With the fridge and wheelbarrow dumped and the doghouse strapped down on his truckbed, Oliver drives back to town to finish the last errand he has to do. While he drives, the spectral pitbull decides to make himself comfortable on the passenger's seat.
Oliver arrives and parks his pickup in front of the store. He looks at the sign that reads “Ace Hardware” and enters to look for what he needs: a crowbar, a pipe wrench, an angle grinder, and something to cut through the basement door. The first two are easy enough to find a sturdy crowbar and a pipewrenche, the angle grinder needs to be rather powerful to cut through, so he goes to the front desk and asks the woman there“goodmornig mam i have a question, i have a big steel door in my house and i need to get it open what would you recommend to get it open?”
She asks, “How soon do you need it open? If you need it open now, I would recommend that one.” She points at a large battery-operated angle grinder. “But if you can wait a couple hours, I could give you the number of a good locksmith. Just tell him Tina told you to call him.”
Oliver puts the crowbar and pipe wrench on the counter and says, “Then I’ll give him a call.”
Tina smiles and says, “That will be thirty dollars.” I hand her the money, and she tells him, “Have a pleasant day.”
Oliver says, “You too.’ before going back out to his pickup only to find a police officer waiting for him.
The officer asks Oliver, “That’s a nice truck. It does look rather familiar, though.”
Oliver puts his new tools in the back and answers, “Probably because it used to be my uncle’s. He used to live near gafverts.”
The officer smiles and asks, “You're Samuel's nephew? Well, that's great. You wouldn’t happen to be in the business of collecting them anomalies like your uncle would you?”
Oliver pats the doghouse on the back of his truck. “Sure am; already did one today.”
The officer is about to touch it, but Oliver stops him. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you; it has a really annoying side effect. "
The officer retracts his hand and says, “That's right, your family is immune to them. You know when I was a rooky, your uncle was talking to my training officer and i may have touched a anomalie that was in the back of his truck that damned thing gave me insomnia for a week.”
“Yeah, this one isn't that bad, but if you touch or stay near it too long, you will get itchy,” Oliver explains.
The officer laughs and backs away from the anomaly and asks Oliver, “Do you have some time to come by the department? We have some reports about anomalies in the area. We would normally give these to your cousin when he comes by to board up broken windows on Samuel's estate. Well, I guess it’s your estate now, right?”
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Oliver nods and says, “It sure is.” he checks his watch to find that it's a bit past eleven a.m. “I still have two hours before they come deliver the fridge. If you could show me to your department, I will take a look at those reports.”
The officer nods and heads back to his patrol car, and Oliver follows him toward the police department, where he parks his pickup and follows the officer inside. The officer opens the door to an office where the chief of police sits behind a desk. The officer introduced us. “Hey, chief, the Moreau family finally sent someone to replace Samuel.” The chief looks up from his papers and asks Oliver, “Really? That's great news.” The chief turns around, opens a file cabinet, and grabs four bundles of files.
“Each of these is a reported anomaly people have encountered around the area, but I want you to take a look at these four.” he pluts four documents. “This one is from the church here in Ely. Something in there is making people pray and not letting them go. We believe that it makes them pray after seeing it as when a blind member of the community entered the church he was completly fine and helped the ones stuck praying back outside. Where they recovered”
“The second one is a bit weirder. A group of tourists was attacked by something in Burntside Lake while kayaking near the listening point. They claim that something rammed into their kayak and stabbed through one of their legs while they were swimming away.”
“The third one is the easiest; we already have it locked away in evidence. It's a rifle that makes someone hate wildlife. It was found by a game warden after subduing a poacher. After picking it up, the game warden began shooting at the animals himself, and his trainee had to subdue him and called us to come and get the weapon as he suspected it was an anomaly.”
“The last one is unknown, but it is suspected that something moved into an old log cabin near High Lake, and when people hike near it, they get the feeling of being stalked.”
“Are people allowed near these locations?” Oliver asks,
The chief shakes his head and answers, “No, they have been blocked off from the public. Except for the last one, nobody has been harmed there. It's only that they feel like they are being stalked, but it's important to note that that one has the largest area of effect as it engulfs the entirety of Hige Lake.“
All right, I will check out the church tomorrow, but now I have to get back home as my fridge will be delivered soon.” Oliver points at the bundles of paper on the desk and asks, “May I?”
The chief answers, “Of course .” Oliver takes the stacks of files, brings them to his pickup, and goes back for the rifle the moment he enters the evidence lockup he can feel it without needing to be told where he picks the rifle up of the floor and turns to the officer escorting him “how did you manidge to get it here without touching?” oliver know that no matter what if you touched it even with gloves or a stick or anything else it would effect normal people.
The officer tells Oliver, “We told the game warden some rare wildlife was in the evidence locker and then used a tranquilizer on him.”
Oliver nods, takes the rifle to his pickup, and makes his way home. Now, the only thing he has left to do is call the locksmith.
