Estelle LePage
Desperate for a change of pace, Alfie calls up Estelle LePage and asks if he (and his six friends) can meet her for coffee. She suggests the nearby, and unusually named, Flat Cat Café.
Business at the café seems a little slow at the moment, which works out well for the investigators’ plans. Estelle (“call me ‘Stella.’”) arrives a short time after they do, with her two tiny fluff dogs (Daphne and Lucy) in tow. The conversation is animated, albeit a touch awkward, as Estelle and Alfie reminisce about old experiences at Port Harbor High, people they once knew in town, and similar. The rest of the investigators drink their coffee in relative silence. Several of them are convinced that that Estelle is eerily familiar.
Estelle "call me 'Stella'" LePage
Investigators observing Estelle find her to be witty, charming, urbane, and also deeply frustrated. Since her family fortunes have fallen and she is no longer able to play the role of Port Harbor socialite, Estelle is at a point in her life where she doesn’t know what to do next. She mentions that she is working on establishing a charity, but it is clear from the discussion that all she has are vague ideas at the moment, with no idea how to implement them.
Alfie, hoping to get more information from Estelle, plays up the concerned childhood friend role. This overture of sympathy (complete with laying his hand atop hers), causes Estelle’s carefully constructed façade to shatter. She bursts into tears, leading to another prolonged moment of silence. This is only alleviated when Ada gently shepherds Estelle outside to calm down and talk.
One Estelle is out of earshot, the investigators quickly compare notes. Alfie is disturbed to learn that his childhood friend might be associated with Maude Collins and her associates. The investigators conjecture why such disparate people as Estelle, Maude, Kent, and others are working together. This spirals into a conspiratorial conversation of how many unique members of Maude’s group there are, who is secretly whom, and whether Estelle’s dogs may, in fact, be two of Maude’s “heavies” in disguise. Alfie makes a careful study of both dogs, who are behaving themselves at the table, and assures everyone that Daphne and Lucy are just dogs.
Outside, Ada tries to calm Estelle while at the same time trying to get more information from her. She doesn’t get much—just enough to confirm that Estelle’s concerns, frustrations, and fears seem to be entirely genuine.
Estelle and Ada return a few minutes later, but it is clear that the coffee klatch is at an end. Estelle says her goodbyes and leaves Alfie with the check. This leads to Ms. Delacroix and Val fleeing the scene before they have to pay. A baffled Alfie notes that he was perfectly content to get the bill, and wonders what everyone else is on about.
Adaru
Upon returning to the Fresno House, Ada suggests having another look through the Fresno journals and going over their old notes to see if they can learn anything else regarding Maude Collins’ group. Ada, Dale, and others eventually compile the following:
- Adaru is an entity similar in power/scope to Hylmunder.
- She is most commonly referred to with feminine pronouns and by the epithet, “The Lady of the Seven Faces.”
- She lives in a realm called the Panoptica Solopsistica, a vault covered with inward-facing mirrors.
- She rules over physical appearance and emotion and rewards her most loyal followers with the ability to control both.
- Fresno mentions that he knows the “Masks of Adaru” are in Port Harbor and are up to something, and that he laments being unable to easily identify them.
Dale points out that Clayon Kent did seem to be able to control emotions, reminding everyone of Kent’s recent rally/riot. Dale also mentions almost succumbing to rage and bloodlust at the beginning of the riot that he was just barely able to control.
The investigators ponder what exactly the Masks are after, and how the Book of Black Tourmaline fits into their plans. It seems clear that Kent, at least, wants political power, though his ultimate goals are currently unclear.
They discuss performing their ritual to speak with the deceased (which they previously used to contact Molly Scott) but ultimately decide against it.
The Return to the Sanitarium
Instead of performing another ritual, the investigators decide to try and seek out the “monster” in Kendrick Sanitarium. At Val’s urging, Alfie purchases several uniforms so that the investigators can disguise themselves as kitchen crew.
For the second time in as many days, the investigators wait until nightfall and drive up to the sanitarium. As they arm themselves in the parking lot and undergo a final inspection from Val, several of them notice a small car tearing up the icy road to the sanitarium. Concerned that they have been spotted, the investigators quickly hide out in their cars—all except for Martin Craven, that is, who steps out of the car and draws his gun in preparation of confronting the oncoming driver.
The mystery car comes skidding to a halt in front of the sanitarium. It’s driver, a furious, middle-aged woman, leaps out, marches up to main entrance and begins pounding on the front door. Martin, somewhat relieved that the woman didn’t notice him, holsters his gun and listens as the woman shouts at whatever luckless individual happens to be on night duty.
The Angry Lady
“…then you will telephone Dr. Neumann and get him out of bed this very minute. I have, as previously requested, received an injunction from the court in Middletown, and I refuse to be delayed any longer. I do not care who you have to inconvenience, but I will not be leaving the premises without my aunt’s remains!”
The investigators take advantage of this distraction to slip onto the sanitarium grounds and make their way to the back entrance of the kitchens. As luck would have it, their arrival coincides with a large delivery of flour from a nearby mill. They join the kitchen employees who are bringing in the delivery and manage to enter the sanitarium without being challenged.
The Attack
From here, the investigators retrace their steps to the isolation rooms in the sanitarium basement and begin to conduct their search. They soon arrive at a junction in the labyrinthine hallways where a sloped corridor leads back up to surface level.
Pooling at the base of the ramp is a puddle of viscous, black fluid that smells strongly of burned wood. Droplets of fluid lead off down one of the hallways for a short distance. Dale also happens to notice a twisted bit of rebar sticking of a damaged wall, whose rusted, jagged edge is also coated in the black fluid.
Although they lack expertise in most scientific and medical disciplines, the investigators take turns trying to identify the fluid. They don’t learn anything definitive, but they all suspect that the fluid is blood of some kind, and that they probably shouldn’t touch it with their bare hands.
Any further inquiry is interrupted by the appearance of
a hideous, hunched shape that flashes across the far end of one of the
connecting hallways. Martin and Ms. Delacroix ready their guns and shout
warnings as the distant sound of a flipping switch echoes up the hallway. As
the banks of hallway lights are extinguished one after the other, a tall,
slender, slimy creature races out of the darkness toward them, letting out an
earsplitting, inhuman cry and reaching out with several pairs of long, taloned fingers.
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