Chapter One: April 1st, 1946.
It was a normal Thursday morning at Hearst-Gilliam Publishing House. Conrad Nagel was typing away in the bull pen, working on a short story for the "Black Mask" magazine. He glanced up ever so often to get a gander at the two secretaries. Boy, they were both lookers. To bad they were working at their desks or he could get a better look at their feet. He hoped Gladys was wearing those black pumps again. Shaking he head, Conrad got back to his story. Just a couple more pages and he would be done.
At that moment the front door opened and three gentlemen can in. Conrad recognized them as; Dr. Mantell Roberts, a rare bookstore owner and sometimes columnist for the "Black Mask", Jonathan Beaumont, a free lance pulp fiction writer who was working on a serial for the magazine, and Deacon Faust, a rich playboy that Conrad had met at Rycks speak-easy a few weeks ago. About this time, the door to Mr. Blaines office opened and out stumbled Ezekel Sawyer, an aged reporter for "The Public Eye" tabloid. Mr. Blaine was yelling from his office about some story that he wanted Sawyer to get on in a hurry. Hurry!! That was a laugh! Sawyer could not hurry if his life depended on it. Using his cane for balance, Sawyer ambled over to his desk, cursing under his breath.
After some greetings and small talk, Deacon Faust went in to see Mr. Blaine, and Beaumont and Roberts turned over some manuscripts to the secretaries. Some minutes later, Deacon came out and invited everyone to lunch at Julius restaurant. That was a pretty swank place on Telegraph Hill and I joined the group. We traveled there in Faust's Silver Phantom Rolls-Royce. After lunch as we where starting to go our separate ways, Sawyer took Dr. Roberts aside and spoke to him. Dr. Roberts expression changed to one of worry and concern. Sawyer announced that he was working on a story about a young boy who disappeared from his room last night. And to compound the tale the boy was Dr. Roberts' cousin.
After a short conference, the group decided to assist Sawyer in investigating the story. They hopped back into Faust's car and went to South San Francisco. The Wintergreen Apartments is where we stopped. I looked at this rundown place and wondered who would live here. The neighborhood was a trash ridden slum. We found the apartment and Dr. Roberts got us in to see the grieving parents. I was suspicious of the father right away. Ted and Mary Roberts told us the story of how their baby boy, Billy, disappeared from his crib last night. The police had been called and after a search they could not discover how the child had disappeared with out it being foul play. We questioned the parents and searched the apartment and nursery. Other than being a rat infested apartment, no signs of foul play where found. Deacon Faust notice though some bloody rat tracks running into the nursery and to the laundry chute. But the laundry chute was too small for anyone other than a small child to fit in.
After talking to the super, we got a key to the basement where the laundry chute lead to. It was a dark place with a rickety stairs. As I lead the way, the rail gave way and I fell. I felt the pain shooting from my shoulder where I landed and a piece of the railing had stuck into my side. The others came down more carefully. Luckily, I had some morphine to ease the pain.
A search of the basement revealed a stack of old newspapers, a rotting corpse of a dead cat, and the other end of the laundry chute. Our lone flashlight, cast weird shadows on the wall as we searched. In my drug clouded vision, I saw some dark shapes dark from bind the newspapers. I cried out a warning a three large rats attacked. Normal rats do not attack people, but these did. The size of small cats, they bit Faust, Beaumont, and poor Sawyer. The one on Sawyer, hung from his arm like some obscene Christmas ornament. Using his flashlight like a club, Beaumont struck the one attacking him and Faust stuck his with a meaty fist. They both fell. The one biting Sawyers arm leaped to the ground and scurried into the darkness.
Looking behind the stack of newspapers revealed a hole that lead to a shaft about 3 foot in diameter. We could hear a faint rustling from around a bend some 6 feet in. Brave Beaumont volunteered to take the flashlight and Fausts pistol and crawl into the hole. A minute later, with Faust holding on to Beaumonts feet, we heard a cry from Beaumont and a shot. Faust pulled him out quickly. He was in shock and his right arm was blackened and cracked like it had been badly burned. We quickly got out of there. Beaumont and I were helped out and I believe Dr. Roberts had called for a ambulance and the police. Beaumont was muttering something about a human faced rat and a black cloud. He also said that the child's dead body was down in the tunnel as well. We gathered our wits as the sound of a police siren was heard.
Chapter 2: April 1st, 1926
The ambulance and the police car arrived within minutes of each other and as the white coated ambulance driver and nurse worked on the injured, the two cops looked over the diverse group before the apartment building. "Ok whats going on here?" said the stout police sergeant. Before Mantell could open his mouth, Deacon Faust quickly spun a tale involving a dark cellar and some mean rats, but with no mention of the dead baby or the human faced rat thing. The super of the apartment building came out and added his two cents. It was discovered that the apartments where owned by the south side gangster Monte Blue. The police, who where most likely under the pay of Mr. Blue, did not want to involve there "benefactor" in this. The group talked the police out of investigating the basement at this time. With Beaumont and Nagel headed to the hospital, the rest of the group decided to meet later at Johns Grill for coffee and to discuss what to do. Later that day it was discovered that the police had arrested Ted Roberts for the disappearance of his son.
It was decided to return later that night to further investigate the basement and this time everyone was packing heat. Faust, Sawyer, and Mantell picked up Beaumont and Nagel at the hospital. Though Beaumont was still a bit shell shocked and Nagels drugs where wearing off, they both went with the others. Back at the apartment building and with guns drawn, they went again down into the dark basement. As they examined the dead rats, they noticed their deformed heads and hands, which looked strangely human. Faust volunteered to go into the crawl space and after squeezing into the tight space found the rat things lair and the dead body of the infant. Among the trash and other items he found many sheets of paper covered with a tiny scrawl. They set a small fire in the nest and taking the small mutilated body left the apartments.
Sawyer called the crime and police consultant from the publishing house and got the name of a police man that they could talk to. They met at Johns Grill and told their story and produced the body of the dead child. The deformed rats where not mentioned. The policeman lieutenant, Callihan, said he would look into it and see that the apartment building was condemned.
Ted Roberts was later released, and the Wintergreen apartments bulldozed to the ground. Mantell Roberts found some better living for his brother and his sister-in-law. Both Roberts and Sawyer begin to study the strange manuscript they had found. It seemed to have been writing in a old form of English and had many references to witchcraft and the occult.
