Doctorow och labradoren

 Doctorow går runt, runt, runt på kontoret. Svetten sipprar långsamt nerför pannan under brättet på den solblekta stråhatten, som sett sina bästa dagar. "Nej! Nej! NEJ!", utstöter han så med emfas, blickandes mot taket, där en trött fläkt långsamt viftar runt den närmast stillastående varma luften längs takfärgen som sedan länge börjat krackelera. "Värre än att skåda Dagon, käre Gud! Jag är kränkt djup in i min själ!" Doctorow går ryckigt över golvet, fäktandes uppgivet med armarna, och endast genom gudarnas försorg undgår den enda levande krukväxten på kontoret att knuffas i golvet, och fram till det oputsade fönstret. "Fan också, Lockwood! Det var ju din tur att hålla efter kontoret", muttrar Doctorow, och lirkar till sist upp handtaget till fönstret, som närmast fastkärvat långsamt öppnas, högljutt gnisslande i protest. Doctorow sticker ut huvudet genom fönstret, andas in djupt av den, jämfört med inomhus, friska luften och fyller lungorna, innan han i upphetsad falsett vrålar ut i gränden: "DEt hETeR LAbrAdOr ReTriEVer, OcH InTe ROveR!!!" Efter att ha fått rimlig kontroll över sitt farligt höga blodtryck igen, drar så Doctorow in huvudet till sist. Han går fram till den lilla städskrubben, där Frank Cannon allt som oftast sitter på en skurhink och sover med ena ögat öppet och sitt vapen i knät, och plockar fram städsaker till Lockwood, så att denne får ändan ur och tvättar fönstrena någongång. "Allt ska man behöva göra själv" kverulerar Doctorow närmast parodiskt uppgivet, då han sjunker ner i soffan med dagens Arkham Advertiser i ena näven, och en grogg i den andra....

Dog Missing

It was Friday, February 11, and Bill “The Hook” Lockwood was shivering on the worn couch at Cannon, Doctorow and Lockwood, P.I. after his somnambulism. His whisky bottle had been broken during the burglary yesterday, but it turned out that both Cannon and Doctorow had whisky bottles stashed away in their desk drawers, so Lockwood was grasping a well-fortified cup of coffee between his hands. Bessie Coleridge was already on her way to the office to continue the strange investigation, and the intrepid investigators were quite certain that the curious and irredeemable Madame Tekla would show up shortly. However, when there was a knock on the door it turned out to be a swarthy, tall and stocky police officer. Doctorow greeted the uniformed gentleman cautiously, but Frank Cannon leapt out of his chair and greeted the officer with a wide smile and a firm handshake.

“Rick Gallo! What the…what are you doing in Arkham?”

“We left The City, you know. It is not a good place to work as you grow older, and you know Corinne, my wife, her folks are from Kingsport, so we decided to move here two months ago, and the Arkham P.D. had an opening. I only realized that you were here the other evening when that other P.I., Moe Zuckermann, told me about your agency. Anyway, I thought I’d surprise you. Hey, I see that liquor bottle. Do I need to report this? Nah, just gimme a cup of joe.”

Rick Gallo

Cannon poured officer Gallo a steaming cup of coffee, and introduced him to Lockwood and Doctorow.

“Hey, Frank, you remember when you worked in the city?” Officer Gallo’s New York accent was way out of place in bucolic Arkham. “Youi used to work on some weird cases, right? Like the Doll man homicides? And Rex the Paper Cutter?” Cannon nodded quietly. There were still too many bad memories from New York.

“Yeah, so whaddaboudit?”

“I saw something really weird yesterday. Perhaps not by New York standards, but still...”

 “Ok?”

“I was out patrolling my beat by the Miskatonic river, by the Old Port, when I heard a really horrifying shriek somewhere by the Ecclestone pharmacy at around 8 p.m.” Gallo took a sip of his coffee. “It was a girl. I didn’t recognize her, but she might have been ten or twelve or so. Her winter coat was splashed with blood, and the was holding a leash. Her dog walk had ended really badly, since the head of a mutt was the only thing left on the leash. Below the neck there was just a mass of tendons, some spine, and torn dog meat. It also seems as if the torn parts were partially covered in some weird foam or ichor, orange to the color and emitting a fetid stench. But then, that might only have been the contents of the poor mutt’s digestive tract. Anyway, thoroughly disgusting.”

Some of the old warehouses by the Miskatonic River.

“I took the girl to the station, and it turned out that she was recognized by one of my colleagues as Annamaria Brady, who lives with her parents, John and Carrie, on 22 East Main Street, next to Christ Church. She had been out walking their Chocolate Lab Rover, when the dog started sniffing something. It apparently then became furious and tore the leash out of Annamaria’s hand. Annamaria ran after Rover, and she was relieved to see Rover peeking out from the corner of a building a few minutes later, but imagine her horror when she realized that the dog’s body had been torn away.”

Cannon, Doctorow, and Lockwood were listening intently. Lockwood had stopped shivering, but he was still all bundled up. “We had her parents pick her up, and they were terrified as well. Poor people! Now, Frank, have you heard of anything like this happening in Arkham or elsewhere, or will this be labelled a car accident?"

That is when Bessie Coleridge and Madame Tekla stepped in to the office.

Annamaria Brady

  

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Felix Jeremiah, Frau Claire Bonhofer and Franz Alter had struggled for several weeks with the enigmatic third volume of the Pnakotic Manuscripts in the basement of the Neues Museum Library. This was the volume that dealt with what seemed to be no less of a matter than the creation of life itself! The old English text was quite difficult to penetrate, but the trio was up to the task. The contents themselves seemed to be more of a challenge, with vast plethora of bizarre and disturbing concepts stacked upon each other. All three of the impromptu researchers were looking increasingly harried, with Franz Alter in particular looking even more gaunt and haunting. Frau Bonhofer simply applying more harsh makeup, while Felex Jeremiah looked as if he actually might be a young teenager.

The frenzied work of the trio was disturbed a by an equally frenzied MacKenzie MacNamara, who had been cared for by Moira Baker and the other investigators for some time after being poisoned in her office. Well, the office of Professor von Kleist, but Mackie was getting quite comfortable in his spacious office while Professor von Kleist recuperated at the Gollingsdorf Sanatarium.

"Have you seen this?" Mackie was holding a newspaper in her raised left hand, while pointing at an article. "You guys are famous!"

 

Montag, Dezember 20, 1926

_____________________________________________________

Suspects at Large!

Three individuals are considered prime suspects for the poisoning and murder of Herr Rudy Becker, age 34, of Luitpoldstrasse, Berlin. The poisoning occurred at the Zum Alten Hof restaurant outside Munich, on Saturday, Dezember 18. One suspect has been identified as Frau Claire von Tanz of Berlin, age 42, of above average height, dark-brownish hair, blue eyes, and typically wearing Bohemian clothing. The other suspect is a tall and very slender (more than 200 centimeters) American or British male with deep-set eyes and a handlebar moustache. The third suspect is a child of approximately twelve years of age with dark hair, also American or British, typically wearing formal clothing. These three individuals are to be considered violent and dangerous, and any sighting should immediately be reported to the Berlin Police. 

A Message To You, Rudy

Sontag, Dezember 6, 1927. Hans-Joachim and Erich, still two small-time crooks, have joined forces at the Café Friedrich on a dreary Sunday afternoon to plan petty crime, and, more importantly, discuss some of the tumultuous events that had happened around Nollendorfplatz recently.

"It was early this Friday when an unlikely group of people stepped into Anton's workshop. There was this unnaturally tall man sporting a moustache and a bowler hat, a very strict-looking middle-aged woman in remarkably high heels, and a kid dressed as an adult. They were asking for trucks that had been in accidents, and of course everyone, and Anton in particular, knew about the bus that had been abandoned in the neighborhood, and subsequently dumped in the Landwehr Canal." Erich nodded and looked into hos almost empty beer glass. 

"You know that they went to see Inspector Hubert Bosch later that same day, right?"

"Yes, of course, and Bosch did not have any reason to protect that bastard Rudy Becker, who still owes me money. Bosch apparently sent them right here, to the café. Sarah, you know the odd-day waitress, spoke to them and gave them the address to Madame Lola, Rudy's on-and-off girlfriend. The weird threesome decided to pay Madame Lola a visit."

"Oh, I would have loved to see that up close!" Hans-Joachim and Erich toasted each other before ordering another round.

 

Berlin Police interrogation of Greta Aschenbrenner, also known as Madame Lola.

20:en Dezember, 1927

"Right, so you were waiting for a friend, not a client. Is that correct?"

"A friend. A dear friend, as a matter of fact."

"Ok, so these two individuals, a tall man and a strictly dressed lady, forced themselves into the apartment?"

"Yes, breaking and entering, and violently as well!"

"And what about Rudy Becker? What is your relation to him?"

"A friend, nothing else."

"Since when is friend spelled p-i-m-p? That will give you time in the Big House."

"Rudy...er, Herr Becker is NOT my pimp! I am a self-employed woman!"

"Who sees lots of friends..."

"I have a rich social life. So what?"

"Listen, we all know that shots were fired, and apparently you were trying to protect Rudy Becker. Is it not so that the two assailants were trying to catch Rudy Becker, and that you tried to stop them? That you produced a handgun and fired two rounds?"

"It was this woman, who... who tried to roll over my living room table, destroying it in the process, but jumping up from wreckage wielding a whip! I had to defend myself! But she cracked her whip over my head before having it twirl around my wrist, pulling me straight into the living room as a young boy attacked me from behind after bouncing over my bed. I was at their mercy!"

Madame Lola's bedroom,

And I believe that a particularly tall man smashed your living room window before chasing after Rudy Becker? That he took a contemporary statue of a diver to clear out the window before chasing after Becker? Do you know anything about the three suspects taking an automobile trip together with Rudy Becker before leaving him on the night train to Bavaria? Answer me, dammit! I need to know this, because Rudy Becker is dead! Dead, poisoned at a restaurant outside München, and these three are prime suspects!

So it seemed as if Mackie had been poisoned by some strange narcotic substance in her tea, and that somebody, perhaps Werner Haupt, the looker from the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, had used this opportunity to access the restricted section of the library in the Neues Museum, and, according to a note on Mackie's desk, the dreaded Pnakotic manuscripts. It also seemed, according from what the Intrepid Investigators had found out while asking questions around Nollendorfplatz, that Werner Haupt might have been friendly with the notorious Doctor Koslowski, who had been expelled from the Berlin School of Medicine for brutal and unethical practices. It was said that he had hired a former abattoir somewhere around the Nollendorfplatz.

Back at the Neues Museum library, special librarian Heinrich Miller had taken Felix Jeremiah, Frau Claire Bonhofer, and Franz Alter to see the Pnakotic Manuscripts. It did indeed seem as if Werner Haupt had copied certain pages dealing with creating bizarre organisms, perhaps even early lore on molecules, currents and cell modification. This required further attention, and since the Pnakotic Manuscripts were written in medieval, but still English, Jeremiah, Alter and Bonhofer decided to achieve a deeper understanding of the strange and ungodly manuscripts. This would be a long couple of weeks, but it would give Mackie the chance to recover and to once and for all figure out how the grave robbings, the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, the Neues Museum, Proletkult, and all other entities were connected!

The Pnakotic Manuscripts had all been bound, and re-bound, into five separate volumes, the last binding dating from the first part of the 19th century. These are, however, simply partial copies of a greater work that is now lost. The manuscripts have been translated by an unknown translator into 15th century English from its precursor volume, The Pnakotica, which probably written in Classic Greek and based on an Egyptian text (a copy of The Pnakotica was supposedly taken to Rome just before the Fall of Constantinople in 1453). There might be as many as five copies in exiestence, with one copy being stored in the New York Public Library, and another in the Miskatonic University Library.

The volumes trace - and to an extent legitimize - certain Pharaonic dynasties to pre-human crinoids that seeded life on Earth. Two of the volumes deal with mythic pre-human civilizations, two, with some of the more obscure aspects of Egyptian history, including the debated Pharaoh Kih-Osk, while the third volume is thought to explain how to actually create life. Some researchers claim that this process is simply a joke or a parody, while others have suggested that some form of weird servitor race may be created.

Pages from the Pnakotic Manuscripts.

Hoppla, wir leben! Directed by Piscator in 1927,

Neues Schauspielhaus, Nollendorfplatz. Between 1927 and 1931, it was the scene of Erwin Piscator’s productions. Piscator was an avant-garde and political theater, which used such modern techniques as film-projections, multiple or simultaneous setting and motorized bridges. John Heartfield, George Grosz and Bertolt Brecht took part in these productions.

Lassen uns feirern wie es ist 1927!

(Meanwhile, a remarkably fit Jules Pollack is joining Howard Lake and his adorable teacher Adele Christo. They are having a great time at the Berlin Christmas Market.)

Who is Mr. E. Grant?

It was a particularly fine and sunny Thursday morning, not too early, when Bessie Coleridge was asked by Carrie Brown of Jules Pollack Fine Antiques to forward a note to Cannon, Doctorow and Lockwood, Arkham's premiere private investigators. Some claimed that they were Arkham's only private investigators, but that may not be entirely true. Bessie walked up the stairs to the office of the investigators and knocked on the door, just below the frosted glass pane that displayed the names of said investigators. She was greeted by a curt "come in" and the sight of three gentlemen enjoying a slow morning with coffee, cigarettes, and the Arkham Advertiser. The note was presented:

A case! Brad Doctorow didn't really seem too eager, but Carrie Brown was, after all, the prime buyer of Bessie Coleridge's acquisitions from all over the northeast. But what about the jewelry? It did seem to be not unlike the jewelry Bessie and her friends had found in the hold of that disturbing ship in Martin's Beach just a couple of weeks ago, the jewelry that was safely locked up in Bessie's Franz Jaeger safe?

To confuse matters further, one of the true characters of Arkham entered the office of the investigators: the legendary Madame Tekla, Arkham's favorite medium, and spiritist extraordinaire. "Fraud! Harold Biggs gave me a check that bounced!" Doctorow looked at the check. It was probably the worst forgery he'd ever seen, but Madame Tekla was upset and in distress, so Frank Cannon assured her that her 15 dollars would be reimbursed, one way or the other. Meanwhile, Bill "The Hook" Lookwood looked up from the morning edition of the Advertiser. "Hey, guys, did you see about the burglary at Miskatonic University?" Frank Cannon frowned. Anything going on at M.U. was destined to be weird or outright bizarre, despite Arkham being such a sleepy town.

Madame Tekla

But what about the jewelry? It was decided to move the jewelry to the much bigger and safer Franz Jaeger in the P.I. office, and then go and have a chat with Carrie Brown at J. Pollack Fine Antiques as well as the phone exchange to see if the call from E. Grant could be traced. It was odd, though, the usually fairly vain Bessie Coleridge had actually only tried on the alien jewelry once, since it simply didn't feel right, and even looking at the ornate carvings and figures on the bracelet and the diadem filled her with a sense of unease, perhaps a bit like standing at the edge of a cliff and not knowing how long you could keep balancing. She had also been unable to trace the origin of the odd characters that were found on the inside of the pieces, and the small characters were simply just a tad disturbing. Was it the angles? The postures? She wasn't certain, and as Bessie took out the jewelry from her safe. her four compatriots had to agree that there was something unwholesome about both the diadem and the bracelet. Cannon even sensed a faint pulsating light as the investigators locked the jewelry into the sturdy Franz Jaeger at the P.I. office. It was also decided that Bill Lockwood was to remain at the office while the fellow investigators visited J. Pollack Fine Antiques and the phone exchange. The conversation with Carrie Brown was most pleasant, but rather fruitless, although the "E. Grant" had promised the enormous sum of 50,000 dollars for the jewelry. This was followed by Doctorow's charm blitz against the phone exchange, and it turned out that "E. Grant" had telephoned from Boston. 

Meanwhile, Bill Lockwood had a visitor. An odd-looking woman with a raspy voice by the name of Hortensia Robinson, who claimed to be a jeweler, had some questions regarding jewelry theft. However, Bill Lockwood did not appreciate being disturbed, and his brusque manners convinced Mrs. Robinson to leave after just a few minutes.

Hortensia Robinson

It was by now clear that the odd jewelry was of great interest to any number of strange individuals, and it was time to pay a visit to the burglary site at Miskatonic University. But who was the man in the black stovepipe hat staking out the office, or had Lockwood just been mistaken? Anyway, Bessie hab been introduced to Professor Freeborn previously, and she was disappointed to hear from the young administrator's assistant that Professor Freeborn was on sick leave, while Professor MacNamara was abroad. However, Professor Harold C. De Winter, the chair of the Department of Anthropology was on his way down the stairs. The assistant warned Doctorow that he used to be a notorious crank, but that he was all sunshine and flowers nowadays, albeit with a stroke of eccentricity. Madame Tekla was unperturbed. She displayed all of her exotisms, and De Winter went straight to Sanskrit. The confused conversation ended up in De Winter's office, but not before Lockwood spotted the man with the black stovepipe hat and long black coat across the campus. It was eerie and unnerving, and Lockwood quietly mentioned the strange man to his fellow investigators.  

Professor Harold De Winter.

Professor De Winter's office had indeed been broken in to, but nothing had been stolen, and neither had the finds from the archaeological digs outside Martin's Beach more than a year ago. The investigators had brought along the jewelry, and De Winter was most curious. But before presenting the diadem and the bracelet, Bessie secured the window, while Lockwood glanced outside the massive office door. He was greeted by a thoroughly disturbing sight: the man with the stovepipe hat, standing at the front doors of the Department of Anthropology a mere 50 feet away, just down the massive staircase that dominated the lobby of the department. Lockwood closed the to De Winter's office with a bang and pulled out his .45 Browning. All of a sudden poor Professor De Winter found himself surrounded by guns in every direction, but De Winter retained his composure. He cleared off his desk, and Cannon pulled out the jewelry. De Winter seemed stunned, and with a shaking hand he asked Madame Tekla to pull out volume III of "South Pacific: A Travelogue" by Robert Loveman, printed around 1822. And there it was: a drawing that bore more than a little resemblance to the pieces lying on De Winter's desk. "Jewelry from Ponape or Conakry found by Captain Marsh. According to legend associated with lost Mu or Lemuria". It seemed as if the sun dimmed for a second or two. De Winter leaned forward, whispering that according to vague rumors, possession of the Polynesian jewelry led to insanity, death, or worse!

Things were about to get even more complicated. The office of Cannon, Doctorow, and Lockwood had been broken into during the afternoon, and Lockwood's whisky bottle was smashed to pieces! The case was now personal! Even the sizeable Franz Jaeger safe had been broken into, but nothing was missing.

The investigators were troubled by strange dreams about watery depths and oceans that night, and it seemed as if Lockwood had walked out in his pajamas into the cold winter air. There were wet footprints leading up to Lockwood's bed, and young Joe Scacci, the bakery boy had seen Lockwood together with a man wearing a stovepipe hat. What was going on? What had happened to Bill Lockwood? "Well, he sure smells like Mr. Lockwood..." Madame Tekla's words were not reassuring.

Arkham in the winter.

Around the university.

Miskatonic University.

 

 

Cut to the Chase

Donnerstag, Dezember 2, 1926. Hans-Erich and Joachim, two small-time crooks, are sitting at their usual table at the Café Friedrich, a dingy bar not too far from the Nollendorfplatz. The foggy street outside is almost empty, and the bar is only filled to perhaps a third of capacity, with patrons eyeing each other over beers and wine glasses. The bar is ridiculously smoky, and even the sickly yellowish walls seem to be pumping tar into the fetid atmosphere.

"Did I tell you that I ran into Hubert Bosch this Monday?" Joachim lit a cigarette while looking up at Hans-Erich.

"The police investigator? That little round man?"

"Precisely. He was asking around about these cases of grave robbery that some people have been talking about. You know, where there are some whispers that somebody's awfully interested in the... naughty bits of recently dead women of fertile age."

"That's interesting. Does Bosch think he can solve the case, or does he have any other stake in the grave robberies?" Joachim finished his beer, pointed at the glass and nodded towards the waiter for another round.

"I dunno. He may actually have been gathering information for someone else, and he was possibly seen with some Englishmen or Americans after work. It's unclear. But I can tell you what seems to have happened on Tuesday evening. You may have heard the general mayhem that seems to have started just by the Invalidenfriedhof?"

"Yes, what was that all about? Had this something to do with Rudy's gang?" Hans-Erich leaned forward over the rickety table.

"Precisely! It seems as if Rudy and some of his goons were hired to take care of some of the recent 'vagrants' that ended up in the Invalidenfriedhof. The goons, not including that bastard Rudy himself, were apparently hired by a guy named Erich, with a last name starting with a 'K'. Kowalski? Anyway, they were ambushed by God knows who. There were fights and gun shots in the dark, and it all ended up with a spectacular car chase, with Rudy's goons in a truck, throwing corpses at some unknown pursuers that were firing guns at the truck. They almost crashed into a movie theater, wrecked several storefronts, and woke up half of Mitte as they drove south, bypassing the Tiergarten to the west, and then roughly towards the area of Nollendorfplatz. It all may have ended with a crash, since at least a car was found ablaze later on that night."

"What a story! No word from the Berlin police yet, I assume?" Joachim nodded as he took a large gulp from his beer.

"Nope. Well, besides the usual 'investigation pending'. I just wonder if this somehow is connected to Bosch's inquiries?"

"Cheers to that!"

"Cheers."

Hubert Bosch

Previously, on a drab Monday, Berlin, November 29, 1926, inside Mackie MacNamara's temporary office at the Neues Museum.

Mackie looked at Moira and Frau Claire Bonhofer, the housekeeper, or rather manager, of the Alexander Scharff estate which was now the property of Franz Alter. Claire's - Frau Bonhofer's - practical garments for running the mansion had been swapped for a fairly strict and conservative dress, which matched her rather high boots and the severe bun at the back of her head. 

"Moira, this Werner Haupt is a looker, but is he just a schmoozer, a lush, or the real deal? Also, what's his real interest in Egyptology? He claimed to be rekindling is old academic passion for Ancient Egypt, but now he's with Dr. Magnus Hirschfelt. Is that so, Moira?"

"Yes, he is one of the 'Advanced Students' at the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft. I am not really sure about what he studies, though. I have to admit that he is nice to look at, and apparently quite charming at that.."

"His English was really good, with just a hint of a German accent, enough to make his expressions interesting and a tad exotic. Did you notice the quality of his suiit? No Lumpenproletariat here!"

"I have also been told that he's quite active in Berlin student fraternity life, which is suppsedly rather above and beyond a nice evening dinner. He's often surrounded by a posse of younger researchers and students." 

Frau Bonhofer just muttered something under her breath. The sound of horses neighing could be heard from the street.

"Well, I have top admit that this was a nice visit, and his academic merits are impeccable. Should I just keep him at arm's length?"

"Always a good option until you change your mind, dear."

Frau Bonhofer simply frowned.

Werner Haupt.

Dr. Magnus Hirschfeldt

Early in the morning of Freitag, December 3, 1926, comfortably seated in the living room of Franz Alter's mansion in Grünewald after a gruelling night.
"I'm telling you! It was Rosa Klebb and Janis Sarts! I saw them!" Mackie managed to spill out some of the contents of her brandy snifter, Frau Bonhofer frowned.  

"Are you really sure about that?" Franz Alter stretched his unnaturally long and skinny arms wearily out over the coffe table, almost reaching a startled Jules Pollack who was busy mixing cocktails.

"There were at least some similarities" Howard Lake just wanted to cut the conversation short and retire. He was looking forward to an oral exam in German next morning.

"But you told me these guys perished in the jungles of Central America during the MacNamara Expedition?" Felix Jeremiah had seen many strange things together with his compatriots, but some of their tales were still just outlandish.

"My expedition was a great success!" Mackie raised her voice. "The Miskatonic faculty are fools!"

Felix rolled his eyes. "Oh boy, here we go again".

The Season of the Witch

Winter in New England. A perfect time to look for exciting antiques, or so Bessie Coleridge thought. People would be interested in getting some extra cash to spend in the spring, and most other antique dealers would be huddling in their stores. Bessie had reconnoitered Topsfield on the map, a location that had its brief moment of infamy some time ago, when a power plant exploded.

-----------------------------------------------------------

 TOPSFIELD POWER PLANT EXPLOSION

Monday, April 13, 1925

The Topsfield Power Plant was destroyed in a series of powerful explosions followed by a conflagration that left the Arkham Fire Department helpless to curb the flames. The cause of the explosions remains to be determined, but it has been noted that Dr. MacNamara, Ms. Baker, Mr. Lake, Mr. Pollack and Mr. Bowers, all of Arkham, are held by the Arkham Police for questioning, although some of these individuals were severely injured in the blast. Mr. Lake has also been charged with reckless driving. Neither the owner of the power plant, Mr. Otto Argo, nor the site manager, Mr. Bogislav Klimnik, have been available to comment. 

Mayor Jonathan D. Bryce held a press conference this morning, and he stressed the serious nature of the explosion, and how Arkham has been plagued by a series of violent events over the last week or so. Mayoral candidate Dunstan Dunford accused Mayor Bryce of displaying "yet another example of his legendary ineptitude" in dealing with the current bout of violence, while Councilman Bedford Duvall pointed out that the destruction of the power plant will lead to a permanent power shortage in the Miskatonic Valley.

----------------------------------------------------------

Bessie Coleridge did manage to convince Frank Cannon, Bill Lockwood, and Brad Doctorow to come along with her, both for the sake of good company and to carry whatever antiquities that Bessie might lay her hands on. The fellow investigators drove off on Thursday, January 20, 1927, and they truly enjoyed the wintry wonderland, despite the snowy and trecherous New England roads. The village of Topsfield was actually located across the Miskatonic River from the ruined site that was supposed to have been finished as a modern power plant, and the village was quaint indeed. 

The village of Topsfield, incorporated 1768.

The investigators checked in at the Topsfield Boarding House, which was more akin to a particularly nice bead and breakfast. The proprietor, Mr. Evan Sullivan, was a kind old man, and there was only one other boarder, a quiet and gruff prospector who mainly kept to himself (and yes, Doctorow could not resist  breaking in to the prospector, and he a had a Geiger counter and many other strange items not seemingly related to prospecting, as well as potential connections to the government. Mystery unsolved). As the company of investigators settled in at the boarding house, Mr. Sullivan shared some horrible news regarding the disappearance of a young boy, William Lind, who possibly disppeared under the ice while exploring the abandoned saw mill by Rugby Lake, His mother, Erica Lind, was beyond herself, having lost her husband just two years ago, and Sheriff Joseph Miller in the nearby small town of Danvers had really not been of much help, stating that the ice had to melt before they could look for a body in earnest.

William Lind.

Erica Lind.

Frank Cannon and Bill Lockwood could not resist visiting Mrs. Lind, and she was indeed in great emotional distress. She kept on blaming an older woman for her son's disappearance, cursing and wailing at a "that woman", a Catherine Charlier, who lived just north of Topsfield. It also seemed as if Sheriff Miller's performance may have been lacklustre: Further examinations of the abandoned saw mill indicated that young William Lind hadn't even been close to Rugby Lake. Back at the boarding house, Mr. Sullivan told Bessie Coleridge and Brad Doctorow that Mrs Charlier was a poor old woman who had lived north of Topsfield for as long as could be remembered together with her dog, as of recently a delightful mutt called "Charlemagne", but that she was shunned, or at least distrusted, by many members of the population because she was a... Catholic! From Quebec! 

It was clearly time to visit Madame Catherine Charlier. This required a bit of a walk along a narrow path, but the weather remained gorgeous when the investigators set out next day, Friday, January 21. While walking down the path, the investigators were greeted by a very happy dog that they assumed was Charlemagne.

The investigators eventually found a small cabin, and they were greeted by and old woman, who did introduce herself as Madame Charlier. She was delightful and quite chatty, and it did indeed seem as if she had been missing company in her very humble cabin for some time. She claimed that she liked living just north of Topsville, despite some of the local population being more than a bit wary of her. Bessie Coleridge took the opportunity to ask if she might have some antiques that she might be interested in selling for a handsome sum of money? Madame Charlier assured Bessie that this might be the case, and they decided to look at some of Madame Charlier's heirlooms, while Doctorow, Cannon, Lockwood, and Charlemagne went outside to look for any tracks or traces of young William Lind.

Catherine Charlier's cabin

Madame Catherine Charlier

Dusk was rapidly approaching, and the wintry wood seemed increasingly strange and surreal  around Doctorow, Lockwood, and Cannon. Was it just the increasingly weird light, or were these apparitions from the strained minds of the investigators? After all, they had all three had experiences outside anytrhing that might be deemed normal. They did not know this at the time, but Bessie Coleridge was also seeing strange and disturbing things outside Madame Charlier's cabin while the old woman looked through her belongings in an adjacent room.

It seems as of the apparitions were just harbingers of what was to come. This may have been the opportunity Madame Charlier had waited for: a quartet of out-of-towners that no one would miss, and that could used for whatever dark purposes that Madame Charlier might pursue. As Madame Charlioer came out to Bessie Coleridge, she had turned into something much more hidious and violent that her previous kind slef. Correspondingly, the adorable Charlemagne har turned into a blood-frenzied beast fully prepared to bite and slash the investigators (who by now, by the way, were partially separated in the darkening woods) into steaming chunks of meat, all ready to be devoured by beast and man alike.

 

Madame Charlier.

Charlemagne?

Bessie Coleridge did not attempt to fight the monstrous form of Madame Charlier in the cabin. She chose the wiser alternative, to flee out of the cabin in search of her friends. She was, however, pursued by the grotesque shape of Madame Charlier, clawing into the air and rending Bessie's jacket and shirt into shreds without reaching her pale, exposed skin. Meanwhile, Doctorow, Cannon and Lockwood struggled with the enormous canine beast that seemed to use the twilight to dodge bullets, fists and curses. But the fellow investigators were resourceful, and as they joined forces, the solid gunfire from Doctorow and Lockwood may have put down the dog-creature, while Cannon grabbed Charlier, allowing Bessie Coleridge to land a solid, rock-hard punch in the face of the witch, dissolving her into what seemed like foul-smelling soot.

As the intrepid investigators stumbled back to the cabin of Madame Charlier, it seemed as if decades had passed, The cottage seemed to have fallen into decay, seemingly being abandoned for decades, Unfortunately, it seemed as if young master William Lind had fallen victim to the vicious Madame Charlier, judging from remnants in the fireplace. It was with very mixed feelings that the investigators travelled back to Arkham, even if Bessie II was loaded with some great finds that Jules Pollack Fine Antiques back in Arkham would pay well for. 

From the diaruy of Brad Doctorow, Wednesday, January 26, 1927.

It is strange and distressing that we have had so many experiences out of the normal over the course less than a year. We did do some research into the property of Madame Charlier, and it seems as if the property was orginally acquired by a Yolanda Digby back in 1801, but there was no trace of any ownership being passed to a Catherine Charlier. Yolanda Digby! I am horrified! Is this the Yolanda Digby that was the grandmother of Eunice Saunders, whose notebook we found in Arkham after that horrifying night? The strange, strange aunt of Caroline Schubert, actually Caroline DeLuca, who succumbed in the explosion in Arkham last September?