Night Howls on the Hudson

Chapter 6: Ancient Lore

Peter called Neal in the evening while he was painting in his studio.

"Can you talk?" Peter asked. Neal heard a sports announcer in the background whose voice faded as the volume was reduced.

"It's just me and my paints." Keiko had asked Bianka to go to a symposium with her that evening. Aidan's girlfriend had become a valuable member of Neal's support team. No one would ever suspect her of anything devious. "What's the report from White Collar?"

"You remember Jones and Travis went to see Aidan about the identity fraud situation?"

"Yeah. Jones thinks the disappearance of the computer science student could be connected to a hacker group."

"Aidan hasn't heard of anything, but he said when he's at Columbia he focuses on art and shies away from the computer science department. So Travis asked a friend of his on the SETI committee. His name is Quint Worland. He's a junior, studying computer science. Travis said Quint's been assisting Mozzie with his slime research."

"Ah, yes, the Slimebusters. Mozzie mentioned he'd found an ally. Does that mean Quint is too unreliable to be trusted?"

Peter chuckled. "Apparently not. Travis said he talked with Quint early on about Mozzie's theory that slime in Columbia's tunnels has an extraterrestrial origin. It's safe to say Quint's not a believer but he likes Mozzie and enjoys working with him. Quint told Travis he'd seen the missing student on campus a day before his disappearance with a man Quint didn't recognize, but that's not much if anything to go on. He also knows of two other students who suddenly dropped off the grid. Both were studying programming. He figured they'd left for other opportunities."

"Like hacking?"

"It's worth checking out. Quint gave Travis the names and offered to keep an eye out for anything suspicious." Peter paused to take a swig of something, at this hour probably beer. "Everything okay with you?"

"No new weirdness to report, I'm happy to say." He was sure he'd gotten a little sleep.

"That's good. You planning to go to the Mabon ceremony tomorrow?"

"How do you know about that?"

"El mentioned it."

"Don't tell me she's joined the coven too?"

"God, no. Janet told her about it, though. You and Mozzie can have fun with the witches."

"Hey, I'm not going either. Aidan scheduled a fencing practice for tomorrow night."

"El also has an excuse. She's in rehearsals for her community players' first production of the season."

"Did they go with Bell, Book and Candle?"

"It would be hard for them not to since Electra suggested it. Now that her foundation is subsidizing their productions, the actors want to express their appreciation. She'll be in town for a few days on foundation business. El said she's planning to go to their rehearsal on Friday night." Peter's voice trailed off, and Neal knew why.

"Electra hasn't contacted me. I think she took the hint." On a previous visit to New York, she'd invited Neal out to dinner where she intimated it wasn't only his paintings she was interested in. She must have gotten the message when he failed to pick up on her overture.

* * * * *

While Dean sometimes joshed Sam for having an infinite capacity for tooling, the truth was there were limits. After spending the day holed up with Chloe's grimoire in Peony's sitting room, Sam's knowledge of herbal remedies was still in the cellar. Once he was able to decipher Harriet Beaufort's handwriting and arcane style, he was left with convoluted descriptions of how to prepare poultices and potions. She was annoyingly vague about what they were used for. She probably thought anyone reading the book should already know.