Chapter Text
When he woke up it was to darkness. It took Parker several moments to get his bearings. At first he thought he had just fallen asleep and it was the middle of the night, but then he realized he was on the floor, not on a bed and the space he was in was small. And he'd been in the middle of doing something at his desk previously. Parker groaned and felt around for the door. He managed to pull it open and stumble back into their office.
“Arthur what the hell?” Parker asked. The office around him was a mess and Arthur wasn’t in it. Which made sense because there was something with a book right?
Parker made his way back over to his desk, trying to put together the last few minutes of his life.
They’d gotten a delivery, Arthur had opened it and then? Then it was a book, it had something to do with the MacFarland case, the symbol had been the same as from the house. Arthur opened the book, there had been a voice. Parker had no idea what it said, he couldn’t make out words and it had hurt. Arthur dropped the book, concern and fear etched across his face and after that Parker didn’t remember much. He remembered it hurt, a pain seeming to stem from his brain itself.
None of that remotely explained how he had ended up in the closet, and where Arthur was at this present moment, or where the book was for that matter as he didn't see it anywhere among the mess that was their office.
He looked around the room, most of their paperwork was on the floor now. Parker was not looking forward to organizing that again later. He’d make Arthur do it, for fucking it up to begin with.
The package that the book had been in was on the floor and Parker went over and grabbed it. He picked it up and rubbed his head absently with his free hand. He still had a headache from whatever had happened.
JD Ackerman Rare Bookstore was all the packaging said. He had never heard of the place but that didn’t necessarily mean Arthur hadn’t. Arthur was more the reader between the two of them.
Parker turned in a circle, trying to see if there was anything else he had missed. The phone book was lying open on Arthur’s desk, like he was practically asking to be followed.
He went over and skimmed the open page, and upon seeing the name Ackerman on the page he had a pretty good idea of where Arthur had gone.
Why he had decided to go there instead of the house with the MacFarland girl he didn’t really know. They knew the book was related somehow, they’d both recognized the symbol before he’d opened the book. Maybe he’d seen something in the book and wanted to know who had sent it, that was really the only reason Parker could think of that he’d go to the bookstore first.
They had thought the case was closed though, Emily had been found dead in the field, not even at the house where the symbol had been. Whatever, he’d follow Arthur to the bookstore and ask him. He didn’t think he’d been unconscious for that long, Arthur was likely still there, especially if he was interrogating Ackerman about something. Speaking of interrogating Parker was going to have to interrogate Arthur as to how he ended up in the closet and why he’d been left behind. Later, he'd do it later. After he caught up to Arthur.
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Walking into the bookstore was not much better than waking up in a closet. The place was a disaster. A radio was playing softly in the background, some song Parker had never heard before and the counter had papers and books strewn everywhere.
“Hello! Arthur?” Parker called out, even though he was fairly certain he wasn’t going to get an answer. The place looked empty of life.
He picked his way through the stacks of books to get to the counter, his foot kicking something and sending it skittering across the floor.
Parker bent down and picked up the bullet, it wasn’t from Arthur’s gun. Someone else had been here and shot at someone. With their luck it was probably Arthur that got shot at, but there didn’t seem to be any blood, that Parker could see. They must’ve missed and Arthur wasn’t here anymore. He’d probably chased after whoever had shot at him and Parker doubted Ackerman was shooting customers so he started to make his way to the back.
The back was somehow more of a disaster than the front. The place had been ransacked, someone had been looking for something for sure.
He looked through some of the boxes that seemed particularly torn through. It seemed like whoever it was had not had success in finding what they wanted. But most of the torn through boxes seemed to carry books on the occult to some degree. They were probably after the book that had been sent to them, which meant the MacFarland case was not over with.
Parker decided to go at least check out the house one more time, if Arthur was there, great, if not then he might find something that could help him at least figure out why Emily had been killed. One of the two of them needed to do some investigating and he was pretty sure Arthur was going to go after whoever had shot at him. Maybe he’d figure out why they wanted the book, and why someone had sent it to them. Was there information in it about the case? Was it just to prompt them into looking into the case in more detail than they already had? Was it something else entirely?
He was glad they’d only just finished paperwork for the case the day before and that everything about it was still fresh in his mind, or he would not have known the address to the abandoned house and probably would not have recognized the symbol that had been on the book. Parker was also a lot more willing to continue investigating this case than he would have been if they’d closed this case months ago or hell even weeks ago.
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At the house he made his way through the broken window they’d used the last time they were here.
The symbol was still there, same as it had been last time, and he still didn’t like it. It made all the hairs on his arm rise up and sent a shiver down his spine. He pulled his gaze away from it and massaged his temples, trying to rid himself of the headache that had yet to go away.
That’s when he noticed the bookshelf was opened. It had not been open that much when they’d been here before or they would’ve noticed it before they called the police the first time they’d been here. Parker headed inside, someone had opened it and the chances he'd find something in a secret room were high,
Inside was a much smaller room and Parker involuntarily shivered at the mural painted on the wall before he noticed the stone passageway heading down just below it.
Parker forced himself to push aside the feelings of unease and made his way through the stone passageway.
If he had any doubts that this was anything but a cult before they were crushed now. The scene at the bottom of the passage couldn’t be anything but a botched ritual.
The archway that led to nowhere, the stone slab in the center, the podium and of course the corpses and the blood. There were two corpses and it appeared as if they'd killed each other, from what he could see of the mostly decomposed corpses.
He had a feeling that someone had been tied down to that slab, and possibly sacrificed, likely to that thing painted upstairs. He didn’t even want to know what it was and why these people worshipped it. Parker also did not want to know how Emily MacFarland had gotten herself involved in this.
There wasn’t much more he could gain from this and the unease made him want to crawl out of his skin. Arthur wasn’t here and he’d more than likely show back up at the office, hopefully with an explanation of some kind. And it had better be a damn good explanation to explain all of this.
He hurried out of the house and started back to the office. Parker wasn't going to be in this house for a second longer than he needed to be.
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The police were there when he got there and he should not have been as surprised as he was. This day was getting worse by the second. He was stopped from going into the building by an officer. It was not one he knew which would make this whole interaction that much harder.
“Can you tell me what happened? My office is in there and I need to get back to work. I’m a private investigator and I’ve got files in there I need. How long will this take?” He said all at once, hoping he’d get an answer for at least one of the things he said.
“You Peter Yang?” Was what he got instead.
“Did something happen to Arthur?” Parker just asked back. He figured that was enough of an answer to the officer.
“Arthur Lester? You know where he is?”
“No. What’s happened?”
“Edward Mason, your building manager was killed. Shot twice and strangled, in your storage unit. Know anything about that?”
“No. Look, I just need to get inside and get some files.” Parker needed to get into their storage unit. He had no idea what Arthur was up to but it couldn’t be good. Something had happened and it didn’t seem like he had run off to go investigate something on his own, something was wrong.
“No can do, you’ll have to answer some questions, come down to the station.”
“I don’t have time for that. I’m in the middle of a case right now.”
“Alright, you know where your partner is?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Can you tell me the last time you saw him?”
“A couple hours ago maybe. He went off to go investigate a lead and I haven’t seen him since. I was following my own leads, we were going to meet back up here.” He couldn’t imagine why Arthur would have killed Eddie. It’s not like they were friends with him but he had never bothered the two of them about anything before. If Arthur hadn't been the one to kill Eddie, then why had Eddie been in the storage unit and who had killed him?
“I’d really prefer if you came down to the station and gave us more information. Especially about this case the two of you were investigating, it could tell us where your partner went and maybe your partner can tell us why your building manager is dead in your storage unit.”
“Here look, I’ll come down tomorrow, answer any questions you have, but today I need to stay on this case.” Parker pulled out one of their business cards and handed it to the officer, “you know how to get in touch with me and you know where I live. Promise I’ll drop by tomorrow.” He wanted nothing more than to not drop by tomorrow but currently did not see another option to get the officer to back off of Parker at this current moment.
“Fine,” the officer relented, “if we don’t see you tomorrow we’ll come and get you.”
“Perfect. I look forward to it, now may I?” Parker gestured past the officer into the building. He sighed and stepped back, allowing Parker to pass him and head inside.
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There wasn’t anything he actually needed in here and going down to the storage unit was out of the question. But he did need a minute to collect his thoughts, to try to figure out the day.
There was still a gap in his memory from when Arthur had opened that book to when he had woken up in the closet. Trying to recall the lost time just made his head hurt all the more so he stopped, trying instead to string the rest of the day together in a way that made sense.
Arthur had opened the book and something had happened. Something that led him to leave Parker in a closet. Presumably Arthur had put him there, Parker couldn’t think of another reason he’d end up there. Then he’d gone to the bookstore, someone had shot at him, most likely not hitting him, but they’d only fired once, as far as he could tell. Why they wouldn’t have kept firing until they hit their target was a mystery. Unless they hadn’t actually wanted to hit Arthur, but that didn’t make sense because Arthur was in possession of the mystery book, which Parker was pretty sure the shooter had been after. It had something to do with the occult and something to do with the MacFarland’s. He didn’t know if Arthur had gone back to the house, but he assumed it was Arthur who had opened the bookshelf and gone down the passageway and not some vagrant. And then from there he had come back here and killed Eddie? Why? What had spurred that?
There was a piece missing there too, nothing he’d seen at the house had made him want to kill anyone and he doubted Arthur would just murder someone unprovoked. So Eddie must’ve provoked him in some way. But a way that would lead to murder?
Parker wasn’t going to get an answer to why Arthur killed Eddie, not here in this office at least. He might be able to get some answers at the station tomorrow when he goes to answer questions. He could probably convince one of the people there who liked him to get him the report on it. Hell maybe Arthur would show back up, it wasn’t like he had anywhere else to crash. He'd just have to resign himself to waiting here tonight and hoping Arthur would come back with all the answers.
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He only somewhat begrudgingly went to the station early the next morning. He didn’t want to answer any questions but the storage unit had remained off limits and Arthur hadn’t come back last night.
Him not coming home only solidified the fact that he had probably killed Eddie, or that something horrible had happened. More than likely it was both.
Inside the station he was greeted by Robert.
“Hey Peter!” Robert called out upon seeing him.
“Hey.” Parker shoved his hands into his pockets. Robert was not his favorite person to deal with but he was friendly enough and would probably get Parker what he wanted.
“Heard about your partner, it true he killed someone?”
“Don’t know. Haven’t seen him since yesterday. Couldn’t ask him, that’s why I’m here. Hopin’ you all found him and just didn’t tell me.” Parker hated the small talk, he wanted to get this over with and move on with his day.
“No, can’t say we have. You here to answer questions?”
“Yeah, anything to get this whole thing all sorted out. Then I figured I could help you all too. I could take a look at the file, see if anything jumps out. I know Arthur the best, maybe I’ll see something he left behind. Unlike him to leave without saying anything.”
“I don’t know," Robert hesitated before continuing, "You’re officially still a suspect until we find something proving you aren’t.”
“Come on now, you think I’d be here offering to help if I was involved? Plus I was out following a lead when Eddie was killed. I wasn’t even at the office.”
“Alright, alright. I see your point. You can look at the file. Find me after you’ve answered questions. I think Marcus is going to take your statement.”
“Thank you.” Parker pushed past Robert and started towards the back, where he knew they’d question him.
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The interrogation had been utterly pointless. They’d asked the same questions as yesterday. No, he didn’t know where Arthur was. No, he had no idea why Arthur would do something like that. No, he couldn’t tell them about the so-called case he had been working on at the time. Parker only gave them enough vague details to keep them from looking into it too hard. And yes, he would call them if he ever heard from Arthur or thought of anything else about where he might’ve gone. Among some other various questions along the same track.
But after, he was allowed to look at the file they had, which wasn’t much. Parker questioned if coming here and entertaining them was even worth it to look at what he'd been given.
The photos showed Eddie, definitely shot twice and definitely strangled and some other photos from the storage unit itself. He read over what information they had quickly. The bullets used were the same type that Arthur’s gun used, and it being in their storage unit pretty much solidified it was him. The strangulation marks were from the left hand though, which didn’t make much sense. Arthur was right handed, and unless his dominant hand was hurt in some way he would’ve used that one.
What he really wanted though was the pictures from their storage unit, if he could see anything in the photos that had been disturbed he could continue to follow Arthur’s tracks.
The only box that had been pulled out was the Cummings’ box. Parker was not sure if it had been pulled out the last time he’d been in the storage unit but he was pretty sure it hadn’t been. Either way it was the closest thing he had to a lead to go with.
“Do you have any information on Roland Cummings here?” Parker asked and looked up at Robert.
“I mean probably. Why? Got anything to do with your missing partner?”
“Don’t know, just figured I’d cover my bases.”
“Alright yeah, give me a minute.”
Robert left him to his devices and went to go find the file. Parker read over what he had in his hands one more time to see if he missed anything but he really hadn’t. They didn’t know much of anything. They had no motivation and no idea where he might’ve gone. Parker was not about to tell them that his partner had vanished after opening a book and he’d woken up stuffed in a closet, or that he’d tracked Arthur to a ransacked bookstore with a missing owner. He needed to be the one to find Arthur so that Arthur could explain exactly what the hell had happened and then the two of them could deal with it. Make up some bullshit cover story about self defense if they needed, but they’d figure it out.
“Roland Cummings was a character,” Robert said, pulling Parker out of his thoughts.
“What’d he do?”
“Wife was found dead in the basement freezer, Roland is missing, never found him after his wife was discovered. Left his daughter alone too. Probably killed his wife and ran.”
“The daughter? Did she die too?”
“No, says she went to live with family up in Harper’s Hill. No clue if she’s still there, this was quite a few years ago.”
“Great, thank you.”
“What’s this got to do with your partner?”
“Pretty sure it’s got to do with a case we were working. He might’ve been chasing a lead.”
“Does that explain what he did to your building manager?”
“No I suppose not, like I said, it was probably nothing. I will call if I think of anything else. Thanks for letting me see the files.” Parker needed to leave here, he needed to go to Harper’s Hill. If Arthur was chasing down some lead there someone would have seen him, if not then at least he won’t have to lie awake at night wondering if he missed something.
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He only made it as far as the garage when he realized Arthur had taken their car.
“Damnit Lester!” Parker yelled to no one and kicked a few loose pieces of asphalt with his shoe. He’d have to steal another car out of the garage or he’d have to find someone who’d be willing to let him borrow a car.
Neither option was great, he wasn’t too keen on committing a crime right now, he’d barely gotten away from suspect status and didn’t want to get put back on their radar. And there weren’t many people he knew who’d be willing to let him borrow their car. He couldn’t ask any of his connections at the station, they’d want to know why and he couldn’t tell them.
He’d just have to borrow a car from here, he’d most likely return it, provided nothing happened to it, or him. Hopefully before anyone noticed it was missing.
Parker only walked past three cars trying to decide which one to take before he remembered Eddie had a car. He’d only seen it once but he was pretty sure he would be able to find it.
Eddie’s car ended up only being identifiable by the loose papers on the seat that Parker could barely make out while looking through the window. Paperwork about the building that he was likely supposed to take somewhere to be filed properly before he’d been killed. At least he'd had the foresight to keep it out in the open so Parker could identify the car he needed to take. It’s not like Eddie was going to miss it.
It took several attempts and lots of swearing to get the car running and he started towards Harper’s Hill.
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He was almost there when he saw the accident on the side of the road, the one that involved he and Arthur’s car.
“Shit,” Parker muttered and pulled over. He left Eddie’s car running, he didn’t want to deal with getting it running again.
There were three cars, but only two seemed to be involved in the accident. The third was a little ways away, the doors hanging open. Parker didn’t care about that, he cared about his car, and whether or not Arthur Lester was inside of it.
The other car involved in the accident had smashed through the back and side of their car and spun off a bit. Pieces of it were scattered everywhere. The driver was mutilated, blood coated the interior of the car, from what he could see, and pieces of the car had stabbed through him. Parker shuddered and went over to their car. Remarkably it was not in as bad a shape as the other car was. The front passenger side was mostly still intact, with the drivers side and the rear taking most of the hit. It would not be drivable again unless someone knew how to perform miracles but it seemed empty, of any living, breathing people at least.
Parker wrenched the passenger door open and crawled partly in to see if Arthur had ended up dead on the floor somehow.
He wasn’t, but the stupid fucking book was there. The nameless book with the symbol staring up at him from the cover, taunting him.
“Lester what did you get yourself into,” Parker said as he reached down and picked up the book. Nothing else seemed to be in the car out of the ordinary, and Arthur certainly wasn’t in it. Why he’d run off and leave the other driver here to nature's elements was a surprise. Their whole job was to help people. Of course he might’ve just gone to go and get help but this accident had to have been hours ago. The exposed parts of the interior were soaked by rain, and it was not raining and hadn’t been raining since last night. If he went for help he should’ve been back by now.
The nearest town was Harper’s Hill now, possible Arthur could’ve walked there, if he’d been hurt in the accident then perhaps his going for help had ended with him in a hospital. It wasn’t the worst place to check, and while there he could get his hands on some records or files. Possibly see about Roland’s daughter, maybe Arthur had gone to speak with her.
He went back to Eddie’s car, the book with him for better or for worse and started off towards Harper’s Hill.
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Harper’s Hill as it turned out was not a large town and the hospital was not difficult to find, it was just off main street.
Parker reluctantly turned the car off, figuring the only reason he’d be turning it back on was when he left this town and he planned to stay here until he got some semblance of an answer. He did however leave the book in the car. Somehow bringing nameless occult books with him into the general public didn’t seem like a good idea.
Inside he went up to the front desk and fell into being an investigator and not a concerned friend.
“Hello Miss, I’m a private investigator. Workin’ on a case right now, wonderin’ if you’ve had anyone not from around here come in. I think one of my witnesses got hurt, wanted to make sure they were okay and see if they could tell me what happened.” Arthur had always been the better at talking information out of people but Parker could manage alright when he had to.
“Well Mr-”
“Peter Yang, apologies Miss. Focused too hard on the case I can’t even properly introduce myself.” He smiled at her. He needed her to give him something. This whole trip down here couldn’t be a waste.
“Well Mr. Yang, the only person not from around here is a John Doe. If he’s your guy I doubt he’ll be much help to you.”
“Did he die?” Parker was almost afraid of what the answer was going to be.
“No, just in a coma, far as we can tell. Didn’t wake up and is unresponsive. Caused quite the stir early this morning.”
“You think I could see him? Just to confirm if it’s my witness.”
“Of course, if you could identify him then perhaps we’d be able to contact his family, let them know what’s going on. He’s in room 18. I believe one of the nurses should be in there with him.”
“Thank you for your help,” Parker said. He rapped his knuckles against the counter as a way of goodbye and then turned to go find the room he was in.
If it was Arthur, he wasn’t going to identify him. If his friend was truly unresponsive he did not need the hospital knowing who he was and contacting the authorities and then for the police back in Arkham to know he was here. It would cause a whole thing that Parker wouldn’t be able to mitigate without Arthur telling him exactly what had happened. Something he couldn’t do if he was in a fucking coma.
The room was easy enough to find and there was only one nurse in there, fussing over bandages and fuck, it was Arthur in the bed.
He looked for all the world like he was just asleep, like he would wake up any second, and maybe he would.
“Excuse me,” Parker said and the nurse startled slightly before turning to smile at him.
“Hello sir, do you know him?” She sounded hopeful.
“No, I’m afraid not any more than you do. He’s connected to a case I’m workin’ on. He’ll be able to identify the guy I’m after.”
“Oh well, you might have to make do with finding your guy without him. Are you an officer?”
“Private Investigator. Any idea when he might wake up?”
“No, if he wakes up it’ll be when he’s good and ready. Are you investigating the fire down at the edge of town? It’s near where he was found at least.”
Well that gave him an easy out over trying to come up with some non-existent case and might give him a bit more credibility as well.
“Yes, that would be the one. I’m in no hurry. I’ll do what I can without him and even if I catch the guy it’d be nice to still ask him some questions when he wakes up. Give me peace of mind as well to know that I’d caught the right guy if that’s the case. Even so, I like to make sure my witnesses are okay.”
“Of course, I’ll add your contact to his file and we can call you whenever he wakes up.”
“Thank you so much.” Parker pulled one of their business cards from his pocket and handed it to her so she could put it in to call him when he woke up.
“What happened to him?” Parker asked and motioned vaguely to the bandages.
“Stabbed in the stomach, lost a lot of blood, probably what caused the coma in the first place. It’s a miracle he even managed to drag himself to the road where someone found him.”
“Dragged himself?”
“Well yes, from what I heard left quite a blood trail and he’s all scratched up from the ground as well, quite the will if you ask me.”
“Yes, quite.” Parker looked closer at Arthur and sure enough other than the bandages he had plenty of other small cuts and bruises, likely from dragging himself or getting dragged across the ground. He wasn’t so certain Arthur had dragged himself, the few times Arthur had gotten hurt on cases, Parker had been the one to take Arthur for help.
“Well thank you for taking care of him and please let me know when something changes with him.”
“Someone will call you when something happens, promise. I hope you find whoever did this to him and whoever started that fire.”
“Yes thank you, and have a good day now.” Parker smiled at her, cast one last glance at Arthur and then left the room. There was no use staying in here with him. He wasn’t awake and if he spent too much time in the hospital room of someone he supposedly didn’t know the identity of people would get suspicious.
His goal now while he waited for Arthur to wake up and tell him what the fuck had happened was to find Roland’s daughter and see if she knew anything about what was going on.