The Strange Case of Miss Lavinia Armitrage

Dunwich

Dunwich, Massachusetts

Lavinia had brought out the parchment earlier in the trip north; she had, with Ward's brief examination, decided that part of it was a map, and they had followed it to an old savings and loan. After a chat with the president of the establishment, they were taken in back to where the safety deposit boxes were, and they had retrieved the contents of her grandfather's box. It was simple another scrap of ancient looking paper, but at least they got to it before Prinn and his apes did.
This paper was another set of directions, which were a little clearer than the last set.
They took off, headed to Dunwich, Massachusetts.
There they would look for a liquor dispensary called the Grey Gargoyle, and hopefully find the next clue.

They arrived in Dunwich before dawn. There was no sign of Prinn or his flunkies. They drove the backstreets looking for the building with a gargoyle. Lavinia was studying the map. "We know that it's a grey stone structure, and it should be fairly easy to find among these other ramshackle buildings..." she said, looking back and forth from the map, peering out the window. Ward was more concerned with the rearview mirror and what might be coming up from behind.  He was staring hard at it while also trying to navigate the tight streets of old town Dunwich. He wasn't as familiar with the city as he had told Lavinia he was; he was feeling pretty guilty right now, while still trying to appear to know what he was doing.
"Do you think that this is the right part of town?" she said,  just as Ward had been dreading her asking just that.  She kept twisting around and craning her head and generally acting quite unconvinced that they would find what they were looking for in this vicinity.
"I, uh, from what I remember, I believe that this is the correct area; it's close to the old wharf and within sight of the lighthouse..." He breathed a sigh of relief, as the lighthouse had just come into view up ahead. He slowed the car and looked over at Lavinia. "Just how tall again is this building that we're looking for?"
"Two stories, maybe three, but definitely no more than four at the most. It was the tallest building for its time, but that doesn't help us now."
"Yeah, we'll be lucky to find it at all, in this maze of architectural splendor..."
"Sarcasm doesn't really help," Lavinia chided.
"Who's being sarcastic?" he asked. He was racking his brain, trying to remember anything about this part of town, and he was coming up short.
"Prinn's gonna find us before we find it," Lavinia said quietly, with a hint of desperation. "I just can't figure out how he and his goons even know anything about Gran'pa; they're not the type that he would associate with, and if he'd had any inkling at all that someone like Prinn would cause me any trouble, he would have warned me."
"I was thinking just the same thing-Prinn's a sneaky little-I mean, big, bast-uh, fellow, but he's not the sharpest tool in the shed. He must be working for someone else, someone who knew your grandfather, a colleague or an old rival, or something..."
"He had plenty of those, throughout his life; there's no way of knowing which one that we might be up against."
That's what Ward was afraid of; he continued cruising around Old Dunwich, silently hoping that they would find what they were looking for quickly and that they wouldn't have a run-in with Prinn. You could stand your ground against him a couple of times, maybe, but eventually, Prinn would get what Prinn wanted. Nobody's luck would hold out in repeated run-ins with him.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Lavinia suddenly cried out, breaking his reverie.
"Hmmm?" Ward refocused.
"Is that it?" she pointed excitedly.
He followed her gaze while slowing down the car. Up ahead and to the right was a nondescript gray building; it looked to be several stories tall, and quite old, compared to the others around it. And there was a statue of some kind on the roof, although it was hard to tell just what it was. Seconds later they were in front of the building; Ward left the car running and got out.
He walked slowly,  facing backward, across the street, trying to get a better look at the rooftop. Lavinia had followed him, and together they backed up against the storefront, staring.
"Is that a-"
"Giant penguin." Ward sounded defeated.
He straightened back up, and slowly started walking back across the street.
Lavinia was still standing and staring up at the penguin.  Ward, opening the car door, turned and looked at her. He raised an eyebrow.  "Miss Armitrage?"
"Lavinia..." she said, exasperated, quickly walking towards him. She seemed excited about something. She jumped into the front seat.  He slid in and started the car.  She was rummaging through the paperwork from her grandfather, and the pace of the rummaging, along with her breathing, quickened. Ward waited to pull back out into the street.
A minute passed, then another. He started drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. Another minute. He looked over at her, waiting.
She perked up. "Here it is! Here it is!" She started waving the weathered document back and forth.
"Here what is?" Nathaniel asked. Lavinia handed over the paper. He looked at it dumbly. She waited.
Finally, her excitement getting the best of her, she practically shouted "Don't you see it?"