De Cary Vinge

****D******e Cary Vinge** is a man that came to stay at the Greenglass House. He, an undercover customs agent from Deacon and Morvengarde, stole from the other guests, stealing from himself as well to ward off suspicion. Mr. Vinge came to Greenglass House in search of Doc Holystone's final cargo, but was driven out by Addie Whitcher. He was responsible for the deaths of Doc Holystone and his daughter.

Mr. Vinge returned the following year to help Gilawfer steal the derrotero from Clem and Georgie. However, he was stopped by Doc Holystone's ghost and a hobby horse.

## Biography

### *Greenglass House*

Mr. Vinge was the first guest to arrive to Greenglass House. Milo and Mrs. Pine helped him in, and he seemed pleased about the prospect of being snowed in, and did not know how long he planned to stay. After Mr. Vinge picked a room, the railcar bell rang again, and Mr. Vinge was as shocked as Milo, which confused him because Mr. Vinge should not know that it was not typical for guests to arrive then, and Milo wondered if Mr. Vinge had arrived because he thought he would have Greenglass House to himself. Mr. Vinge seemed normal to Milo, and his outrageous socks struck Milo as odd.

   When Georgie arrived, she and Mr. Vinge greeted each other awkwardly. When Milo suggested stories, Mr. Vinge seemed to know what Milo was up to, but Milo was not sure.

Mr. Vinge was one of the guests who was robbed. Mr. Vinge was missing his pocket watch, which, according to him, he had worn the previous night during storytelling. Mr. and Mrs. Pine talked with Mr. Vinge in the upstairs study in an attempt to find his watch.

Milo later found Mr. Vinge's watch, and noticed the inscription on it: *To D.C.V., with high esteem and thanks for a job well done, from D. & M.* Milo gave the watch back with the other things, returned anonymously as Christmas gifts. When Mr. Vinge's watch was returned to him, he was astonished. He demanded to know how Milo had found it and seemed uneasy about Milo, as if he thought Milo had taken them. Mr. Vinge then went upstairs to put it away.

When Owen arrived, Mr. Vinge demanded to know who he was. When Clem saw Owen, she was so surprised that she dropped her mug, which bounced off Mr. Vinge's head, and Mrs. Pine made Mr. Vinge an ice pack. Fenster then introduced himself to Mr. Vinge, giving a lengthy explanation of his job and how there was nothing strange about him. Mr. Vinge inquired if this was the Fenster from the ghost story Mrs. Pine had told, and suggested that Fenster tell his own version of what had happened, as the other guests had been telling stories. Mr. Vinge did not volunteer to tell a story that night.

Later in the evening, Mrs. Pine asked Mr. Vinge about himself. He answered that he was retired, and that he was reading a book about the river Skidwrack. Milo, in an attempt to learn more about the nautical chart, asked Mr. Vinge if he could borrow the book on the Skidwrack, telling Mr. Vinge that it was for social studies. Mr. Vinge agreed, and after seeing that none of the book's illustrations matched the chart, Mr. Vinge arrived, surprising Milo, and asked how it was going. Mr. Vinge told Milo about the marking *hic abundant sepiae*, to indicate the location of seiche on a Nagspeake map. Mr. Vinge inquired if Milo's "secret chart" had a warning, but Milo said it did not, and Mr. Vinge seemed slightly disappointed.

After finding the customs agent paper hidden in what had been Georgie's room, Milo realized that it belonged to Mr. Vinge, and that Mr. Vinge was also with Deacon and Morvengarde. Mr. Vinge had also been, Milo realized, the thief that had stolen from other guests, and had stolen from himself to throw off suspicion.

Mr. Vinge volunteered to tell a story. In his story, Mr. Vinge painted Doc Holystone as a weapons smuggler, a criminal, and a danger to society. He told of how a customs agent had been given a map by a smuggler Deacon and Morvengarde had tortured, and followed a watermark on the paper to Greenglass House. There, according to him, Doc Holystone had hidden a deadly weapon. Over the course of this story, Fenster had grown increasingly angry, arguing repeatedly with Mr. Vinge's accusations toward Doc Holystone. Mr. Vinge did not seem to care that he was angering Fenster. Dr. Gowervine also interrupted to correct a fact of Mr. Vinge's.

Dr. Gowervine stood up, telling Mr. Vinge to stop. Mr. Vinge, however, stood, told him to sit down, and displayed a badge declaring him to be a customs agent. Milo confirmed that it was real, as he had found the customs paper, right after Milo's father had let him and Meddy out of the room Mr. Vinge had locked them in. Mr. Vinge agreed that Milo was better at "hide-and-seek" than he was, and they were all very proud of him. Mr. Pine offered to talk with Mr. Vinge on his own, but Mr. Vinge refused, instead asking Fenster if Fenster had been a smuggler, but Fenster denied it.

Mrs. Pine attempted to kick Mr. Vinge out, but Mr. Vinge would not, clearly believing that he was the law right then. He insisted that Doc Holystone's final cargo was hidden somewhere at Greenglass House, and refused to leave until he had found it. Brandon threatened to fight Mr. Vinge. Mr. Vinge then took out a gun, and two men burst into the house. Milo and Meddy ran for the Emporium, and Mr. Vinge ordered the two men to go after the kids. However, Clem and Owen stopped them. As he ran, Milo heard a boom from below and wondered, panicked, if Mr. Vinge had shot his gun.

Once in the Emporium, Meddy was upset, feeling she should have realized who Mr. Vinge was. Meddy eventually revealed that she was the ghost of Addie Whitcher, and that Mr. Vinge had been talking about himself in the story, the agent who had found Doc Holystone's house. According to Meddy, Mr. Vinge had been responsible also for the capture and death of Doc Holystone, which Meddy had seen before falling to her death. Meddy hoped that Milo could find what Mr. Vinge was looking for, and thus get him to leave. Meddy materialized downstairs and returned with the news that Mr. Vinge and his thugs had locked the guests in the laundry room. Mr. Vinge was grilling Milo's parents and Fenster, and said that they were under arrest. Meddy did not know if he had that power, but said that he seemed to think that he did.

On his way downstairs, one of Mr. Vinge's thugs caught Milo. Milo made a deal with Mr. Vinge: Milo would give him the cargo (Mr. Vinge was surprised that Milo knew where it was), and Mr. Vineg would leave. Milo stood on a stool and reached into the glass chandelier above the table, but as soon as he found something Mr. Vinge knocked the stool out from Milo and climbed up himself. Mr. Vinge found the thing, and seemed to think it a joke. Milo explained that it was a toy for Doc Holystone's daughter. Fenster explained that Doc Holystone's crew had loved Doc Holystone, and his daughter as well, causing them to go to all the trouble of hiding her toy.

Mr. Vinge then decided to take the Sirin figure, as even though it was not a weapon, Doc Holystone had cared about it and it was thus what he'd come for. Milo prevented him, however, as it belonged to Meddy.

Mr. Vinge threatened to use his gun, but Meddy then showed herself to everyone in the room. Meddy walked purposefully toward Mr. Vinge, and Mr. Vinge got scared and shot his gun at her. Meddy, being a ghost, was unharmed, but was incredulous that he would dare shoot at a child. Meddy screamed angrily at Mr. Vinge to leave, somehow getting up in his face and screeching at him with such rage that Mr. Vinge stopped trying to argue, and ran. Meddy sent Mr. Vinge's coat after him, and it followed him, catching up with him and tackling him soon after he noticed it. Mr. Vinge soon stood awkwardly back up, picked up his coat, and stared at it before pulling it on and continuing to run until he was out of sight. Milo later commented on how friendly and nice all the people were, now that Mr. Vinge had gone.

### *Ghosts of Greenglass House*

When pretending to be Doc Holystone's ghost, Gilawfer spoke to Milo and pretended to be angry at Gilawfer, saying that he had been not only a fence but an informant for customs, and his handler had been De Cary Vinge, and for a moment he looked furious. Milo recalled Mr. Vinge, shifting uncomfortably, and the fake ghost said that customs could be involved in trying to steal the derrotero as well. Milo and Meddy relayed this fact to Clem and Georgie, to their disgust. Meddy later provided Milo with *The Skidwrack: A Visual History* to read, which Milo recalled Mr. Vinge having abandoned when he'd fled the previous year.

When Emmett Syebuck showed his customs ID, Milo recalled Mr. Vinge's, which had been slightly different because Mr. Vinge had been deputized by the customs department and not an actual agent. Milo wondered if Mr. Vinge, one of the few who knew that most of Greenglass House's guests were smugglers, had handed in evidence the previous year. Emmett mentioned Mr. Vinge, saying he was the reason Emmett had come to Greenglass House, because there had been stories he'd been telling, though Emmett did not think them trustworthy, thinking Mr. Vinge was slightly crazy, and biased. Emmett, however, did not think the house's connections to smugglers were a crime, and planned to report back to customs to tell them that Greenglass House was not an issue. Emmett told Milo that he was not Vinge, and not everyone in customs was like Vinge. Milo understood. Milo told Clem and Georgie that Emmett was a customs agent there because of Mr. Vinge and not Gilawfer.

Milo planned to tell a story to get a reaction from the guests. Georgie was skeptical, thinking that things could go wrong if the baddies thought Milo was involved, as had happened the previous year with Mr. Vinge, who'd had, to her fury, a gun.

Milo went outside to recover the derrotero from where it had been hidden. He ran into the fake ghost of Doc Holystone again, and Mrs. Kirkegrim revealed that he was actually Gilawfer. Gilawfer tried to hold Milo there, and when Milo went to go, Mr. Vinge arrived. Mr. Vinge said that Gilawfer did indeed have customs connections, and he kept his hands in his pockets, but Milo was sure one was holding a gun. He took out his customs ID and ordered Mrs. Kirkegrim to stay. Milo considered swinging the stick at Mr. Vinge, but decided that would be a very bad idea.

Mrs. Kirkegrim was sarcastic about the appearance of customs, then mentioned the customs agent inside Greenglass House. Milo felt this to be a cue, and explained about Emmett Syebuck, whose name it seemed that Mr. Vinge knew, and suggested that they might not have met since Emmett was a real customs agent and not just deputized. Mr. Vinge reminded Milo that he was supposed to hand over the bag, but Mrs. Kirkegrim and Milo pretended that Mr. Vinge and Emmett were working together. Mr. Vinge tried to insist to Gilawfer that Milo, who was 'just a kid', did not know what he was talking about. Mrs. Kirkegrim, however, continued pretending, explaining to Gilawfer that Mr. Vinge would give Deacon and Morvengarde the derrotero, and Emmett would hand over Gilawfer to customs; Gilawfer had been set up. Gilawfer began to speak with Mr. Vinge, but he said they would sort it out later, and demanded for Milo to give him the bag. Gilawfer took out a gun, though Mrs. Kirkegrim tried to convince him not to. Milo went to get out the keys from his rucksack, but the straps on his bag got tangled and he could not get it off— and then Mr. Vinge took out his own gun and pointed it at Milo. Mrs. Kirkegrim was apprehensive, but he dismissed this, and reasserted his claim on the derrotero.

Milo then saw the hobby horse, and began singing *The Holly and the Ivy* to finish summoning it. The hobby horse came up to Milo and sniffed Milo's nose, and Mr. Vinge, unlike Gilawfer, kept his gun raised, but looked stunned. The ghost of Doc Holystone— the real one— then arrived, and put an arm around Mr. Vinge, who flinched, terrified, but did not move. The ghost confirmed that he was indeed Doc Holystone, and Mr. Vinge insisted that this was impossible as he was dead, and pointed his gun at the captain. Doc Holystone seemed unconcerned, telling Mr. Vinge that the gun would not help them, and that Mr. Vinge should have stayed away. Mr. Vinge started to lower the gun, then lunged for Milo, hoping, Milo thought, to have him as a hostage. Milo, however, swung his stick and hit Mr. Vinge, then hurried away. The hobby horse knocked the pistol out of Mr. Vinge's hand with a hoof, then stared Mr. Vinge in the eyes, and the hide around its head went away, leaving only a skull with ribbons, bells, and candles. Mr. Vinge screamed, and the hobby horse began to move Gilawfer and Mr. Vinge closer together, and Gilawfer grabbed Mr. Vinge, terrified. The hobby horse then herded Vinge and Gilawfer through the woods, preventing any escape by appearing in their path whenever one tried to leave. Vinge and Gilawfer, horrified, disappeared into the trees. Milo recounted these happenings, and Emmett said what were presumably insults about the man, later noting that some of the crazier things that he had said did not seem as crazy anymore.

## Personality and traits

When he first arrives, Mr. Vinge is very quiet. However, he does not hesitate to steal from others, or even kill those who are against Deacon and Morvengarde. On all three occasions he came to Greenglass House, he carried a gun.

## Physical appearance

Mr. Vinge has a "plain face" and "bright and sharp" eyes. He is tall and lanky, and reminds Milo of a grandfather or a schoolteacher. He wears very loud socks and tortoiseshell glasses. According to Milo, he has "gaunt" bones which creak.

## Trivia

* Mr. Vinge's socks include:
	+ Orange and purple stripes
	+ Yellow with blue polka dots
	+ Green and yellow argyle with hopping frogs
	+ Yellow with red zigzags