Every single book in the "C-12" section was missing exactly one thing.
Curiosity finally got the better of him. He took the latest victim—a nondescript diary from the 1920s—and decided to do something he was strictly forbidden from doing: he tracked down the scrap.
"Page 9 is gone again," Elias whispered, sliding a dusty leather-bound journal across his desk. He checked the next one—a Victorian romance. Then a technical manual on bridge building. In each one, the story skipped from Page 8 to Page 10. The jagged edge left behind was always clean, as if sliced by a razor.