It proved difficult on account the only people who would truly know about the situation were the children, now adults, but since they've all left the village and seemingly cut themselves off, getting them to talk would be akin to Paul jumping out of a cake in the center of a volcano.
Still, he inherited his grandfather's legendary stubbornness, he wasn't deterred at all.
Izzy helped him by going through her late mother's things, trying to find anything that could help paint the picture.
Mortimer and Taylor helped by working out the timelines, trying to get an idea how Bob and Irene knew about the Drekker and their connection with Belfried.
After his and Irene's deaths information regarding their very existence had the markings of someone getting spooked and censuring everything down to the detail that it would be impossible to ascertain what is the truth and what was a lie.
Izzy says the villagers likely won't have anything for them to use, so that was out, and through stubbornness on her part Izzy found something her mother hid in the most unlikely place.
Hidden behind a false wall above her bed, there were publications and documents that her mother hid inside the false wall.
Finding a leftover envelope, Izzy showed Paul that much of it came from Detective Murphy, having stayed in contact with Izzy's mother after leaving the village.
The detective got word that his book was being censored so he made sure that Izzy's mother was aware of it.
She wasn't surprised to hear it, angry more than any, before Detective Murphy warned her that there was a chance Belfried would get away with his crime.
Reading through the letters and correspondence, Izzy shakes her head as she admitted that she never knew her mother was investigating the murder herself, and Paul comforts her as she said it herself: her mother kept certain things from her when she was younger.
Despite her outwardness as a doctor for the village, Dr. Loomis proved to be sharper than she looked, and was aiming to prove that Belfried was held responsible for the death of George.
"Here, Bob was one of the people working for Belfried," Mortimer discovered Bob and Belfried's link as he showed them the articles he and Taylor dug out.
Before Belfried's climb in the political world he was working for the village council and Bob was his assistant.
Given what they already knew, there was no coincidence that Bob and Irene's house was demolished, and if there was anything left inside that would implicate him, Belfried ensured nobody would've found it.
It would also mean that Belfried intimidated the White children into silence so he could demolish their family home without backlash and keep his dirty secrets buried.
"Belfried wanted to get his foot through the door so much he bit off more than he can chew in his promises, but he managed to prove himself to his potential voters by getting rid of the travelers from the patch of land. If Bob was his assistant, then it's likely Bob knew or found out about the Drekker for him," Paul gave his guess on how Bob fit into the puzzle.
Had his house remained standing, it would have likely contained a copious amount of rosemary and rosemary products, pictures and whatever else that would further implicate Belfried.
"How can he have known about them but no one else here didn't?" Taylor wondered.
Checking with Mortimer and Izzy, Paul confirms that no one had ever gone missing during the history of the village, nothing suggesting there were more coverups, or any history with the tarry fiends.
Digging further into Bob's life proved difficult since much of it was gone in the wind, but Mortimer used his connections to get into the clerk's office to find that someone had taken everything down to his employment records.
It couldn't be his children, so the only one with motive had to been Belfried, but he had been gone from the village long after Bob and Irene died, that the only candidate had to been his niece, Marge.
"Why would she help him?" Taylor questioned how someone like Marge would help her corrupt uncle.
Shrugging, Izzy answers that Marge didn't have anyone else in the village after her father died.
It didn't pass Paul that Belfried used his niece's grief to his advantage and ensured that she would help him with anything he asked her, including attempting to murder him and Taylor.
"We don't have evidence of his wrongdoing, he's part of parliament, now, anything we try he'll shrug off," Mortimer warned Paul about the potential for their efforts being in vain.
Giving him a toothy grin, Paul asserted that while he and Taylor had adventures that tested them, there's always a way forward.
"How?" Izzy asks him.
Raising a finger, Paul suggests, "She loves her uncle, that we know, but how much do you think he does for her?"
Seeing cogs turning in his head, Taylor said, "We convince her that her uncle is using her and get her to talk."
Smiling, Paul touched her nose before adding, "Then we get her to call him here."
Be sure, he wanted Marge to suffer the consequences of trying to murder him and Taylor, but if she can be useful in bringing her uncle to justice, Paul won't look a gift horse in the mouth.
"What if it doesn't work?" Mortimer pointed out the possibility.
Assuring him that it will, Paul gave Mortimer and Izzy instructions before setting out to talk to Marge with Taylor.
"We're going to get our answers from the horse's mouth, Grace," Paul informed her of his plan.
Having been trained by his uncles and grandfather, taught everything he knew by his father and mother, Paul was going to use this knowledge to his advantage in getting Marge to call Belfried for them and have him return to the village.
"How are we going to do that?" Taylor asks.
Smiling at her, Paul says, "I doubt she had the chance to tell her uncle the bad news, yet, luv."
Belfried wanted them dead, but hadn't gotten the news that they weren't, ergo, Paul was going to use it.
Returning to the station house, Paul and Taylor met with the constable on duty, and convinced him to let them talk to Marge.
She wasn't happy seeing them, again, more when Paul made it abundantly clear that he and Taylor wasn't leaving until they got what they wanted.
Proved difficult, though, she claimed her uncle loved her, that he could do no wrong, and that everything they said about him was accusations and character assassination.
Pulling every page from his grandfather's playbook, Paul asserts that if her uncle was the man she said, he would have come back to the village to get her out of her predicament.
"Did he ever call you, once?" Paul pointed out how much Marge called her uncle more times than he did calling her, that it said a lot about his character, though she wouldn't budge.
He then switched tactics by stating that her uncle left her to face the consequences of her actions on her own, that he would deny everything that happened was tied to him in any way, and he wouldn't raise a finger for his "beloved" niece in court.
"You don't know my uncle!" Marge shouted at him.
Shaking his head, Paul fired back, "I know him enough that he would rather you go to jail. Where is your lawyer? Someone he sent to have your back?"
If Marge's uncle cared he would've sent someone the moment he hadn't heard anything back from her to see what happened, maybe to build up her defense for the courtroom, but he never did.
"He won't care what happens to you more than he does for himself," Taylor gestures as she warns Marge how her uncle was for himself and alone, Marge didn't matter in the grand scheme of things, and had she been successful killing Taylor and Paul, Belfried would've left her to the noose.
"He's done it before, hadn't he, used people to get what he wanted, stop caring when they had no value left?" Paul eyes Marge.
Seeing Marge remain strong despite this, Paul's forced to peer into her mind, using everything he could gleam against her, to the point it caused a shift in Marge.
Having someone like him suddenly know everything about her despite having never met her before until then, Marge was gob smacked before Paul kept her attention to the matter at hand.
"He doesn't love you, Marge, he never did. You're a means to an end. Believe me when I say, I've the misfortune of encountering men like him before, they'll never change, nor they want to, because in their minds they're correct," Paul asserts that Marge believes him.
He pointed out how her uncle only called when he needed something, never to chat, never to visit her, and he used Marge's devotion against her.
Paul then commends Marge's desire to keep touch with her uncle, commenting how it was like him with his uncles, only with Marge, it was one-sided.
"He loves me, I'm his favourite niece!" Marge whimpered.
Shaking his head, Paul softly says, "He's only telling you what you want to hear. Are you really going to be in prison for what he did?"
Sure, she did try and poison him and Taylor, but Paul could salvage some sympathy for someone like her, especially when she was warped at a young age when she lost her father unexpectedly and grieving.
Taylor helped by appealing to her more until eventually, Marge folded like a house of cards, and she sung like a bird about everything her uncle had her do, among other things, and how after the funeral, he had never come back to the village to visit her.
The emotion that welled within her burst outward as she poured out her displeasure about the whole thing, before Paul asked her to call her uncle, and tell him that he and Taylor were dead.
"Do whatever it takes to get him back to the village," Paul urged her.
Confused, she asks him why, and he says, "He needs to be punished for his wrongdoings. We don't have evidence against him, sure, but there's more than one way of getting what we want."
Waiting with Taylor, Paul listened to Marge over the phone with her uncle, true to her word, she convinced her uncle that she killed Paul and Taylor with the hemlock and buried their bodies in the woods, but she needed his help with someone else.
This time, it was an ambassador, the details Paul fed to her, and he wanted to come to the village that Belfried was born and raised in, that he might be primed to be a contributor to the campaign if sufficiently convinced, if Belfried were to come to the village to meet him.
By the time she hung up, she turned to Paul as she asks him how this ruse was supposed to work, pointing out that Belfried could easily search for the fake ambassador before Paul assures her that he has everything thought out.
Once it was confirmed that Belfried would make his way back to the village in hopes of winning over the ambassador, Paul and Taylor went back to Mortimer and Izzy.
"I'm going to need your help subduing him," Paul pled for Izzy's help.
He wanted to subdue Belfried long enough to get him somewhere he would be more willing to converse freely.
Slowly nodding, Izzy agreed to Paul's request as she went to the medical cabinet to grab everything she needed while Paul tasked Taylor to grab the restraints from the closet while Mortimer helped him make a blowgun out of what was left lying around the office.
The sedation would be to be immediate and time was off the essence.
He asked to borrow the examination table before modifying it to stand upright while Taylor put the restraints on, ensuring that Belfried couldn't slip out of it.
Keeping an eye on the time, Paul continued to instruct the three as he took position where he had vantage point and laid in wait.
On time, he saw an expensive Royce make its way through the town, inside he could see an older man with thick glasses, as he came to a stop where he would meet with the ambassador from Sardinia.
Stepping out dressed in nines, Belfried made his way to the waiting spot, confusion on his face as he slowly moved around searching for the ambassador.
He barely had time to register when Paul shot a blow dart at him that instantly injected him with sedatives.
Within moments of collapsing, he was collected and strapped to the examination table.
From there, Paul and Taylor took Belfried back to the patch of land that was once used by travelers.
Counting down, Paul waits for Belfried to awaken with Taylor beside him.
Groggily, Belfried eventually did, and despite being sedated he was quick to spot Paul and Taylor.
Struggling, Belfried sees that he's in restraints, only when his mind catches up to him, did he notice where they were.
Back at the patch of land that he proclaimed to have cleared travelers from.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Belfried shouted at Paul.
His piercing angel eyes narrowing on Belfried, Paul didn't hesitate to inform him that he knows what he done to the travelers, and if he wanted to live, he would come clean with everything he did to him and the authorities.
"I have no idea what you're insinuating!" Belfried played dumb, but Paul had a way of getting him to talk by turning his head to Taylor and said that they might as well hurry on, it was getting late.
"You can't leave me like this!" Belfried shouted at him.
Eying him, Paul scoffed, "Oh? Why shouldn't I?"
Belfried asserted his political position before Paul told him that where he and Taylor were from, nothing Belfried said meant anything to them.
"What do you want from me?" Belfried demanded to know.
He heard back, "How did you find out about them?"
Trying to plead ignorance, Belfried sputtered that he didn't know what Paul was talking about, however Paul wasn't fooled, and he kept up the pressure on Belfried, demanding he tell Paul the truth.
"Who do you work for?" Belfried wanted to know and Paul answered that he worked for no one and that had Belfried not acted out irrationally like he did, Paul and Taylor might've simply left the village on their own accord.
No, Belfried acted on emotion alone, and made this an even bigger problem had he used his brain for the first time.
Now, he made it personal by attempting Paul and Taylor's lives through his niece.
She already confessed everything, Belfried couldn't lie his way out of a paper bag, now.
Even then, being a telepath since birth, Paul can root through his brain in spurts long enough to get every inkling of his wrongdoing.
Paul briefly glimpsed to the skies above, they're slowly darkening, and he gestures to Taylor to return to the TARDIS.
"Are you sure…?" Taylor worryingly looked at him.
Smiling as he touched her nose, Paul assures Taylor that he'll be fine, before ushering her to leave him and Belfried.
Turning his attention back to Belfried, Paul then asked him, "Surely, you know what they do, correct?"
Belfried sheepishly tried to dodge the question before Paul threatened to force the answer out of him.
"I… only know… what he told me!" Belfried insisted that he didn't know what the Drekker were capable of doing.
Shaking his head in disdain, Paul stated, "They hunt the sick. They feed on them. That's what they do. Know what else?"
Seeing Belfried struggle to shrug, Paul finished his train of the thought with, "They don't normally attack unless provoked. You knew that part. I suppose he never told you the former, did he?"
Either Bob did and Belfried disregarded his warnings or Bob intentionally withheld the information in retaliation against him, Paul doesn't know for sure.
"W-what?" Belfried grew frightened as Paul affirmed with a stiff nod that the Drekker that he used to murder the travelers only sufficed on sickly animals and humans.
He gestures as he went into how acute their sense of smell became since their transformation that they can smell the sick from kilometers away.
"My guess is they were looking for you or your brother. Hard to tell with them. They nested in the woods and that boy George mistook one for one of the children or an adult and paid for it with his life."
Paul then went on to stress that Belfried caused an innocent man to go to jail because of his fear of the public finding out the truth and made work of anyone who could tell it, be it bribes or blackmail.
"Everyone knows about them, I'm not the only one!" Belfried insisted.
As he slowly nodded, Paul then added, "And they're not fond of others learning about them, too. To the point of murder. You think you'll have a chance if I happened to say you told me about them, hm?"
Belfried isn't the only ruthless individual who knew about the tarry fiends, a gross amount of people of power knew about them, and they all took great deal in assuring that the general public never knew about their existence.
Even if Belfried had any clout, it's meaningless if he was considered a threat to the masquerade, that if word got out, he let the facade slip, it would be the death of him.
Literary.
"What do you want from me?" Belfried shouted at Paul.
Leaning forward, Paul says, "I want the truth. How did Bob find out about them?"
Glancing up at the skies, Paul encouraged Belfried to speak quickly.
And he did.
"I needed something to help my campaign, I knew I could never get those bastards off the land, so I had Bob go look for something I can use. Imagine my surprise when he came back to tell me that I should let the bastards stay on the land for a little longer!" Belfried admitted what happened.
Bob needed work and Belfried gave it to him, in return, Belfried sent him on errands, anything to help make his chances better.
Come campaign time, Belfried used the issue of travelers to wedge himself into the scene, and he knew that if he didn't deliver on his promise, he wouldn't have a chance, again.
"That's it, then, damn the consequences, so long as you get what you wanted, correct?" Paul gestures.
Admitting it was the truth, Belfried flinched when Paul reached out to grab the back of his head.
"What happened?" Paul stared into his eyes.
From there Belfried told him that he was skeptical about Bob's intel, but chose to went along with it until he can find something better, come one morning, Belfried was told that there been a grisly attack on the travelers' camp.
No survivors.
"So, you helped arrange it that everything was cleaned, the remains disposed, no one would know where they gone," Paul sums and Belfried nodded.
Shaking his head, Paul shouts, "You let innocent people get killed!"
He could imagine how frightened they were when night came and the Drekker made their nightly patrol through the area they considered their roosting ground.
The travelers having not understood what was happening understandably grew afraid at the sight of the towering tarry fiends led by their Patriarch that they attacked, setting off the massacre.
Like many before him, Belfried thought that it be the end of it, but it wasn't, as Paul informed him that the Drekker didn't just leave after an event like that, they're migratory.
"Bob's no innocent either, he let his child die!" Belfried insists.
That's when Paul says, "He knew what would happen if he tried to intervene. When they killed George for the trick, he played on one of them, the blood was paid, they had no reason to go after him and the rest of his family. If he had, there would be more blood on your hands."
Glancing up once again, Paul sees the darkness starting to overtake, before he grew tired of interrogating Belfried, deciding that Belfried deserved to feel helpless and afraid, incapable of defending himself.
"You can't leave me here!" Belfried shrills.
Beginning to walk away from him, Paul goes, "You should've learnt not to mess with something you don't fully understand, Belfried. If you're lucky, they're quick about it."
His usual face becoming cruel, Paul stuffed his hands in his pockets as he strolled away from Belfried while he screamed for him.
Upon returning to the TARDIS, Taylor's there waiting for him by the opened doorway with worry in her emerald eyes.
"Did he confess?" Taylor asks him as she gave way to let him through the doorway.
Exhaling sharply, Paul answers, "For better for worse, though he won't get the punishment he rightly deserves."
While Paul was tempted to leave Belfried to his fate, he knew that it wasn't worth it.
Regardless it was the easy way out, so Paul had the TARDIS telephone the authorities beforehand, and they'll be out to collect Belfried.
"They'll censure him," Taylor frowns.
Nodding, Paul sighed, "Everyone's in the thick of it, expose one and the rest will do whatever it takes to make sure they don't talk."
Don't know what'll become of Belfried, but whatever it is, it won't be enough for what he done.
"What now?" Taylor asked him.
Thinking it over, Paul sighs as he took control over the console, "Mortimer and Izzy will want to know what happened. I believe we done what we can to solve this mystery, Grace."
Though, it was bitter.
Nigel will never be exonerated for George's death.
Detective Murphy's intent on telling the truth will never come to fruition because of the powers that be.
Marge will likely drink herself to death at the realization that her uncle never cared for her, at all, and everything coming into question.
Worse, Paul can't even be angry.
Disappointed, that every time he and his predecessors tried, they can never break through the conspiracies, not even in a different universe.
"Don't beat yourself up, dear, we done what we can," Taylor joined his side.
Bitterly, Paul nodded before saying, "It's all we've been doing, luv."
With his hands, Paul made the TARDIS come to live and it soon disappeared from the area.
THE END