"Wish the lobby person or the driver would have... mentioned about Long Beach... before we came all this way. Oh well. Back to LA?"

Why didn't the driver tell them the bank was closed before he drove them here? He has no idea how to behave.

Zoe arrives back at the hotel, slightly less sheveled than she left and not in the best spirits.

As does Lacie, not dishevelled but not particularly happy either.

"Well, I didn't find much of anything. A couple people who remembered him and said he was super weird, but most of his close associates seem to be dead, and apparently there is no gossip floating around about how he died."

"Did you know, Long Beach was leveled in an earthquake last year?"

"Oh, wow. That's much worse luck than I had."

"I learned that there are a lot of people with the surname Echavarria, and also I found a tabloid article, apparently a dozen people died and the only one they could identify was a movie star named Richard Spend. Also the archive keeper didn't like how I put the papers back and I have been kicked out of the morgue, so that's helpful."

"Oh! I did get a first name. Ramon. We're looking into Ramon Echavarria."

"The First Bank of Long Beach was an abandoned ruin. Apparently the bank failed after the quake, and FDIC took over all their stuff. So fingers crossed the safety deposit box made its way to their offices, which are, mercifully, in downtown LA. I tipped the bum who warned me I was wasting my time at the bank. I did NOT tip the driver who we spent FOUR HOURS in a car with and no mention that our destination was a pile of rat-infested rubble. --I'm going to the FDIC tomorrow."

"Nobody happens to think Nahua legends or 'the broken ourobouros of Ahtu' are relevant, right?"

"Unless one of them's a nyarlathotep, they're probably not relevant."

"Never heard of them. I think banks close before colleges are vacant, right, so we could probably still hit the FDIC offices and then do UCLA? Or split up and do them simultaneously?"

"Oh, if the bank is still open I'll gladly head over there after I freshen up a little. I'd like to get something useful done today."

"All right. You two can do the FDIC offices and me and Mordred and Lacie can do UCLA, I guess?"

"How long do you think you'll stay at the University? If we finish up quick, we can come meet you there after."

"Not sure. Really depends on if we can find a George Avery or Ayers or anyone connected to him."

"How about, if we're done before 5, we'll come to the university, and otherwise we'll meet up at the hotel again?"

Zoe and Carrie take a few minutes to wash up and put their hair back in order before they leave. They don't want to show up at the bank smelling or looking like a rat.

It’s a beautiful day in Los Angeles. The clear blue sky is interrupted only by stunning rows of green palm trees. The Los Angeles Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles is a recent art deco edifice housing a wide variety of federal bureaucracies and departments. The offices of the FDIC are listed in the building directory in the lobby.

"Carrie, do you remember if Mr. Henslowe gave us any way to corroborate that we're permitted to access the box, other than the key? Or is the key all we need? If the key's all we need it doesn't seem like all that safety of a deposit, but I've never actually had one myself, just seen them in the back."

"Well, we've also got the letter from him to Mr. Winston authorizing him to use it?"

They go to the FDIC offices. The secretary directs them to a Mr. Burlington.

He's taking a call and gestures for them to sit. "Yes, I realize there's a risk of a bank run... yes I understand this is important... I promise, the FDIC is doing everything we can..."

He hangs up the phone. "Hello, what can I help you with?"

"We're here on behalf of Mrs. Winston-Rogers, settling the estate of her late father. We found among his possessions this letter." She hands it to him. "We have the key, but it seems that the First Bank of Long Beach is no longer in operation. Do you think you could help us locate the safety deposit box?"

"Oh, yes," he says. "It went bust in the big earthquake of '33. We collected everything that wasn't nailed down and put it in the FDIC warehouse."