"Not after the conversation you had with him," Oscar says. "Though I talked with one of his admirers and it was news to him. He'd never even heard of the play. Do you, uh, remember Randolph Carter?" (Of course Terrence remembers Randolph Carter. But there's no way of getting around this, huh.)

"That's quite interesting. ... Yes, I remember Carter. You spoke to him? Was he the admirer?"

"Yeah. They knew each other-- though I think not very closely. Carter was the one who introduced me to this book, said it was based on Roby's dreams. I thought I'd give it a try, see if I can get some insight." Unfortunately it is slow going-- he's read only about ten pages of Roby's dense, curious prose.

"Intriguing. Well, tell me where you bought it - or perhaps, if I might be permitted to borrow it once you're done, if you didn't find other copies - I can't imagine this sold widely."

"Yeah, it wasn't sold widely." Probably for different reasons than Terrence imagines. "I forgot to ask-- do you read German? Roby's written his most detailed accounts of dreams in German. I'm not sure why.

"Damn. Never got around to that one, unfortunately. ... Roby's not German, is he? That is rather strange."

"Carter also told me a bit about Roby's friends."

 "Oh! Good! I tried to look into them but hit a brick wall. All I found was a history text written by his friend - with no obvious relevance to the, the matter at hand. What did you learn?"

"The lead did feel like a brick wall," Oscar admits. "I got three names, two of which I'd never heard of before. The other was Chris Parker." He pauses. "Not sure if he has the same reputation in academia." Oscar puts just a slight stress on the word 'academia.'

"I don't think I've heard of him, so, apparently not. What's his reputation outside of academia?"

"Bad. So I don't have much to do with him even though he's got great contacts and truly fantastic rare books from time to time. He knows his stuff but he's ruthless. All sorts of crazy rumors." He pauses for a second. "Carter actually-- told me another story about Parker. A really crazy one. Do you remember my theory about Roby?"

"Goodness. Quite the character. Yes, I do remember." Terrence leans over his coffee cup - this sounds very interesting indeed.

"I don't know how to say this but Carter seemed a little high-strung," says Oscar. "Maybe you noticed. So he tells me this story about how he took a walk one night, very late so everything's deserted. He claims he saw Parker out there tormenting a tramp, that Parker somehow scared the man to death. Gave him a heart attack or something, I don't know. His version didn't make much sense, had all these details like a cheap horror story-- sorry, I don't mean to mock it-- but he said he heard weird sounds, the body crumbled to dust."

"What the actual hell. Pardon my French."

"Right. He seemed very sincere, shell-shocked even. I don't know what to make of it-- he said he dreams about it all the time, now."

"God. ...Did you know, the time I talked to Carter, he was dismissing modern life for being unbearably dry and not intriguing enough? I'm just saying, whether or not one believes him, if that happened to me, I would have different complaints about the world."

"It's a bourgeois complaint to have." No offense, Terrence? "And-- I'm not sure what parts of the Parker story are literally true amidst the horror melodrama. Like I mentioned, I wonder if he isn't like Roby-- using whatever art's at hand because the truth's too horrible to face."

Terrence nods, thoughtfully. "Do you think we ought to talk to him?"

"Parker?"

"Yeah. --I mean, if he's Roby's friend and we have a connection and might be prone to the same, ah, modes of thinking...."

Not sure you can get Parker's side of the story on "Did you scare a tramp to death?"

"Well, we can get his read on the Roby case. ....Besides, if multiple of us go together, one of us can hang around out of the doorframe in the back with a mask and a big stick, and if he starts turning someone to dust, that person can hit him with the stick. This is the strength of cooperation in action."

"I don't think Parker is going to use his terrible magic powers to give us all heart attacks."

Terrence giggles. "Probably not."

He then smothers it because a person died, maybe, come on, Terrence.

"Probably a dark joke, sorry. But I assume that poor tramp was not in a great physical and emotional condition. If it happened, of course."