Caleb flees and misleads Sheriff Lucas Buck that is chasing him with his men, dogs and Gail. He sees a burial and discovers that his father is dead and buried side by side with Merlyn. He finds a moribund man trapped in an abandoned house and seeks out Dr. Matt Crower to help him. Gail identifies the man as a missing journalist. Meanwhile the coroner forges the autopsies of Gage and Merlyn reporting as informed by Lucas and he is haunted by Merlyn.

Carter got away with molesting a girl, via Sheriff Buck's influence, but 17 years later, stalls about providing his own 15 year-old daughter as the Sheriff's go-fer. When junkyard owner Carter doesn't meet Buck's midnight deadline, immediately Carter's wife is maimed in a household accident. Buck offers to buy the orphaned Caleb an elaborate science project, while Caleb's dead sister & Dr. Crower counsel him to focus on learning, not cheating to win.