Roark Family - The Farm

The Farm

The Roark family's farm is located on the corner of North Cross and Lennox, in an area of open farmland bordered by woods; it appears in several stories, including The Hard Goodbye, That Yellow Bastard, The Babe Wore Red and Hell and Back. As well as many previous generations of the family, it was also home to Kevin since at least four years before the events of The Hard Goodbye; he is seen living there during the climax of That Yellow Bastard. It is suggested by Hartigan that the deviant behavior of Junior and Kevin has been going on at the Farm for generations, as every cop in Basin City knows better than to stray too close to it.

The Farm consists of the following buildings and areas:-

• Farmhouse - the main building, containing the living quarters. The basement contains a tiled room where Kevin kept the heads of his female victims mounted on the wall. This part of the farm was partially destroyed when Marv threw a petrol bomb through the window to smoke out Kevin.
• Barn - An old wooden barn with a hayloft and sliding doors. This is where Hartigan and Junior have their final confrontation in That Yellow Bastard, and where Wallace finds a nude and partially brainwashed Esther at the conclusion of Hell and Back.
• A grain silo.
• A workshed.
• A deserted farmyard. There is no obvious evidence of any traditional agriculture occurring here in what has to have been years, despite the presence of a tractor. There is also a wood pile and chopping block with a hatchet embedded there, which Marv later takes as a weapon (see below).
• The Woods - Heavy woodland that borders the Farm and the roads leading up to it. The trees here are gnarled and twisted and the atmosphere is unsettling. Both Marv (in The Hard Goodbye) and Hartigan (in That Yellow Bastard) sneak up to the Farm through the Woods, having driven up to a short distance from the road entrance, and Dwight defeats Fat Man and Little Boy here during The Babe Wore Red. When Marv first passed through the Woods, he found them very disturbing, and his instincts told him at once that bad things had gone on at the Farm; by his second and final time at the Farm, however, he was no longer afraid and proceeded to use the Woods to his physical and tactical advantage during his duel with Kevin. When Hartigan passes through, during heavy snow, he suffers what he thinks is another bout of angina, even though he was supposed to be cured of it.