The magical lot were once again concerned, which didn't increase Robert's Christmas spirit. And the loud bang most probably wasn't Santa. Rob hadn't seen Jacob this concerned before; hatred against vampires and dedication to case, yes, but to be afraid for his daughter? This was his first. He couldn't imagine what could threaten Amanda in the PHI quarters. It was supposed to be a safe place and he hoped Jacob's worries were a false alarm.

Then again, even after this many years, there was still much unknown to Robert.

”Mr. Miller, Miss Staten, I would appreciate it if you would join me in keeping Miss Baker company ” Sol grunted with a voice Miller likened to that of a tractor's engine, like worried that he'd be left alone looking after Cat. Whatever out there was, Jacob, Emma and Morgan would be more than enough to handle it. Robert and Mandy would do better here. And definitely there were still more questions to be asked. Great minds thought alike as Sol continued ”Perhaps we should turn our attention to this wand…”

Robert nodded and took out both a handkerchief and his one-and-half a year old phone, complete with respectable camera and a cloud storage common with his own computer. It was an engineering masterpiece in Robert's eyes. He started to take pictures from the rod, then carefully turned it with handkerchief for more pictures.

[b]Thud [/b]made Robert stop for a moment. Quick look towards the source's direction but as it wasn't bullets being shot, he continued focusing on the matter at hand. Mandy had started to ask questions from Cat. About other ghosts that were missing. Whether it was relevant or not he left for her to figure out. 

It was remarkable in a sense. Robert was a detective: there's evidence, it leads to somewhere and he'd follow a trail to another lead or an answer. Simple and straightforward. But when Amanda Staten had come to the office, solving cases had taken another step onward. Give her a pile of evidence and she'd see soon enough where the pieces of puzzle would fall. Her hunches and thoughts felt far-fetched at times but they were always worth checking out. Especially when they were dealing with the unknown paranormal phenomena. Like now.

Robert picked up the rod with his handkerchief for closer look and a video, where he'd rotate the rod to have a great view from carvings. Branch from a birch tree. Narrow end had seen more than just twisting and racking; the bark had some wearing, like being dragged on the ground. Someone had been drawing stuff with the stick and Rob could bet his doughnut it wasn't a smiley face. A close-up picture from the rod's end before focusing on the stains. Seemed that their staff-maker had literally spent sweat and blood making this staff. 

Whose blood it could be in this stain, though? The sister's? The crafter's? Or someone else? Robert took another picture from the markings and the bloody stain. He inspected it a tad closer before putting the wand back on table. Robert leaned towards Sol. With quiet voice so that Catherine wouldn't hear, he said [color=LightGray]”Blood on the rod. Perhaps her sister... I'll do some forensics soon at the corner.” [/color] 

Corner he referred was place where they had gathered some basic equipment for research. Few leftovers from police forces, some throw-away equipment from university, couple self-made paranormal sensors and a some low-quality magical artifacts. Robert preferred to work there at peace, partly because he also made phone calls to his connections. For a case at hand, he'd try to get a favor from a buddy in police force. But before that he had one more question to Catherine...