Sam and Colby: The House

33

"Uh... can we tell you after you tell us who bought these? It will help us piece the full story together," Colby said.

 The woman pursed her lips, but was clearly curious to get an answer as to where we found these things. 

 "Fine," she said. She continued looking at each piece of jewelry, writing down SKU numbers and codes to look up the purchase history of the individual pieces since we didn't have tags or receipts. After she finished recording that data, she began flipping through the folders to try and find the matching numbers.

"Diamond ring. Purchased by William Hogan in 68," read the woman. "Wait, Hogan? Like, Mary Hogan? Who are you kids?" she asked, putting two and two together to realize that it was a wedding ring from Ed Gein's victim. 

 "My name is Vanessa Atkins," I said. "We're Sam and Colby, and this is Corey and Jake," said Colby. 

 "We're influencers. On social media. We all have YouTube channels," explained Sam, holding up his phone that he'd been secretly recording on this entire time. 

 "I see. And what is it you do?" she asked. 

 "Well, right now we're working on paranormal documentation series," said Sam. 

 "We're filming at the old Gein house," said Jake. 

 "The Gein house," the lady repeated. "Who would want to see that?"

 "Well, uh... we've got a little over ten million subscribers right now and they voted for us to come here," said Colby. 

 "Te—ten million?" the woman asked. "Yeah," said Sam.

"And Nessa's got 14 million Instagram followers," Corey added.

 "Hm. Will my shop be included in the video?" the woman asked.

 "If you'd allow it, yes. I was going to blur out the name and stuff so no one knows it's here, but if you'd like us to show the shop and your face and whatnot then we'd be happy to do so," said Sam. 

"Free publicity?" the woman asked. 

 "Free in the sense that all you have to do is help us figure out when and who got this stuff," said Sam.

"Okay. Deal," she said. 

 "So it's alright for me to film you?" Sam asked, lifting up the bag slung over his shoulder with his camera in it. 

 "Yes, yes," she said. 

 "Okay, perfect," said Sam. He set up the camera. "Hey guys, so we made it to Muerte's Magic, and we found someone who's willing to help us find out who bought this jewelry and when," he said. 

 "Hello, my name is Marta. I've been running this shop for sixteen years. We are well known in the town of Plainfield for our fine jewelry and have become a common place for the locals to buy the jewelry they bury their loved ones in," said Marta. 

 "Wait, you think this jewelry all came from dead people?" Corey interjected. 

 "Oh, yes. Undoubtedly. I can't think of anyone who's come in here to buy jewelry for themselves or a living person in years," she replied.

"But what about that Hogan guy buying a wedding ring?" asked Jake. 

 "That was nearly fifty years ago," Marta pointed out. 

 "Oh, yeah. I guess it was," said Jake.

 We spent the next hour or so sifting through the pieces of jewelry, each one bought by or for people who were either too old to possibly still be alive or people whose obituaries Colby was able to find online. 

 There was jewelry from Gein's mother, his late brother, and both women he was convicted of killing. There was a lot more than just that, though. There were at least ten other women who the jewelry could be traced back to. 

 "Anything else I can help you with?" Marta asked after looking up the records for the final piece, a diamond embedded bracelet. 

 "No, I think we're all set. Thank you so much," I said.

 "Yes, thank you. Really," Sam said. 

 "Of course," said Marta. We all gave her a short handshake before walking back out and getting into the car.

 "So are you guys wondering the same thing I am?" asked Colby.

 "Yes," said Sam.

 "What?" asked Jake. 

 "Where the fuck did Gein get so much jewelry that was buried with people?" I asked. 

 "I feel like there's a very obvious answer to that, but I don't want to believe it's true until I have to. So for the time being, my answer is I don't know and I don't want to find out," Corey said. 

"Yeah, I'm on board with that answer," Jake agreed.

 "Alright. Well, did you guys want to go back to the house or home to the mansion?" Sam asked. 

"I'm ready to go back to the mansion," Corey said with a big yawn.

 "Yeah, I could go back, too," said Colby.

 "Alrighty, back to everyone else it is," Sam said as he put the car into reverse to back out of his parking spot. We began the nearly three hour drive, but I fell asleep about twenty minutes into it.