He keeps reaching for words and not finding any, or flinching from them, or choking on them before they can come out. But he's got enough tears to last him the rest of the night.

"Here. We can't stay crouched on a street forever. Let's go to a diner and then you can cry into your coffee."

He does not let go of Oswald's hand.

(Physical contact! Self-hatred about how much he's enjoying physical contact!)

They go to a diner. Oswald apparently has an automatic mental system for ordering coffee that's unrelated to whether his brain is on. He is not so much holding Lev's hand as gripping it; his knuckles are almost white.

This Should Really Not Be As Nice As It Is.

He drinks coffee. It burns him, which feels like the point. He has forgotten how to talk. It feels like if he looks away Lev is going to be gone and he will be stranded alone in a now-hostile city.

Lev is not sure how to do this kind of interaction if it doesn't involve Oswald having sex with him and he is pretty sure if he initiates that then he is going to get beat up.

So at some point he is going to nudge Oswald back to the hotel and then if Frank is asleep and Oswald seems to want it Lev can hug him in his bed and then whatever ends up happening happens.

What's going to happen is that Oswald will lean into him until his sheer exhaustion catches up to him and tell him, half-asleep, not quite coherently, to stay here, and stay safe.

"Okay. I will. I won't leave unless you want me to."

He nods and then he is asleep.

That evening--

Anemone, Magnificence, and Carrie are watching Samson Trammel's mansion.

They notice a recurring pattern of Mexicans in zoot suits (not exactly par for the neighborhood) pulling cars onto the property via the dirt road that approaches from the rear, parking in the carriage house, and then walking to the main house. After a short time, never more than 15 minutes, the individuals head back to the carriage house, get back into their cars, and depart by the same route.

A large Mexican guard comes out to say "what's that racket?"

Anemone claps her hand over Magnificence's mouth and quietly shhhhhhs him.

Magnificence is VERY IRRITATED at being shushed in such a rude manner! He pulls away and runs off.

The guard says, "there's a monkey? What is a monkey doing in Pasadena? Did you escape from the zoo?" He shakes his head. "Not my problem."

He leaves.

Anemone... pulls out her bag of treats and hopes that the smell successfully lures Magnificence back without them having to, like, go get him, or otherwise communicate with him.

"...didn't one of the people Miss Ferrier told us about have a monkey?" the guard says, half to himself.

The guard begins to search the bushes, far from them. 

DRAT.

Okay, Anemone is going to very quietly sneak away to the road. 

Carrie follows.

The guard spots her. "Hey!" he says. "Stop right there."

Carrie begins to run; the guard, who is not very good at seeing in the dark, trips over a tree root.

Okay, Anemone is gonna get to the road and walk back towards town like a normal person and then pause a ways away from the house and wait for Magnificence to catch up.

She has Some Amount of Faith that he can figure this out.

And then Anemone is going to take the monkey home. She really believes she had too much faith in him. 

That night, Carrie has a nightmare. 

She's back in Joy Grove, walking down a residential corridor, past peeling paint and broken tile, as patients press their faces to the little windows in the doors to their rooms. They stare out at her, except they have no eyes. They have mouths where their eyes should be and they’re forming words, muted by the glass. Are they warning her? Pleading to be released? Calling for her? From those mouths they cry out with words and tears.

The next morning, the investigators split up: Zoe researches Richard Spend; Oswald and Carrie go to report the current situation to the Department of Investigation; Anemone calls Mrs. Winston-Rogers; and Lev and Mordred go to try to follow one of the dead bodies and see where they're disposing of them. 

Zoe finds Richard Spend's obituary.

Actor Richard Spend, Dead At 32

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.-- Richard Spend, the 32-year-old film actor, died in his sleep last night from natural causes.

Spend, who shot to prominence in the filmed version of Zane Grey’s The Man in the Forest opposite Clark Gable in 1923, was reportedly discovered in his home by sister Yolanda Spenzel early this morning.

As the “Brown-Eyed God,” Spend was among the top twenty box office attractions in 1924. News of his death spread quickly around town and chilled a plush Hollywood gathering at the annual Young Actresses Debut Ball. By an ironic touch, Spend had taken out a full-page ad in the ball program. It read simply: “Thanks, Livvy. (Signed) Richard Spend”, a touching tribute to his costar Olivia Clarendon from The Black Cat. 

His death comes as a shock both to his fans and to Universal, where he was planning to appear in Rupert Julian’s The Phantom of the Opera. 

Meanwhile--

Lev fumbles with his pack of cigarettes. His hands are shaking. "Hey. So are we going on foot or in a car?"