8 Strawberry Bank Rd.

Suite 20

Nashua, New Hampshire

Chapter 2

     The White Stallion Pub is in the oldest building still standing in New Stratley, Massachusetts. Built as a public house in 1847, it had served as a railroad station, numerous inns, boarding houses and restaurants until 1971 when Gus and Brenda Ferguson, armed with lots of bucks and an ancient rendition of a horse at full gallop hammered onto a copper placard, got it listed on a national registry of historical buildings and reopened it as the White Stallion Ale House. From its cupola, where Witch Number two and I spent some of our happiest moments five stories above Jefferson Street, you can see the hazy spires of Boston reaching toward the heavens and a small part of the Charles River as it wends its way from the Blue Hills to meld with the Atlantic Ocean.

      When Gus died, his son, Willy, took over. He changed “Alehouse” to “Pub” and the rustic-tavern atmosphere to that of a sports bar in hopes of attracting students from New Stratley University, which it did. I met Willy when I was working for Intimate Investigations. He wanted to find out why the Pub was always busy and he wasn’t making any money. I had done some bartending during my paid-for-by-Uncle-Sam two years at Northeastern, Criminal Justice major, English Lit. minor, and I went undercover