Stolas Books
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| Bor Vodopivec and His Heroic Mustache |
Bor and Ada catch up a bit before Ada starts asking about Maude and the Book of Black Tourmaline. Bor mentions that he has seen Maude in the neighborhood, bu she has never come into the shop. He has also never seen the book. He adds that, due to its singular appearance, he certainly would have remembered it if he had.
Father Wilk buys a book on basic boating techniques and mentions that he is planning to honor Dr. Miller’s suggestion to take Dan Heidecker out for some aversion therapy.
Dale asks if the shop has any occult tomes, and is shown into a small, locked closet with shelves containing such volumes. He finds a book of white magic, which contains a spell to help the caster recover lost items. Dale hopes to use this spell in search of the Book of Black Tourmaline.
Alfie is distracted by a local magazine that has a picture of him on the cover.
On the way out of the shop, Martin notices a poster for a Mr. Emmitt Britt, a Black lawyer who is local to Old Town, and who is running for First Selectman.
A Discharged Patient
After their search in Old Town turns up nothing much, the investigators return to the Fresno House to talk other options.
The phone rings. Dale answers it and learns he is speaking to Maggie Tanager, nurse and front-end manager at Kendrick Sanitarium. She is looking for Dr. Miller, because he apparently checked out one of the patients under the care of Dr. Neumann, the FMD. While Dale tries to figure out what’s going on, Dr. Neumann, who is in the background, shouts his annoyance over Maggie’s head and into the phone.
Dale is so baffled by the phone call that he has difficulty responding. This causes Ms. Delacroix to take the phone out of his hand, tell Dr. Neumann that he is being very rude, and hang up on him.
After some back and forth, the investigators persuade Ms. Delacroix to call the hospital back. She does so and is connected with a somewhat calmer, but still annoyed, Dr. Neumann. He explains that Dr. Miller showed up earlier that day and checked out Ellie Dunn, without consulting with Dr. Neumann previously. Dr. Neumann wants Dr. Miller to return his patient as soon as possible.
Dr. Harmand Neumann, in More Jocular Times
After this second call ends (much more politely than the first one), the more experienced investigators catch Ms. Delacroix and Alfie up on who Ellie Dunn is. She was once a worshiper of the Queen of Tourmaline, who seems to constantly hear the queen’s voice in her mind. This condition was only alleviated when Father Wilk prayed audibly in her presence.
There is some concern that one of Maude Collins’ people put on Dr. Miller’s face and abducted Ellie Dunn from Kendrick Sanitarum. The investigators are not entirely sure what to do about this. They discuss visiting the sanitarium to look for clues.
Meanwhile, Alfie, who has been quietly listening, asks about the strange mirror and photo album that the investigators recovered from “Al’s” apartment. These are brought out and shown around. Alfie, a Port Harbor native, recognizes one of the photos as being of Estelle LePage. She is a wealthy young heiress that Alfie was introduced to as a child—presumably for future matchmaking purposes. He says that he doesn’t know much about her, but he does know that her family lives in town.
Lunch Break
The investigators decide to visit the Port Harbor train station and speak to their good friend Charlie, purveyor of the Charlie Dog™.
Charlie is, as always, delighted to see them and serves the investigators happily. Upon receiving her hot dog, Ms. Delacroix sits on a nearby bench, extracts a plate, napkin, and silverware from her purse, and begins daintily cutting into and eating her hot dog. Charlie seems about to make a comment, but a lethal glare from Ms. Delacroix immediately silences him.
Charlie, unfortunately, has never seen Maude Collins or any of her three very large friends. He says that she might never have come to the train station, or he might simply have missed her.
Several of the investigators start hearing chanting and other crowd noises from somewhere to the northeast. Curious as to what is going on, they all take their leave of Charlie and go to investigate.
Everyone, that is, apart from Father Wilk, who politely asks Charlie who he plans to vote for in the upcoming special election. Charlie seems hesitant to discuss this, at first, but ultimately decides that he likes and trusts Father Wilk enough to tell him.
Charlie is torn between two candidate: Emmitt Britt, the lawyer from Old Town, and a young man named Clayton Kent, who works at H&W Cannery over on Cannon Point. He says that both men have done a great deal of good for the town, and both care about making life better for colored folk and the poor.
He goes on to say that the two men know one another and have worked together recently. Since early in the summer, Kent has attempted to unionize the cannery workers in the face of poor wages and unsafe working conditions. The cannery’s owners responded with the usual tactics, including calling in the Pinkertons. Britt volunteered to represent the workers pro-bono, using his legal bona fides to get the owners to back off and get both sides to the negotiating table. Unfortunately, these negotiations have recently become deadlocked, but both men (and Charlie) are optimistic that the cannery workers will win out. Charlie also thinks that if either Kent or Britt get elected, the future for the cannery workers will become especially bright.
Father Wilk thanks Charlie for his candor and follows his companions.
The Protest
Clayton Kent, Agitator and Candidate
The investigators arrive to find themselves in the middle of a protest which is being held directly across the street from the Port Harbor police station. This protest is also a political rally for Clayton Kent, who is up on a soapbox and speaking to the agitated crowd of cannery workers and other laborers. His rhetoric is very socialist, and the protestors are eating it up.
Chief Murphy and several of the boys in blue come out of the police station and demand that Kent and his rabble-rouses disperse. Kent shouts back that he has every right to peaceful assembly, which Chief Murphy denies. Things start to become very heated between the two groups as Father Wilk catches up with everyone else.
Alfie Davenport, trusting in the fact that he is a rich, well-known white man, approaches Chief Murphy and tries to defuse the situation. However, his placating words strike absolutely the wrong nerve. Before Alfie knows what’s happening, two police officers have thrown him against the side of a car and are slapping him in handcuffs.
This act further outrages the protestors. At a word from Kent, they march across the street to surround the police station parking lot. Dale, who had joined the crowd to listen to Kent, gets the eerie feeling that he has met Kent before. He also becomes briefly overcome with angry passion on behalf of his hardworking brethren. He almost joins the march, ready to do violence, only pulling himself away at the last possible moment.
Kent and the workers chant, “Hell no, let him go!” at the police. Chief Murphy, realizing that he and his boys are badly outnumbered, orders Alfie uncuffed in a desperate attempt to keep things from escalating. He tells Kent that, in recompense, he wants the protest/rally to disperse. Despite the fact that the chief has lost face, Kent agrees to leave, and takes the crowd on a march northward, toward the center of town.
The investigators, themselves not much beloved by Port Harbor’s finest, quickly take their leave. As they depart, Father Wilk tells them what he learned from Charlie and suggests that maybe getting to known Kent and Britt would be beneficial. Dale chimes in that Kent gave him the “Maude Collins” vibe and may have tried to psychically convince him to do violence. This makes the investigators even more intent on meeting the two men. Alfie suggests inviting them to dinner at his house.
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