1:15 AM Saturday, June 28, 1937. Sacramento California. June 29
Red and blue police lights are visible in the far distance, in the vicinity of the railroad station.
Max and
Eddie are well away from there for now - in a dusty alley amongst a warren of warehouses and shanties on the edge of Sacramento.
Your throats are parched and your bones and muscles are aching from the poison. But you're alive. The sky here is exceptionally dark and the stars shine brighter than you've ever seen in Chicago.
David's briefcase is secured by a cheap combination lock and it only takes a few sharp blows to work it open. But the briefcase is destroyed and can no longer be used.
The most prominent object within is an incredibly old and thick
leather-bound tome embossed with the title
De Vermis Mysteriis. The text inside is inked calligraphy - all in Latin. This book is well used, and some pages have fallen out and been taped back in. On the margins of many pages are handwritten notes (made far more recently), and written in both German and English.
The book shows a printing date of 1542, transcribed in Cologne, Germany, by Ludwig Prinn. From the date alone, it must be worth thousands as an artifact, and should be in a museum.
In a smart leather case, there is a loaded
.22 short automatic pistol, and a box containing
50 additional bullets. The gun looks unused.
There is a pouch in the briefcase that was meant for a small book, but is now stretched and shaped as though it carried a bottle or container for a significant period of time. But there is no bottle present.
There is a
leather billfold in the briefcase containing
$1200 in clean new bills. Twelve crisp one-hundred dollar bills. The billfold is tightly wrapped with a leather strap, and looks more like a stash than money that is frequently withdrawn from.
There is an
address book with an incredible array of names and numbers.
There is also an
accounting book showing accounts in the order of one hundred thousand dollars. Even a cursory glance indicates that this is probably one of Johnny Collin's personal accounting books.
There are
several mostly blank notepads and pencils. Some of the notepads contain accounting calculations.
There is a
steam liner ticket from San Francisco to Shanghai, leaving in 2 days' time.
Lastly, folded within the front cover of De Vermis Mysteriis are two sheets:
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