiling until she was outside."That'll learn ya," she whispered softly to herself.Laika met up with Tony at noon, and she was glad to learn that his visits had been more productive than hers."Got a positive ID from a clerk at the Holiday Inn," Tony said."Guy called himself Daniel Simpson, from New York City.Stayed there for two nights, paid cash in advance, no credit card.Checked out around the time of the lodge deaths.""Anyone with him?" Joseph asked."No.A single.""What was the address he gave?" Laika said."Three-forty-six Madison Avenue."Laika had to smile."That address is Brooks Brothers.""Was he well dressed, did she say?" said Joseph.Laika didn't wait for Tony to figure out Joseph was kidding."You run McAndrews's description by her?""Yeah, but she didn't see anybody who looked like him.There were a few other singles in around that time, though.I got a list—and some paid in cash."He handed it to Laika, who scanned it.She recognized two of the New York City addresses as fabrications."These two, Barnes and Robinson?""She described them for me as well as she could remember.Mid-thirties, medium height and weight.Said there wasn't much memorable about them, except that they seemed very polite, to use her word." Tony's face soured."Said they kind of reminded her of the way her grandfather used to be.""Courtly," said Joseph, and deepened his voice to try what Laika thought was a Rod Serling impression."As though from another time.""Funny," Tony said without a smile."We'll see how long you keep laughing.""Come on," Joseph said."You don't buy this, do you? The Sûreté had to make a mistake.That's the French for you.We have no actual evidence that—""Except for fingerprints," said Laika.She was tired of hearing denial when the evidence showed otherwise."Fingerprints don't lie.And the clerk identified that photograph—a photo ninety years old.To me, that's proof that Robert Gunn and McAndrews are the same person.""Me, too," said Tony."Unless we got a time machine, this is as much proof as I need.""But ninety years—" Joseph looked at the photograph again."He looks thirty here—hell, he'd have to be a hundred and twenty, and nobody that old is going to look this good! It's not possible.""Well," Laika said softly, "we are, after all, the Division of Special Investigations, and this is sure as hell as special as it gets.But I'm damned if I can think of how to explain all this bullshit away.""I say we just keep digging," Tony said."There's got to be an answer here somewhere—even if it isn't one Skye's going to want."Joseph nodded."That's for sure.We're supposed to be debunking, not proving that this weird shit is actually real.And we've been going more in that direction.""That's Skye's problem," Laika said."We'll report what we find, and he can do whatever the hell he likes with it."They found out later that day what Skye wanted done."Gather round, folks," Laika said, as the message began to come in."God is in the house."They read the words as they scrolled across the screen:You will immediately cease your current investigation.Proceed in the morning to New York City.Lodging will be at 39 West 72nd Street.Two cases there bear more serious interest to us than the current investigation, which, you should be happy to learn, may be considered closed.Other agency sources, unconnected to the Plattsburgh investigation in any way, have coincidentally uncovered several documents that reveal the identities of the eleven victims found outside Plattsburgh.We have overwhelming evidence that these men constituted the total membership of an extreme right-wing religious group.Feeling that there was no place for them in this sinful world, they decided to commit mass suicide by swallowing cyanide
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