Transcript of this chapter:

crystal: Well, I gave them their precious gondola documentation. They can't say I didn't help them.
annabelle: But you don't want the gondola to be fixed.
crystal: Uh, not really I guess. They won't get to it soon, at any rate. Barlow has some elaborate plan to unmask Turnip as the one who's writing those messages and generally sabotaging things.
crystal: Heh. It's not like it's going to work, though. I think he's looking at things completely wrong.
annabelle: So you don't think that Turnip could be the one behind it?
crystal: We'll know who it is, after I break the code. Barlow is obsessed with catching the message writer... maybe his attempts to crack the code failed.
crystal: He doesn't have what I have, though. Katherine's old journals have enough samples of that code that I think that I might be able to crack it.
crystal: Barlow is just desperate to pin this on someone. Turnip is just an easy target.
crystal: Barlow is so sure that Hatchet-Paws is involved in this that he's not even thinking. He's accusing Turnip based completely on his being a paper mammal.
crystal: He can do what he wants, though, if it keeps him for interrupting me.
crystal: It doesn't matter as long as we keep them busy. Let them run around as make fools of themselves, because we have better things to do.
annabelle: I have a love potion to make.
crystal: Right, and I plan to decipher those messages, and Barlow would just get in the way.
crystal: I'm heading to the archives to work on cracking the code. Would you like to join me?
annabelle: I'd rather not. I've got all the ingredients here for my love potion for Alex.
crystal: Aw, that's sweet.
annabelle: More than you know. I think he'd suspect something if I gave him the potion straight up, so I'm going to bake it into a pastry. He'll think his mother made it, since I borrowed all the ingredients from her kitchen.
crystal: Good idea, but make sure nobody else gets a bite of it.
annabelle: Don't worry, I have it all planned out.
crystal: Hmmm... And now to get to work on this code...
crystal: There's some letters missing, but maybe I have enough to figure it out.
crystal: Oh, hello Rebecca.
rebecca: It's not often that we find you in here. I was looking for my son.
crystal: Alex is stirring up trouble with Barlow. That just leaves me here, solving our little mystery.
rebecca: Oh, I see. You're working on that strange cypher.
crystal: You wouldn't know how to read this code, would you?
rebecca: Not a clue. I've lived here for twenty years, and this is the first I've heard of it. The sheriff knew about it, but he doesn't know how to decipher it.
rebecca: We've been going over the code that Elkwood carved, but it doesn't seem to mean anything. I was hoping that you and Barlow would figure it out.
crystal: Barlow is way off this time. It's up to me to solve things.
crystal: Barlow has some weird theory about Turnip... that he's doing it because he's possessed by the ghost of Hatchetpaws or something like that...
crystal: Really silly stuff... It's not like Hatchetpaws has anything to do with...
crystal: H - A - T - C - H - E - T ...
crystal: Alright, well... I guess Hatchetpaws DOES fit into this after all.
crystal: That fits... and I'm sure it's right, but it doesn't work in the rest of the codes.
rebecca: There's an unused letter at the front of these codes. I think that's important.
rebecca: There might be a key for this code, and the letter might have some kind of effect on the key. It's a common way to make codes harder to figure out.
rebecca: I'm sorry to tell you this, but you might not have enough information to crack the entire code. That might be why Barlow is concentrating on finding the author.
crystal: No, Barlow is just looking for a shortcut. You know how lazy he is. He doesn't want to think about this mystery... he just wants to get it out the way so he can concentrate on fixing the gondola and leaving... us.
crystal: The important thing is to completely crack this code. Once we know what the message says, we can figure out who wrote it.
rebecca: I'm pretty certain that Elkwood wrote it. I don't know how, but I'm starting to wonder if we awakened his spirit when we brought the gondola out.
crystal: No, this isn't a supernatural thing. There's somebody writing those messages... a real person. And they're being written to someone. It means that not one, but two people must know this code.
rebecca: That's quite a mystery. It's certainly more of a mystery than what I was going to ask Alex about.
crystal: There's been another mysterious occurrence?
rebecca: Yes, apparently I've been robbed... of flour, two eggs, molasses, and a cup of shortening.
crystal: Ah...
crystal: Maybe it's the same person who's leaving these coded messages.
rebecca: Crystal...
rebecca: You DO realize that I can always tell when you're lying, right? You shouldn't even try to slip such an obvious lie past me.
crystal: Annabelle is... uh, doing some cooking...
rebecca: Oh, well in that case she should've asked first, or at the very least left me a note.
crystal: I'm sure she didn't want to bother you.
rebecca: All the same, she should've...
rebecca: Wait a minute... You're hiding something. Why didn't she want me to know about this?...
rebecca: Ah! This is about the love potion, isn't it?! She baking it into something!
crystal: Yeah, you caught us.
rebecca: How could you do this?! Didn't I ask you not to go looking for love potions? This is MY son that she's trying to bewitch!
crystal: I accidentally dropped that stuff... yeah... sorry.
rebecca: Do you really expect me to fall for a silly lie like that? You really should know better.
crystal: But Annabelle is in love!
rebecca: Annabelle is NOT in love! You may think she is. She might even think that she is, but it's not real. Zombies are incapable of living the loving.
crystal: It looks real to me.
rebecca: I grant you that she's smart. She's a very intelligent zombie, but the only thing she loves about my son are his brains, which she'd love to eat... and if she gives him that love potion he might just let her!
crystal: Oh, like this has never been done in this town before? It seems that love potions were quite popular in the old days. How do you think Katherine Ivy Sprawling reeled in Elkwood?!
rebecca: That doesn't mean that love potions are okay to use. This was the first thing I learned about witchcraft... that love potions NEVER make things better, someone always suffers. Vedalia was made to suffer.
crystal: I know it's wrong, but I have a good reason...
crystal: If Alex would listen to Annabelle, then maybe we could make him stop fixing the gondola.
crystal: You might want to see that gondola repaired, but I don't think it's a good idea...
rebecca: We need to fix it. There are more skeletons up at that remote station.
crystal: But if we fix it up, and we fix it so that people can go all the way to Sprawling-Mossville... things just won't be the same.
rebecca: You mean because Barlow would leave town?
crystal: Well... uh... that's no to say... uh...
crystal: .... That might be PART of it... but, you know... Only for Barlow's sake of course. The modern world would just ruin him.
rebecca: I wouldn't worry, Crystal. I greatly doubt that Barlow will be able to leave town by going in that direction.
rebecca: Right now, I'm more worried about my son. The living and the dead are not meant to be together.
crystal: It's too late now, anyway. Annabelle has probably served it to Alex by now.
rebecca: This is not good. These things never turn out like you want them to. We always end up regretting things like this.