Emerald Ring’s puzzle boxes and the letter they’d found inside them. They told him about the radio receiver they’d located in his house and the tapes labeled with the names of the townspeople. They told him they knew he had placed the transmitters inside the Darling Daniel dolls. They wanted to know why?
Why had Dean done what he had done?
“Tell us about Kalagan,” said Carter.
“Where is he?” asked Leila.
“What does he look like?” Theo wondered.
Ridley continued the grilling. “How can we stop him?”
Dean blinked. He nodded. His expression was one of defeat. “Can I start by saying that I’m sorry?” the old man asked.
“You can start however you like,” Ridley replied. “But how we finish here depends on what you say in between.” This sounded to Ridley like some dialogue her mother would have written in one of her stories. She kind of liked it.
Dean’s eyes welled with tears. “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. I’m a victim too. Just like the Vernons. Just like you kids.” Ridley wanted to tell him to save it, but she couldn’t risk interrupting him. “At the beginning of the summer, someone started slipping notecards under the front door of my house. The cards were mysterious and kinda threatening. They were always signed with the letter K. They said stuff like, I know. Or I’m watching. Or What have you done?” Dean swallowed down some saliva. “Those notes… they started getting inside my head. I thought of bringing them to the police, but then I wondered if maybe the police had something to do with it, so I held off. I wondered if the person leaving me the notes wanted money from me, which I thought was pretty silly, considering the state of my piggy bank.
“One night, shortly after that diamond heist here at the Grand Oak, I boarded the trolley for home. I didn’t notice the person who was sitting behind me until I felt a prick at the back of my neck and a hushed voice at my ear, warning me not to turn around. I was terrified, but I obeyed. He told me his name was Kalagan. He slipped an envelope onto the seat next to me and told me to open it. Inside were some letters that I’d written in my youth—letters that I’ve regretted writing ever since. I’d rather not say what they were about, but I knew then that I would have to do whatever this mysterious man on the trolley asked me to do. And I did all of it.” Dean let out a little sob.
“With equipment that he provided, I set up the radio receiver in my old closet. I set up the recording device. Under Mr. Kalagan’s instruction, I managed to convince the hotel manager to book that ventriloquist, to reach out to Mick Meridian to create those dolls to Mr. Kalagan’s specifications, to put the transmitters inside their heads, and then make sure they got into the hands of as many townsfolk as possible. You saw what happened. You figured it out. Mr. Kalagan told me what words to add to the ventriloquist’s marquee poster before it went to the printer. That anagram that threatened you kids. Magic Misfits Crumble? Trust me, I didn’t want to do it. After what happened to the magic shop, I thought about leaving town. About starting over somewhere else. Changing my name. Changing everything about me. But… it takes money to do that. I was trapped.
“He knew you’d all come asking around about that guest who messed with Olly and Izzy last week. When you did, he had me give you that mixed-up name. He had me bury those boxes out in the fire pit, knowing you’d figure out his puzzle and then—”
“You keep saying he had you do this, he had you do that.” Ridley felt it was safe to finally try and get a word in. “Did you ever see his face?”
Dean shook his head. “He was always in the shadows. His hat brim tilted downward, his high collar hiding the rest of him.”
“What does he want?” Carter asked. “Why go through the trouble of blackmailing almost everyone in town, just so he can get to us? A bunch of kids!”
“You made him angry!” Dean answered. “Kept ruining his plans! You were also a means to an end. To getting to Dante Vernon. That’s why Mr. Kalagan had me record all those conversations around town. Without the members of his Ring to help him—you kids keep