8. Markham

Cade, he and his canine companion having been fed, and fed well, left Yuri's place armed with a cell phone number, orders to call if they needed anything, and one damn lead that probably wasn't a lead at all. Something about "beggars" and "choosers" put that into perspective for the time being.

He sat at a traffic light, turning a plain white business card over in his hand. This had been the only thing of note found in Matt’s wallet. The front had an embossed image that Cade, being an informal student of world mythologies, identified as the Rod of Asclepius. The image of a serpent winding around a staff, in addition to often being mistaken for the Caduceus, was a well-known symbol for practitioners of medicine. Beneath the image were the words "Holistic Healing" and the town of Markham, MA, which Cade had never heard of, but it sounded ominous, anyway. Very Lovecraft-ian.

7. Road Trip

It was good to have company on a long drive, even if that company stuck his head out the window most of the time. At least Cade got to control the music.

Trying to think like a detective (yet conceding that he probably couldn't), he decided that the logical first stop was Matt's apartment in Amherst, Massachusetts. He flipped open his cell phone, dialed the number he had written on a scrap of paper, and the apartment manager picked up on the second ring. Cade identified himself and what he wanted to do, to which the manager readily agreed. He tossed the phone carelessly onto the passenger seat, forgetting that it was occupied. The phone bounced off Loki's back; he raised his head, looked around, and promptly went back to sleep.