507: The Hollow Endless Night

Synopsis

Simeon and Denny arrive at the Salem police station. Denny offers Simeon's services as a psychologist so the two "star crazies" in custody can finally be sent to the Arkham Sanitarium, and Simeon offers his colleague Dr. Shrimp at Miskatonic University as a reference. The desk sergeant, Jerry Decapolis, is persuaded on a second try. Officers Wydrig and Hansen, who were involved in the Mitch incident, confirm that Mitch acted of his own accord. The sergeant explains that Edward Grayson, an antiquarian from London, had been a quiet guest at the Hawthorne Inn until he looked up from his drink in its lounge as if he had seen something, then seized a fire poker and attacked people. Among Grayson's effects are a White Star Line ticket from Liverpool to Boston, a train ticket from Boston to Salem, a bloodstained letter and a newspaper clipping. The letter, which bears a small scorpion symbol, reads: "Edward, we believe we are closing in. Druncard is in Arkham, and we have people keeping tabs on him. He's going to be the most likely route to acquiring what we are looking for. Our patron would like us to leave no stone unturned. It is advantageous to let him think we are going above and beyond for his ends, but this runs much deeper and more personal for us. This is a grievance overdue." It is signed "Constance." The clipping, from August 14, 1907, reports three bodies found on a quiet Clapham street in London, as if they had dropped out of the sky. The only one identified is Miss Francesca Venice (or Venus), whose surname matches Constance Venus's. The pair suspect a vendetta.

In the cells, Garibald John Daly and Grayson are both raving. Simeon's Command of the Wizard fails on Daly, who babbles about the stars and "the hollows" and beats his head against the bars, and it fails on Grayson too. Grayson scratches at the wall until his fingers bleed and mutters "hollows," "Constance Venus" and "Hannah Baker" as he begins to draw the outline of the Scorpius symbol. Simeon signs the paperwork for the transfer to the sanitarium. Afterwards Denny spots the other three arriving back at the Last Lighthouse inn, and the two follow.

Back at the inn, Dom marches straight into the innkeeper's private rooms. There, rocking in a chair by the window and singing the lullaby he heard in his vision, is Hannah Baker. She is older, gaunt and vacant-eyed. For a moment, when Dom speaks his name, something flickers behind her eyes and a tear rolls down her cheek, but she only sings on: "Hush my dear, the dark has come..." Emily Marnsarn arrives and explains that she found Hannah dazed and half alive, wandering in the ruins after the great fire of 1914, and has cared for her for twelve years. Earlier that day, Hannah had come to the inn bright and bubbly to meet someone, with a man and possibly a woman. Under her reading glasses, Emily says the man resembled Dom, only twelve years younger. Simeon's Psychology says she is telling the truth. The group debates whether Dom has lost memories, perhaps erased as in the Goodman Gray case, and whether Billy should use Command of the Wizard on him. Holding up the Latin parchment gets no reaction from Hannah, and Emily leads her away to rest. Because of the letter, the group decides that Dom should use an alias, "Adam Blackwood." Timeon finds Emily's 1914 ledger, and in it a long-term room check-in from February 1914, smudged but legible, under the name Fiona Druncard.

Funny Moments

The desk sergeant is named Jerry Decapolis: "His fate was sealed." He is Greek "by way of Alabama."
"What's up, Toots?" "Been a long time since somebody called me that."
Officer Hansen, who shot Mitch: "I definitely hit him right in the spine."
Simeon cites "Dr. Shrimp" at Miskatonic as his reference.
Simeon hands Daly a banana, which Daly smashes all over his face.
Simeon's psychoanalysis of Daly: "This is a classic case of crazy, way far gone."
Simeon's diagnosis on the form: "Crazy," underlined.
"You look like you've got about 20 years of bad road on you."
The group keeps guessing who Hannah came to meet: "Flint Eastward," "Flint Westward," "You haven't tried Steve yet."
Dom's alias goes from "Drunkman" to "Adam Big Honking Blackwood."

Notable Quotes

"Hush my dear, the night is here. The light is gone with hope and fear. Hush my dear, you cannot be on hollow roads where I must flee." —Hannah Baker's lullaby
"Please give me this one last sight to warm the hollow endless night." —Hannah Baker's lullaby
"This runs much deeper and more personal for us. This is a grievance overdue." —letter signed "Constance"
"It's as though they dropped straight out of the sky." —Constable James Harrow, in the 1907 Clapham clipping
"You're the first person in 12 years who's known her." —Emily Marnsarn