Zander is another soul who has taken an interest in 27 Spruce Street. I do wish he and I could compare notes. This is my first real forray into recording my experiences surrounding that particular address, whereas I believe this fellow has been doing it for years and years. Sadly, he never speaks. I know not if it is because he is incapable, or just has choosen to shun conversation with other people. Since I am not able to write down what strange mysteries he may know, I will just write about the mystery that is the man himself.
My parents had warned me to stay away from the railroad tracks when I was young due to Zander the Mute and men like him. Since then I have learned to rebel a bit from my parents when my academic interests are at stake. Zander has gone from squatting at the railroad tracks to staying at 27 Spruce Street with Xavier Szelkac. Some nights I can hear Mr. Szelkac asking questions, but I have never heard of Zander uttering a word in anyone's presence. Mr. Szelkac keeps asking him if the stars open to the house, or the house opens to the stars. By the end of the night, though, Mr. Szelkac's monologues have degenerated into the more mundane topics of women and alcohol. Zander appears to earn his keep in the house by gardening, and has created the most lovely yard in all of Qualm's Hollow. I should ask his permission to examine them sometime. He seems overall like a pleasant man, if a bit withdrawn. Not like Xavier, who I believe is just a scandalous rogue at heart.
-From the notes of Lillian Bones, March 1915. Two months later Zander was found guilty for the serial murders known in the papers as the Golden Slaughter. Two of Zander's victims were Miss Bones's parents.