Their conspiracy board was looking way more filled out after adding everything they spent the day gathering. Maxine even fetched another small corkboard from downstairs, thinking they may need the extra room. The pieces were in place… "let's put this thing together."

Chloe hopped onto her computer to dig online for any additional information that Maxine and Ruby might need while the pair worked over the clues, which they separated into three categories. Frank's clues, David's clues, and Nathan's clues. Finally, off to the side, was a poster for the party Kate was drugged at, giving the lot an exact date to shoot for.

"Might as well start from the top," Ruby suggested, reaching for the physically highest papers on the board, Frank's clues. Ruby reached for the logbook while Maxine couldn't help but peek at the client list, and not just for Nathan.

"You'll be happy, Chloe. Frank thinks you're a bulldog after all."

"Is a bulldog the same as a pitbull?" Chloe wondered aloud. "I gotta look this up…"

"Focus, girls?" Ruby reigned the pair in.

"Alright, mom," Chloe conceded. "But I will look it up later."

"We need Nathan's breed," Ruby reminded Maxine.

Maxine looked over the list again. "Oh… he's 'Rott'."

Chloe groaned. "Can we forget I tried to associate myself with a rottweiler?"

Maxine tore out the most recent pages from Frank's ledger and pinned them onto the next spot of the board so her and Ruby could look for any unusual transaction including 'Rott'. They picked out three sheets with various transactions. It seemed Nathan was frequently buying multiple times a day, and in large amounts. Only so much of it could have been for parties, Nathan was clearly using a lot of heavy stuff himself besides.

"I think this is as far as Frank's clues alone will take us," Maxine announced. "I'll get these cut and consolidated on the spare board. Why don't you start on David's section?"

Ruby nodded and began looking over the surveillance files. It was a mess of photos, accusations, and stalking. Ruby was confidant David wasn't one of their villains, but this painted a clear picture of a paranoid delusionist. Was it only coincidence there was actually a conspiracy in Arcadia Bay? If there wasn't one, would David still have a mountain of conjecture and privacy invasions? Probably, Ruby admitted to herself.

Ruby stopped dwelling and started grabbing. There was lists of coordinates separated by seemingly incoherent scrambles. Seemingly, until Ruby realized those scrambles were actually license plates, which he also had photographed. For good measure, Ruby took all the photos, separating out anything with Kate and Maxine first. "If we can figure out Nathan's plates, we can match them to this surveillance data and get precise coordinates."

"Good work, Ruby!" Maxine praised. Having finished sectioning Frank's ledger, she helped Ruby with the photos. "Jackpot! Nathan's driving the red truck!"

"Uhh, there are two red trucks," Ruby pointed out.

Maxine looked over her photo again. "Do they both have taped taillights?"

"No they do not," Ruby confirmed. "Good work, Max!"

"What's his plate?" Chloe asked.

Ruby read it off, "S-X-F-T-N-D-R"

"Six feet under? Morbid and creepy," Chloe scoffed. "It's Nathan's all right."

"And here is David's file on 'six feet under'," Maxine picked out and ferried it over to Chloe. "Let's get as many addresses as possible from these."

"Right away, Supermax," Chloe obliged, booting up a satellite map website.

"While you two do that, I'll start Nathan's clues," Ruby announced.

Ruby grabbed Nathan's phone and any sheet that had numbers on it, hoping one of them was his pin. Unfortunately, Ruby was not the detective she hoped she would be, and the phone ended up locked to three failed attempts. "Are you cereal…"

Maxine perked up from over by Chloe's desk, prompting Chloe to respond, "told ya. One other person."

Thankfully, the universe decided to bail Ruby out. After the three failed attempts, the phone asked for a 'PUK' number, which was generously spelled out on the packaging for Nathan's prepaid sim card. She entered the handy digits and opened Nathan's messages. They were chock-full of instances of Nathan trying to score drugs across various days. Including a suspicious late-night ask the night Kate was drugged.

Ruby brought it up to the others. "Any address?" Chloe asked.

"No, apparently he gave exact directions over a call," Ruby explained.

"I just printed the last of David's coordinates, let's get 'em up."

"And finally, good job Chloe," Maxine smiled.

"Yeah, yeah, good jobs all around," Chloe brushed off, though her blush betrayed her.

They were in the final stretch. They only had to match date to deal to address and they would finally have a solid lead.

"That message with 'exact directions' was the 4th after 10:30. So at that time, Nathan had to be wherever he took Kate," Maxine deduced.

"Frank's journal backs that up," Ruby nodded. "He sold Nathan… two-hundred and fifty dollars for five grams!?"

"GHB," Chloe read. "Nasty stuff. It'll definitely do to you what it seemed to do to Kate, if used right. Or wrong, I guess."

"Delivered to 'boondocks'," Ruby finished. "He didn't have an address because Nathan didn't give him one. So now we need to see if David pinged where Nathan was parked in the last hours of the 4th."

"There," Chloe pointed. "The 4th, 10:56." She took the address back off the board and started looking it up on her computer. "Bingo, bango… and nothing. Just an old barn."

"Let's not give up yet. Can we see who owns this old barn?" Maxine suggested.

"One second… Here. Harry Aaron Prescott."

The three shared a look of determination. This was it, they could all feel it. The truth was in their grasp. "To the creepy old barn?" Ruby asked, just to confirm.

Chloe nodded. "To the creepy old barn."

The trio soon arrived at what was, indeed, a creepy old barn. They approached the door, finding their way blocked by a hefty looking padlock. Maxine's gaze fell to the ground where she noticed a set of tire tracks leading from past the padlocked door. "Look, they're fresh."

Chloe examined them herself. "Someone was just here."

"Hopefully that means they won't be back for a while," Ruby stated. She summoned Crescent Rose and tapped the padlock, which fell open at the magic sword's command. "C'mon."

The three didn't know what to expect. Bloody meat-hooks? Iron chains and collars? Impromptu graves? They held their breath and entered to see… a barn. Nothing out of place, just an old shed with a tractor in one corner, another corner for tools and storage, and hay carpeting the floor. "I'm… honestly disappointed," Chloe stated.

"Is this the wrong place after all?" Ruby questioned.

"Hold on, let's at least look around a bit? Frank delivered something to Nathan here," Maxine reminded them.

The three of them started examining different corners of the barn. Chloe went straight to a large chest and started pulling out various documents. Maxine stayed on the ground floor, looking for anything that might be out of place. Ruby decided to check out the loft, using her Keyblader strength to leap up to what was too high for normal people to even climb.

Chloe groaned. "It's just a bunch of papers, photos, and news clippings. 'Harry Aaron Prescott and family donate new library to Arcadia Bay'. 'Prescott Industries celebrates grand opening'. 'The Prescotts bring bomb shelter boom to town'."

"What's a bomb shelter?" Ruby asked.

"Underground living spaces in case war made everything up here unlivable," Maxine answered. "Built for long term, dry food storage and living quarters. Some of the best ones even had independent power."

"Nerd," Chloe teased. A realization flooded her eyes and she started looking at the floor. "Wait a minute…"

Maxine came to the same realization and started sweeping aside the hay. Eventually she revealed a padlock on the floor. Chloe joined her and together they revealed a large floor hatch.

Ruby jumped down to join them, her sudden thud making Maxine jump. "That doesn't hurt at all?"

"Why would it?" Ruby asked, making Chloe smirk. Maxine only shook her head in response. Ruby looked over the hatch. "It seems pretty new," she noted. "How old was that clipping?"

"Too old," Chloe answered. "I think this might have been renovated recently."

"I believe one of you two are up," Maxine suggested, pointing to the padlock. Chloe took this one, unlocking it with a tap of Rebel Soul. Maxine pulled the open padlock out of the latch and tried to lift the door. "Nrgh… this is way too heavy…"

The two wielders lifted the door, with Maxine realizing she wasn't actually helping when the door slipped from her own hands as Chloe and Ruby threw the hatch open. She decided not to ask about their strength, doubting she would get a real answer beyond 'magic'. Instead, she looked down the now open stairwell leading belowground. "Well, that's creepy enough…"

"Feeling less disappointed now," Chloe commented. "Let's head down."

The trio descended the stairs, perhaps a bit more slowly than was necessary. They could all feel their nerves building. At the bottom was a short hallway that led to a vault-like door connected to a keypad.

"A third locked door? I'm starting to think someone has something to hide," Ruby noted.

"Does the Keyblade work on keypad locks?" Chloe asked.

"A lock is a lock, I don't see why not," Ruby answered. "They do crazier things than that."

"Makes me wonder if they can crack computer passwords…"

"I don't think that'll be needed," Maxine spoke up. She examined the keypad and entered a code. The door clacked open on her first try. "I thought that only worked in movies!"

"Way to go, Supermax!" Chloe cheered. "How the hell did you pull that off?"

"There are worn numbers here, and I remember there being a three digit code in Nathan's scribbles," Maxine answered. Beyond the door was a small entryway. There was dry food storage along the wall, a kitchenette opposite the door, and a plastic strip door leading further inside.

The trio cautiously stepped through the strip door, ready for anything. What they were met with was an eerie photo studio. Expensive equipment filled the room, the walls were lined with creepy artwork, and bright lights illuminated a white backdrop on the far end. "This is it," Maxine stated. "In photography, a dark room is a special studio free of outside light. 'Rachel in the Dark Room'…"

Chloe noticed a computer on a desk close by, and bee-lined for it. The screen illuminated her face, which Ruby and Maxine could see shift to an expression of shock. "Oh… Max…"

"What?" Maxine rushed over to look at the screen. Shock filled her face as well.

Ruby walked over to look at the screen with them. There was an image of a familiar girl with her wrists and ankles duct taped together. Her face seemed vacant despite being streaked with tears. Where have I seen her… the dorm tower? "Is that Kate?"

"Yeah," Maxine nodded slowly. "So what, Nathan drugs and ties up girls so he can take these messed up photos?"

"Kate came back. Rachel didn't," Chloe pointed out. "There has to be more to this."

Chloe continued to dig into the computer. Ruby turned and nudged Maxine, pointing to a cabinet behind them. They opened it to reveal a collection of red binders, all labeled with names. The last three folders had names Maxine recognized. She grabbed them and laid them out onto the desk.

"Who's Victoria?" Ruby questioned, reading off the name on the top binder.

"A girl at school," Maxine answered.

"Her binder is empty," Chloe noted.

Maxine opened the next folder, labeled 'Kate'. "This one isn't…" It was full of more photos like the one on the computer. It was a small comfort that Kate didn't remember any of this. With how out of it she looked in the photos, there was no way she could. "Each of these binders is a victim," Maxine realized, looking back at the cabinet. "Each of these names… all girls he drugged up and posed."

"So why is this binder still empty?" Ruby asked about the 'Victoria' binder.

"Because she's next," Maxine deduced. "Tonight! There's a party tonight, remember? Mr. Jefferson said he would be there to announce the winner of that contest I failed to enter. Nathan is going to dose her and add her photos to this twisted portfolio…"

Ruby looked at the sheer number of binders. "He's not any older than you are, right? Could this really all be Nathan?"

Chloe was more concerned with the next binder. "Rachel…" Maxine and Ruby turned back, watching as Chloe opened the binder. Rachel's photos were different. There were some where she was vacant, but there were also ones where she was clearly lucid, staring at the camera with fury. And the last image… Rachel's eyes were empty in a different way. She was posed across Nathan's lap, with the other half of her set into a hole somewhere else.

"This… this isn't real… This can't be real!" Chloe shouted, her voice shaking as tears threatened to shed. "These- these are all posed shots, r-right?"

"Chloe… look at her face…" Maxine tried to gently bring Chloe around.

"Maybe Nathan just paid her hella cash, right? I mean, she probably would have…"

"Chloe…"

"No, no… no…" Chloe back up, unable to take her eyes off the picture. "Wait!" She suddenly lurched back forward, "I know where that is! The Junkyard! If I can find that spot, I can prove she's… she's not… She's just not!"

Chloe stormed out of the bunker, quickly followed by Maxine and Ruby.

Chloe barely bothered to park her truck before she leapt out and began running between the mounds of junk.

"Slow down!" Maxine cried, barely keeping pace with the punk wielder.

"I know exactly where I'm going!" Chloe cried, weaving through the yard with expert knowledge. She approached a back corner with a small alley built from the trash. "Here! This is it!" Chloe fell to her knees and began clawing at the dirt with her hands, ignoring her cracking nails and she forced massive chunks out of the ground.

Maxine and Ruby caught up just in time to be hit by a powerful and distinctive stench. Chloe reeled away from the hole and puked. "Rachel… no… not like this…" Chloe crawled a few more paces away, trying to escape the smell as she curled up on the ground. Maxine approached slowly, kneeling down and wrapping Chloe into her arms. Not knowing what to say, she simply allowed her friend to weep.

"Why her…" Chloe sobbed. "I loved her so much… why did I have to lose her…"

Ruby stayed a few paces away, giving the two their space. She didn't need to look down the hole to know what is showed. For the second time in recent memory she was reminded that hearts didn't always need Darkness to perform dark deeds. Some people were just cruel without needing a corruptive power.

Her hand tightened into a fist. She knew she would need a clear head to stop Chloe from killing Nathan, but right now she could only hope she would have that clear head when the time came.