[h3] Ferd Smith [/h3]	


	Ferd blinked in surprise at Garther's hand being raised. What was wrong? As he walked off, Ferd followed with his eyes, opening his mouth to say something, only to be hushed by Garther's preemptive finger to his lips. Ferd pouted for a moment. He didn't care much for being hushed, especially when he felt left out. The disgruntlement was brief however, as his eyes picked out the movement of what had to be headlights, and his ears finally registered the sound of the Roadster grumbling along the road. Well now, what was this?

	Ferd moved to follow Dirk, but thought better of it. The officer was clearly attempting to approach unnoticed, and Ferd knew all to well that two people were much more likely to be noticed than one. Speaking of which, Ferd noted that the copper seemed to be very good at sneaking around. Ferd had nearly lost sight of him as he moved stealthily through the fog. Impressive.

	It wasn't long before Garther abandoned his attempts at stealth and called out to the man who had just climbed out of the Roadster. Apparently satisfied making his presence known to the man would be no great detriment to himself, Garther walked boldly up to the man, blocking his path into the house. Ferd could only just make out bits of the conversation from where he was, but the fog muffled a good deal of it at this distance. He really wanted to get closer, but Garther hadn't given them any indication as to whether or not he cared if they moved now. Ah screw it. Ferd knew how to be quiet, and besides the stranger was clearly preoccupied with Dirk. 

	Ferd began approaching slowly, taking care to appear casual should anyone notice he was approaching. He began catching snipets of conversation again.

	"I can leave my hotel room..."

	"Letter you allegedly received..."

	Ah so this man claimed to have received a letter as well. Why was he trying to leave though? 

	In the middle of Ferd's eaves dropping Officer Garther turned and waved in his direction. Finally! Ferd turned and motioned for Val to follow, since he wasn't sure he could see the cop waving through the fog and then jogged over to join the others. As he approached Ferd noticed something peculiar. James and Ambrose were nowhere to be seen. He hadn't noticed anyone leaving when he and Val had, though it was possible it was as simple as that, he just hadn't noticed. But still, something felt... off.

	Dirk had begun speaking, and he didn't give the impression this was a discussion. Ferd felt a bit confused when he talked about the black fella who had drove up in the Roadster. He didn't know about Harry and Jeremy? That seemed odd. Before Ferd could really gather his thoughts though, Garther had brushed past him umbrella in hand, and was instructing them all to follow him. Ferd froze in place for a moment. This was rather sudden wasn't it? As he turned to follow Dirk, Ferd looked at the other three men and shrugged.

	"Well you heard the man. Sounds like we're some sort of witnesses to this crime now." Just a moment later Dirk turned and revealed the nature of the crime he was investigating and Ferd's heart sank. Yeah. He'd expected Harry was dead. Still, expecting it didn't soften the blow. Yet another life snuffed out by the weird forces Ferd had dedicated his life to understanding. He grit his teeth and trudged along behind Dirk silently for a while. He'd set out to prevent any more disappearances, but he hadn't actually solved a single case, he was no closer to understanding what was causing all of these things, and even worse he was beginning to lose hope. The clues were always to vague, his leads constantly disappeared in thin air, even when they were extremely solid ones. He'd once tracked down an entire cult which he was certain was to blame for multiple grotesque murders in a small town in Indiana. But when he went to snoop around the place he was certain was their hide out, it had simply vanished before his eyes. He'd never picked the trail back up. Feeling a bit sulky Ferd put on his best cheerful act. He didn't need people asking why he was down in the dumps. They'd never believe him anyway.

	As he climbed into the cop car he thought to himself [i]where have James and Ambrose gotten off to?[/i] Hopefully they had left a note. Ferd glanced over at Richard, wondering if he knew where they were. But it looked like Garther was trying to talk to him, Ferd decided to wait until later to inquire about the two. Perhaps they'd track down some clues of their own in the mean time. Hah. Right.