Fingers finished his chuckle with a smirk, they cocked his head so he could rub one of his eyebrows. I'd seen him do that before. It’s a certain thing he does when he's amused at something that's not politically correct. Yeah, even he’s got his personality ticks.

“I warned you to hire the psych grad, Johnny,” he told me and tapped his nose, “You keep giving work to the dead, and I'm gonna be investigating your ripped up body someday.”

Ordinarily, I find that sort of thing amusing, and he knew that, so I fought down expressing my actual crushing sensation of utter dread, and forced a smile back.

“You know Fingers,” I replied back snappily, “that's what she's always telling me. You two have been talking, have you? Planning. Drawing up flow charts, graphs? I know you’re both good at that.”

He laughed again. Yes I was on a roll.

I was just about to turn and go, when Dr. Dave came back and made an observation that I really wish I hadn't heard spoken out loud.

“Now I have found something in common here, with several sites I have been lucky enough to have run across before.”

“You call that lucky?” I said.

“Yes,” Fingers replied to Dr. Dave.

“Most of this symbology,” the man added, then paused for dramatic effect, “is very direct. I’ll need to go over the photographs of course in due time. But there is a flow that always ultimately leads to a sought out conclusion.”

“So there is more to this than merely revoking a magic spell” Fingers asked. “What more?”

“That’s the interesting thing,” Dr. Dave told us. “It is and it isn’t. Most of the positions of the symbology is oddly flipped and layered. As if there is a third or even possibly fourth power behind this.”

“What the hell does that mean?” I asked.

“I will have to do some research. However, there is a telling repetition in forms laid out from room to room. And they all refer directly to the number thirteen,” he told us.

“Thirteen,” Fingers echoed.

The doctor nodded vigorously began went to the pointing of his finger. You know I think that was what annoyed me the most about his TV show, his relentless finger wagging.  I had the sudden urge to bit it right off his hand as it briefly turned towards me.  I just had to lean a bit forwards...

I had to smile at that. It appeared that right not he was the tail that was wagging fingers. It was a reach of a pun, I’ll admit, but I was desperate.

“Exactly,” Dave stated, look from finger to me then back to finger as If he somehow had read my intentions, silly though they were. “I'm going to want all the pictures of these. I'm guessing a little bit on this, but I want to see how it all fits together. I don't think we’re at the end of what was started here.”

“Really,” I replied. “You think someone else in town is going to spread their blood all over their rented apartment. Think I should warn the Landlord’s Association. It’s going to be a bloodbath.”

He raised his finger again, then realized I’d made a joke.

Fingers nodded at me.

“Johnny here thinks,” he started, “that this guy was storing up a lot of blood in his fridge.”

Dr. Dave nodded.

“That makes sense” he replied. “When you're performing this sort of ritual, it's very important to have enough blood on hand, and enough blood of the person within the channeling is going through, if you know what I mean. And it is possible that multiples might be involved if the spell required that much more power. Maybe three, seven or even, yes, perhaps even thirteen.”

He was looking at me.  I really felt like punching him now.

“Whatever the hell you say,” I said instead. ‘I’m not the occult expert here. In fact I have no idea what I’m doing here. In fact, I was just leaving. Thanks for a brilliant morning.”

And I turned to leave.

“Is your friend always like that,’ I could hear the Doctor asking Fingers as I headed towards the door.

“No,” I heard Fingers say. “Sometimes he says what he really feels.”