Page 267 of Oracle Returns: Time will Stop

“He could do it from across the country, but he’d want to see them suffer. This person had to plant that pentacle on Wynter. There’s no way he got from here to there that quickly.”

They agreed there.

Nate picked up a laptop, and he began researching to see what he could find anything online.

It didn’t take him long.

“Thomas Vanderbilt was seen at a Hollywood premier party last night at nine,” he stated. “It’s in the tabloids. He definitely couldn’t be here and then there. It won’t be him.”

Well, shit.

Booth considered what other options there could be.

“What about the rest of the family?” he asked. “What about them? Are there any here?”

Nate searched and shook his head.

“Apparently, the family home is closed down in the spring and only opened when Thomas is around. His parents are dead, and there are no other siblings.”

Well, shit.

The cop in him made him keep pushing.

“How about other family?” Booth asked. “You know, relatives.”

As soon as he did, the crystal was torn from his hand, and flew across the room, embedding in the wall.

Oh, and in a framed artwork that Lennox had done for the office.

Of Salem.

“Well, shit,” Genesis said. “That was…alarming.”

Yeah, she was preaching to the choir.

“Uh, that’s never happened before,” Booth admitted. “Ever. I don’t know what that means.”

Unfortunately, none of them did.

“Maybe that this person is here in Salem, and not California?” Genesis suggested, throwing out ideas to help them out. “We had been discussing that.”

Maybe.

Nate continued reading from the laptop, so that they were all on the same page.

“Thomas throws a Halloween Vampire ball,” he stated. “It’s on Halloween night, every year, so he must be back for that. Anyone find it odd we have a psychic vampire and a man who seems to be cosplaying as one on Halloween?”

Odd?

In Salem?

No.

This was the origin of weird, apparently.

As he was digging around on the internet, Nate found something.

“Apparently, Thomas Vanderbilt the second had another daughter, Stephanie, but she died years ago. She was the only other heir to the Vanderbilt money.”