Included below is The Angel of Darkness timeline and complete series of events. For a summary of The Angel of Darkness along with selected critical reception, or to test your knowledge about The Angel of Darkness’s story and characters in a quiz, please use the side menu.
Note: The Angel of Darkness timeline contains major spoilers for The Angel of Darkness. Please do not read The Angel of Darkness timeline if you have not read the book.
June 20, 1897
Chapters 2 — 6
Due to a police investigation into the death of one of his patients, Dr. Laszlo Kreizler is spending the night at the Kreizler Institute as he has received a court order to spend sixty days away from the premises from June 21 onwards. Meanwhile, Dr. Kreizler’s ward, Stevie Taggert, and his valet, Cyrus Montrose, receive a surprise visit from Sara Howard, a friend and private investigator, at the Doctor’s home. John Moore, another friend and journalist at The New York Times, is amorously occupied in his home and not answering his telephone. Sara, however, is determined to procure his help in a new investigative case, and convinces Stevie and Cyrus to help her break and enter into John’s apartment.
Once inside, despite John’s protests, Sara persuades John to meet her client, Señora Linares, at 808 Broadway — the team’s former headquarters during the Beecham case, now her private investigation office — to get his opinion on the case. Señora Linares is the wife of a Spanish consulate official who has sought Miss Howard’s help after her baby daughter, Ana, was kidnapped and her husband forbade her from going to the police. In addition to this, she has claimed to have seen her daughter in the arms of an American nurse on a train. Although John initially believes that the kidnapping is political in nature given the current tensions between Spain and the United States, after meeting the Señora, he decides to contact the Police Sergeants Marcus and Lucius Isaacson for their opinions as well. After being collected by Stevie and Cyrus, the Isaacson brothers oblige and give the Señora a detailed interview and examination, coming to the conclusion that the kidnapping is definitely part of a more complex case which the team has very little chance of solving without the help of Dr. Kreizler.
June 21, 1897
Chapters 6 — 8
The next morning, an emotionally and physically exhausted Dr. Kreizler is collected by Stevie from the Institute and taken home. Stevie phones John to tell him that the Doctor is in a “mood” but depending on how the case is presented, he may be willing to participate. After Kreizler has had sufficient rest, the team arrives for cocktails at 6.30pm under the premise of informing the Doctor that the Isaacsons have been assigned to the police investigation into the Institute. This relaxes him somewhat and they go on to suggest that they may have a case they would appreciate his assistance with. After dinner with the team at Mouquin’s, the Doctor is adequately intrigued and when he is convinced that Stevie will be safe throughout the investigation, he agrees to re-join the team.
June 22, 1897
Chapters 9 — 10
Dr. Kreizler spends the day studying various books and journals in preparation for the case into Ana’s abduction. At 8:30pm, he goes to 808 Broadway to interview Señora Linares himself. Following this, he oversees a meeting with the team to discuss the possibility of the attack being politically motivated. Despite John supporting this theory, the rest of the team disagree and the discussion moves on to what other motives the abductor could have had for taking the baby. At the conclusion of the meeting, it is decided that their first task is to determine the identity of the woman the Señora saw on the train with Ana. Dr. Kreizler believes that when questioned further, the Señora will be able to provide a description detailed enough for an artist to create a sketch that can be used as an aid to determine the identity of the woman.
In order to find a suitable artist, Kreizler, Sara, and Stevie decide to call on one of the Doctor’s old friends, an artist known as “Pinkie” (Albert Pinkham Ryder), later in the evening to provide a reference. Given that the subject of the portrait is to be a woman, Pinkie recommends one of his female colleages, Miss Cecilia Beaux. Sara is particularly happy with this choice as she happens to be friends with Elizabeth Cady Stanton who knows Miss Beaux, and can consequently contact her on behalf of the team.
June 23, 1897
Chapter 11
Miss Howard contacts Mrs. Cady Stanton about obtaining Miss Beaux’s services, and she is successful with setting a date (the following evening) for the portrait to be sketched. Meanwhile, in an effort to understand the motive of the kidnapper — presuming the woman on the train turns out to be the culprit — the Doctor takes to his study with the instruction that he is not to be disturbed.
June 24, 1897
Chapters 11 — 12
Dr. Kreizler continues to spend the morning locked in his study until 2pm when Sara and John come by to prepare for Miss Beaux’s sketch later in the afternoon. The team then have a late lunch at Delmonico’s before walking to 808 Broadway for their meeting with Miss Beaux, Señora Linares, and Mrs. Cady Stanton (who insisted on attending). During the sketching session, Miss Beaux and Señora Linares work together to develop the portrait, while the Doctor distracts Mrs. Cady Stanton by discussing aspects of his research with her. At the conclusion of the session, Cyrus and Miss Howard take the Señora downstairs to a cab. As they return, Sara is the target of an attack by an unknown assailant who throws a kris, a Filipino knife, at her head which misses narrowly. The team is shaken by this and move quickly into the next phase of the investigation the following morning.
June 25, 1897
Chapter 13
By the morning, the Isaacsons have developed photographs of the sketch as an aid for making inquiries about the woman’s identity. Additionally, Mr. Moore has compiled a list of infant and child care agencies. These members of the team, along with Miss Howard, divide up the list of agencies and begin work identifying the woman. Meanwhile, as the case is proving more time intensive for the Isaacsons than they expected, they secretly ask Cyrus to compile a report on the staff at the Institute to help with their police investigation. Dr. Kreizler and Stevie, however, return to the house to pursue their individual lines of research relating to the case; the Doctor researches the hypothetical background of the woman in the portrait, while Stevie reads more about the Spanish-American conflict to better understand the political implications of the case.
June 26, 1897
Chapter 13
The team members continue doing their tasks from the previous day. In the evening, Stevie decides to take a break and pays his friend and love interest, Kat Devlin, a visit as she is moving out of Frankie’s dive and into the Hudson Duster’s headquarters later in the week to work for Ding Dong.
June 27, 1897
Chapters 13 — 18
Early on Sunday morning, Stevie, Cyrus, and Dr. Kreizler get word from the other members of the team that they have determined the identity of the woman. They meet at the Metropolitan Museum, the location of the kidnapping, to discuss their findings. John, Sara, and the Isaacsons inform the others that the woman is named Elspeth Hunter and she was a nurse at the New York Lying-In Hospital before she left that employ under unusual circumstances: while she was working there, a very high number of the babies she attended died only weeks after their birth. The team then assesses the kidnapping location to determine what Nurse Hunter found appealing about the building, how this relates to her character and hypothetical background, and how she completed the crime. Following this, fearing that Elspeth may be entering a critical stage with Ana given her history with babies, the team decide to visit her home to confirm her identity and to see if she has Ana in her possession.
When they arrive, Mrs. Hunter is surprisingly friendly and welcomes Dr. Kreizler, John, and the Isaacsons into her home while Sara, Stevie, and Cyrus remain in the carriage under the pretense of being servants. However, as they are entering the house, Elspeth signals to gang members of the Hudson Dusters whose headquarters are located down the street to attack those left in the carriage as a warning to leave her alone. During a critical stage of this confrontation, one of the Dusters is struck down by a small poisonous stick from an unknown assailant. This scatters the gang and the other team members return to the carriage soon after. The team then travels to Cafe Lafayette for lunch and to discuss their visit to Mrs. Hunter. Although the Isaacsons confirm that they had found no trace of Ana, the Doctor remains convinced that the baby is inside the house. He asks John and Sara to investigate if there has been any building work completed on the house recently that may be indicative of a secret room. The Isaacsons, meanwhile, are asked to look into the Dusters to see how they are connected to Mrs. Hunter and the kidnapping, while Dr. Kreizler, Stevie, and Cyrus decide to look into the origin of the poisonous stick and the foreign knife to find out who their unknown assailant might be.
June 28, 1897
Chapters 19 — 21
Dr. Kreizler and Cyrus go to the Museum of Natural History to ask the Doctor’s friend, Dr. Franz Boas, about the stick and the knife. Stevie decides to stay at home, but as he is seeing the Doctor and Cyrus into the calash, he finds Kat hiding in the bushes of the front yard. She has come to Stevie for help as she was cut off from her cocaine ration by Ding Dong the previous evening after a fight. After settling her down and easing her cravings, Stevie realizes that as Kat works for the Dusters, she may be able to provide the team with information on Mrs. Hunter. After questioning Kat, she is able to provide him with one of her aliases (“Libby Hatch”) and confirms that she is working for Goo Goo Knox, the leader of the Hudson Dusters. Given this new information, Stevie calls the Isaacsons who he asks to come by and question Kat further. They arrive shortly afterwards and only have time to make their introductions before the Doctor and Cyrus arrive back from the museum. Kat is then questioned for a short time and once it is determined by the team members that she is trustworthy, Lucius proposes a way Kat can help the investigation — by stealing one of Libby’s coats — in exchange for a large monetary reward. Kat agrees and leaves to complete her task.
The team decide to hold a meeting at 808 Broadway to discuss how the investigation is moving forward. At the meeting, Lucius explains that the coat he asked Kat to steal should be able to provide confirmation that Ana was in Libby’s possession if they find baby hair fibers on it. Sara and John are also able to reveal that they were able to obtain confirmation that building work has recently taken place at Libby’s home, although no specific plans were able to be found. More suspicious still, the contractor she used had died immediately following completion of the work. After discussing this, John and Marcus decide to leave the meeting early to follow this lead while the others stay behind to continue discussing their respective findings. Dr. Kreizler and Cyrus then reveal that Dr. Boas and his associates believe that the mysterious weapons, the kris and stick, do originate in South-East Asia and that the person throwing them was likely to be a Filipino pygmy. Given the Spanish connection to the Philippines, it seems probable that such a person might be in the employ of Señor Linares, adding an extra element of danger to the case. Miss Howard is assigned the task of confirming this theory. Finally, the team determines that the only way to verify if Ana is in a secret room leading off the basement, as hypothesized by Dr. Kreizler, is for a member of the team to break in and search, preferably with the help of an animal that would be able to scent out the baby. Given his previous experience in this field as well as his small size, Stevie seems the logical choice for the task. Following the meeting, Stevie visits one of his old friends, Hickie the Hun, to borrow an appropriate animal — a ferret named Mike who has been previously trained for a similar task.
June 29 – July 1, 1897
Chapter 21
Miss Howard manages to borrow one of Ana’s nightgowns from Señora Linares, and has also been able to confirm that the Linares family does have a pygmy, named El Niño, in their services. Now that Stevie has the nightgown in his possession, he is able to start training Mike to track the baby and the ferret proves to be a fast learner. Marcus and John also locate the contractor’s wife during this period, and the team learns that he had actually died at Libby’s house from a heart attack on the last day of construction. This is made even more unusual by the fact that he was completely healthy at the time of his death.
July 2, 1897
Chapter 22
On Friday evening, Kat brings one of Libby Hatch’s jackets to 808 Broadway. The Isaacsons are able to positively identify her fingerprints on the jacket buttons, and are also able to confirm that Ana is in her possession. Before she leaves, Kat also tells the team that Libby will next be out of the house the following evening as she will be required to attend Goo Goo Knox’s birthday party.
July 3, 1897
Chapters 23 — 24
Late on Saturday night, the team put their plan to break into Libby’s home into action. In addition to Stevie and Mike the ferret, Marcus and Lucius are in attendance to keep watch over the front and rear of the property in an effort to keep Stevie as safe as possible. Once inside the house, Stevie releases Mike in the basement and although the ferret’s scenting ability leads him to the preserve rack, Stevie isn’t able to find any way to move the rack. Instead of wasting time investigating this, he decides to get out of the house as soon as possible. However, he doesn’t want to leave empty-handed, so once he is back up on the ground floor, he searches through Libby’s desk located in the front room where he comes across numerous papers and newspaper clippings concerning a child named Jonathan. He takes the entire collection and after a brief delay from Libby’s husband, who is in a drug induced state of delusion, he and the Isaacsons return to 808 Broadway without delay.
Despite not being able to locate Ana, the rest of the team are delighted to see that Stevie, Marcus, and Lucius returned safely. After having dinner, the team sort through the documents Stevie managed to steal. They reveal that Jonathan was not just a child Libby was a nurse for, but rather that she had abducted him. Additionally, on his death notice in the newspaper, she had listed him as her own son. In addition to this piece of information, it is also revealed that she was born in Stillwater, New York and that she had been working for the Vanderbilt family at the time of Jonathan’s death. Given this finding, the team decides that they would be better off looking into Libby’s past in order to try and find something — an abduction or murder — that they may be able to take her to court over, given that the Linares case is not able to be taken to the police. In order to proceed, the team decide to interview Cornelius Vanderbilt II to obtain further information about Libby’s past. Additionally, John agrees to get in touch with one of his old friends, Rupert Picton, a lawyer in Ballston Spa (a town not far from Stillwater) to see if he can help them with regard to Libby’s life in the past. Finally, Dr. Kreizler hypothesises that Libby may put off murdering Ana in the short term if she believes that she is the subject of a police investigation. As such, the Isaacsons will need to pay Libby another visit to convince her that she is being investigated in an official capacity.
July 4, 1897
Chapter 25
Stevie returns Mike the ferret to Hickie, while the other team members spend the day preparing for a busy week ahead.
July 5 – July 7, 1897
Chapter 25
On Monday morning, Dr. Kreizler, John, and Stevie visit St. Luke’s Hospital where Jonathan was treated before he died. The visit proves to be unhelpful, however, as the staff are unwilling to say anything negative about Libby. The official documentation regarding Jonathan also praises Libby’s efforts with the child. Meanwhile, the Isaacsons and Miss Howard spend their time during the first half of the week trying to locate women in the Lying-in Hospital who had had their babies attended to by Libby when she worked there. This is a largely unsuccessful task but they continue to push on.
July 8, 1897
Chapter 25
The Doctor and Mr. Moore arrange a meeting with Cornelius Vanderbilt II for Thursday afternoon via John’s connections with the family. During the interview, they are able to determine that Libby had arrived in New York City after her three children were shot by a “madman” in a town near Stillwater. They learn little else but this piece of information is enough to provide a further insight into Libby’s earlier life.
July 9 – July 11, 1897
Chapter 25
The team continues to try and locate women from the Lying-in Hospital while waiting for word from John’s friend, Mr. Picton, about how he may be able to assist in the case. The Isaacsons also use this quiet time in the case to dedicate themselves to their police investigation into the Kreizler Institute.
July 12, 1897
Chapters 25 — 26
The Isaacsons arrive at the Doctor’s house on Monday afternoon to provide an update on their progress into the investigation at Institute. During their conversation, John and Sara arrive with a letter from Mr. Picton who writes that he is intimately familiar with Libby Hatch’s past as she was living in Ballston Spa when her children were killed. He goes on to write that he believes Libby was responsible for the deaths, but has been unable to accumulate the evidence to support his view. Given this information, the team decide to travel to Ballston Spa to gather more details regarding the deaths of Libby’s children and her life prior to her arrival in New York City.
July 13 – July 14, 1897
Chapter 27
Stevie travels to the 22nd Street pier on Tuesday morning to reserve two private parlors on the Mary Powell, departing on Thursday, for the team’s journey upstate. Marcus and Lucius use the day to visit Libby Hatch and inform her, falsely, that she is the subject of an official police investigation and that they are visiting Ballston Spa because they knew the truth about the death of her children. For the rest of Tuesday and the following Wednesday, the team spends their time tying up loose ends at their respective jobs and homes before leaving for their trip upstate on Thursday morning.
July 15, 1897
Chapters 27 — 28
On Thursday morning, Dr. Kreizler, Cyrus, and Stevie arrive at the 22nd Street pier. The Doctor and Cyrus board immediately while Stevie stays behind to hire a porter. As he organizes the bags, Stevie spots Ding Dong in the crowd who, via some crude gesturing, informs him that Kat hasn’t left New York and is still working for the Dusters. Fortunately, John arrives at this moment and distracts Stevie from the disturbing news by accompanying him onto the ship. Once on board, they find that the other team members are already lounging in the private parlors. While waiting for breakfast, Dr. Kreizler and Stevie spend time talking on deck before rejoining the party. The group then spends the rest of the day enjoying the parlors and upper decks. After lunch, they arrive at the town of Troy, where they spend the night before continuing on to Ballston Spa.
July 16, 1897
Chapters 28 — 32
The team boards a train in the morning that takes them from Troy to their final destination. On arrival at Ballston Spa, they are met by Rupert Picton who insists that they stay with him in his overly large home instead of a hotel. After settling into Mr. Picton’s residence and indulging in a home-cooked lunch prepared by the housekeeper, the team visits Rupert’s office in the court house and he imparts everything he knows about Libby Hatch. They discover that while living at Ballston Spa, Libby had been married to a wealthy yet elderly man, and had three children by him. After Mr. Hatch’s death, the children and Libby were taking a wagon ride in the woods when they were ambushed by a black man. The story goes that he shot the three children and fled immediately, preventing him from being charged by the police. Two of the children, Matthew and Thomas Hatch, died at the scene while the eldest child, Clara Hatch, survived with limited use of her right arm and no ability to speak. After this incident, Libby left the town to work for the Vanderbilt family in New York City, while Clara was left in the care of a local family. Despite the story being treated as credible at the time of the tragedy, Mr. Picton believes that there was no attacker and it was Libby herself who had tried to murder the children. This is a particularly compelling argument given that Mr. Hatch’s will was written in such a way that prevented Libby from benefiting from his death while the children were alive.
After this information is relayed to the group, the team decides to follow their various lines of inquiry. Dr. Kreizler, Cyrus, Stevie, and Mr. Picton visit the Westons’ farmhouse where Clara Hatch has been living. Interestingly, she doesn’t show any signs of discomfort around Cyrus, as may be expected if a black man had really attempted to murder her. After a short time at the farm, Stevie walks back into town alone to see what the other team members are working on. He returns to find John, Marcus, and Lucius at the old Hatch home where they have recovered a gun and fragments of the wagon used to transport the Hatch children when they were shot. It is hoped that the fragments will contain bullets from the shooting, enabling the Isaacsons to perform ballistics tests that might support Mr. Picton’s theory about the tragic shooting. Miss Howard then arrives after having interviewed Mrs. Wright, the Hatch’s old housekeeper. During the interview, she informed Sara that she suspected only Clara was Mr. Hatch’s natural daughter, and the two boys were the result of an affair Libby had with Reverend Parker. Once the group return to Mr. Picton’s house with the wagon pieces and gun, they find that the remaining members of the team have returned from the Westons’, allowing them to spend the next hour discussing their respective findings. In the evening, the team makes their way to the Casino in Saratoga for dinner. After eating, many of the group return home but Rupert, John, and Stevie stay back to try their luck in the gaming house.
July 17, 1897
Chapters 33 — 34
On Saturday morning, Dr. Kreizler and Cyrus travel to the Westons’ farm to continue working with Clara, while Rupert returns to his office to review similar cases to the shooting. Back at the house, John and Stevie spend their time searching the wagon fragments for anything embedded within the wood. Hoping for a positive finding, Marcus and Sara ready themselves with three bales of hay in the backyard for the ballistics test scheduled to occur when a bullet is found within the wagon fragments. Lucius, on the other hand, is examining and fingerprinting the revolver. From this examination, it becomes clear that only two bullets could have been fired from the gun, meaning that if Mr. Picton’s hypothesis is correct then Libby must have only used two bullets in the killing: one for Clara and one for both boys. If this is the case, then the second bullet may not have lodged in the wagon but rather in one of the boys. Lending support to this theory, no bullets are recovered.
By cocktail time, Mr. Picton asks everyone to take a break before dinner. The Isaacsons, who are exhausted by this stage, accompany him inside immediately while the others stay behind. Concluding that they aren’t going to find a bullet in the wagon, the team hatch a plan to exhume the bodies of the boys at midnight in order to obtain one of the bullets and plant it in the wagon for the Isaacsons to find the next day. It is agreed that the Isaacsons and Mr. Picton cannot know about the exhumation as they will need to testify in court regarding ballistics and none of the team wants them to knowingly lie under oath. As such, later in the night when Marcus, Lucius, and Rupert have gone to sleep, the Doctor, Stevie, Cyrus, John, and Sara make their way to the town graveyard to retrieve a bullet from the body of Matthew Hatch. While the adults are completing this task, Stevie stays outside the graveyard as a lookout. In doing this task, he spots El Niño who makes a seemingly aggressive gesture toward him. This disturbs Stevie but the team returns home safely, and they plant the bullet in the wagon before going to bed.
July 18, 1897
Chapter 35
Early the next morning, things go according to plan and the team is awoken by Lucius yelling that he has found a bullet in the remaining fragments of the wagon. Ballistics testing, involving the comparison of the bullet to the remaining bullets in the revolver, then occurs while the team decide what to do next in preparation for trial. It is decided that while Mr. Picton prepares witnesses and precedents, John and Marcus will return to New York City to inform Libby of the trial and to locate Reverend Clayton. In addition, Lucius and Cyrus will return to the old Hatch house to search for more clues that might be of assistance, Sara and Stevie will try to learn more about Libby’s past, and the Doctor will continue to work with Clara.
Later in the day, John begins his work by visiting the local church to obtain the Reverend’s address, while Dr. Kreizler returns to the Westons’ farm to spend a few more hours with Clara. Finally, later in the afternoon, it is revealed that the ballistics testing has determined that the bullet is a match to those already in the gun, therefore implicating Libby. After these positive results, Mr. Picton is so confident that the team will be successful that he sets a grand jury hearing for Friday.
July 19, 1897
Chapters 35 — 38
John and Marcus leave for New York City at noon and the rest of the team pursue their separate lines of investigation: Mr. Picton goes to his office, Dr. Kreizler visits Clara again, Lucius and Cyrus return to the old Hatch home, and Stevie and Sara begin their investigation into Libby’s past. Miss Howard and Stevie’s first task is to visit Mrs. Wright again where she provides further information about Libby and life in the old Hatch house. They then travel to the town of Stillwater where Libby once lived. On arrival, the pair look for information about Libby in the town tavern where they are met with fear and aggression. Despite this response, they are able to determine that the Muhlenberg family is going to be the next clue toward Libby’s past. After obtaining the appropriate address, they travel to speak to someone from the family.
As it transpires, the only remaining member of the family is Mrs. Muhlenberg. Many years earlier, she and her husband discovered that their baby had been poisoned by Libby who was acting as a wet nurse. After confronting Libby, she set fire to their house, resulting in the death of Mr. Muhlenberg and leaving Mrs. Muhlenberg disfigured. Mrs. Muhlenberg also indicates that Libby was originally from Washington County, and this provides Sara and Stevie with a fresh lead for locating Libby’s family. Upon leaving the house, they find that the men from the tavern are waiting outside and begin to threaten Miss Howard yet again. Before she is forced to defend herself, one of the men is shot in the leg by a poison dark of El Niño’s, prompting those on both sides of the confrontation to depart quickly.
During their journey back to Ballston Spa, El Niño appears again, this time confronting Sara and Stevie on the road. He informs them that he would like to help in the case, and that he has been watching over the team protectively for the entire investigation thus far. He returns to Mr. Picton’s home with the pair where it is decided that he will join the team and continue to help with Sara and Stevie’s enquiries. The team then concludes the night with a group meeting to discuss the findings from Stillwater. They decide that in addition to tracking down Libby’s parents, Stevie and Sara will also need to search for the remains of a baby as Libby must have had a child prior to obtaining work as a wet nurse.
July 20 – July 21, 1897
Chapter 38
The team members continue with their respective tasks. Stevie, Sara, and El Niño spend their days in the villages on the east bank of the Hudson, but they don’t have any success obtaining information about Libby and her family.
July 22, 1897
Chapters 38 — 40
Miss Howard, Stevie, and El Niño again spend the day searching villages unsuccessfully. On their return to Ballston Spa in the evening, Mr. Picton intercepts them at the court house to say that John has sent a wire from New York and it is urgent that the whole team is present to read it. In response, Sara travels on foot to find Lucius and Cyrus, while Stevie takes the buckboard back to the Westons’ farm to find Dr. Kreizler. Once he arrives at the farm, he finds the Doctor speaking to Clara and is amazed when the girl is able to talk back to the Doctor. After the counseling session concludes, Dr. Kreizler and Stevie return to the town, rejoining the others at Mr. Picton’s office to read John’s telegram.
The telegram indicates that Reverend Parker has agreed to testify at the trial although Libby has declined her right to appear at the grand jury. Despite not appearing before the jury, it appears Libby has still been preparing for the trial: Mr. Hunter has suddenly died of a morphine overdose and Ana has been moved out of the Hunter home into the Dusters’ headquarters. She has also gone to the Vanderbilt family for support, and Mr. Vanderbilt has engaged a lawyer from Chicago on Libby’s behalf. The wire indicates that Marcus has traveled to Chicago in order to determine the lawyer’s identity, while John will be arriving back in Ballston Spa later in the evening. Finally, John also mentions that Kat is still at the Dusters’, but she has agreed to continue helping the team by keeping an eye on Ana.
No sooner has the team finished reading and discussing John’s telegram than another wire arrives from Marcus. He has determined that the Chicago lawyer hired to defend Libby is Clarence Darrow. He relays that he will stay in the city to try and gather more information about Darrow. Later in the night, Mr. Moore arrives back in Ballston Spa.
July 23, 1897
Chapter 40
At 11am on Friday, the team arrives at the court house for the grand jury hearing only to find that the entire town of unhappy citizens has crowded the location to gain an understanding about the reopening of the Hatch murder case. Due to this unexpected occurrence, Dr. Kreizler, Cyrus, Stevie, and El Niño decide to personally escort Clara from the Westons’ farm. On their return, the Doctor, Clara, Mr. Picton, and the Weston family enter the chamber for the hearing. By 1.30pm, they obtain the indictment and Mr. Picton informs the crowd of the result. Following this, the team and the Westons’ make their way back to the farm and Mr. Picton’s house.
July 24 – July 26, 1897
Chapter 41
During this time, the New York City police place Libby under surveillance so that Sheriff Dunning from Ballston Spa will be able to make the arrest himself on Tuesday. The team spend their time waiting and making final preparations before the trial begins.
July 27, 1897
Chapter 41
On Tuesday afternoon, Marcus arrives in Ballston Spa ahead of Clarence Darrow to help the team prepare. He provides information about Darrow’s beliefs, defence style, and previous experience with similar cases. Through this information, the team are able to determine that Mr. Darrow’s primary attack will focus on Kreizler — the person he will “paint” as being behind Clara’s testimony — thus discrediting the team’s strongest piece of evidence. The task now falls on the Doctor to prepare Clara as best he can for Darrow’s inevitable onslaught. The team then takes a break for dinner before playing a heated game of poker to pass the time prior to Libby’s arrival in town later that night. At midnight, they make their way to the train station to see Libby’s train arrive. After disembarking the train, Libby is taken to the court house to spend a night in the cells prior to the arraignment set to take place the following day.
July 28, 1897
Chapter 42
At 10am, the first day of trial begins and is resided over by Judge Brown. A plea of ‘not guilty’ is entered and bail denied due to the severity of the charge against Libby. Judge Brown announces that jury selection will occur the following Tuesday. After court is adjourned, the team joins Rupert in his office where they discuss their plan of attack in the coming days.
July 29 – August 2, 1897
Chapter 42
Sara, Stevie, and El Niño resume their search for Libby’s family, while the Doctor spends his days with Clara and his evenings with Libby assessing her mental condition. The Isaacsons and John spend their time in Saratoga where Mr. Darrow is staying in order to determine his trial strategy and witnesses. While there, they discover that a colleague of Dr. Kreizler’s from New York City, Dr. White, is to be called as a witness by Mr. Darrow. This is unusual as, although Dr. White is another psychology expert witness, unlike Kreizler his definition of insanity is very wide, and given that Darrow is not perusing a ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’ verdict, nobody in the team can determine why he was chosen as a witness.
August 3, 1897
Chapter 43
Jury selection takes all day on Tuesday. Although Mr. Picton is successful in several of his choices, by the time all twelve members are selected, it seems that Mr. Darrow may have a slight upper hand. Following this, Mr. Picton stays in his office until late into the night to prepare for opening statements the next day.
Note from Kim of 17th Street: It is assumed that an editing error occurred at this point in the novel, and I have therefore taken a liberty in this timeline with the days and dates offered.
August 4, 1897
Chapters 43 — 45
Court reconvenes at 10am on Wednesday, and Mr. Picton is the first to present his opening statements to the jury. Following his speech, Mr. Darrow makes his introductory remarks. The midday recess then occurs and the Weston family, with Clara, arrive at the court house. The group has lunch together in Mr. Picton’s office before the afternoon session in which Clara will be called as a witness. However, first to be called as a witness is the former sheriff, Morton Jones, to acquaint the jury with the basic facts of the case, and following him is Dr. Lawrence, the coroner and Doctor who examined the boys and Clara after the shooting. Finally, Clara takes the stand. She tells her story with confidence while being questioned by Rupert, but falls apart when getting cross-examined in a bullying and confusing manner by Mr. Darrow. It is a scene planned by the defence lawyer to produce a reaction of anguish from Libby, thus demonstrating her “love” for Clara to the jury, and it works perfectly.
It is a disappointing end to the day for the team and ensures that they will be playing catch up for the rest of the trial. Trying to gain some ground, Marcus and Mr. Moore spend their evening at Saratoga, trying to preempt Mr. Darrow’s next move. They bring back news that Dr. White doesn’t want to speak to Kreizler before appearing as a witness, which surprising news given their relationship. Several other witnesses have also arrived including Dr. Hamilton, an “expert” in everything from ballistics to toxicology, along with Mrs. Cady Stanton who is apparently giving evidence regarding the portrait sketched at the beginning of the case.
August 5, 1897
Chapters 45 — 48
First up the following day, Lucius is called as a witness to provide information about the team’s ballistics evidence. Although cross-examination by Mr. Darrow results in an inappropriate mention of Lucius’s current police investigation job at the Kreizler Institute, the questioning goes quite well. Second to be called is Mrs. Wright, the Hatch family’s old housekeeper. During her examination, she tells the jury of Libby’s affair with Reverend Parker. Next to be called is the Reverend himself, however just as he is due on the stand, a telegram is received at the court room stating that he was killed earlier in the morning after “falling” onto the train tracks at the Grand Central Terminal in New York City. This sets the team back, but Mr. Picton decides to call his final witness, Dr. Kreizler, after the midday recess instead. The Doctor performs admirably while being questioned by Mr. Picton and he appears to be winning over a large part of the jury and civilians present.
Unable to discredit the Doctor’s testimony in his cross-examination, Mr. Darrow chooses to place suspicion on Kreizler’s motives in his work with Clara both from a professional and personal point of view. In fact, Darrow’s accusations surrounding Dr. Kreizler’s personal motives, implying Kreizler’s own childhood trauma, catches him so off guard that he unconsciously grabs at his bad left arm, apparently punctuating Mr. Darrow’s assertions. Following this examination, court is adjourned until the following day. Seeing this bad day in court as a dismal end to their case, the team begins discussing how they are going to get Ana out of the Duster’s headquarters before Libby returns. Sara, however, isn’t prepared to give up and is convinced that the answer to their case lies in Libby’s childhood and the baby she must have had before becoming a wet nurse. With a flash of inspiration, she realizes that the team has been looking in the wrong place for Libby’s roots, and decides that she must have come from Rensselaer County instead of the neighbouring Washington County. It is thus decided that over the following days, while Mr. Darrow is making his case, Miss Howard, Stevie, Cyrus, and El Niño will spend their time searching again.
August 6, 1897
Chapter 48
Sara, Stevie, Cyrus, and El Niño spend the day in the town of Troy going through birth and death records until Cyrus finds a record fitting Libby’s birth from the town of Schaghticoke. From census records, they are also able to determine that her father, George Franklin, was a farmer and that her two brothers, George Jr. and Elijah, were still living at home and working as farm hands in 1880. Upon returning to Ballston Spa to share their good news, they discover that the court case isn’t going well. Darrow’s witnesses have all been successful in placing doubt into the testimony provided the previous two days, and Mr. Darrow will be closing his case on Monday. Despite the depressed mood of the others in the team, Sara refuses to give up and resolves to continue her investigations over the weekend.
August 7, 1897
Chapters 48 — 49
Sara, Stevie, Cyrus, and El Niño make their way to the town of Schaghticoke to locate Libby’s family. They are directed to the Franklin farm where Elijah Franklin agrees to talk to Sara, but he informs her that his mother has more knowledge than himself of Libby’s past and he invites her back to the house the following day when his mother will be at home. Nevertheless, after spending half an hour at the house, Sara gains some useful information and they return to Ballston Spa to discuss the findings. Although some members of the team, notably Mr. Moore, still feel they are beaten in the case, Miss Howard presses on, trying to rally encouragement. In that vein, she manages to convince the Doctor to join her and Stevie on their return trip to the Franklins’ the following day.
August 8, 1897
Chapters 49 — 52
In the afternoon on Sunday, Dr. Kreizler, Sara, and Stevie travel back to Schaghticoke to interview Mrs Franklin. Once there, they discover that Libby was quite promiscuous as a teenager and had become pregnant, although she concealed this from her family. Indeed, she was so careful that her family not know about the pregnancy, and she gave birth and murdered the baby in secret one night. In order to conceal this from her parents, she then killed her dog and asked her brother to dig a grave in which to bury both the child and dog. With this critical news now acquired, the three head back to Ballston Spa where a meeting is called in Mr. Picton’s office. After deciding how to present their findings to the defence in a way that will enable them to get a deal — specifically, the charge of second-degree murder and life in prison in exchange for a plea of ‘guilty’ — Mr. Darrow, Mr. Maxon (another lawyer helping Mr. Darrow in the case), and Libby Hatch are called into a follow-up meeting. On hearing the discovery the team have made, Libby dispenses of Mr.Darrow’s services and agrees to the deal offered to her. She is then taken back to her cell by the guard. This outcome is cause to celebrate and while Mr. Picton stays behind in his office to get the proposal to Judge Brown ready for the following day, the others return to the house to start their celebrations.
At midnight, their party is interrupted by the sound of a bell tolling and a man yelling in the distance. The team then runs back to the court house where they are met by another guard who directs the team downstairs to the cells where they are met with a horrible sight; Libby’s guard has been murdered with his throat slit, and Mr. Picton also has a severe throat wound. Libby Hatch, however, is nowhere to be found. The team work hard to save Mr. Picton, but while this is happening, Stevie can’t help but think of Kat who is now in very real danger given that Libby will have returned to the Dusters’ headquarters to get Ana. El Niño, too, doesn’t want to lose Libby’s scent, and so the pair return, with the consent of Mr. Moore, back to New York City by freight train.
August 9, 1897
Chapters 52 — 58
On arrival in New York City at sunrise, Stevie and El Niño decide to observe the Dusters’ headquarters from the nearby rooftops to determine the activities inside. Once a secure spot is located, El Niño keeps watch while Stevie makes his way to Frankie’s dive to find Kat’s friend, Betty, who will be able to gain entry into the Dusters’ without causing suspicion. After locating her and taking her back to the Dusters’, Betty enters but comes out soon after with worrying news. It appears that Libby had arrived early in the morning and locked herself with Ana in Goo Goo Knox’s chamber. Kat, knowing that she needed to keep an eye on Ana, attempted to gain access but almost got herself killed by Knox in the process. In the end, Libby said she would be happy if Kat simply left the building, which she did, but shortly before sunrise, Kat seemed to have disappeared. After hearing this, Stevie leaves and searches for Kat in all of her usual haunts before finding out that she is waiting for him at the Doctor’s home. He discovers that she is severely sick and lets her rest on the nearest bed, Dr. Kreizler’s, with a bottle of paregoric while he calls Dr. Osborne, a friend of Kreizler’s who lives nearby, to see if he can help. He then returns to Kat’s side and stays with her until they both drift off.
Stevie awakens at noon to find Dr. Kreizler attempting to wake him up because Kat has passed away. After a brief investigation by the team, they discover that Kat died due to her cocaine being laced with arsenic, presumably by Libby. They then pass on more sad news to Stevie that in spite of their best efforts, Mr. Picton had not been able to be saved. Despite these tragedies, Stevie pulls himself together and when the phone rings, he answers it knowing that it will be El Niño. He is informed that Libby has returned to her home with Ana, but the streets are filled with Duster gang members. Stevie passes on this information to the others who decide that the best way to move forward will be with the help of the police department. With this goal, the Isaacsons go to Mulberry Street to gain support while the others use the time for rest. An hour later, the detective sergeants return with bad news that the police don’t want to get involved and this prompts Kreizler to hatch an unusual plan: their friend and associate, Theodore Roosevelt, is working in a secretarial position with the Navy at the time of these events and the Doctor proposes that he might be willing to order a group of sailors to distract the Dusters while the team goes after Libby. Kreizler’s plan is thrown into action when he phones Roosevelt who promises action that night. Several hours of waiting occur before Roosevelt and one of his companions from the Navy, Lieutenant William Kimball, arrive at the house.
The group travel to the Brooklyn Navy Yard from where they launch across the harbour on torpedo boats with a large number of sailors to ambush the Dusters. Predictably, the Dusters and the Navy men enter into a full scale battle which proves a useful distraction for the team who take the opportunity to break and enter Libby’s house. Marcus, Lucius, and John decide to try and find the secret room leading off the basement where it is assumed Ana has been placed, while the Doctor, Stevie, and Sara go after Libby who has escaped to the roof. Once they find her, Sara is immediately knocked unconscious, and Libby threatens to shoot Dr. Kreizler and Stevie. After some careful maneuvering by Stevie, he manages to get Libby in a position that will allow El Niño, who he knows is watching from a nearby rooftop, to strike and put an end to Libby’s life via a poison dart. After Libby is killed, Miss Howard regains consciousness and the three go back downstairs to find that the others have located the secret room off the basement. Upon entrance to the room, they see that Libby had decorated it as a nursery and Ana is found in a cot. After looking around for several minutes, they come back above ground to give the Navy men, who have successfully beaten the Dusters into retreat, directions to Libby’s body so she can be taken to the morgue. The team then returns to the Doctor’s house with baby Ana where she stays for several hours until she is safely transported to her mother, who is now in hiding from her husband at the French consulate.
August 11 – August 12, 1897
Chapter 58
On Wednesday, the team attend Kat’s funeral, organised by Dr. Kreizler, at Calvary Cemetery. They then travel by train back to Ballston Spa for Mr. Picton’s funeral on Thursday.
August 20, 1897
Chapter 58
The Isaacsons and Reverend Bancroft give testimony in court regarding their investigation into the Kreizler Institute.
August 23, 1897
Chapter 58
The court hands down the verdict that the Kreizler Institute will remain open. After the hearing, the entire team spends the evening in a private room at Delmonico’s enjoying each others company. On their arrival back at the Doctor’s house, they find Señor Linares waiting for them. He wishes to know the location of his wife and daughter, but is forced to leave empty handed. The case finally concluded, life returns to normal for the team members.