At the Police Station
Upon reaching the police station, Father Wilk and Saul are escorted into an interrogation room. After a few minutes, they are joined by Chief Murphy, who wants to have a friendly chat with them. It is anything but. The chief insults both men’s character and suggests that they were trespassing on church grounds for nefarious purposes.
Several minutes into the chat, Alexander Sebastian steps into the room. He upbraids Chief Murphy for not letting him know that his clients were here and wants to know if the chief was deliberately trying to prevent Saul and Father Wilk from getting access to legal representation.
It quickly becomes apparent that Chief Murphy hates Saul and Father Wilk for unspecified (but possibly racist) reasons, and that he is also afraid of Father Wilk. Father Wilk presses this advantage to keep the chief on his back foot. Seeing this advantage, Saul expertly manages to turn the whole “friendly chat” around. He counters all of Chief Murphy’s veiled accusations by saying that they were trying to bring in a witness to Molly Scott’s death and illegal burial. He demands to know why the chief isn’t spending every effort to find Zebulon Davis and bring him in for questioning.
Chief Murphy abruptly ends the interview. Mr. Sebastian gives Father Wilk and Saul a lift back to the Fresno house. His relationship with Chief Murphy is touched on. The chief doesn’t like Mr. Sebastian, either, because “he likes to get results, and he finds that due process often hampers that.”
Police Chief Denny Murphy
Martin’s Adventure
Martin is the only one of the investigators still remaining on church property. He waits until the coast is clear, fetches tools from the storage shed, and gets to work excavating the floor in the central sauna/smokehouse. He finds the floor very easy to break and clear, which troubles him. He finds nothing digging in the dirt beneath the floor, which troubles him a lot more.
Briefly overcome by fatigue, he takes a moment to rest. While catching his breath, he hears the sound of one of the church doors closing.
Martin sneaks over to the church and spots an open window in the back. He heads towards it, only to turn his foot in a divot on the lawn. With a yelp, he goes tumbling into one of the well-manicured hedges. As he struggles to extricate himself, he hears the unmistakable sound of a shotgun misfiring. Looking up, he sees a shadowy figure in the open window, hastily ejecting and reloading a shotgun.
Martin leaps to his feet and draws his .44. The shadowy figure empties two barrels of buckshot in Martin’s direction, but the shots go wild. As the figure turns to flee, Martin opens fire, catching them in the side and sending them toppling to the floor.
Holstering his gun, Martin climbs through the window and frantically searches for a light switch. When he turns it on, he discovers, to his shock and horror, that the mystery shooter is none other than Zebulon Davis. Panicking, Martin tosses the empty shotgun away and spends several minutes trying tending to Zebulon’s wounds. He manages to staunch the flow of blood, but not before getting covered in the stuff and tracking it throughout the back section of the church.
Crime Scene Cleanup
The phone rings at the Fresno house. Ada answers it and is shocked to discover that a frantic Martin is on the other end. Martin stammers that he has shot someone at the church, that the person is “doing really bad” and needs a doctor. Before Ada can ask any clarifying questions, Martin hangs up.
A baffled and worried Ada relates Martin’s message to the others. There is a lot of discussion about what they should do and whether or not they should do it. They eventually agree to go to the church and find out for themselves what’s happened there.
Upon arrival, they meet up with Val, who has finally found her way out of the forest and back to the church grounds. They find the church grounds quiet and undisturbed, but quickly notice the lights that Martin left on in the house.
Entering the church, they find Zebulon unconscious and in critical condition. The investigators are aghast, because Martin never told Ada who he shot, and Martin isn’t here to give an accounting of himself. While Dr. Miller tends to Zebulon, Dale grabs towels and sheets and uses them to mop up Zebulon’s blood and scrub away Martin’s boot prints.
After another frantic discussion, they decide to bring Zebulon back to the Fresno house before trying to figure out what to do next. Ada searches all the cabinets in the house for anything that could be used for wound care while Dr. Miller makes a few discreet phone calls. He apparently has access to a private network of doctors who provide medical care for—certain parties—while remaining anonymous.
An hour after he makes the call, a large, unmarked car arrives at the Fresno house. Two men cart Zebulon off, place him in the back of the car, and drive away. No words are exchanged.
Saul, horrified by everything that’s happened, starts packing up to go home. The others convince him to at least wait until morning. He reluctantly agrees and everyone goes to bed.
What Happened to Martin?
After his phone call, Martin washes off Zebulon’s blood as best as he can and hightails it over to Crosstree Farms to get Lincoln, his horse. He is aided in his escape by one of the buses of the Port Harbor Transportation Authority, who picks him up by the side of the road and takes him to the farm’s bus stop.
Martin saddles Lincoln and rides northeastward out of town. By dawn, he reaches the still sleeping town of Salem, Connecticut. While there, he draws the eye of some early-rising locals, sees a few fliers advertising a Klan rally for the following day (Thursday), and mails a letter to the Fresno house explaining everything that happened.
He also peruses a copy of the morning paper, but finds nothing about the incidents at the Heartfire Church.
Once that’s done, he rides Lincoln into the woods, sets up camp, and gets a little shuteye.
He wakes up shortly after noon, with Leatherman Hobbes standing over him. After a brief and somewhat awkward conversation, the two men agree to share lunch. Over a meal of cold beans and jerky, Martin tells Leatherman what’s happened. Leatherman only replies with seemingly disinterested grunts until the very end.
“So, you say this Zebulon told you where the body was an’ to come up at night to find it?”
“Yeah.”
“An’ this Zebulon was the same one that shot at you?”
“Yeah.”
“Seems t’ me that he led you into a trap.”
Martin is relieved that he may not have gunned down an innocent person but is also worried that he has no way of letting his friends know this. He thanks Leatherman for putting things in perspective before saddling up Lincoln and riding off in a random direction.
A Visit to the Psychiatric Hospital
Kendrick Sanitarium
While Martin goes on walkabout, the other investigators confer in the Fresno kitchen over breakfast. Dr. Miller says that he believes that the Church of the Ten Heartfelt Fires is a front for a cult of Hylmunder, a Mythos deity of limitless energy and destructive power. Ada and Father Wilk also mention the Book of Black Tourmaline, and that it is the work of yet another Mythos deity.
“Plus,” says Ada, “there’s those tunnels running underneath the town that we should explore at some point.”
The investigators also discuss their dismay at finding nothing about the trespassing at the church in the newspaper, as well as no mention of the aftermath of the Zebulon shooting. They worry that this means Alpha Solaris and Helios Rebecca are keeping quiet for their own nefarious purposes.
With Martin in the wind and with themselves feeling at a loss, the investigators decide to visit Kendrick Sanitarium. Dr. Miller thinks that some of the patients there might know something about the occult goings-on in town. Ada, Dale, and Father Wilk go with him, while Saul and Val stay back at the house.
The nurse at the sanitarium’s front desk is pleasant enough, but warns that Dr. Neumann, the facility medical director, is extremely busy. She is immediately contradicted by Dr. Neumann, who arrives and enthusiastically shakes Dr. Miller’s hand. He has read all of Dr. Miller’s papers and is excited to meet him! He clears his schedule and promises to show Dr. Miller and company around!
While all this is happening, Father Wilk offers to do prayers with patients of a Catholic background, while Ada and Dale pass themselves off as Dr. Miller’s research assistant and a driver, respectively.
Terrible News
Meanwhile, back at the Fresno house, the doorbell rings. Saul peeks out the window and is dismanyed to see Chief Murphy standing on the front porch. He debates pretending not to be home but becomes worried that doing so might be illegal. Reluctantly, he opens the door.
Chief Murphy seems none to pleased to see Saul either. He tells Saul that he is not here about the church issue, but something more important. The Second National Bank contacted the police station at dawn that morning to let them know that several of their safety deposit boxes had been burgled in the night. One of these boxes was, of course, the investigators…
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