Part 5, Horse's Tail: Chapters 1-8 Summary

In chapter one, Smithback meets with O'Shaughnessy over drinks and learns that Pendergast believes Leng is still alive. Smithback agrees to investigate this possibility for O'Shaughnessy. Afterward, Smithback realizes that he could write an article on Leng to both help O'Shaughnessy and to help his flagging career.

In chapter two, O'Shaughnessy goes to New Amsterdam Chemists to talk to the current owner. This is the chemist Pendergast believes Leng frequented and he hopes their might be something in their records that will lead them to Leng's address. O'Shaughnessy talks to the current owner, who is the grandson of the original owner, and learns there was a fire that destroyed most of the records before 1942. However, a search of a fireproof safe shows that some of the records survived and were rebound in plastic journals. O'Shaughnessy...