Sitting in the station house, Marge sat quietly at the table as a constable stood over the table asking her questions regarding her attempt at poisoning Paul and Taylor.
"Have you finally gottenmadover the years, you old bat?!" Constable Johnson slammed his fists on the table in a bid to scare something in Marge.
She remained calm and collected, refusing to answer still, and whenever she did talk, she insisted on calling her lawyer.
This continued as Paul and Taylor watched the interrogation from behind the two-way window.
"Ofallthings I've expected since adventuring, being almost poisoned by theinn ownerwasn't one of them!" Taylor briefly rubbed her chest as she watched Constable Johnson try and get something from interrogating Marge.
His arms crossed; Paul shook his head with displeasure at the incident.
If not for the crow, surely, they would be in a worse place, perhaps dead, perhaps Taylor dies and Paul barely living because of his heritage.
Though, the crow saving them still gave Paul mixed feelings.
It disappeared through the opened window after destroying the teacups and pot without fanfare, sure, but Paul didn't survive this long to make a mistake, now.
Seeing Marge not budging, Paul gritted his teeth.
Attempting to poison him and Taylor, she didn't even have the gall to defend her actions, instead sitting in silence.
To say that she didn't have a motive would be foolish, it takes more thought process to harvest hemlock and boil it.
"Grace, I'm going to peak into her mind," Paul tells Taylor what he planned on doing.
Slowly nodding, Taylor watched Marge as Paul narrowed his angel eyes on the older woman.
Carefully, he maneuvers though the labyrinth of her mind, careful not to make her aware of his presence, and to avoid causing any aneurysms from the intrusions.
He managed to sneak into her recent memories to see her on the phone with someone.
Hearing her talking, Paul hears Belfried's name.
Unfortunately, peaking into Marge's mind was brief since any extended period without an understanding on how her mind worked would prove fatal, Paul retreated back to the comfort of his mind.
"Belfried's involved," Paul warns Taylor.
Didn't need to peak into Marge's mind again to know the context that Paul grew disgusted.
"Why would he want to kill us?" Taylor held a hand over her mouth.
As he gently placed a hand on her back, Paul says, "We're getting too close for his comfort. Come along, we've got a case to solve, my dear Taylor."
No reason to stay at the station house, there's nothing more for them to do, Marge wouldn't say anything until she gets a call from Belfried.
Without physical evidence they have nothing proving her guilt and telling the constables how he read her mind wouldn't work, well, that's that.
Back out in the streets, the couple were stopped by Mortimer and Izzy having come to the station house after hearing the commotion happening at the inn.
"She tried to kill you?" Izzy was dumbfounded at the thought Marge would resort to poisoning.
Affirming with a nod, Paul states that he was sure that Belfried was involved, but Marge wasn't talking, so it was only a theory.
"What would Belfried gain killing you two?" Mortimer remained baffled about the poisoning plot.
Turning his head, Paul asks if Izzy and Mortimer were willing to help them resolve this case, and they agreed out of sense of curiosity.
Leading the couple back to their house, there Paul tells Izzy that he and Taylor were investigating the disappearances of the travelers that were camping on a disputed land.
"And Belfried's part of it," Izzy got to the point and Paul affirmed that he and Taylor couldn't put a name to the face at the time.
Curious, Mortimer asked why they were asking about George's death and Paul answers that he believes there's an overlap.
"You don't think Belfried killed him, do you?" Mortimer raised his brows.
Shaking his head, Paul stated that he didn't think Belfried killed the travelers or George, but he certainly contributed to their deaths.
"Why would he kill a child?" Izzy sat at the kitchen table with a look on her face.
As he paced around their home, Paul explains that he and Taylor believe that Belfried used something that he didn't understand for his own uses and didn't think of the consequences that would follow from it.
"What are you blabbering about?" Mortimer crosses his arms in confusion.
Sharing looks with Paul, Taylor coughs as she spoke up to elaborate what he meant to Mortimer.
"We believe that Belfried indirectly caused George's death by baiting… Drekker into the area…" Taylor could tell the couple were flabbergasted.
Stepping in, Paul answered their questions regarding the tarry fiends and unsurprisingly they couldn't believe anything like what he and Taylor were describing were real.
"Even if we believed you, how could've he cause George's death?" Izzy questioned Paul.
Gesturing, Paul explains that it's a known thing that happens, believe him.
People in power discover the existence of these tarry fiends, decide to use them for their own gain, realize quickly that they are not easily controlled or corralled, and do everything in their power to cover their crimes up.
"We'd like to look through your mother's files, maybe she had something on George?" Paul asked for permission from Izzy and she granted it.
With Taylor, they searched the files as Izzy and Mortimer helped.
At first, they haven't found anything, until Izzy gone up to her mother's old room and dug around.
She returns with a folder hidden in the old bookcase and Paul took it into his hands as he investigates the contents.
It was George's autopsy reports, given the context he and Taylor knew, these were unaltered, and reading through it, he concluded that George wasn't sick when he was attacked.
"What difference does it make?" Mortimer grew agitated as he couldn't understand.
Turning to him, Paul explained for him, "These tarry fiends are very simple to understand: if you are sick, you are never safe from them. The fact that George wasn't sick at the time only gives me the impression that one attacked him in a frenzy."
Baffled, Mortimer questions Paul's conclusion, "What does that mean?"
He heard back, "He done something to offend it. Incite it."
Given George's penchant for troublemaking, Paul could hedge a guess that he was playing in the woods at night, because he wasn't sick the Drekker generally left him alone, but the boy made the mistake of agitating one, hurt it, something egregious that it went after him in a frenzy.
And given how they were structured, it was possible that George managed to hurt one by throwing a stone at it believing it was another child and wanting to play a prank on them, and the Big One went after him in revenge.
The accounts of how his family reacted around the time he died, it bothered Paul, how they possibly heard George screaming for their help outside their door, but wouldn't do anything.
His brothers and sisters forced into the brightly lit den with the windows covered, the fact that neither Izzy or Mortimer knew about the Drekker could only mean that Bob and Irene did.
Bob shouting through the window at the people coming around out of concern from the screaming made much more sense when he knew that the Drekker was still around and didn't want his neighbors accidentally encountering it.
His siblings' reactions would make sense as well that they grew petrified at the thought of encountering their brother's killer that they became reclusive up until they moved out of their parents' home, probably warned by them about what lurked outside at night, and that's what drove the culture shift from playing in the woods.
Now, Paul wanted to know how Bob and Irene knew about these tarry fiends enough to ward them off and kept their family alive.