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Chapters (206)
  1. Praise for Maplecroft
  2. Title page
  3. Copyright page
  4. Contents
  5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  6. THESE ARE THE THINGS AN EARTHQUAKE BRINGS
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  12. A DOCTOR, A LAWYER, A MERCHANT, A CHIEF
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  20. Phillip Zollicoffer, Professor of Biology, Miskatonic University
  21. Lizzie Andrew Borden
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  26. BE SURE YOUR SINS WILL FIND YOU OUT
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  29. I CROSS THE MAGPIE, THE MAGPIE CROSSES ME
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  31. Nance O’Neil
  32. THIS KNOT I KNIT, THIS KNOT I TIE
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  37. AND IF YOU HAVE A HORSE WITH ONE WHITE LEG . . .
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  43. THE WORST IS TO BE JUDGED WITHOUT HOPE
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  46. Lizzie Andrew Borden
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  53. BUT NETTLE SHANT HAVE NOTHING
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  55. CUT THEM ON FRIDAY, YOU CUT THEM FOR SORROW
  56. Phillip Zollicoffer, Professor of Biology, Miskatonic University
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  62. HAPPY IS THE CORPSE THAT THE RAIN SHINES ON
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  67. A DWELLING PLACE OF JACKALS, THE DESOLATION FOREVER
  68. Lizzie Andrew Borden
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  71. Nance O’Neil
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  84. Emma L. Borden
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  88. Owen Seabury, M.D.
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  91. Lizzie Andrew Borden
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  93. RIGHT CHEEK, LEFT CHEEK—WHY DO YOU BURN?
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  101. Aaron B. Stewart, Fire Chief, Farthington, Mass.
  102. Emma L. Borden
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  104. Gerald Macintyre, Telegraph Clerk, Western Union
  105. Owen Seabury, M.D.
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  107. Physalia, Z. University I Was Not Now
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  109. DEPART, ALL ANIMALS WITHOUT BONES
  110. Emma L. Borden
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  115. Owen Seabury, M.D.
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  119. Lizzie Andrew Borden
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  130. Owen Seabury, M.D.
  131. Phillip Zollicoffer. Physalia Zollicoffris.
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  137. Christoff Dane, M.D., Ph.D., University of Rhode Island, Kingston
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  139. Emma L. Borden
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  144. Owen Seabury, M.D.
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  150. Emma L. Borden
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  153. FAMILY SLAIN IN MAYFIELD
  154. Owen Seabury, M.D.
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  165. Lizzie Andrew Borden
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  176. Emma L. Borden
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  186. Owen Seabury, M.D.
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  197. Lizzie Andrew Borden
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  205. Inspector Simon Wolf
  206. •   •   •

I wanted to say he must’ve been mistaken or deliberately inflating the stakes, but when I stepped outside to greet him, I could see the glow of the blaze over the tops of the trees, lighting him from behind. My heart sank down into my belly, and rested there like a lump of lead.

I asked Horner if he’d summoned the police force yet, and he nodded, turning his horse and telling me that I was nearly the last man to be roused, because I was sleeping at the station’s quarters—and inconveniently enough, the station lies at the most distant end of town from where the blaze began. He said I should bring the cart and all my men, and he’d instigate a bucket brigade in advance of us.

To be honest, I’ve always found Horner a bit too eager to please, or eager to make himself valuable; and in my experience a man is either useful or he is not useful, and those who must convince you of their enduring worth . . . probably fall into the latter category. But on that night, I could not fault him, and I was glad to have such an informed busybody within the town’s limits.

After he’d gone, I raised my own alarm—ringing the bell and cranking the siren, bringing out my two nearest lieutenants, whose aid I needed when it came to fastening the horses and preparing the hoses. (The tanks were already filled in accordance with regulation.)

We maintain three such tanks, each one holding four hundred gallons, mounted on a reinforced wagon of the traditional metropolitan type; though here I must point out that if we’d received the funds for a new steam-powered engine, there’s a fair chance that we might’ve saved more of the cannery than we managed.

When we work with horses and leather, as opposed to steam and rubber, you can only hold us accountable to a given extent. We do our best with the equipment at hand, but it’s hardly the newest technology—and I’m aware that Commissioner Freeman is loath to part with funds for a town the size of ours, but progress shall catch us eventually, if we do not catch it first.

You may expect me to follow up further, on this point. Perhaps at a later date, when the insurance men are satisfied. If ever they are satisfied.

But with regard to the Franklin fire, we were fortunate, after a fashion. When we arrived with cart and ladders, we found the north end of the compound wholly engulfed, and I knew immediately that there was nothing to be done for the place. It would burn to the ground, and the only question was how much property and how many lives it would bring down with it.