The Angel of Darkness
The Angel of Darkness is the follow-on story from The Alienist. It features the same cast of characters as the original although some new faces, including the legendary attorney Clarence Darrow, are also introduced. Within this book, we again follow the investigative team as they trace a kidnapper and murderess from New York City to the sleepy town of Ballston Spa in upper New York State.
Timeline and Series of Events
June 20, 1897: Due to a police investigation into the death of one of the students at the Kreizler Institute, Paulie McPherson, Dr Laszlo Kreizler is required to spend sixty days away from the Institute. As such, he is staying there overnight because the investigation is to begin the following day. 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 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, she persuades him to meet her client, Señora Linares, 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 forbid her from going to the police. In addition to this, she has claimed to see her daughter in the arms of an American nurse on a train. Given the tension between Spain and America, John initially believes that the kidnapping is political in nature; however after meeting the Señora this evening, he starts to believe that this case may be over he and Sara’s heads. Due to this, he contacts the Police Sergeants Marcus and Lucius Isaacson for assistance and they oblige by meeting the Señora as well. They give her a detailed interview and come 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: The next morning, an emotionally and physically exhausted Dr Kreizler is collected by Stevie and taken home. Stevie phones John to tell him that the Doctor is in a “mood” and depending on how the case is presented, he may be willing to participate. At 6:30 in the evening, after Kreizler has had sufficient rest, the team arrives for cocktails 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, 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: 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, the team’s original headquarters from the Beecham case, to interview Señora Linares himself. After 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 so the discussion moves on to what other motives the abductor could have had for abducting 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 which could be used as an aid to determine the identity of the woman. In order to find a suitable artist, Kreizler decides to call on one of his old friends, an artist known as “the Reverend” (Albert Pinkham Ryder), to provide a reference. Shortly after this, he, Miss Howard, and Stevie visit Pinky at his home where he is able to provide them with a reference for an appropriate artist, Miss Cecilia Beaux. Sara is happy with this choice as she happens to be friends with Elizabeth Cady Stanton who knows Miss Beaux and will be able to contact her on behalf of the team.
June 23, 1897: 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 - if 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: 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 has 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 apparently the target for 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 moves quickly into the next phase of the investigation the following morning.
June 25, 1897: By the morning, the Isaacsons have developed photographs of the sketch as an aid in 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 researches the Spanish-American conflict to better understand the political implications of the case.
June 26, 1897: The team members continue doing their tasks from the previous day. In the evening, Stevie decides to take a break and pay 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.
June 27, 1897: 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 then meet up at the Metropolitan Museum, the location of the kidnapping, to discuss their findings. While at the Metropolitan, 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. It seems that while she was working there, a very high number of the babies she attended died only weeks after their birth. After relaying these facts, 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. After this, fearing that Elspeth may be entering a critical stage with Ana given her history with babies, the team rush to her home to confirm her identity and to see if she has Ana in her possession. When they arrive, she is surprisingly friendly and asks Dr Kreizler, John, and the Isaacsons into her home while Sara, Stevie, and Cyrus remain in the carriage under the pretense of being servants. As the others are entering the house, Mrs Hunter signals down the road to gang members of the Hudson Dusters who then attack those in the carriage, warning them to leave Elspeth alone. During a critical stage of the confrontation, one of the gang is struck down by a small poisonous stick from an unknown assailant. This scatters the Dusters and the other team members return to the carriage soon after. They then go onto Café Lafayette for lunch and to discuss their visit to Mrs Hunter. The Isaacsons reveal that they had found no trace of Ana but despite this, the Doctor is 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, however, are asked to look into the Dusters to see how they are connected to Mrs Hunter and the kidnapping. Dr Kreizler, Stevie, and Cyrus, meanwhile, will look into the origin of the stick and the foreign knife to find out who the unknown assailant might be.
June 28, 1897: Dr Kreizler and Cyrus go to the Museum of Natural History to visit Dr Boas about the stick and the knife. Stevie, however, decides to stay at home. 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 after 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. Shortly after this, the team decides to go to 808 Broadway to discuss the coat’s importance.
It is revealed that Lucius had reasoned that the coat would be able to provide confirmation that Ana was in Libby’s possession if they found fibers of baby hair on it. In addition, Sara and John’s findings regarding building work at Libby’s home are also revealed. They were able to confirm that work had been completed to the house although no specific plans were able to be retrieved and, even more suspicious, the contractor used had died immediately after the construction was completed. After this component of the team’s meeting, John and Marcus decide to follow this up while the others stay behind to continue discussing their respective findings. Dr Kreizler and Cyrus are able to 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. As such, Miss Howard is assigned the task of confirming this suggestion. 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, a member of the team will need to break in and search. Given his previous experience in this field and his small size, Stevie seems the logical choice for this, with the help of an animal that would be able to scent out the baby. Once this plan is agreed upon, Stevie goes to one of his old friends, Hickie the Hun, to obtain an appropriate animal - a ferret named Mike who has been previously trained for a similar task.
June 29 - July 1, 1897: Miss Howard manages to borrow one of Ana’s nightgowns from Señora Linares and has also been able to confirm that the Linare 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. Finally, Marcus and John have been able to locate the contractor’s wife 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 had been completely healthy at the time of his death.
July 2, 1897: On Friday evening, Kat comes by 808 Broadway with one of Libby Hatch’s jacket. The Isaacsons are able to positively identify her fingerprints on the jacket buttons and can also confirm that Ana is in her possession. Before she leaves, Kat is also able to tell 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: 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 order 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 and instead of wasting time investigating this, he decides to get out of the house as soon as possible. He doesn’t want to leave empty-handed, however, so once he is back up on the ground floor, he searches through Libby’s desk located in the front room. Fortunately, 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 had 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 new 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. With regard to this, it is decided they will interview Cornelius Vanderbilt II to obtain any more information about Libby’s past that he might be able to provide. Additionally, John will 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 also decides 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 and try to convince her that she is being investigated in an official capacity.
July 4, 1897: 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: 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 John and the Doctor interview are unwilling to say anything negative about Libby and the official documentation regarding Jonathan continues this high praise. The Isaacsons and Miss Howard, however, 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 push on, nonetheless.
July 8, 1897: The Doctor and Mr Moore are able to 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: 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: The Isaacsons arrive at the Doctor’s house on Monday afternoon to inform him of how their investigation into the Institute is going and which Judge he has drawn for the trial in September. During their conversation, John and Sara arrive with a letter from Mr Picton. He states that he is intimately familiar with Libby Hatch’s past given that she was living in Ballston Spa when her children were killed. He also believes that she was responsible for the deaths, but in the past he has been unable to accumulate the evidence to support his view. Given this new information, the team decides to travel to Ballston Spa to gather more details regarding the death of Libby’s children and her life prior to her arrival in New York City.
July 13, 1897: Stevie goes down to the Twenty-second Street pier on Tuesday morning and books two private parlors on the Mary Powell, departing on Thursday, for the team’s journey upstate. Marcus and Lucius also use Tuesday to make their visit to Libby Hatch to 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: On Thursday morning, Dr Kreizler, Cyrus, and Stevie arrive at the Twenty-second street pier. The Doctor and Cyrus board immediately while Stevie stays behind to hire a porter. As he organizes the bags, he 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. Shortly after this, Dr Kreizler and Stevie spend time talking on deck before rejoining the party once again for breakfast. 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: The team boards a train in the morning that will take 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, as they had planned earlier. After settling into Mr Picton’s residence and indulging in a home-cooked lunch prepared by the housekeeper, Rupert tells the team all he knows about Libby Hatch while they walk to the court house. Once at his office in the court house, the team looks over one of Rupert’s files that details a tragedy involving Libby. It was written 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 this story being believed at the time of the tragedy, Mr Picton proposes to the team that in reality 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 these facts and suspicions are relayed to the group by Mr Picton, the team splits up 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 which 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 had 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. After talking about Mrs Wright’s suspicions briefly, the group returns to Mr Picton’s house with the wagon pieces and the gun. There 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 dinner, many of the group return home but Rupert, John, and Stevie stay back to try their luck in the gaming house.
July 17, 1897: 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 all day, not even after the Doctor and Cyrus join in the search after their return in the afternoon. 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. Realising 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 are people that will need to testify in court regarding ballistics and nobody wants them to knowingly lie under oath. That decided, 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 still returns home safely and they plant the bullet in the wagon before going to bed.
July 18, 1897: Early the next morning, things go according to plan and the team is awoken by Lucius shouting 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 decides their next moves in preparation for trial. It is decided that while Mr Picton spends long hours preparing witnesses and precedents, John and Marcus will return to New York City in order to inform Libby of the trial and to locate Reverend Clayton. Lucius and Cyrus, however, 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 continues to work with Clara. With this preparation in mind, John begins his work by visiting the local church to obtain the Reverend’s address and 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 of getting a good result in taking Libby to court that he sets a grand jury hearing for Friday.
July 19, 1897: 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 finding out the appropriate address, they travel to speak to someone from the family. As it turns out, the only remaining member of the family is Mrs Muhlenberg. Many years ago, she and her husband found out that their baby had been poisoned by Libby who was acting as a wet nurse. After confronting Libby, she set fire to their house and as a result Mr Muhlenberg was killed and Mrs Muhlenberg was left disfigured. In addition to this story, Mrs Muhlenberg is able to provide information that Libby is originally from Washington County, thus giving Sara and Stevie 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 however, 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. They find out that he wishes 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 finishes the night with a group meeting to discuss the findings from Stillwater. They conclude that in addition to tracking down Libby’s parents, Stevie and Sara will also be searching for a baby as she must have had a child prior to obtaining work as a wet nurse.
July 20 - July 21, 1897: 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: 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. Due to this, 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 Kreizler 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 message conveys 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 as Mr Hunter suddenly dies of a morphine overdose and Ana is 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. On finding this out, Marcus left for Chicago to determine the man’s identity and John will be arriving back in Ballston Spa later in the evening. The wire also indicates that Kat is indeed still at the Dusters’, instead of California, but she has agreed to continue helping the team by keeping an eye on Ana. No sooner has the team finished reading and discussing the telegram than another telegram arrives from Marcus. Since arriving in Chicago, he has determined that the lawyer hired is called Clarence Darrow. He relays that he will stay in the city to try and gather more information about the mysterious lawyer. Later in the night, Mr Moore arrives and after providing more stories about he and Marcus’s activities in New York City, he retires for a well-earned rest.
July 23, 1897: At eleven on Friday morning, 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 leave 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 one-thirty, they manage to obtain the indictment and Mr Picton speaks to the crowd to inform them of the result. The crowd doesn’t react angrily, as has been expected, but instead are confused and it is subsequently quite easy for the police to move them along. The team and the Westons’ then make their way back to the farm. After seeing off the Weston family, the Doctor tells the group what happened inside the chamber during their return to Mr Picton’s house.
July 24 - July 26, 1897: During this time, the New York City police put Libby under surveillance so that Sheriff Dunning from Ballston Spa will be able to make the arrest himself on Tuesday. The team, however, spend their time waiting and making final preparations before the trial begins.
July 27, 1897: On Tuesday afternoon, Marcus arrives in Ballston Spa, ahead of Clarence Darrow, to help Mr Picton and the team prepare. He is able to provide them with information about Darrow’s beliefs, defence style, and previous experience he has had with similar cases. Through this information they 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 and acting the victim for a few minutes with some carefully chosen team members, 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: At ten in the morning, 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 then 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: 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, to try and determine his trial strategy and witnesses. While there, they discover some surprising news. A colleague of 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 very wide and given that Darrow is not perusing a ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’ verdict, nobody in the team can figure out why he was chosen as a witness.
August 3, 1897: 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. As such, Mr Picton stays in his office until late into the night to prepare for opening statements the next day.
Note from 17thstreet.net: 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: At ten on Wednesday morning, court reconvenes and Mr Picton is the first to present his opening statements to the jury. Following Rupert’s convincing speech, Mr Darrow decides to open his case and makes his introductory remarks. The midday recess then occurs during which time Clara and the Weston family arrive at the court house. The group has lunch together in Mr Picton’s office before making their way back downstairs for the afternoon session when 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 pre-empt Mr Darrow’s next move. They bring back news that Dr White doesn’t wish to speak to Laszlo before appearing as a witness, surprising news given his relationship with the Doctor. 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: 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 otherwise. Second to be called is Mrs Wright, the Hatch family’s old housekeeper and during her examination, she tells the jury of Libby’s affair with Reverend Parker. Next to be called is the Reverend himself however just at the time he is due on the stand, a telegram is received at the court room starting 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 after some quick thinking by Mr Picton, it is decided that he will call his final witness, Dr Krezier, after the midday recess instead. The Doctor performs admirably while being questioned by Mr Picton and at this stage, 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 Laszlo’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 Laszlo’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 in the following days, as Mr Darrow will be making his case, Miss Howard, Stevie, Cyrus, and El Niño will spend their time searching again.
August 6, 1897: Sara, Stevie, Cyrus, and El Niño spend the day in the town of Troy going through birth and death records until finally Cyrus finds a record fitting for Libby’s birth from the town of Schaghticoke. From census records, they are also able to determine that in 1880, her father, George Franklin, was a farmer and that her two brothers, George Junior and Elijah, were still living at home and working as farm hands. With these answers now obtained, they return to Ballston Spa to share their potentially good news. Unfortunately, the court case isn’t going well. Darrow’s witnesses have all placed doubt into the testimony provided the previous two days. In fact, all the defence’s witnesses are examined by the end of the day and Mr Darrow will be closing his case on Monday. Despite this and 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: Sara, Stevie, Cyrus, and El Niño make their way to the town of Schaghticoke to locate Libby’s family. It isn’t long before 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 next day when his mother will be at home. Even so, 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: In the afternoon on Sunday, Dr Kreizler, Sara, and Stevie travel back to Schaghticoke to interview Mrs Franklin. Once there, they manage to obtain a crucial piece of evidence. It is found that Libby had been 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 that she birthed 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 crucial news now acquired, the threesome 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 Henry 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 disturbingly 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; Henry the guard is murdered with his throat slit and Mr Picton also has a throat wound, although he retains signs of life. Libby Hatch, however, is nowhere to be seen. The team work hard to save Mr Picton, yet 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: On arrival in New York City at sunrise, Stevie and El Niño first decide to observe the Dusters’ headquarters from the nearby rooftops to try and 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 arrives shortly after this to find that she is severely sick and takes her inside to rest on the nearest bed, Dr Kreizler’s, with a bottle of paregoric while he calls Dr Osborne, a friend of Laszlo’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 some brief investigation by the team, they find out that the reason Kat died was due to her cocaine being laced with arsenic, assumingly 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 manages to pull himself together and when the phone rings, he answers it knowing that it will be El Niño. The aborigine relays that Libby has returned to her home with Ana but the streets are filled with Duster gang members. Once off the phone, Stevie passes on this information to the others and it is decided that the best way to move forward is 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, even crazy, plan. Their friend and associate, Theodore Roosevelt, is working in a secretarial position with the Navy at the time of these events and given his nature, 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 surprisingly thrown into action when he phones Roosevelt who promises action that night. Several hours of waiting then occur before Roosevelt and one of his companions from the Navy, Lieutenant William Kimball, arrive at the house.
The group then travel to the Brooklyn Navy Yard from which point they travel 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 catch up with 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 this occurs and 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. On entrance to the room, they see that Libby had decorated it as a nursery and, as they predicted, 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 and 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: On Wednesday, the team all attend Kat’s funeral, organised by the Doctor, at Calvary Cemetery. They then travel by train back to Ballston Spa for Mr Picton’s funeral on Thursday.
August 20, 1897: The Isaacsons and Reverend Bancroft give testimony in court regarding their investigation into the Kreizler Institute.
August 23, 1897: The court hands down the verdict that despite the unfortunate suicide, the Institute will remain open. After the hearing, the entire team spends the evening in a private room at Delmonico’s, enjoying each others company and the fine food. On their arrival back at the Doctor’s house that night, they find a surprising visitor waiting for them, Señor Linares, wishing to know the location of his wife and daughter. Of course, he never does learn an answer from the team and is forced to leave empty handed. Life then returns to normal for the team members in the following days and weeks.