He decides to hire Bast to do the book mechanical for the production. Victor Cunningham will do anything to get his book back. Meridon, terrorized, is persuaded by Bast to meet Victor and return his book. Victor kills Meridon. Bast arrives too late to prevent the murder, but in time to get her hands on the so-called Meridon manuscript and discover what made it worth killing for.
Victor explains to Bast, who is stunned.
It is indeed a 16th Book of Shadows. And it purports to have been written by Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary of Scotland, mother of James the Sixth who created the King James Bible and had a notorious hatred of witches. Mary, inducted into the rites by her mother Mary de Guise, who was herself Priestess of a coven dating back to Jeanne d'Arc. That was why Victor killed Meridon.