The Salem Witch Society (11 page)

“I assure you, if I could locate what I’m looking for in a private library, the owner would be very interested in speaking with me. Of course, someone who could provide assistance in contacting those parties would be compensated as well.”

Helen shifted on her feet and then cleared her throat, wanting to be sure she could address the man in a firm tone. “I’m really very sorry, Mr. … I didn’t catch your name.”

“It’s not important.”

The man’s tepid smile sent a chill through Helen. She felt he was looking at her with no more regard than he had shown for the book he’d discarded on the floor earlier.

“As I said, the library is closed. So I must insist.” Helen again gestured toward the exit.

The man ignored the
motion. “I’m very sorry to have kept you.”

Helen’s chest was tight with a swelling fear that she couldn’t trace to the man’s words or even his tone of voice. His apology was a blatant lie, and, more important, she knew he meant that to be obvious. Helen nodded and returned to her seat in the reading room.

Meserve rambled on, oblivious to Helen’s confrontation. “The connection between the witches and the threat of Indian attacks was made even clearer by the testimony offered by the likes of Mary Toothaker. She confessed to the charges, blaming her great fear of the Indians. She reported that the devil had appeared to her as a tawny man and promised to save her from the Indians and that she should have further happy days with her son, who had been wounded in the war. She admitted that her fear led her to sign the devil’s book, stating he had given her a piece of birch bark on which she made a mark.

“Other testimony from afflicted women also underscored the satanic connection to the northern Indians. A maidservant, Mercy Short, who had previously been taken captive by the Abenakis in 1690 and held for half a year, was at the Boston jail one day and had an argument with the imprisoned witch Sarah Good. Afterward Mercy Short began to have the same fits as the afflicted Salem girls. In later months Mercy would describe the devil as a short and black man, not like a Negro but rather of a tawny Indian complexion. The book he wanted her to sign held covenants and signatures of those who served the devil, all written in red. During her fits she was described by Cotton Mather as being in captivity to the witches’ specters. Mercy reported visions of Frenchmen and Indian chiefs among the specters who tormented her. They would torture her with burnings, as if she were being roasted at the stake.

“This sort of imagery—visions of witches roasting victims on spits—was common among the descriptions provided by the afflicted girls. This was a torture sometimes inflicted by the Indians and reported home by colonists who had been redeemed from captivity. The Salem accusers would also report witches threatening to ‘knock them on the head’ if they would not sign the devil’s book. That was recognized as a common phrase used by Indians. Another threat by the witches is that they would tear the afflicted girls to pieces if they did not sign. Apart from the common fate of having one’s scalp ripped from his head, other stories of Indian tortures, such as victims’ fingers being severed one by one and chunks of flesh carved from their bodies, into which wounds the Abenakis would stick burning pine-tar brands, were often repeated among the colonists.”

Helen glanced at
the lobby once more. Her brow creased as she tried to remember if, after returning to her seat, she had heard the soft bang of the front door closing.

L
ean arrived at Dr. Steig’s shortly before nine and was shown to the consulting room.

“Deputy Lean, good of you to come.” Dr. Steig rose from behind his desk. “Truth be told, I wasn’t sure you’d make it.”

“That is,” Grey said from where he stood looking out the window, “according to today’s editions, the police have assured us they’re already pursuing leads to locate the crazed Indian who killed Maggie Keene.”

“Well, those reports may have been a bit off track. New information having come to light and all. Though I still suspect he’s a lunatic.” Lean withdrew a small box from his coat pocket and set it on Dr. Steig’s desk. “Maggie Keene’s tongue. Sorry, Doctor, I didn’t know what else to do with it.”

“I assume your presence here means that His Honor had a strong reaction to the message.” Grey glanced at Lean.

“Earlier he’d ordered me to end your involvement in this case.”

“Well, fortunately for me, and for those members of the public who are opposed to being murdered and dismembered, I don’t answer to your superiors.”

Lean held up a
conciliatory hand. “But after the tongue arrived at his doorstep, he was more open to considering some of your views on the case. For the record, he insists your involvement in this investigation remain unreported. As dangerous and mad as our killer is, the mayor still has his own reputation to consider.”

“Dangerous and mad.” Dr. Steig blew a thin plume of cigarette smoke toward the ceiling, then tipped his ashes into the tray. “According to the
Daily Advertiser,
the killer’s not only insane but a syphilitic degenerate. They’re guessing the condition was contracted from a prostitute, explaining his selection of victim and the savagery of his vengeful attack.” Dr. Steig’s face was turning a shade of red as he spoke, his tone growing more severe. “It’s the same old pigheaded biases. Branding all those who suffer psychological infirmities as a threat to society. They’re all criminals whose own sins have brought on their condition. A syphilitic degenerate—why, there have been more city councilors than murderers in this city over the past fifty years who fit that description.” Dr. Steig was about to continue, but the cigarette in his left hand burned down during his rant and singed his fingers. “Damn!”

Lean was not wholly surprised by the reaction. He’d been in the doctor’s study before and read the framed letter on the wall appointing Dr. Steig to run the Portland Soldiers’ Home. It was from the Civil War hero and former governor of Maine, Joshua Chamberlain. The two had been colleagues at Bowdoin College after the war. Chamberlain had served as president while Dr. Steig, his wounded arm limiting his surgical skills, had become a professor of anatomy and later neurology. The letter hanging in the study reflected the shared attitude of those two old soldiers: that those who’d suffered psychologically in the battles that had saved the Union deserved medical treatment as much as those who’d lost limbs. Confining these men to barren asylum cells was condemnation, not care. Unfortunately, that attitude was never widely shared by the taxpaying public. Lean sympathized with the doctor’s position, but then again, he had seen the kinds of damage that could be done by those whom he considered to be mad.

“Be that as it may, Doctor, our killer’s message certainly points toward insanity.” He withdrew the note received with the tongue and read it aloud. “‘I am writing so you will know your errors. Of course I’m not an Indian! The Master is above all others. I stand with the Master, above them. The black man serves the Master. In the third month, the month of the Master’s power, you will see the truth and know I hold the Master’s power. You will know this in time.’”

Dr. Steig waved
his hand about, thinking as he spoke. “There’s arrogance there. As if he’s lowering himself to even bother pointing out our ignorance. The note’s preoccupied with setting out a hierarchy of sorts. He indicates subservience to a master but then claims superiority over the Indians because the master rules over them and he, the killer, stands with the master. All rather confused.”

Grey nodded. “I agree. But what is clear, and most important in the note, is that he intends to keep killing. The next murder will likely be even more sensational—a display of his power.”

“So what do we do?” Dr. Steig’s tone hinted at a growing frustration.

“Unless we learn more about this man, I think it will be fruitless to try to decipher his message,” Grey said. “If we’re to stop him, we’re going to have to reconstruct this puzzle from the ground up. Now that the mayor is supporting our effort, at least privately, we’ll have the use of police resources in conducting a canvass of the boarding rooms in the vicinity of the Portland Company.”

Lean shrugged. “That was done already. No one in the area saw anything the night of the murder.”

“Not surprising. Our man would have taken every precaution not to be seen that night. But we have the advantage of knowing he was in the vicinity not solely on that night but for as long as a week prior. So the questions that need to be asked, of every landlady or family renting a room, of every grubby child in the streets playing at bases or jack stones, are these: Has a short, dark-haired man been renting a room thereabouts in the past week or two? And if so, was he the type who kept strange hours? And did he pay in advance through at least Sunday, then disappear with no forwarding address?”

“There must be dozens of rooms to let in that area,” Dr. Steig said.

“A right piece of work,” Lean agreed.

“We mustn’t be daunted by the specter of difficult times ahead,” Grey said. “I expect this inquiry may prove severely taxing before its conclusion. It’s not to be undertaken with anything less than the utmost commitment.”

Lean held his tongue
for a moment even as he bristled at the implication. “I’m sworn to protect this city, Grey. My commitment to catching this murderer is not in question.”

Grey nodded. “Accepted. And though my reasons are not so succinctly stated as your own, I can assure you likewise.”

“Then we’re agreed, gentlemen,” Dr. Steig said. “Now, where do we begin?”

“Where every criminal inquiry must begin,” Grey said, “with the facts. We’re mostly in the dark, but we do have some prospects. We already know some of his physical characteristics. I believe we have four additional fields of inquiry. First, the victim. Why was she selected, and has she left us any clues behind? Second, the location. Certainly a conscious choice, given the amount of preparation involved. But why was it selected? Third is the mechanism of death. We do not know the significance of the weapons used. And lastly, what can we learn of that prior killing which our man appears to acknowledge?”

Dr. Steig was scribbling in a notebook, his right forearm planted against the edge of his desk to steady his writing hand. “So first,” he said, “why Maggie Keene?”

“She’s a prostitute,” Lean said. “Perhaps the papers are right on this one. The man may simply have a grudge against whores.”

“The savagery of the killings certainly speaks to more than a mere grudge. There’s fervor of the type associated with a …” Dr. Steig pondered the correct classification.

“A religious fanatic,” Lean suggested. “It fits with the chalk message. And the cuts in her chest, forming a cross. He was punishing her for her sins.”

Grey gave a hesitant
shake of his head. “But why Maggie Keene in particular? Our man planned everything else in detail. It stands to reason that the choice of victim was also premeditated. And, if so, she may have been acquainted with him prior to her death.”

“Maybe he felt wronged by her in the past,” Lean said.

Grey shrugged. “Or maybe he fancies girls with freckles.”

“Or witch’s tits. He was certainly intrigued with it,” the doctor added.

“An interesting detail. What do you make of that?” Grey asked.

Dr. Steig puffed on his cigarette and pondered the question for a moment. “Obviously I have never treated anyone who’s committed such an act as this. But I have seen men, deeply troubled, who have had irrational, violent urges. Despite this man’s evident capacity for organizing his thoughts and actions, I presume he is a highly tormented fellow. He may have certain desires he knows are wrong, yet he cannot ignore them. These could cause a great conflict within him. Eventually his anger becomes too much to bear, and he lashes out, punishing the very person, or type of person, that is the object of his immoral fascinations.” The doctor shrugged. “It’s just a thought. I cannot pretend to understand truly the workings of this man’s mind.”

After a long pause, Grey nodded as if he’d made some type of decision. “It’s a plausible theory, but for now it’s only that. What else about Maggie Keene? What clues as to her killer’s identity has she left behind for us? If she’d seen him before, she may have mentioned him to her associates before her death.”

“We questioned Farrell’s other girls. They weren’t talking,” Lean said.

Grey said, “This Tom Doran who collected the body. You said you knew him, Doctor.”

“Yes. In fact, he was one of my first patients here.”

“He works as muscle for Farrell’s operations?” Grey asked.

Lean nodded. “If any of the other girls are talking about Maggie’s death, he should know what they’re saying.”

“How soon can we arrange to question him?” Grey asked.

“I would expect to see him at the funeral tomorrow,” Dr. Steig said.

“Farrell’s not the type to show his face and admit any kind of involvement in this sort of thing. So we should be able to see Doran alone,” Lean said.

“I think I can get
him to talk openly,” Dr. Steig added.

“Excellent. Now to our second point. What evidence did our man leave as a result of his prolonged presence in the area?” Grey asked.

“Canvassing the boarding rooms again”—Lean tried to conceal his lack of enthusiasm for the task—“for any eyewitnesses who put him in the area that week. There are some patrolmen I can rely upon to be discreet as to our actual suspicions. The last thing we need is another round of violence, this time against short, dark-haired men.”

Grey nodded. “Our third point. Whether the exact location of the crime reveals any connection to the killer.”

“Perhaps a former employee. Maybe injured or fired?” Dr. Steig said.

“A simple enough question for the owners and foremen,” Lean replied.

“That reminds me—what of the pitchfork left near the body?” Grey asked.

“The workers knew nothing about it. Didn’t belong there.”

“Interesting.” Grey took several steps away from the window and then returned. He traced a star on the glass with his index finger. “We cannot assume a former worker. We should also ask if they have received any threats from outside the company.”