Lance Mann, who was in his late fifties, was a very congenial person and seemed to be honest and to the point to all our questions. But he gave us a completely different story about his involvement with Anita Sinclair. And even though he seemed to be honest, we wondered which story was the true one.
This was his side of the relationship with our ex-client, Mrs. Anita Sinclair.
“I met Dena Davis on one of the sets at the studio with which we were both under contract. It was an immediate attraction, although not love where one wants to spend their whole life with that person. We began dating, but it only lasted six months.
“Just before we went our separate ways, Dena told me she was pretty sure she was about two months pregnant. She didn’t want to abort the baby because she said if something went wrong perhaps she’d not be able to have another child. So we discussed putting the baby up for adoption. She found a doctor in another state who said he’d take care of everything for her: the delivery and finding the perfect parents for the baby … for a very large sum of money!
“By the time the baby was born I had begun investing my money, which was only small at the beginning. The investment paid off, and very quickly, with the help of a friend, I was doing very well. Between the two of us, and with Dena’s parent’s help, we were able to meet the demands of the doctor. When Dena was in her sixth month’s pregnancy, I met and fell completely in love with Susannah, the one I truly wanted to spend the rest of my life with.
“Since we were planning to get married, I told Susannah about the baby. She suggested we marry sooner than planned, so we could adopt the child. I had never met the doctor, because Dena and her parents had taken care of all the arrangements – but I knew all about him. To make a long story short, Susannah and I got married. After the baby was born we went to the doctor and threatened him. We told him we were going to the police and tell them we thought he was doing illegal adoptions. I say adoptions because we were almost sure he’d done others. He then agreed to a much smaller fee to let us adopt the baby boy. We paid him, because we wanted him to keep his mouth shut. We also told him that if he ever told anyone who the adoptive parents were, he would find himself behind bars. Maybe you’re thinking blackmail? We just considered it as security. He died a few years ago and as far as we know his lips stayed sealed.
“Dena and I were young and were struggling to make it in Hollywood. But she had a much better chance at it than I did. She had said that the other starlets made fun of her as symptoms began to show her pregnancy.
“After having the baby, Dena returned to the movie world. But everything had changed for her, because many knew she'd had a child out of wedlock. It’s not like it is today. Hollywood is different now and anything goes. She made a few more movies, but never got the lead, nor did she ever receive the recognition she hoped for. So she left the movie industry, met and married Donovan Sinclair, and as it appeared, had a happy life. He, from what I understand, came from a wealthy family. I don’t know if Dena ever knew that Susannah and I had adopted my own son or not. We never kept in touch. The pregnancy was just one of those things that happens to two people who were young and careless. I’m not happy about it, but it brought us a great son to love and take care of.”
I asked, “Why the name Nick Lang, rather than Nick Mann? You must have known it would cause lots of confusion and misunderstanding, especially for Nick.”
“Susannah and I had talked about it before we signed the adoption papers. We felt at the time, and it’s now been proven, that someday Nick would find out about me. Both Susannah and I always said that whichever one of us died first, the other person would explain to Nick who I was. We also put a letter in our safety deposit box explaining everything, in case we both died together. The envelope said it was not to be opened until both of us had passed away.
“Nick knew it was there, but with a solemn promise he said he would never open it up until after our deaths. As you may know, Nick is not a very inquisitive person. Only once or twice in all of these over thirty years has he asked us if we knew who his real parents were, or why his last name is different than ours. And that was when he was very young. I guess I just wanted him to have my real name. Why, I don’t know. Sometimes when you’re young you do foolish things. It will always be one of those unanswered questions.
“If you were to ask Nick why he hardly ever asked questions, he would tell you, ‘Because I know my father and mother have my best interest in their hands.’ That’s the kind of son he is: very trusting and loving to us.”
Before we ended our meeting, Kat asked him, “Did Dena Davis have any other children you know about?”
“She had one son, which was headline news for a few days. The headline was something like, ‘Millionaire and one time starlet become parents of a son,’ … or something like that. I was happy for her.”
I asked, “Do you happen to know the son’s name?”
“I do. It was in the paper a few times and a name not easy to forget: Bartholomew. Bartholomew Sinclair.”
We thanked him, and Kat and I agreed we liked Lance Mann very much, but that wasn’t a good enough reason to remove his name from our list of suspects.