Thirty-One

Clara bit her lip, declining to respond to my comments, as we trotted up State Street and then a few blocks west in the carriage Detective Whitbread had arranged for us. We found ourselves in a perfectly respectable neighborhood and stopped in front of a small bungalow. Clara paid the driver, asking him to wait. When a maid answered the door, Clara asked to be announced as Mrs. Alden Cabot. The girl ushered us into a crowded living room with chintz furniture and drapes. A large braided rug covered the floor. On the whole, it was a homier and less stylish place than I would have imagined for a film star.

Kathlyn Williams entered slowly, wearing a loose tea gown of ivory lace. “Mrs. Cabot? And Mrs. Chapman, please sit down. I’m so very sorry your husband’s been arrested. How can I help you?”

She looked strained to me. Her face was very white but, even under strain, she looked every bit the ten years younger than Clara that she was. Her hair was a golden color, with curls that were pulled to the side, where they trailed over her shoulder. She looked sincerely sorrowful, her big eyes alertly following Clara’s moves as she settled herself on the sofa. I reminded myself that she was an actress, after all.

“Miss Williams, I’m aware of why my husband has confessed to the murder of Arnold Leeder. He was afraid the police were about to arrest you and he wanted to spare you that. I will not go against his wishes at the moment, but I need you to tell me, and Mrs. Chapman here, everything you know about what happened to both Mr. Hyde and Mr. Leeder.”

Kathlyn Williams frowned and her eyes slid back and forth between Clara and me as we sat on opposite ends of the sofa. “I don’t know if I can,” she said.

“I understand you’re afraid to discuss certain things that led to your being blackmailed, for fear of public exposure, but I assure you that is not my intention,” Clara said, then turned to me. “Emily, I must ask you to swear to keep in confidence anything you hear from Miss Williams today. Please, for me. Promise complete secrecy.”

“I promise,” I said.

Kathlyn still seemed reluctant. Clara shook her head as if she were barely restraining some great energy. “Miss Williams, I have two children of my own. Their father is currently in a jail cell. It would seem these things have come to pass because he’s determined to aid your cause. I ask you, as a mother, to help Emily…Mrs. Chapman find the truth. Alden is determined to stay on his current course until he’s sure you won’t be arrested. Emily may be able to help us discover the truth. She has some experience and she’s worked with the police for a long time. You must tell us everything.”

Kathlyn Williams took a deep breath, but I thought she set her features in a way to suggest she would stubbornly dig in her heels, when suddenly a door swung open and a child of three or four years of age ran to her.

“Mama,” he said, grabbing her knees, and attempting to climb into her lap.

A young woman in an apron followed close behind. “I’m so sorry, ma’am, he got away from me.” The boy laughed at her in triumph as he extended his arms to his mother.

“It’s all right, Mary,” Kathlyn Williams said. She lifted the boy onto her lap, turning him to face us, and straightening his little jacket. He reached up to grab an earring and she gently pulled his hand away. “Mrs. Cabot, Mrs. Chapman, this is my son, Victor, who should be helping Mary in the kitchen. Be good, Vic. Say good day to the ladies.”

He did so and we replied in kind. Clara asked him how old he was and he told her he was four. She complimented him and told him she had a son at home who was ten. After a few moments, Kathlyn Williams put the boy down again and sent him off to follow the nursemaid back to the kitchen where he could have a treat. He bowed politely to us before leaving.

Even though Alden had told us she had a child, I was deeply surprised. I’d been shocked to hear that Alonzo Swift had a wife and four children, but I’d never suspected that Kathlyn Williams, who was in the midst of divorcing her husband, could also have a hidden life.

“So, that is your son,” Clara said.

“Yes. Alden told you?” Kathlyn asked.

“Alden told us, and we know you were being blackmailed. Since Emily and I know that much, surely you can tell us the rest, so we can try to find out what happened.”

Kathlyn twisted a lace-edged handkerchief in her hands. “I must keep him. I can’t let his father take him away…he wants to. It’s not that Harry cares so much for the boy, but he wants to hurt me. He wants to make me pay. But you can see why I needed to sue him for money in the divorce proceedings. It’s not just myself I have to support. My husband, Harry Kainer, is in New York. He has other women. That was true even when I was living with him. He kept me penniless while he went out on the town. He expected me to be the nice little wife, sitting by the fire, while he was out gallivanting. Finally, after Victor was born, I decided that I was through with Harry and his ways.” She looked away from the door her little son had left through to face us. “I don’t know what I expected, but being a mother at home wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to go back to the stage but Harry wouldn’t allow me to. I was stuck until Bill Clark—you’ve probably heard him referred to as the Copper King—saw how unhappy I was and helped me.”

She grimaced. “I know what it looks like, but it’s not like that. Mr. Clark’s a big shot…he was a senator not long ago…back in Montana where I grew up. He had no children of his own and he has lots of money. He saw my talent. He got me into the New York Academy of the Arts and he followed my career after that. When I got married to Harry, he was disappointed. I know he was. But he didn’t say anything. It was only after Victor was born and he came to see me that he noticed how unhappy I was. He was the only person who saw how very miserable I was. He told me then that he’d help me and Victor…if I wanted to leave. He made it possible.”

“But then that became a reason for blackmail,” I said.

She looked down. “Yes. At first, I couldn’t believe it would mean anything to anyone…until I saw what was going on with Babe and Alonzo. Of course I knew Alonzo had a family back East. I tried to warn Babe, but she told Col. Selig and he called me in and told me I was never to mention it again or Alonzo would be ruined. Well, if they thought that about Alonzo’s situation, what would they think about mine? A divorced woman with a child? So I knew, then, that I had to keep my situation quiet. Even Col. Selig didn’t know. Only Babe did…because she told me about her own problem…I confided in her.”

“Alden knew,” Clara said.

Kathlyn put a hand to her hair, patting the curls in place on her shoulder. “He found out by mistake. But I knew I could trust him. He wouldn’t tell anyone. He wants Col. Selig to film The Adventures of Kathlyn and he needs me to do that.” In pausing, Kathlyn seemed to deduce our assumptions about how Alden had gotten close enough to learn her secret. Clara closed her eyes gently as if she felt pain.

“It wasn’t like that,” Kathlyn said. “We were working together on The Adventures. That was a secret, too. You see, Col. Selig wants to move some of us out to California to do animal pictures, and Alden and I had a great idea. Well, really it was Alden’s idea. He wrote a set of stories about a princess who gets lost in the jungle and has all kinds of adventures before she finally gets her crown. It’s set in India, so there are tigers and elephants and all. He was going to call it The Adventures of Kathlyn. But he had the stupendous thought to make it a serial, with a new episode every week. It would be an ongoing story that would bring people back to the theater every week. It was a radical idea, so we didn’t want anyone else to get hold of it and present it to Col. Selig before us.”

“Did Mr. Hyde know about this?” I asked. I was still trying to put it together, how these secrets could lead to murder.

“About the serial? I don’t see how. I don’t know what he knew, though. Suddenly, he just took a dislike to my scenes and kept rejecting them. It was a big problem because Alden had written the scenarios all for me, in particular. I mean, I suppose he might have found someone else to star, but I helped with the stories. I suggested predicaments she could get into, based on what I knew would work. Besides, Alden knew I needed the money to support myself and Victor.”

“Then you received blackmail notes,” I said.

“Yes, and I told Alden. The first one was for $300. I scraped that together and I put it in an envelope that I took to the studios…like the note said to do that night. But the censor was already dead when I got there. He was shot and left lying on the bed. It was awful. I should have called someone, but how would I explain why I was there?

“So I ran home. I ran the whole way, it must be two miles, but I was too frightened to find a cab and I hadn’t dared to use my driver. When I got here, Alden was waiting. I’d forgotten we were going to have a session on The Adventures of Kathlyn that night. He made me tell him what happened. I didn’t know what that censor had against me. We thought it was because he knew about Bill Clark. Mr. Hyde’s wife left him for another man, so maybe he thought I left my husband for Bill. It’s not true. I knew Bill Clark before I ever met Harry. But maybe the censor heard that Bill came to see me, just to check on me here in Chicago, and he thought I left my husband for him.

“Anyhow, Alden went to the studios early the next morning and found the dead man.”

“So he was putting the gun in the dead man’s hand when Leeder saw him,” I said.

“He was just trying to help me,” she said. “He knew about Victor. He knew that, if my husband thought I was seeing Bill Clark, he’d try to take Vic away. Alden knew that was what I was scared of and that was why I tried to pay off the blackmailer.” She turned toward Clara. “He just wanted to stop the censor from rejecting my films. He was afraid Col. Selig wouldn’t do The Adventures of Kathlyn if they’d be rejected by the censor.”

“He told us,” Clara said.

“But the blackmail didn’t stop,” I said.

Kathlyn looked at me. “No, I thought it had. I was relieved. So I was shocked…at the roadhouse…when I got another note. It was slipped into my purse. I don’t know who did it.”

“You told Alden?” I asked.

“I was hysterical. This time they wanted $10,000. I don’t have that kind of money. And they knew about Victor, I know they did. It said my husband would find out about Bill and I would lose everything, not just money. I panicked. If they’d given me more time, I could have asked Bill for the money, but the note demanded the money be placed inside the leopards’ cage that very night…by me.”

“So Alden came to me for the money, and he couldn’t tell me why because it wasn’t his secret to share,” Clara said.

“I’m so sorry. I made him promise he wouldn’t tell anyone. But I promised him I’d go to Bill for the money and pay it back. I would…I will. I’ll pay back that money.”

Clara looked up. She’d been contemplating her hands as she listened to Kathlyn’s version of the story. According to her, it was more the need to protect her son, than her career, that forced her to pay the blackmailer. But, if it had been that important to her, would she have killed to protect the boy? Wouldn’t a mother do that to protect her child?

“What happened after Alden returned with the check from Clara?” I asked.

Kathlyn wrapped her arms around her waist, hugging herself as if she were cold. “I had to take it just like the note said. Alden offered to deliver it, but I thought that wouldn’t be enough. I was sure I had to be the one to bring it right into the leopards’ cage.”

“Alden drove the motorcar. The driver always leaves it out on the street. Alden had driven it before.” She looked up guiltily. “We’d go out and drive around and talk about the serial,” she said, looking at us for a reaction. “We were just planning for how we’d propose it to Col. Selig. It would mean so much to both of us. We wanted to be the ones who were sent out to California to do the animal pictures.” She shook her head as if she were seeing herself and Alden driving around all night and was now regretting it. “It seemed so important then.”

“Well, Mr. Leeder wanted to go to California too, didn’t he?” I asked.

“Oh, everyone did…everyone does. It’s going to be the future.”

For a moment, I wondered whether that could have been a motive to get rid of Arnold Leeder. I looked at Kathlyn Williams. Could she have lured the man into the cage and locked him in, then walked away into the night to where Alden was waiting in the car? Could she do that? But then I shook my head. No, Leeder played a different role in the film company. A producer wouldn’t be competition for an actress and a writer of scenarios. Still, someone had apparently wanted him dead.

“You’re sure you didn’t see Leeder?” I asked.

She frowned. “Yes, I’m sure. I saw no one. I slipped the envelope between the bars and said a prayer. Then I left. I saw no one.”

“But Alden’s claiming he’s the one who put the money in the cage,” I said.

“He knew that, if they arrested me, Victor would be taken away from me for good. That’s why he confessed. Please, believe me. I didn’t kill Arnold Leeder and neither did Alden. I’ll do anything to help you clear him.”

“But I’ve promised Alden we’ll do that without your being arrested,” Clara said. “He’s concerned about your son.”

“I can’t abandon him to Harry,” Kathlyn Williams said. “But I can’t let your husband take the blame for something he didn’t do.”

Didn’t he? I wondered. “What happened that night…after you left the envelope?”

“Alden waited for me, then drove me back home. He left me and returned to the boardinghouse where he’d taken a room. We thought the blackmail was paid. I swear to you, Mrs. Cabot.”

I wondered. It seemed to me that, even if Kathlyn Williams testified to Alden’s innocence, she might not be believed. They could be seen as conspirators and, even if they weren’t, who could say that Alden hadn’t used her motorcar to return and lock Leeder, the blackmailing rascal, in with the leopards, as he no doubt deserved? Even if Kathlyn Williams told the truth, Alden would not be saved.