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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
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She’s been thirsty. Gasping, as if for air—but not satisfied unless it’s water. She isn’t passing much of it, I shudder to say, and I do not think it’s my imagination that she’s taking on something of the bloated appearance of my father and stepmother. She’s not so bad yet, but I can see it coming. It’s barreling down on me like a train, and there’s nothing I can do. No action I can take to prevent or stall the matter, and it’s killing me more certainly than it’s killing her. After all, it might be argued that it’s only changing her.

But I’ll begin with the hope. It came earlier in the day, after all, so I might as well present things chronologically.

•   •   •

Doctor Seabury beat on the door sometime right after breakfast. Emma was upstairs, and Nance was upstairs, too—in the extra room, tied down to the bed lest she wander, roam, and prove some danger to anyone. Therefore, I was alone so far as capable adults went, so I was delighted to see our visitor. I was lonely, and I hadn’t even realized it.

He arrived with a wild look in his eyes, but not an unpleasant one—he had achieved some great idea! Or so he told me, as I bid him come inside and offered him coffee or tea. He picked coffee, and we both went into the kitchen while I set the percolator in motion. Without waiting for a cup, he began to speak.

“I’ve been looking at the symptoms, the list we made together, you and I and your sister—and I’ve been considering the other factors, things we may have known to serve a pattern, but not in the same way as the physical changes have presented themselves.”

“I’m not certain I understand,” I confessed.

“Neither do I. Not precisely, but that’s all right for now. Patterns aren’t always precise, and there’s an exception to every rule. But we can learn something, even from the exceptions. The exceptions can show us plenty. That’s what I mean—it’s the exceptions that are revealing a whole picture, even if it’s a picture with holes in it.”

I was frankly concerned. He was talking in circles, and the line between madness and normalcy as I knew it had grown so narrow in this past year.

“Doctor, I do pray you’ll explain yourself. You’re beginning to worry me.” Might as well be honest. After all, we were veritable partners in madness these days.