Purple Vices, strange gaze?

- Looks like nobody's home.
- Do you think he may have got out through the rear of the house? - mumbled Dan.
- Seems unlikely. The veranda's windows were shut by the inside.
-It's just fine. Perhaps he's lingering somewhere, in some secret passage way, just waiting for the right time....

They were now in the kitchen pondering on their next move. On the top of the stand there was that strange liquid they had carried from the bathroom.
-..... Electrolytic, hm.... I know that electrolysis is the dissociation of aggregated compounds by the action of electricity. They make engine components that way. [A.N.: Certain engine components are made in such way]
- My high-school chemistry is nothing but an embarrassing recollection, but then it doesn't make sense to use it in a person. What, was he trying to process engine chemicals out of me? Can it also be used as a drug?
- Who knows what his plans were. Maybe it contains some side effects that were useful....- Gip's stare to the floor made him interrupt his reasoning.
Dan, without noticing anything unusual, directed to the front door: he remembered, in a flash, that the man's car was still stationary in the same place.
Perhaps there could be something in it that could supply some explanation for the vanishing.
- I'll go outside to check that parked car. It's his - declared Dan, leaving without expecting a reply.

Outside the wind was blowing faster, making the location seem even more desolate. In a few seconds he was by the car. He noticed, having opened the hood, that there wasn't any water in the radiator. After using the key, he searched under the seats, across the panel's drawer, as well as the doors, even in the mirrors. There were only napkins, bills, unwritten papers and unimportant notes.
He knew it would be a long shot, so it shouldn't be much surprising - still a tip of built frustration made Dan sigh. There was only remaining the trunk's luggage carrier, which Dan immediately popped open.

In there he found, laid out to the right, two photos and nothing else. He picked the pictures, at first couldn't see their content very well. One of them, though, had only one person posing, whose hair and face lines Dan instantly recognized: Autumn.
Startled, he jumped inside the car and turned on the headlights. Then he headed to the front of the car and examined the soft paper rectangles. In one, there was a group of eight to ten people, dressed casually (although there were two wearing white coats). Most of them were smiling, a somewhat innocent smile.
In the first row, at the front, there she was, in brown corduroy pants and a light blue blouse, standing to the left, the most innocent smile of them all. Her fluffy sepia hair.

Sticking on top of her hair, there was Vincent, also presented in the picture, in the second row behind her, although a bit more to the right. The bastard had a retiring, aloof look in him, overstepping from a serious countenance. In the second picture, she was alone, wearing the same outfit. Although she was still smiling, she had a pensive air, like if the picture had been taken on surprise.

«I wonder what she was thinking in that time...» thought Dan; «why are these photos here? What's the meaning of this?»
- If that scumbag did anything.... - he grumbled.
Suddenly, he heard his name being shouted:
- DAN.... DAN. COME HERE NOW. HURRY! - it was Gip and he was distressed.

Dan panicked and ran like a dart to the inside. Trouble?
- I'm here; I'll help you!
In his exasperation, Dan didn't realize that it was fortunate, the fact that he had left the front door open on his way out. If not, he wouldn't be able to hear that cry for help.
In the annex next to the kitchen, in front of the living room, there was a small room, lit with a sodium lamp, that was certainly used to conduct research. They had already searched there for clues.
- I'm fine - Gip was squatting over a small cubic trapdoor encrusted in the floor - but thanks for caring.
- What..... ?
- I found this.
Gip handed a journal to Dan.

It was titled: "The pioneer reaction and the beginning of a new era."
Dan turned the page. He read on the top of it: «The making of the Homo Progressus.»