24. Flowers from the Past

--  UNEXPECTED TENTACLE SESSION 24  --
--      FLOWERS FROM THE PAST       --
--             (10.02.97)           --

	Allerton was currently in custody, refused bail by the court.
Several people had already resigned from the police or had gone missing,
presumably run when the realised Allerton might try to take them down with
him. The ship only had a few slaves on, Faraday's theory being that
somehow they'd found about the raid and thrown all the dead(?) slaves
over-board. Farady thought that now, along with the circumstancial
evidence collected over the last two years, he had enough to put Allerton
away for a long time.
	Other theories explaining why only about thirty slaves were found
include: Could the ship have stopped off on an island in the mid-Atlantic
ridge, leaving the slave for some nefarious purpose.
	Maybe similar economics to smuggling rare birds was in operation -
you don't need many to make a profit, a lot tend to die to the trip due to
conditions, therefore pile in plenty so some survive the voyage.

	Arriving back at Arkham, Guppy decided to go home while the rest
of us retired to the professors set. A telegram, sent from England awaited
us at the porters lodge - apparently from the Reverend.
	"Coming home. Meet at triumph of the spade. 28th July"
Unfortunatly 12 days ago, we missed the meeting but resolved to go
directly to Brent the following day.
	Carefully approaching and unlocking the door, we were disappointed
not to be completely covered in ichor and other assorted unpleasent
substances (tuna?) Standing in the middle of the room, something suddenly
clicked in Jeremiah's mind and collapsed, dribbling on the carpet and
gibbering phrases in latin. Eventually calming down, he revealed that he'd
finally found the key to the cipher, although further study would be
needed.
	For once, we had a peaceful night, rising early and collecting the
hire car we'd arranged the previous evening. Driving swiftly to Brent, we
arrived at Stanley Wingate's grave. No sign of the Reverend, but some old
flowers lay next to the headstone. Somebody had obviously disturbed the
dust inside the church recently, but we could see no sign of any message.
Purchasing some flowers (snap dragons), we left them on the grav with a
little card - "Misking you more and more. JJ 11/9/28."
	Climbing up the tower, the portal was still there bigger than we
last remembered it and pulsating slightly. After careful experimentation,
we found that this portal was part of a cluster of five, as predicted,
aranged in a five pointed star. We could reach four of the portals -
Brent, Eynsham, Eanston and some study of unknown location - probably not
at Allerton's house judging by the map we drew of the physical locations
of these portals. (Boston didn't fit the pattern we were looking for.)
	Realising we'd left Guppy behind at Arkham, we quickly left a
message saying that we couldn't find out what the furthest portal was
connected to, and left. Guppy hadn't apparently arrived back at his house,
we immediately informed Faraday, our plans to visit Allerton's house (now
up for sale) dashed by the current circumstances.
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