Black House: A Novel

Police officer Danny Tcheda calls the station to report finding an abandoned bicycle and sneaker on Queen Street. He tells his colleague Bobby Dulac that he took the items, which could be evidence, into his cruiser—potential breach in the chain of evidence, despite marking their locations and handling them with gloves. Dulac connects him with Police Chief Dale Gilbertson, who is already distressed after learning that Irma Freneau’s father, whom there had been some reason to hope had taken her, has an alibi.

Meanwhile, the blind DJ Henry Leyden arrives at Maxton Elder Care to perform as his big-band persona, “Symphonic Stan,” for the Strawberry Fest dance. While setting up, he learns about the police activity from the janitor, Pete Wexler. Pete explains that officers have been investigating something found on the sidewalk and may be searching for another missing child. Henry reacts with alarm, while Pete dismisses the possibility that anyone at the care facility could have abducted a child. 

At home, Fred Marshall awakens from a nightmare in which he catches a fish bearing Tyler’s face. He discovers that Judy has stuffed several sheets of paper into her mouth and is choking. After removing three wads of paper, he performs the Heimlich maneuver, dislodging two more and saving her life. Examining the crumpled pages, Fred finds strange words and repeated references to the Black House and the Crimson King. When he realizes that it is already past four o’clock and Tyler has not returned, his fears intensify. He calls the police and demands to speak to Dale Gilbertson. Bobby Dulac asks whether Tyler owns a red Schwinn bicycle with a novelty license plate reading “BIG MAC,” confirming Fred’s worst suspicions. Overwhelmed, Fred insists on speaking to the chief and begins to cry when Dale finally answers.

At Maxton Elder Care, Henry Leyden, dressed in an elaborate white suit for his big-band persona, Symphonic Stan, is escorted to the common room by Rebecca Vilas, while janitor Pete Wexler follows with his records. Henry responds to Pete’s racist remarks and complaints with composure, eventually winning his respect. When the conversation turns to the possible disappearance of another child outside the facility, Pete describes seeing a police officer place a bicycle and another small object in his patrol car before marking their locations on the sidewalk. Rebecca is initially alarmed but soon becomes concerned about the potential consequences for Maxton’s reputation. Henry suggests that someone at the facility could be involved in the murders and reminds Rebecca that the staff should not be overlooked. When Pete recommends seeking help from the former California detective who solved the Kinderling case, Henry agrees that Jack Sawyer should become involved and says he will approach him again.

Meanwhile, the Strawberry Fest celebrations are drawing to a close outside, and Chipper Maxton encourages visiting relatives to leave donations before directing the elderly residents into the common room for the dance. Henry begins his performance as Symphonic Stan, captivating the residents with his energetic presentation and big-band records. His music draws even some wheelchair-bound residents onto the dance floor, astonishing Rebecca, who finds herself dancing with 86-year-old Hermie Boettcher. The cheerful atmosphere is interrupted when Charles Burnside rudely insists on making a song request ahead of Alice Weathers. Burnside demands Woody Herman’s “Lady Magowan’s Nightmare,” but Henry corrects the title to “Lady Magowan’s Dream” and explains that he does not have the record. Burnside then requests Bunny Berigan’s “I Can’t Get Started,” which Alice also wants to hear. Henry plays the song but becomes subdued because it was his late wife’s favorite record. When Rebecca confronts Burnside over his rudeness, he appears to retreat into senility.

After leaving the dance, Rebecca encounters Burnside alone in the corridor and challenges his apparent act. His expression briefly reveals a disturbing intelligence as he taunts her with cryptic references to Lady Magowan, Sophie, Mr. Munshun, Gorg, Chicago, and Fritz Haarman, whom he calls the Vampire of Hanover. He also speaks ominously about a king coming to the facility. Although frightened, Rebecca records the name Fritz Haarman, hoping to find grounds for having Burnside removed from Maxton’s. She reports his behavior to her boyfriend, Chipper Maxton, who dismisses her concerns because Burnside is a financially valuable resident. Rebecca is disturbed by Chipper’s greed, particularly when his delight in counting the afternoon’s donations reminds her of Burnside’s sinister reference to a king in his countinghouse.

Two telephone calls and a private psychological disturbance compel Jack Sawyer to leave his self-imposed retirement in Norway Valley. First, Henry Leyden calls from Maxton Elder Care, insisting that Jack must become involved in the Fisherman investigation after learning that another child has apparently disappeared. Shortly afterward, Police Chief Dale Gilbertson calls to confirm that Tyler Marshall is missing and that his father, Fred Marshall, is at the police station demanding to see Jack. Dale also explains that Tyler’s mother, Judy, has suffered a severe psychological breakdown and has been admitted to the psychiatric ward of French County Lutheran Hospital. The third factor is Jack’s growing fear of opening doors, drawers, and cupboards because of his disturbing experiences involving robins’ eggs. While driving to the station, he forces himself to open his truck’s ashtray, but the sudden movement of its cigarette lighter startles him so badly that he nearly crashes into a telephone pole.

At the French Landing police station, Fred tells Jack about Judy’s deteriorating mental state and her apparent foreknowledge of Tyler’s disappearance. Jack reveals that he saw Tyler and his three friends riding their bicycles earlier that morning. Suspecting that the boys have concealed something, he questions Ebbie Wexler, Ronnie Metzger, and T. J. Renniker together, initially pretending that he is still an LAPD homicide lieutenant and has been assigned to assist the local investigation. After exposing Ebbie’s dishonesty and having him removed from the room, Jack questions Ronnie and T.J. before speaking to T.J. alone. T.J. admits that Ebbie sent him back to find Tyler after the boys stopped at a 7-Eleven to buy Magic cards and Slurpees. He discovered Tyler’s abandoned bicycle and sneaker beside the hedge outside Maxton Elder Care but was too frightened to investigate further. As an afterthought, T.J. recalls seeing two large black feathers resembling crow feathers, one beside the bicycle and another inside the sneaker. This detail deeply unsettles Jack, who associates feathers with his own disturbing experiences.

Jack reports the boys’ deception to Dale and Fred, explaining that Ebbie invented the story that Tyler rode away voluntarily to prevent the others from being blamed for leaving him behind. The boys’ account also helps Jack establish that Tyler disappeared shortly after 8:10 that morning. Fred, increasingly desperate, asks Jack to help find his son. Jack agrees to accompany him to visit Judy at the hospital the following morning, believing that her condition may hold important clues. Although he does not immediately explain his reasoning, he suspects that Judy possesses knowledge about the Fisherman’s identity.

That evening, Jack prepares dinner for Henry and recounts his visit to the police station. He explains his theory that Judy may personally know the killer, possibly someone close to her, and that this knowledge has contributed to her psychological collapse. Henry challenges Jack’s assumptions and observes that Jack remains deeply affected by an unresolved private concern that may be connected to his former work as a policeman. Henry also describes the unsettling resident at Maxton’s whose disturbing voice and request for Bunny Berigan’s “I Can’t Get Started,” his late wife Rhoda’s favorite song, had shaken him during the dance. After dinner, Jack reads aloud from Charles Dickens’s Bleak House, briefly becoming distracted by an image of French Landing engulfed in fog. As Jack prepares to leave, Henry asks whether he felt like a policeman again at the station. When Jack admits that he did, Henry suggests that he has been moving toward his mysterious personal problem rather than fleeing from it.

Hours after his evening with Henry, Jack dreams that he is 12 years old again, walking through a deserted amusement park. He encounters Speedy Parker, his deceased mentor, who urges him to confront the past he has tried to suppress. Speedy warns that Tyler Marshall is a powerful “Breaker” and that the Crimson King may need only one more Breaker to bring down something of great importance. He insists that Jack must rescue Tyler quickly or, if rescue proves impossible, kill him to prevent the Crimson King from succeeding. Jack then hears the Fisherman’s threatening voice and sees Tyler’s abandoned bicycle surrounded by black feathers. After waking, Jack discovers a note written in his deceased mother’s handwriting referring to the Tower and the Beams. Fred Marshall calls to postpone their hospital visit until the afternoon because Judy has had another severe episode. During the conversation, Jack unexpectedly promises to find Tyler.

Shortly afterward, Jack discovers a package addressed to “JACKY” on his doorstep. Inside a child’s sneaker box, he finds black crow feathers and a bloodstained sneaker containing a badly mutilated severed foot, which he believes belongs to Irma Freneau. Overwhelmed, Jack runs into a field, where memories of his childhood return, including his experiences with Speedy, Wolf, and the parallel world known as the Territories. He involuntarily “flips” into the Territories, where he recognizes the landscape and senses a disturbing presence that he associates with the Fisherman. On a nearby road, he discovers Tyler Marshall’s Milwaukee Brewers cap and suspects that the Fisherman has deliberately left it for him to find. Jack begins to suspect that the Fisherman abducted Tyler in Wisconsin and transported him to the Territories, suggesting that the killer can also travel between worlds. Jack flips back to Wisconsin, realizing that he has traveled several miles farther than he walked in the Territories. Henry’s housekeeper, Elvena Morton, finds him and offers him a ride. Jack asks to be dropped off near Henry’s driveway so she will not see the gruesome evidence on his porch. Back home, he begins carefully collecting and documenting the evidence, discovering a message written inside the sneaker box directing him to Ed’s Eats and Dogs.

Jack calls Henry and learns that “Ed’s Eats and Dogs” is a derelict restaurant formerly owned by Ed Gilbertson, a relative of Police Chief Dale Gilbertson. After hearing about the severed foot and the note, Henry agrees to guide Jack to the location.

Meanwhile, the Fisherman calls 911 at the French Landing police station. The call is answered by Officer Arnold “the Mad Hungarian” Hrabowski—a nickname applied with irony, since Arnold is the smallest, mildest man on the force. The killer taunts Arnold, directs the police to what he claims is a body at Ed’s Eats, and cryptically mentions the “coppiceman.” A terrified Arnold alerts Dale, who listens to the recording and organizes a quiet, staggered police response to avoid public panic. Dale also reluctantly arranges to notify the State Police and county authorities, fearing that they will take control of the investigation. He deliberately delays contacting them until his officers have reached the scene, hoping to examine it before outside authorities become involved. He instructs Arnold to keep the call and police response secret.

However, shaken by the call, Arnold disobeys Dale’s instructions and tells his wife, Paula Hrabowski, about the supposed body. Paula confides in two of her friends, and within an hour, a rumor spreads through French Landing that the Fisherman has created a slaughterhouse at Ed’s Eats, with half a dozen murdered children, possibly more, inside.

Chief Dale Gilbertson, riding with Officer Tom Lund, calls Jack’s cell phone, which Henry answers. Dale informs Jack about the Fisherman’s 911 call. Jack reveals that he and Henry were already on their way to Ed’s Eats because of the message written inside the sneaker box containing the severed foot. He also tells Dale about Tyler Marshall’s baseball cap and suggests securing the 7-Eleven pay phone used by the Fisherman to preserve possible fingerprint evidence. Recognizing that state investigators would be suspicious of a retired civilian receiving a victim’s body part, Dale tells Jack to retrieve the foot from his truck and make it appear to have been recovered at the restaurant, concealing its actual origin and avoiding awkward questions.

They arrive at the dilapidated restaurant simultaneously. The air is thick with the smell of decomposition. While Tom Lund puts up yellow police tape around the building, Jack enters and follows human footprints and dog pawprints into the kitchen. There, he discovers the mutilated body of Irma Freneau with the words “Hello boys” scrawled on a tin panel above her. Dale enters shortly afterward and sees the remains. Meanwhile, several vehicles carrying curious townspeople approach the property after hearing the spreading rumors. Officers Danny Tcheda and Pam Stevens confront the first arrivals and force them to retreat, but additional vehicles continue approaching. They establish a roadblock to prevent further access, unaware that an old road between Ed’s Eats and Goltz’s provides another approach to the restaurant.

The chapter opens by showing how Beezer St. Pierre learned of the discovery at Ed’s Eats. Richie Bumstead, a truck driver for Kingsland Brewing Company, called him after hearing the rumor from Myrtle Harrington, who was part of the gossip chain started by Arnold Hrabowski’s wife. Beezer, still grieving his daughter Amy, gathers the Thunder Five—Mouse, Doc, Sonny, and Kaiser Bill—and heads to the scene, telling his friends that they are going on behalf of Amy, Irma Freneau, and Johnny Irkenham. He warns them against attacking anyone at the scene and declares his determination to hunt down the Fisherman.

Reporter Wendell Green, also en route, is terrified when Beezer rides alongside his car, recalling an earlier threat Beezer made against him. The bikers pass without confronting him. He watches as they initially ride past the police roadblock at the main access road, only to double back. Realizing they must know a rear entrance, Wendell follows them. The bikers turn into Goltz’s farm equipment dealership and take an old, overgrown road leading toward Ed’s Eats. Wendell follows on foot, encountering four local troublemakers—Teddy Runkleman, Freddy Saknessum, Doodles Sanger, and Toots Billinger—in a truck. He pays them $20 each for their assistance, but the chapter ends before he explains what he wants them to do.

Wendell Green leaves his four hired accomplices waiting for his signal and cautiously approaches the restaurant. He photographs Jack carrying an empty plastic bag and Tyler’s baseball cap toward his truck, where Jack puts them out of sight, and misinterprets this as Jack hiding evidence found inside the building. Meanwhile, four members of the Thunder Five help Officers Danny Tcheda and Pam Stevens manage the growing crowd near the main access road. Wendell remains outside the restaurant, observing the arrival of additional police officers and hoping for an opportunity to photograph Irma Freneau’s body. Henry, standing outside the restaurant, hears the camera shutter when Wendell photographs him and calls out to the hidden photographer, demanding that he reveal himself.

Wendell is startled by Henry’s ability to detect his presence. As a State Police car and another local police vehicle approach the scene, Wendell decides to activate his plan. He signals Teddy Runkleman, Freddy Saknessum, Doodles Sanger, and Toots Billinger, who rush past him toward the restaurant, shouting and making as much noise as possible. The chapter ends before the consequences of their actions are revealed.

The narrative shifts to the perspective of officers Danny Tcheda and Pam Stevens as they attempt to manage the roadblock at the entrance to Ed’s Eats. They are overwhelmed by a growing, increasingly hostile crowd of citizens demanding access to the crime scene. The arrival of Beezer St. Pierre and the Thunder Five initially heightens the tension. However, Dale agrees to share information about the investigation in exchange for the bikers’ assistance with crowd control, and they begin dispersing the crowd.

Meanwhile, Jack suggests that Henry listen to the Fisherman’s 911 recording, hoping his exceptional hearing might help identify the killer. Wendell Green’s hired accomplices create a diversion outside the restaurant, allowing him to sneak inside and photograph Irma Freneau’s body. Beezer discovers Wendell’s scheme and destroys the film in his camera. State Police investigators Perry Brown and Jeff Black subsequently take over the investigation, publicly criticizing Dale for failing to secure the crime scene. Jack realizes that Arnold Hrabowski leaked information about the discovery, and Arnold admits telling his wife and is instructed by Jack to confess to Dale.

When Wendell threatens to expose Jack for supposedly concealing evidence and offers to remain silent if Jack allows him to photograph Irma’s body, Jack punches him in the stomach. Afterward, Beezer offers Jack his assistance in catching the Fisherman. On their drive home, Henry confirms that he heard Wendell photographing Irma’s body, while Jack acknowledges that he cannot abandon the investigation.

Fred Marshall drives Jack to the French County Lutheran Hospital in Arden. He stops at a scenic overlook and tells Jack that his wife, Judy, seems calmer. She mentioned a newspaper story about a girl who nearly placed in the statewide spelling bee but failed to spell an unfamiliar word that Jack identifies as “opopanax”—it gave her a kick—and she remains convinced that their son, Tyler, is alive and that only Jack can find him.

They proceed to Ward D, the bleak and oppressive psychiatric wing. The head nurse, Jane Bond, considers Judy deeply disconnected and delusional, suspects paranoid schizophrenia, and describes her references to “other worlds.” Inside the ward, they find Judy sitting calmly on a bench. She displays a startling lucidity and tells Jack that being in the ward has allowed her to “travel” in her mind to “Faraway,” a world from her childhood dreams that Jack recognizes as the Territories. She explains that she has long experienced mysterious “whispers” from a girl who was once her age in Faraway, now grown into a frightened woman, and that her breakdown coincided with the return of these experiences as the danger surrounding her family intensified. She recognizes that Jack has visited Faraway, which he calls the Territories, and believes Tyler is alive and being held captive there.

Jack confirms her intuitions, stunning Fred. After leaving the hospital and returning to the scenic overlook, Jack shows Fred the Brewers cap he found in the Territories. Overcome with a mixture of hope and grief, Fred first demands that Jack go rescue his son, then breaks down and embraces him. As they turn back toward the car, they notice fog rolling in from the river.