Excerpt from "THE CASEBOOK OF PATRICK MIDNIGHT"
A Forthcoming Book for the Bizarchives
The enigmatic ARBOGAST is set to return to THE BIZARCHIVES with a new short story collection entitled, THE CASEBOOK OF PATRICK MIDNIGHT. Patrick Midnight is a something between a private investigator and a secret agent. He is employed by the secretive Society of Gentlemen Geographers, who have powerful connections in Washington, D.C., London, and beyond. His goal is to purloin ancient artifacts, keep the U.S. free of espionage, and solve crimes with connections back to the occult underworld. Midnight is a two-fisted type with one special additive—he is possessed by the spirit of his ancestor, the Puritan fighting preacher known as Reverend Blackstone. Together, these two see action all over the world during the Jazz Age and the Great Depression.
Here is except from the forthcoming book…
Fourth Interlude
Midnight let loose with his .25 automatic. He did not fire at anyone in particular; he merely aimed to disrupt the proceedings.
The black-clad figures all raised their hands. Their hoods obscured their faces, but Midnight could have guessed some of their identities thanks to his private investigation. He trained his pistol on the tallest of the lot. To Midnight’s surprise, the man spoke first.
“How did you know about this?”
“The police may have given up on this case, but I haven’t. I have been working it from the shadows since those two men were murdered in Queens in ’30. The killer, the one the papers called the 3X gunman, belonged to your group.”
Midnight’s words echoed off the trees of Untermyer Park. Despite being located so close to the largest city in the United States, the park was a secretive and mostly green world onto itself. The cult had claimed the park, especially the neoclassical Temple of the Sky, for itself and its blasphemous rituals. On that night, Midnight’s stomach dropped when he noticed that there was a sleeping adolescent in the middle of the temple. The cult’s black ring around the child aroused nothing but scorn within the secret agent. After nearly a year of dogged and determined work, much of which was cast aside by both the New York police (who considered the 3X crimes to be nothing more than the work of a madman) and the Society of Gentlemen Geographers (who had a myopic focus on the Red Diamond of Russia espionage angle), Midnight finally felt vindicated. All the restless nights and unappreciated work of piecing together seemingly unrelated crimes like the kidnapping of Alexander Porter or the drowning death of Judge Van Ryn felt worth it as Midnight corralled the cult members away from their temple.
A handful of officers from the Yonkers Police Department emerged from the shadows and aided Midnight. Altogether there were six cultists. The Yonkers officers gasped as the hoods were lifted to reveal several prominent faces. The largest exclamation came when Midnight himself pulled back one hood to reveal the face of the Queens County District Attorney.
“This, gentlemen, explains why 3X has been unsolved until now,” Midnight reveled in his triumph. Reverend Blackstone, who was deeply pleased, felt it his duty to remind his descendant about humility.
“Yes, you are right,” Midnight said aloud. “But drinks are on me fellows!”
The Yonkers officers gladly excepted Midnight’s offer. One even shouted out the name of a popular Irish pub in the city. Good cheer and warm fellowship were felt all around.
Despite a vicious hangover the following morning, Midnight still felt elated about his victory. He picked up the afternoon paper expecting to see screaming headlines announcing the capture of a devil cult. He was shocked to see more mundane affairs highlighted. He waited for the evening addition. Again, the New York papers, which had covered the 3X murders with so much enthusiasm in 1930, did not say a word about the Yonkers arrest. Reverend Blackstone murmured the word “corruption” multiple times to signify his disgust.
Midnight tried to keep hope alive for as long as possible, but eventually cynicism took hold. At that point, he darkened the doors of the Society’s New York headquarters.
“You did a terrific job, Mr. Midnight,” Jonathan Marley said. “Unfortunately, our resources are finite. New York is a self-contained, and self-regulated kingdom. There are things at work here that we can observe but cannot control. And you know that you unmasked some very powerful people.”
“The Society is run by very powerful people,” Midnight said in retort.
“Not as powerful as you might think, especially in this city,” Marley said with finality.
“So, what happens now?”
“The good news is that your actions have put some fear into the cult. So far as we can tell, they have gone underground.”
“For now.”
“Yes, for now. Given an imperfect situation, that is the best outcome. We encourage you to monitor the situation.”
Midnight stood up and placed his hat on his head. “If young couples start getting shot in Queens again, then I’ll know the cult’s back. Until then, I’ll try and do some good somewhere else.”
Hell yeah the boy Arbogast is back with some quality! You know it’s gonna be a good year