Sean would’ve been a tyke at that moment in history. The kid’s later windmill tilting in defense of Campbell and Ryoko might or might not prove relevant. Arguably, these old bastards were the type of kooky anthropologists one might expect to know the details of a cult like the Mares. It slotted perfectly into their Fortean research.

I clicked the remote and aborted the pseudo-academic tit-for-tat. The screen froze; Dr. Campbell’s glasses reflected the fire, his mouth skinned wide in laughter. Dr. Alex Pruitt had said geography shaped the mind. I couldn’t disagree. Meddling adults shape a child’s mind too. I asked myself what went on in Sean Pruitt’s mind besides hero worship? What manner of demons had lurked there? Would identifying those demons reveal the truth about his fate?

■■■

I cyberstalked the Redlick Group, Zircon Corporation, and the Jeffers Project, among numerous related players. Real estate and chicanery are joined at the hip. Recently, two developers who’d brought foreign investment to an impoverished part of Vermont were accused of fraudulently acquiring hundreds of millions of dollars. The money came from more than six hundred foreign investors hoping to get a special visa through the federal EB-5 program. Lo and behold, several companies affiliated with either Zircon Corporation or the Redlick Group were tangentially involved in the caper. What did the kids say about corporate greed in America? There was no bottom.

For dessert, I dove deep into the folklore of western New York. Meg’s connections scored me a sheaf of scanned historical documents detailing cult activity and uncanny incidents in the Southern Tier region. I supplemented my anthropology homework with phone calls to several university professors and a handful of authors. Unlike the typical stonewalling, these people were relatively eager to bend my ear once they got warmed up on the topic. Predictably, only the Valley High administration and school librarian rebuffed my inquiries.

Nobody had much to impart regarding the Mares as such. However, it became apparent that a similar group, or the same group under aliases, had taken root in the Valley during colonial times. Old-world paganism blending with local mysticism and mutating into a different strain. The Mares of Thrace was an evolving society in that every few years it shed its skin and attached to a new thematic identity.

I uncovered instances of the Mares operating as a youth auxiliary of rebel militias during the War of Independence; a Depression-era youth choir of a charismatic church; a Boy Scout troop; and of late, faux upperclassmen of Valley High circa the 1950s. Rumors of violence swirled in their wake, chiefly assaults and a string of murders and disappearances. Violent crime was low in Horseheads proper, but much more pronounced in neighboring towns, such as Corning. It seemed possible that if the Mares indulged in ritualistic violence, they tended to select victims outside their backyard.

What use any of this would serve remained to be seen.

I prepared a report for Adeyemi’s lawyer, omitting my own ethically questionable tactics and definitely not mentioning my speculation about occultism, black ops science experiments, or related conspiracy theories. To summarize, I admitted to possessing truckloads of suspicion and zero evidence to suggest foul play. However, I concurred with June Pruitt that Sean’s death tilted toward the suspicious side. Adeyemi would need to decide whether to continue the investigation after the New Year. If so, he’d be ponying up for hazard pay.