"I talked to Freddy." Willow reported the next day. "He's a paranoid conspiracy theorist, he's convinced the mob rules Sunnydale. He also thinks whoever's in charge around here, will accept bribes from people who want to hide out out here or do things like experiment on people. He's certain Halloween was an experiment with an hallucinagenic gas. He's got a lot of theories, none of which have anything to do with the supernatural. He's also convinced the government has his office and home bugged. He says he makes regular searches for them and is convinced eventually he'll find them."
"If the mob was really running Sunnydale, the government would have bugs in the homes and offices of suspects and I doubt a High School Senior who edits the school paper qualifies as a suspect." Xander decided with a slight grin. "You find anything else out, Willow?"
"There's only two building companies in Sunnydale and both have been around for decades. Unless someone hires a firm from outside Sunnydale, these two companies get the majority of the work around here. They both have a high turn over rate and are constantly hiring new labor. The executives though have stayed fairly constant. Both companies have excellent reputations and aside from a few minor and relatively harmless complaints that necessitated outside investigation and were almost all decided in the companies favors, I found nothing hinky about either of them. The building inspections are all done from a local office and I didn't find anything alarming there either. Any of these people could know how to do Magic, but that's not going to show up in a computer search anyway. That would need something like what Margaret did with her crystal to detect evidence of Magic."
"Our investigation at the Historical Archives turned up more." Giles said grimly. "I won't bore you with the details of everything we search through, but I will sum it up. It appears Sunnydale has only ever had one Mayor. We found pictures of Mayor Richard Wilkins the First, he looks exactly like Mayor Richard Wilkins the Second and the current Mayor of Sunnydale, Richard Wilkins the Third. We found dozens of photos archived for each one of them at various official events. The dates vary from the founding of Sunnydale in 1899 to just last month and he looks exactly the same in all of them. Independent verification should be done to ensure that the photos haven't been faked."
"I'll see to that." Wesley said. "I'm can do a few magical tests and than I can have a private lab discretely test using conventional means. I'll pay for it myself since the sooner we have confirmation, the better and the Council, like any bureaucratic organization can take bloody forever to make a decision, especially when it relates to releasing of funds."
"He's not a vampire, is he?" Buffy asked.
"Since all of the photos we found appear to have been taken during the daytime, I'd say no, he's something else." Giles said. "Whether he's human or not, that remains to be seen. It's possible he's a mutant or an alien hiding on Earth or a demon using a glamour."
"Giles, if he's human." Cordelia said. "How has he kept from aging? And is the notice me not spell responsible for no one noticing we've only had one Mayor?"
"If he's human, than either through the use of Magic or by selling his soul, he remained unchanging for a century."
"If he's sold his soul, does he actually qualify as human anymore?" Xander asked.
"Technically since he's still a living being, than yes, he does. Albeit an extremely evil one." Giles answered. "Without the soul he has no conscious and he could be doing anything from demon worship to sacrificing children and never feel any remorse or guilt for it. And it would take extremely dark magics to keep him alive and unaging even if he does still have his soul."
"He's responsible for it all, isn't he Giles?" Xander said. "Hiding Sunnydale, the dead, the vampires allowed to roam free. All of it."
"It seems likely." Giles agreed. "We need definitive proof before we can do anything though. For all we know, someone may have created these pictures to throw us off the track."
"A wild goose chase." Buffy said.
"Exactly. We don't actually know anything. We just suspect. We need proof and than when we have it, we move forward."
"I'll take the photos with me and conduct my own test first and than find a private lab to do the confirmations." Wesley told them. "Hopefully we'll have definitive answers soon."
"What's the Council's official policy on humans that sell their souls or sacrifice other humans willing?" Xander asked.
"The same as their policy for a human that attempts to open a Hellmouth." Wesley replied, as he tucked the photos into his pocket. "The world and the innocents within it come first, therefore, such a human must die to ensure the survival of the world."
"Please tell me you don't expect me, as the Slayer to kill him?" Buffy asked.
"No, of course not. You deal with vampires and the occasional demon. Not with mutants, aliens or humans, evil or otherwise. If he's responsible, than there are other ways of dealing with him."
The group was silent as they watch Wesley walk out of the library and than Xander said. "Giles, just in case Freddy's right and there are listening devices around, maybe you should look into a privacy shield of some sort around the library. I'm beginning to think we're not paranoid enough."
"Because none of us suspected a human who possibly sold his soul for longevity and has allowed, either by direct or indirect action the deaths of possible tens of thousands of humans, mostly children and teenagers?"
"Yep."
"I'll get right on it."