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as he approached city hall, it was clear to Matthew that-even taking into account last night&039;s murder-this was to be far froroup of forty or so men who by dint of facial expressions and loudness of mouth did not resemble happy citizens He noted sosby&039;s latest edition The newborn Earould have been on sale for the breakfasters at Sally almond&039;s tavern, at the Dock House Inn, and at several other locations around town What the discord was about Matthew couldn&039;t tell and didn&039;t linger to learn, as he h the crowd and into the front door
On the second floor he found that Magistrate Powers&039; office was locked Thefor his key when another clerk of his acquaintance, aaron Lupton by name, stopped with a sheaf of papers on his path down the hallway between offices and told Matthew the s had been cancelled and all h constable and other ranking officials, had been su in the main hall The word, Lupton confided, was that they were thrashing out the language of a Clear Streets Decreeand by the way had he heard about the third hti Matthew assured Lupton he had, and Lupton went on to say that Cornbury was likely going to order the taverns closed early, and already the owners and their best custo in the street
also, Lupton said, Lord Cornbury today wore a blue gown that did nothing for his figure Matthew thought there could be such a thing as too much infor to at least straighten up the office and check any correspondence that the ht have put into his "to-reply" box The first thing he saas the fresh Earwig that either Grigsby or a hired boy had slipped under the door The second thing that leaped to his attention, as he retrieved the sheet from the floor, was the dark line of type that read Masker Has Struck again and below that,Witness
"Shit," he heard himself say He closed the door and almost broke the latch when he jammed it home Then he sat down at his desk, the better to have a firm foundation beneath hi fro letters too faint for want of ink and the friars being too dark for too plenty of ink-but the ih to obscure Matthew&039;s name in the central article
Murder most foul was dealt upon town business leader Pennford Deverick near ten-thirty o&039;clock on Tuesday night, as the Masker has coainst reason and huers, official coroner of New York toas interviewed by Matthew Corbett, a friend of this sheet and a clerk in the eard to this heinous act and the fiend who ended the honorable Mr Deverick&039;s life
according to Mr McCaggers and our Mr Corbett, the Masker has not vacated town as was first advanced by some of our town nobles, for Mr Deverick lies dead with the exact sas about his eyes as was delivered to Dr Julius Godeeks past It is Mr McCaggers&039; opinion, says our interviewer, that the Masker struck Mr Deverick doith a blunt instrument before the dirty as done
Matthew didn&039;t recall telling Grigsby that, but he ht have let it slip Must have, as a ether
Our Mr Corbett was a witness at the terrible scene He tells us that Mr Deverick was brutally attacked and yetthat he may have known his killer One blanches at the fact that, also according to Mr McCaggers, a face faain, Matthew had only the slighteven re the line of, "Deverick didn&039;t seeers believes it was someone he may have known"
Mr Deverick was discovered on Smith Street by Mr Phillip Covey and was pronounced dead near h Constable Gardner Lillehorne were referred to Chief Prosecutor James Bynes, who demurred to the opinions of Governor Lord Cornbury, as unavailable for comment
It is this publication&039;s hope that the Masker is quickly brought to account for these deeds Our condolences are offered to Mr Deverick&039;s , Esther, his son Robert and the extended faraphy of Deverick, which Matthew assuotten from the , and then the news continued with the description of Cornbury&039;s firstwith his citizens The story diploovernor "a stylish addition to the town he so pleasantly intends to e" Matthew turned the sheet over and saw there at the bottoon accident on the Broad Way and iteoes received-the announceency Well, at least that had turned out as planned
He looked over the article about the Masker once again There really wasn&039;t anything in it that he thought McCaggers ood job at keeping Grigsby at bay Then again, there was that part about the "fae" that Mattheas sure would not go over lightly with Chief Prosecutor Bynes add to that the fact that it sounded as if Mattheas now reporting back to Grigsby on the doings-or s-at City Hall Not pretty
He decided he would take this broadsheet with hiet out of here by the quickest, and enjoy a day off
In the hallway he paused to lock the office door as he alking to the staircase he heard the noise of voices below hi up It see had ended and not too ae that turned the air blue He thought he heard Bynes&039; thunder in that approaching stor-bolt
There was no tiistrate&039;s office Matthew took the only avenue available to him, which was the h, he heard boots sto up the steps after hiht, at the end of the hall To the left, past some records rooms, was a doorway Matthew opened that door and stood on a short flight of stairs leading to another closed door Perhaps ten feet above hirew louder and several men came up from the second level, Matthew shut the door to a crack and stood waiting for everything to quiet down He couldn&039;t help but find it ironic that he&039;d rather face the Masker at ht than Bynes before lunch
"The man&039;s impossible!" he heard someone say in the corridor "He&039;s mad if he thinks there won&039;t be a riot in the streets tonight!" It was Lillehorne&039;s whine
"The gaol will be full by eleven o&039;clock!" That voice Matthew couldn&039;t place for certain; it istrates "What to do with the night-fishermeni What to do with the harbor watchi If a ship sends up a signal after ht, shall it be denied a pilot boati"
"He wants those taverns closed, that&039;s the crux of it!" Now that was for sure the voice of Ja twenty more constables on the streeti Where are we to find the volunteersi Shall we force theht here! I tell you, Grigsby should be arrested for this!"
Matthew heard the noise of paper being cruistrate said "Who&039;ll print the decree noticesi"
"Daed "Let him print the notices! Then we&039;ll see if we can&039;t stick him with intent to disrupt the public welfare!"
a door sla this, Matthew heard asso recently acquainted with the noise, and his first thought was that Bynes was shooting a gun off to ease his anger
When the next shot caunplay was not going on down the hall but instead up the stairs and beyond the attic door
What McCaggers was doing up there was anyone&039;s guess, but Matthew had a few questions for him and now seemed the appropriate time to pursue them, flintlock or no He ascended to the ominous door and knocked firmly upon it, then waited not with a little trepidation of the unknown
at length a slassed dark brown eye peered out The eye looked angry at first, then softened at the recognition of its owner&039;s visitor "Mr Corbett," said the coroner "What ht"
"WellI am busy at present Perhaps later this afternooni"
"I&039; back to City Hall today Make that definitely not coht then, a few rip turned, and Matthew found hiranted entrance to what had been a cryptic area of the building
He crossed the threshold and McCaggers, ore a pair of brown breeches and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, closed the door at Matthew&039;s back The bolt was thrown again, which Matthew thought deers&039; desire for privacy He realized in another h the attic s, that McCaggers had created a world for hi in town, and not all of this creation was easy to look upon
The first iteht Matthew&039;s attention were the four hu suspended fro the walls were perhaps thirty orlower jawbones or other portions Here and there, as s, ares atop a row of honey-colored wooden file cabinets were ments On the wall behind the cabinets was a display of what appeared to be frog and bat skeletons It was a veritable boneyard, yet everything was spotless and sterile The pride of the collector, Matthew thought McCaggers collected huathered books
That wasn&039;t all of the surprises in McCaggers&039; real table topped with beakers of fluid in which things of uncertain origin floated, there stood a rack of swords, axes, knives of many sizes, twoweapons such as wooden clubs studded with nails, brass knuckle-dusters, and crude spears a, and Matthew sunpowder
"I expect you heard ers said He picked up two pistols that were lying a at Elsie"
"Elsiei"
"Yes, that&039;s her" Heabout twenty feet away The thing was shot full of holes "Elsie today Sometimes Rosalind" He indicated a second for well lately" He looked up, as did Matthew, at a hatch in the roof through which showed the blue sky a rope ladder was hanging fro out, and Zed&039;s ebony face with its purplish upraised tattoos was peering down into the attic "We have a visitor," McCaggers announced, revealing that Zed knew at least solish "Mr Corbett"
Zed withdrew, his expression impassive Mattheondered if he lived up there on the roof, and what the socialites of Golden Hill would say if they knew a slave cohest point of New York
"I have soers explained He put the guns back in their proper places "From the Netherlands More power than the ones I&039;ve seen before I&039;ll dig the balls out of Elsie and measure the wounds Inotes, and one never knohen the inforht be useful" He ca open and a quill pen next to an ink bottle "Today the weapon of choice is the blade," McCaggers said as he made a few notations in his book "Toh to conceal and able to fire ht Matthew&039;s skeptical expression "Both those conceits are being studied in Europe as we speak"
"I sincerely hope you don&039;t literally ine a pistol that would fire erous weapon ever created
"There are already pistols with multiple barrels in Prussia as far as the reduction in size and weight to afford conceal the appearance of a new technology, of course, but the gunsers saw the broadsheet in Matthew&039;s hand "ah! The latest newsi"
Matthew gave it over "Just out this sby painted me as an interviewer I tried my best to be selective in what I told hiers to get the gist of the story "Oh, that part about the &039;town nobles&039; will vex soo over ith Bynes, either a face fasby doesn&039;t shy fro the citizens, does hei" He turned the sheet to its second side and began to read as Matthew cast a wandering eye over the rest of the attic cha tomes bound in scabby leather Medical booksi he wondered anatomyi He couldn&039;t make out the titles Near it stood a massive old black chest-of-drawers, next to which was a cubbyhole arrangement that held rolled-up scrolls of white paper Over on the far side of the attic, past shelves on which were folded various ite table Obviously there was no fireplace here, so McCaggers would have to take all his meals in the taverns unless-as was eers said, and Mattheas reading the notice "Letters of inquiry to go to the Dock House Inn Well, that&039;s interesting"
"It isi"
"Yes, I&039;ve heard of them before Didn&039;t know they were over here yet Their motto used to be &039;The Hands and Eyes of the Law&039;" McCaggers looked up froators More h constable, if these people open an office"
"Really," Matthew said, trying to sound unconcerned one way or the other
"Grigsby ers handed the Earwig back to Matthew "I presume you&039;ve heardi"
"I have"
"another nasty throat-cutting The same blow to the head, the saers&039; face had begun to blanch at the memory of what he&039;d seen in the cold rooainst histide "Pardon," he said after a et away froht time for Matthew to clear his throat and ask, "What weakness, siri"
"Now you&039;re being obtuse!" McCaggers lowered his hand "You know exactly what I mean Everyone knows, don&039;t theyi" He nodded "They know, and they snigger about it behind my back But what am I to doi I&039;m cursed, you see Because I was born for this profession, yet I despise the" He abruptly stopped a faint gli for his gullet to sink again Then he forced a twisted smile upon his elsi"
"angels, siri"
"My unknown angels," McCaggers corrected He gazed up at them as if they were theman and woman-came with irl-were found here My angels, Matthew Do you knohyi"
"No," Matthew said and he wasn&039;t sure he wished to know, either
"Because they represent everything that toabout life and death," the coroner went on, still staring up at his possessions "They are perfect Oh, not to say they don&039;t have bad teeth, or a cracked knuckle or an old knee injury, but just thosein randfather I re the, &039;ashton, look here and look deep, for all of life&039;s joy, tragedy, and mystery are here on display&039; Joy, he said, because they were children of purpose, as are we all Tragedy, he said, because we all ht go, from those houses, to leave only the foundations behindi"
Matthe a shine in McCaggers&039; eyes that soht have mistaken for madness, yet he had seen it in his own eyes in a mirror in Fount Royal when presented with a probleers said, "should have died I mean, yes of course, eventually they would have passed, but I recallabout those first two that they were simply found dead and no one could identify them No one ever claimed them The same with my two The older on, but the tinker didn&039;t knohen or where he&039;d cliirl died aboard a ship and the astonishing thing, Matthew, is that there was no record of her ever being a passenger on the ship No one knew her name She slept on the deck and took food with the others, but no one ever asked about her or her parents For all those many weeks, no one cared to know Did she make herself invisiblei Did she simply have a way about her that caused others to assume she was taken care ofi Fourteen years old, she was Where did she come from, Matthewi What was her storyi"
"Of what did she diei" Matthew asked, gazing up at the sers rubbed the point of his chin "I studied her The older man, too I used my books and my notes I used all the randfather had left to hi No injuries, no illnesses that I could identify Nothing and nothing left of theone But I&039;ll tell you what I believe, Matthew What I&039;ve put together as must be the only answer