" Just one box?" " It's for my office." "It's fragile." "Sissy." " Hey, dude, headphones." "You're gonna go deaf!" "An autograph?" " I just thought that..." " Are you kidding me?" "Ma'am?" " Sheriff." " Your husband around?" "Ashley?" "Ashley?" "Honey." "Sweetheart." " What are you doing?" " Painting." "Yeah." "I know." "I think your mom wants your help unpacking." "I know." "So come outside." "You can finish your painting later." "I didn't wanna move here." "I shouldn't have to carry boxes." "We had to move here and we all have to help carry boxes." " Uh-uh." "You wanted to move here." " No, I had to move here." "The new story I'm writing is here." "Why can't you just keep writing in the old house?" "'Cause I was gonna have to write college textbooks to pay for that old house." " And I can't do that." " Why not?" " 'Cause I just can't." " But I miss my school." "Well, you know what?" "The school here is supposed to be pretty great." "But I want my old one." "I know." "How about this, all right?" "I'll tell you what." "If we don't like it here, once I sell my book, we'll move back." "But only if we don't like it here." " Really?" " Really." "You promise?" "I promise." "But you have to promise to try to like it here." " I promise." " You do?" "Now, my little artist." " What's the number one rule?" " Paint only goes in the bedroom." " Where doesn't it go?" " Anywhere else in the house." "Right." "OK, now, come with me." "Move some boxes." "Sheriff's here." " Already?" " Play nice this time." " I'm always nice." " I'm not kidding." "I'm tired of driving five miles under the speed limit to get ticketed anyway." "Be nice." "Afternoon." "Is there a problem?" "No, sir." "Just a friendly visit." "I appreciate that." "Ellison Oswalt." "I know who you are." " So you're not a fan." " No." "Well, what can I do for you?" "Well, not much, I expect, unless I can convince you to load those boxes back on that truck and leave as soon as you're able." "No, I don't think so, but, you know what." "I do have a couple of extra copies of Kentucky Blood if you want me to get one out and sign it for you." " No, thank you, sir." " Is it the writing?" "More a matter of content." "You don't seem to care much for our profession." "Not everybody in your profession gets it right." "I've read your books." "Neither do you." " Look..." " You got it right in Kentucky Blood." "I'll give you that." "It's a fine piece of writing." "But Cold Denver Morning, you got it wrong." " Blood Diner..." " Look, that wasn't my fault." "All right?" "Your bad theory helped a killer go free." "You ruined people's lives." "Now, this town doesn't need that." "It needs to heal." "It needs to forget." "We sure don't want that circus that you bring with you." "Well, there's a missing girl involved here." " She ain't missing." "She's dead." " Come on." "You don't know that." "If that girl is still alive, then it ain't no miracle and we ain't ever gonna find her." "Then I guess we should just let it go, huh?" "You don't think the town deserves an explanation?" "Something like this..." "You can never explain something like this." "And if you were able to, the odds are you wouldn't much care for the answer." "Now, we did our job." "You'll see that." "And this is just another waste of your time like your last two books." "If writing true crime has taught me one thing." "It's that whenever an officer of the law tells me that I'm wasting my time, it just means he thinks he's wasting his." "That's clever." "You ought to write that down." "Well, I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume your department is not at my disposal?" "Well, what do you know?" "You can still get things right on occasion." "Oh, and..." "I find this to be in extremely bad taste." " What was all that about?" " The usual." "He wanted an autograph, but he left his copy at home." " He'll be back later." " That bad?" " Mm-hm." " Why was he pointing at the house?" "Ellison, we didn't move in a few houses down from a crime scene again, did we?" " Tracy..." " No, just don't say anything." "If we did, I don't wanna know about it." " We didn't." " You promise?" "I promise." "Here." "Make yourself useful, Kitchen." "It's gonna be good here, OK?" "You'll see." "Shit." "Oh, shit." "You gotta be kidding me." "Family Hanging Out, '11?" "Barbeque, '79?" "I've also got noodles and fortune cookies." "Enjoy, kids." "We're not likely to be able to eat out much this time." " Oh!" " Why not?" " You know why." " I don't." "We haven't sold the old house yet." "Once it's gone, well be able to afford a few extra things." "Then sell it already." "Lower the price if you have to." "We've already lowered it as much as we can." "The market's terrible." "Once we're not paying two mortgages, we'll be fine." "And once I sell my new book, we'll be on Easy Street." " Is the story a good one this time?" " Yeah, it's good." "Of course it is." " Will you show me where it happened?" " Trevor." "I'm old enough to know about this stuff." "No, youre not." "Even I'm not old enough to know about this stuff." "Your father writes about terrible, terrible things." " I shouldn't be writing about it?" " That's not what I meant." "That's the way you said it." "I'm gonna hear about it at school anyway." "Kids'll all hate me again and tell me nonstop what happened." " Hey, nobody hates you." " I might as well hear it from you." " Are you listening to this?" " Yes." "I'm listening." "Let's at least make sure your office stays locked." "It's one thing to hear about it, another to see it." "I don't want him walking in again." "He's 12." " Mom, he knows how old I am." " Hey, stop it." " What's the first rule?" " Never go in Dad's office." "And what's the rule?" " Always lock Dad's office." " That's right." "And I don't wanna hear another thing about why we're here, from anybody." "Yeah." "You didn't brush your teeth." " No. not yet." " You're not coming to bed?" "No, I thought I'd set up my office first and get started." " How long is it gonna be?" " Just an hour or two." "No, I mean..." "how long are we here for this time?" "Oh, God' I don't know." "It could be along one." "I liked it better when you were writing fiction." " Nobody likes my fiction." " Maybe you should try again." "I can't do this without you by my side." "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry." "I'm on your side." "I just wanna see you enjoying your work again." "When you're happy... we're all happy." "I just need another hit, that's all." " Just one more." " I just..." "What?" " You know I'm behind you on this." " I know." "But that's not what you were gonna say." "What were you gonna say?" "Kentucky Blood was ten years ago." "And?" "And... what if that was your 15 minutes?" "OK, what if it was?" "If it was, you can't just spend the rest of your life chasing after it." "If you miss out on these years with the kids, you won't get them back." "I just need one more chance, that's all, one more." " OK. good." " I got a good feeling about this." "But, Ell, I don't think I can do this again." " Honey, you're not gonna have to." " No." "I mean it." "If this goes sour like last time." "I'll take Trevor and Ashley and go back home to my sister's." " Is that fair?" " Yes." "But it's not gonna go sour." "Good." "Now go kick some arse." "What the hell?" "Let's do this." "All right." "Why would you film it?" "Daddy, I can't find the bathroom." "Come here." "Come on." "Come on." "We'll get you..." "Thank you, Daddy." "Look at all these new paintings." "You're really getting good." "Thank you." "Maybe one day I'll paint something really good." " Then I'll be famous like you." " I'm sure you will, princess." " All right, get some sleep." " OK." " And Daddy?" " Yes?" "Are you gonna write a really good book this time so we can go home?" "I'm gonna write the best book that anyone's ever read." " Operator." " Yeah, King County Police, please." " Is this an emergency?" " Yes, yes, it is." "King County Police Department." "How may I direct your call?" "King County Police Department." "How may I direct your call?" "Hello?" "Hello?" "All right." "You came back and left the box." "Why?" " Dammit, Ashley." "Ashley?" "Trevor!" "Trevor, Trevor, Trevor, hey, hey!" "Wake up." "Trevor, wake up, all right?" "Hey, hey, hey." "Hey, wake up." "Wake up, all right?" "OK, OK." "Come on, come on." " Oh, my God, is he OK?" "Come on, open up." "Here we go." "Come outside." "Hey, hey." "Hey, hey, all right?" "Hey, hey, hey, wake up." "Come on, come on, come on, wake up." "Wake up, wake up, wake up." "Trevor, wake up for me, all right?" "Hey, hey, hey." "Look at the stars." "Trevor." "Trevor, Trevor." " Why are we outside?" " All right, bud." "OK." "You were having a bad dream, OK?" "One of those night terrors." " Just go back to sleep." " I thought these were over." "It's just the stress of the move." "I found him in one of the moving boxes." "Poor baby." "He'll be all right in a few hours." "Oh." "Oh, Tracy." "I..." "What is it?" "What's the matter?" "I wanna..." "I wanna tell you something." "OK." "I'm just really sorry." "It's not your fault." "Come on." "It's cold." "Let's go inside." "I was in a box?" " You were in a box." " I don't remember any of that." "It's not the strangest place we've ever found you." "Please don't talk about the dryer." "Are we talking about the time we found Trevor trying to pee in the dryer?" " God, Mom, no." " I'm sorry, honey." "I thought that's what you were talking about." "Did Trevor try to pee in the dryer again?" " Mom." " No." "Your brother had a night terror." " Is that like a bad dream?" " Kind of." "Oh, I think I had one of those." "No, a night terror is a special kind of bad dream." "We would have remembered if you had one." "Don't do that." "You can sit right here." "So, Ashley, you excited about your first day at the new school?" " What about you?" " I guess." "It's nice to see you're both so enthusiastic about our adventure." " Stop it." " Hey, you two stop it." "Stop it." "Be the bigger person." "Are you gonna take 'em?" "Yeah, I've got some errands to run." "I figured I'd get the lay of the land and let you get some work done." " Eat up." "You're running late." " You heard your mother." "Grab some road breakfast and skedaddle." " I left you a fresh pot of coffee." " Thanks." "Have a nice morning with your murder victims." " Yes. dear." " Come on." " Trevor, where's your notebook?" " It should be in my backpack." "Can you see it in there?" "Oh, fuck." "That's it." "OK." ""Super 8 film was first released in 1966 by Eastman Kodak."" "OK." "Ah!" "Trevor, don't walk away from me." "Ashley, close the door." "Trevor, what on earth were you thinking?" "I'll tell you again." "I wasn't thinking." "That's your problem." "You don't think." "You wanna be treated like an adult, but you don't act like one." "You and Dad do lots of thinking." "If you did, we wouldn't be here." "You don't know what you're talking about." " I know more than you." " Go to your room!" " I don't wanna see you until dinner." " Fine." " What happened?" " Mom's overreacting." " Your son is acting out again." " What did he do?" " You're automatically taking her side?" " Hey, stop it." "What did you do?" "I drew a picture." "A picture with a permanent marker on the classroom whiteboard." " Oh, God." "Trevor?" " Tell him what you drew." " I drew a tree." " With four people hanging from it." "Go to your room, Trevor." "I need to speak to your father." "His first day at school, Ellison, and he's already hearing the grisly details of your mystery?" " What did he hear?" " Exactly what he drew." "That your book is about a family that was hung." " Christ, Ellison." " But that's all he heard?" "That's not enough?" "Look, I'm sorry he had to find out like this, all right?" "I am." "But, come on, it was bound to happen." "Really?" "That's your response?" "You think that makes it OK?" "No, it doesn't make it OK. all right?" "Nothing about what happened to these people is OK." "But bad things happen to good people and they still need to have their story told." " They deserve that much." " You're a real man of the people." "Oh, come..." " I'm putting the kids to bed." " Kiss them good night for me." " You're getting good work done?" " Yeah." "Good." "Please keep the door closed." "OK, 1998." "St Louis murders." "New details today in the grisly murders of a local family found earlier this week." "Police have released this photo of Christopher Miller, the missing 13-year-old son of William and Penny Miller." "The Millers, woman with their younger son, were found stabbed inside their home, and police now are asking for any information that could lead to Christopher's return or the apprehension of any suspects involved in this vicious multiple murder and child abduction." "Family Hanging Out." "Pool Party." "Barbecue." "Sleepy Time." "Really, I'm fine." "I'd prefer to take you down to the hospital." "You should get stitches." " Can't force you, though." " Yeah, and I'm not gonna go." "The bleeding's stopped for now, but if it starts again or if there's any more swelling, call a doctor immediately." " Thank you." "Appreciate it." " OK." " This way." " So..." "let's go see this hole." "So you say you heard a loud thump and footsteps in the attic after the power went out?" "Yes." " But the ladder wasn't down?" " No, it wasn't." "It's not possible to close it from inside the attic?" "No." "So how would an intruder get up there?" "I didn't say anyone was up there." "I said it sounded like there was an intruder." " I did see a small snake, though." " Snakes don't have feet." "You know, I'm..." "I'm guessing that you got squirrels." "With, you know, way in and out up there and all the power gone off in the neighbourhood." "I bet they got spooked from the sound of everything shutting down at once." " You know how they are." " Not really." " I'm not really a squirrel guy." " Really?" "I did kill a scorpion when we first moved in here. though, so maybe I should get an exterminator." "Scorpions have feet. but you wouldn't hear 'em like you would squirrels." "Well, Officer, thank you very much." "It's..." "I will..." "If there's anything else I can do for you..." "Actually, there is." "I left my copy of Kentucky Blood down at the station." "It'd really mean a lot to me if you signed a copy." " I got a few extra copies in my office." " Thank you so much." "That's so great." "Wow." "Do you know what?" "This is like one of them FBI profiler's offices." "You got a map with pictures connected with yarn and everything." "Deputy." "I need you to step outside." "This is my private office." "I'm serious." " Just wait outside." " Mr Oswalt. listen." "You know there's a page in your books where you always say nice things about all the people that helped you out?" " The acknowledgements?" " Yeah. well..." "Yeah, and in each one there's always like a line that says, you know." ""I couldn't have done this without the tireless efforts of Deputy So And So from the local police department."" "Right." "Well, you know, I could be like... you know, your Deputy So And So, you know, if you don't already have one." "Yeah, there are a few things you could do for me, actually." " Really?" " Yeah. this could be perfect." " Do you have a notepad?" " Um..." " Yes." " All right." "Do you need a pen?" "Yes." "I need the street address of a crime." "In 1998, St Louis, a family was stabbed to death." "They had their throats out." "It was a pretty ugly affair." "I also need any details you can get me on another murder, 1979, a family was burned alive, parked inside their own car, in their own garage." " What city?" " I don't know." "All I have is the year and the method of execution." "Hmm." "You think that the two cases are related?" " Oh, no, no." "I'm just doing research." " OK." "I can definitely get this for you." "I gotta wait till the sheriff leaves the office, but I will get it." "Thank you very much, Deputy So And So." " I'm sorry." " For what?" "I was angry at Trevor today and I took it out on you." "No, don't be sorry." "I know the move's been hard for you." " I'm trying, Ell." "I really am." " I know." "I just want you here with me, that's all." "I've always been with you." "And I'm with you now." "Pleased to have Ellison Oswalt on our programme." "His new book is called Kentucky Blood." " Good to have you on." " Thanks for having me." "A real pleasure." "Man, I got into this." "This is pretty graphic stuff." "So let me star?" "by asking why you spend so much time investigating such grisly content?" "Fame and money?" "No, I'm just kidding." "The honest answer is that I'm really driven by a sense of injustice." "When I think about the awful things that happened to these people and that those responsible were never even identified, let alone caught..." "I mean, I knew when I started this particular case that I might stumble on a few things that maybe somebody'd overlooked." "Might?" "No, you in fact did uncover some additional information that the cops had overlooked." "Well, look, first off, there are a lot of good police officers out there and I don't wanna in any way disparage what they do, right?" "But in police work getting something wrong means ruining people's lives." "Good crime writing can set things right." "So, ultimately, what feels better?" "Seeing justice done or seeing your book, Kentucky Blood, number one on the New York Times bestseller list?" "The justice, without question." "I'd rather cut my hands off than write a book for fame or money." " Are you making Daddy his coffee?" " Yes." "Can I help?" "I wanna bring it to him." "Sure, honey, but we have to make it just right." "He's very particular about his coffee." " Brought you your coffee, Daddy." " Oh, thank you, sweetheart." " Oh." " Yeah, hello." " Hey, Mr Oswalt." "Hey, Deputy So And So." "I'm sorry to get back to you so fate in the day." "I couldn't make the call from the office." "You know, the sheriff." " Yeah, I understand." " But I got what you asked about." "There was a Martinez family in Sacramento, California, that died in their garage in 1979, their car was set on fire." "One of their sons, nine years old, they never found him." " Do you have the street address?" " It's 8224 Billington, Sacramento." "And what about St Louis?" "The address of the house where the Miller murders occurred is 2976 Piedmont Way, St Louis." "That is excellent. 29..." "Wait, did you say 2976, like 29-76?" "Yeah." "Does that mean something to you?" "No, no, it doesn't." "No." "Thank you." "Thank you." "Deputy." "Before the Stevensons moved here." "They lived where the Miller family murders happened?" "Holy shit." "Ashley?" "Trevor?" "Oh, my God." "Is he OK?" "I found him outside." "We have to put a lock on his door." "It's way worse than it was." "I'll call the doctor in the morning." "You stay with him." "I left something outside." "Good dog." "Good dog." "I don't wanna hurt you." "I just wanna get my bat so if you come at me, I can bash your head in, OK?" "That's fine." "You keep it." " You OK?" " Yeah, I'm fine, fine." "Trevor's too old to still be having these." "He was supposed to have outgrown them by now." " He's all right." "He's OK." " Just stop." " Stop what?" " Drop the book." "We can pack up, get out of town and never look back." "Why, 'cause he's having some night terrors?" "It's more than that." "He's never been this bad." " You've never been this bad." " What are you talking about?" "You've been at this book less than a week and you're already a mess." "You never crack into the whisky this early and this often." " You're saying I'm a drunk?" " No." "I'm saying there's something you aren't telling me, something that's eating you up, and it seems to be getting to Trevor as well." " Somethings different this time." " Yeah, you wanna know what it is?" " How much do you wanna know?" " I wanna know why you're different." "I'm different because I've never been onto something this big before." "Do you remember how it was when I was writing Kentucky?" " I remember." " This is much bigger than that!" "Much!" "I am talking about a potentially important work here." "I'm talking about a mega hit." "This could be my In Cold Blood." "A movie deal, talk show circuit, right?" "A national book award." "More money than we could..." "We could live wherever we wanted to." " I don't care about any of that." " You do." "Everybody does." " I'm just..." " This is my shot, Tracy." "You're just what?" " I'm just worried about you." " Well, don't be." "Nothing is wrong." "Then why did you come in white as a ghost?" "Because I saw a dog, OK?" " A dog?" " A very big dog, like Cujo big." "I mean, I'd never seen him before." "He's like..." " Did you get rid of him?" " Yeah, he's gone." "Listen, I just need a little more time." "OK?" "I promise it's worth it." "Every minute that we're here, we're a minute closer to that happy ending that we always dreamed of." "We're almost there." "OK?" " Deputy." " Mr Oswalt, these came in this morning." "I had a few of the pertinent files pulled for you and had 'em faxed over." " Really?" " Yeah." " Thanks." " No problem." "Do you think I could come in for a second?" "Uh..." "Yeah. sure." " Thanks." " Come on, just here." "Look, I..." "I know what you must think of me." "Some small-town deputy that's starstruck with the famous writer." " But I'm not some local moron." " I didn't say you were a... you know." "I have a degree in criminology." "I've taken my fair share of forensic science courses." "I also know a series of connected murders when I see one, Mr Oswalt." " Look..." " We missed something." "I get that." "But if you want me to run interference for you while you get this worked out." "I gotta be in the loop just a little bit." " You really wanna help?" " It's my home, Mr Oswalt." "What happened here happened to all of us." "All right." "Come here." "Who is that?" "I don't know." "That's what I'm hoping to find out." " You think these are serial murders?" " Maybe." "More ritualized than necessarily serial." "But really spread out." "And not just regionally but over time." "The first one dates back to the '60s." " The 1960s?" " Yeah." "That would put the guy, what, in his 70s?" " Yeah. or his 60s." " Yeah, I..." " I don't know." " Well, look at the methodology." "Toxicology reports. some cases the killer drugged his victims." " With what?" " Well, they couldn't tell for sure." "But by drugging them, the killer removes his need to overpower them." "Here he used a tree branch to do the heavy lifting." "In Sacramento he lit a family on fire." "In St Louis he slit their throats." " The first family he drowned." " Drowning?" "You..." "You never said anything about anyone being drowned." "The only other significant link between the murder cases is that in each instance the killer murdered the entire family except one." "A child which he took with him." "That and this symbol appears in several of the crime scenes." "That looks like something from out of the occult." "Look' you might wanna call the university." "There's a professor over there." "Professor Jonas." "He's an occult crime expert and the state police bring him in on some of the... the weirder stuff." "I think this qualifies." "So where do you think that drowning happened?" "That's what I need you to find out." "OK." " Professor Jonas?" " Yes." "Hello." "Hey, thank you for getting back to me so quickly." "I appreciate that." "Of course, I'm a really big fan." "I'm flattered that you emailed." "Once I saw the photos that you sent," "I knew exactly what cases you were studying." "Wait." "How would you know what cases I was looking at?" "The symbol that you sent me is..." "isn't a pentagram." "It's not something that you would see teenagers or a Norwegian black metal band paint on a wall in goat's blood to be edgy." " Right." " Or to piss off the Christians.." "No, this is a little bit more obscure than that." "I know the one in the hallway, that's from the late '90s in St Louis." "The other one, the... the car hood, that is from Sacramento, that's about 30 years ago." "Tell me about the one in Sacramento." "It's a symbol associated with the worship of a pagan deity." "A deity?" "What kind of deity?" "A very obscure one, dating back to Babylonian times." "Named Bughuul, the eater of children." " Did you say eater?" " Yes, of children." "Thank you, Jessica." "The crimes that you're dealing with." "They all have the element of a missing child, correct?" "Yes." "Yeah." "That's correct." "Well, Bughuul eats children." "Now, the fragments of stories that have survived, they all revolve around him needing the souls of human children to survive." "Now, each story involves a different way that he lures or tricks these children away from the physical world and traps them in his own netherworld and he consumes their souls over time." "Now, any worship of this deity would include a blood sacrifice or the wholesale eating of a child." "So you're saying the person that made this symbol is... is eating children?" "Well, that would fit the stories." "Of course, the few times that this symbol has shown up, none of the crimes have been related in any way to any of this." "So this might be more of a cult initiation rather than, you know, the actual actions of any one man." "There's been another one, hasn't there?" "I think so, yes." "Tell me everything you can." "Shh." " I appreciate you coming by, Officer." " Oh, yeah, it's not a problem at all." " So we're becoming friends. right?" " I..." "I suppose, yeah." " I mean, I can trust you, right?" " Yeah, absolutely." "So if I were to ask you something in earnest." "You wouldn't read too much into it?" "Um..." "All right." "Was there anything... weird about the Stevensons?" "No complaints from them about anything... strange?" "No, not to my knowledge." "The investigators. did they notice anything odd or inexplicable about the house, any..." "any weird stories?" "No." "Mr Oswalt. is there something that you wanna tell me?" "Clearly something happened and you wanna talk to somebody about it, right?" "Yeah." "OK, well, does your wife know about it?" "Wait." "Does she know whose house this is... was?" "Oh, man." "Oh, that is a conversation that I would not wanna be around for." " No, me neither." " I'm sorry." "So..." "So, what, you saw something weird, heard something spooky in the house?" " Yes." "Precisely." " What exactly?" "Now..." "I don't believe in any, you know, stuff." "Stuff?" "You mean the supernatural, the metaphysical, the paranormal." " That type of stuff?" " Right." "Right." "Of course you don't." "You never would have moved into a crime scene if you did." "But here we are having this conversation." "Yeah, but... but there was... there was none of that, you know, none of that with the Stevensons, huh?" "No." "In the short amount of time that the Stevensons lived here, they never called the police, they never had the police called on them or reported anything bizarre that came up in the investigation." " Do you wanna know what I think?" " Yes." "I think that you moved yourself into the house of murder victims and immediately set about trying to put yourself in their head space." "I also think that you've begun discovering things about this case that go to darker places than you were prepared for." "I also think that every time that I've been to your house." "There's a whisky bottle that doesn't appear to be neglected." " No, no, no." "I..." " Mr Oswalt. listen." "I don't." "I don't..." "I'm not saying that you have a drinking problem." "I don't think that." "Nor do I think that you're making any of this up..." " No!" " ...to get attention." "What I do think is that..." "that you are under so much stress." "You've put yourself under so much stress." "That your mind is trying to process all of it at once." "So you don't believe any of that otherworldly stuff, right?" "Are you kidding me?" "I believe in all that stuff." "I..." "I wouldn't sleep one night in this place." "Are you nuts?" "Four people were hung by their necks in the tree in your backyard and that little girl is probably God knows wherever." " OK." " I'm..." "I'm sorry." "You know what?" "You should try and get out more, Mr Oswalt, try to clear your head." "Total honesty?" "Last night I thought something was in the house and I woke up on the couch holding a baseball bat." "Well..." "I guess if I thought something was in my home at night." "I'd be a little bit freaked out too." "But, listen, Mr Oswalt, if you sleep in this house." "It's just gonna do terrible things to your head." "Ellison!" " Ellison!" " What's going on?" "Your daughter thought there wasn't room on her walls for her new painting." " Ashley!" " No, that's not it." "What did we talk about?" "We only gave you one rule." "It was a big deal for us to let you paint on your walls." " What's the rule, Ashley?" " Paint only goes in the bedroom." "And what makes you think you can paint out here?" "I wanted to paint her picture, but she didn't want it in my room because that used to be her brother's room." "What?" "Who are you talking about?" " Stephanie." " Who's Stephanie?" "She used to live here." "She's the one Daddy's writing his book about." "Ashley, go to your room and shut the door." "What the hell were you thinking?" "Did you think I wouldn't find out?" "Shh." "Of course I knew you were gonna find out eventually, OK?" "But don't blame me for not telling you." "You never wanted to know." "Don't try and pin this on me." "I asked you!" "I asked you if we were living near the house!" "You asked me if we were living two houses down from a crime scene." " Don't you dare!" " I said no." " We never should have come here!" " Tracy, nobody died here." "It's not like were sleeping where somebody was killed or they had to wipe blood off the walls for the open house." " You're saying it didn't happen here?" " No." "It happened in the backyard." "Oh, that is so sick!" "God. you think that makes a difference?" " It does." " No, Ellison." "It doesn't." "You have done some crazy shit in the past." "But this definitely takes the cake." "My God. what on earth possessed you to move here?" " We've never been this broke before." " That's no excuse." "This place came on the market." "It was a steal." "Gee, I wonder why." "So what Trevor drew last week, that happened here?" "Yes." "The previous owners of this home were hung from a tree in our backyard?" " Yes." " That is so sick." "Ellison." "And you let our little girl play back there?" "Why shouldn't I?" "Our son is having night terrors and drawing pictures of this crime at school." "And our daughter just painted a dead girl on our wall." "She's missing." "Technically she's missing." "I don't wanna hear about technicalities." "Do you understand what you've done, the kind of jeopardy you've put your children in, your marriage?" "Yes, I do!" "Is there anything you won't do for your goddamn book?" "Apparently not." "I guess this is all worth it to you." " It's worth it." " Putting your family at risk." " Risk of what?" "Of more paintings?" " Don't." "Your daughter..." "My daughter has a father who loves her, who is always around, who encourages her to be herself." "The worst thing that has ever happened to her is one time she moved into a house where a family was killed." "She found out about the murders, so she felt sorry for the little girl." "So she painted a fucking picture!" "That's what she does." "It's what she always has done." " That's it?" "That's all you have to say?" " What else do you want from me?" "How about a home where we feel safe, Ellison?" "How about neighbours that don't hate us in a town where I can buy groceries without getting strange looks?" "How about a life that doesn't involve our kids drawing and painting the sick details of some horrific tragedy or working out their deep-seated anxieties by doing bizarre shit in the night?" " How about that?" "Would that be OK?" " I can give all that to you, I can!" " Just when I finish the book!" " This book isn't for us." "It's for you." "Tracy, don't say that." "That's not true." "It is true." "There are plenty of other ways you can provide for this family." "Doing what?" "Teaching?" "Editing journalism textbooks?" "Don't you understand that writing is what gives my life meaning?" "These books are my legacy." "I have always supported you doing what you love, Ellison." "But writing isn't the meaning of your life." "You and me, right here, this marriage' that's the meaning of your life." "And your legacy, that's Ashley and Trevor." "Your kids are your legacy." " Did I get Daddy in trouble?" " No, sweetie." "Your daddy got Daddy in trouble." " I'm sorry I painted on the wall." " I know." "You get a good night's sleep." "So here's the book I wrote proving it, right?" "Exactly." "Kidding aside, would you want a family?" "Is that in the cards?" "I don't know." "If you'd asked me a year ago, I might have said no, never, I'm a career man." "But you know how it goes." "You meet someone. you get a little older." "All of a sudden, your career doesn't seem to matter so much." "You want kids. you start to see other people with kids and think "I want that"" "and then you wonder "Is he gonna look like me?" "Is she gonna look like her?"" "You paint rooms in your head and..." "Time for bed." "What is happening?" "Shit." "Shit." " What the hell are you doing?" " We have to leave here." "What's the matter?" "What's happened?" "You were right." "I made a mistake." "We should have never come to this house." " We have to leave now." " Ell, you're freaking me out here." "Get the kids, pack the car." "We have to leave." "Go!" " Honey, slow down." " I just wanna get on the highway." "I wanna put as much road between us and this town as we can, OK?" "OK." " Where are we going, Daddy?" " We're going home, honey." " Home, home, like you promised?" " Yeah." "Home, like I promised." "What about our stuff?" "We're gonna call the movers in the morning, all right?" "It's OK." " Evening, Oswalts." " Sheriff." " Licence and registration." " Oh." "God." "Driving pretty fast for this time of night. don't you think?" "Anything I ought to know about?" "Just trying to take your advice, that's all." " Which advice would that be?" " Leave town and never look back." " You weren't bullied away or anything?" " I'm sorry?" "What I mean is, I don't wanna be reading in your book that angry town folks chased you out of here." "If you've been mistreated, I wanna know about it." "There isn't gonna be any book." "No book?" "No, sir." "Well. then." "I don't see any reason for me to have your autograph." "Just one more favour." "Hold it under 60 till you cross the county line." "Until you're somebody else's problem." "Yes, sir." "Did you mean that?" "About the book?" "Yeah." "You promise?" "I promise." "Let's go home." "This goes in the office, right in there on the right." "Hey, Ell, 10 bucks says Trevor sleeps through the night." "No, I'm not taking that bet." "Mr Oswalt, sorry it took so long to get back to you." "There's been so little written on Bughuul that no one has actually bothered to scan any of this material before." " Well, what am I looking at?" " You're looking at an engraving." "An old sketch from the Dark Ages." "And fragments of a deteriorated fresco." "There isn't a lot left." "Everything else has been destroyed." " Why?" " Well, superstition." "Early Christians believed that Bughuul actually lived in the images themselves and that they were gateways into his realm." " Gateways?" " Yes." "The ancient Church believed that he would take possession of those who saw the images and cause them to do terrible mings, or in some cases he could even abduct the viewer into the images themselves," "Children exposed to the images were especially vulnerable to Bughuul's possession and/or abduction." " What if you destroyed 'em?" " Sorry." "I don't follow." "If you destroyed the images with a fire, what would happen then?" "What, do you mean literally or in the stories?" "In the stories if an image was destroyed, then the gateway would be closed and Bughuul would no longer have access to this world, right?" "Mr Oswalt, what kind of book are you writing exactly?" "I don't know." "I'm not even sure I have a book any more." " But thank you for your time." " Anytime." "All right." " You know what time it is?" " I know." "I'm sorry." "But I've been trying to call you all day." " What's the problem?" " OK, the problem is that you moved." "How is that a problem?" "I was compiling all of the data that you had me collecting and once I started putting it together into a nice readable package." "I saw the connection, it was obvious." " What was it?" " The dates, the addresses." "Each family that you had me look up had previously lived in the house where one of the earlier murders took place." "Each family?" "All five of them?" "Yes, and when you put them in chronological order, you can actually draw a line from murder to murder to murder." "OK, we knew that the Stevensons previously lived in the same St Louis house where the Millers had their throats cut," "Before the Miller family was killed, the Millers lived in the same house in Orange County where the De Luzio lawn massacre occurred." "Guess where the De Luzios lived before they moved to Orange County?" "Sacramento where the Martinez family was burned in their garage?" "Exactly." "The pattern goes back to the 1966 Oregon drownings." "Listen, Mr Oswalt, you just moved out of the last house in line." "If this guy is still out there, you not only just sped up his timeline, you put yourself in it." "Thanks, Deputy." "Stephanie." "It's the missing kids." "I like that you made the movies longer." "They're better this way."