fifteen

“You see, my dear lady,” Col. Selig said. “It’s all a matter of expertise. Olga is here to teach our staff how to act with the animals, so we can make the most realistic films ever made. Kathlyn, dear, you’re learning from Olga today, aren’t you?”

Kathlyn Williams had come up behind me. Her attitude toward me was still a bit formal. I looked back at the animals with considerable doubt. Would she really be expected to enter the cage and sit with the leopards as Olga had done? I wondered how she felt about that.

“It’s all part of the job,” she said.

Col. Selig beamed with approval.

“But isn’t it dangerous?” I asked. I noticed Alden behind us and fully expected him to raise objections on behalf of Kathlyn if he had any affection for her.

“Kathlyn will do anything,” he said. “She’s a real sport. The story of The Leopard Queen is of a girl who’s raised by leopards and only gets found when she’s an adult. Returned to civilization, she brings the leopards with her and they’re part of her act. But, in the end, she’s drawn back to the jungle and has to choose between the animals, that are the only family she has ever known, and the man she loves.”

“Mr. Cabot wrote the scenario,” the actress said. I had the distinct impression they were both trying to impress Col. Selig, not me. I could see Whitbread from the corner of my eye. He was becoming restless.

Olga spoke in her low-pitched voice. “It is dangerous.” She gestured to the leopards. “The animals are wild. You must always remember this, but the film can be done with real animals. We practice. Now.” She motioned to Kathlyn, who hesitated only one moment before stepping into the cage.

“It’ll be a great story,” Col. Selig said. “But let’s leave these ladies to it.” He motioned us to follow him back toward the main building.

“Col. Selig, were you aware that Anderson’s been trying to lure your cameramen to his studio?” Whitbread asked.

Selig stopped. “Has he?”

“Your men are loyal, though. At least O’Neill is. He turned him down. But Anderson was on the premises the night Hyde was killed. Is there any reason he might want to harm the censor?”

“You mean aside from disrupting our schedules by making it appear someone here might be implicated? Not that I’m aware. He’s a competitor, for sure. We’re much bigger, though. More of the exhibitors carry our films, Essanay’s are taken by a fraction of them. But Edison’s studio is bigger than both of us. Unless Mr. Hyde knew of a plan to lock Essanay out of future expansion. Even then, shooting Mr. Hyde would hardly benefit Anderson.”

“Could it be that Mr. Hyde was working for Mr. Edison?” Whitbread asked. “Censoring your films or those of Essanay would be another way of attacking you. Did you ever have reason to suspect Mr. Hyde of working for Mr. Edison?”

Col. Selig looked startled. “No, no, I’ve never thought of that. But Mr. Hyde didn’t reject all of our films, only Kathlyn’s.”

“Perhaps he intended to expand his censorship and someone found out,” Whitbread said.

“What do you mean about Essanay being locked out of future expansion?” I asked. “How would that happen?”

“Oh, well, I’m sure it wouldn’t,” Col. Selig said.

“Do you mean getting sued, like Edison sued you?” I asked.

“Yes, something like that. But, as I said, Mr. Hyde’s death hardly seems a way to prevent that.”

Unless the censor knew something that would harm Anderson’s case, I thought, but didn’t say. I was sure Whitbread shared my suspicions. He asked Selig to help him find and interview the other cameramen, to ask about Anderson’s visits to the studio. Before I could follow them, Babe Greer came up to me.

“Mrs. Chapman, have you and the detective found out what really happened to the censor?”

I decided to stay behind to see if Babe had any more information. Whitbread might be following the trail back to Broncho Billy Anderson but I didn’t really believe the truth lay in that direction. I thought all the threads wound back to my brother and Kathlyn Williams, and I knew that once Whitbread had exhausted all the leads and had answers to all his questions he would be pulled back to the two of them. This time, I had to find the truth before Whitbread. Annoying as he might be, Alden was still my brother.

“Miss Greer, do you know of any reason why the film censor, Mr. Hyde, rejected the films of Miss Williams so often?”

She pursed her cupid lips. “Oh, no, I don’t. But Kathlyn isn’t really a miss, you know. She’s married.”

“Yes. I understand she’s being divorced.”

“Divorced. That’s not something anyone did where I grew up. It was a small town in the south part of the state. I don’t know, but I thought perhaps Kathlyn knew Mr. Hyde in the past. But some time since she’s been here in Chicago. She came from New York, you know. I’m sure they do things differently there. Anyhow, I know Mr. Cabot is your brother, but I think, perhaps, Mr. Hyde didn’t like that he was…well…working so closely with Kathlyn.”

I raised a palm to stop her. I didn’t want to hear any more. She was too innocent to say that she thought my brother had an illicit relationship with Kathlyn Williams. But other, older staff had already told Whitbread of the suspicions, and even assumptions, that were generally held about them.

“It’s just that it started when Mr. Cabot began working with her. That’s when Mr. Hyde started rejecting Kathlyn’s films. I couldn’t help noticing. I’m sorry.”

“Yes. I’m sorry, too.”

“All of this can’t be good for Kathlyn’s suit against her husband…for the money she’s trying to get from him. I mean, if he thought she was seeing Mr. Cabot he might use that against her. She told me and Miss Olga that one time. She was begging us to be discreet. It was when there was some gossip.”

Perhaps it was Kathlyn Williams who benefited most from the death of the film censor. If Mr. Hyde found out about her relationship with Alden and blackmailed her, by threatening to stop approving her films, that might have been her motive to kill him. Especially if he also threatened to tell her husband about the affair. Could she really be so cold as to kill a man for money? Or perhaps she was the sort of woman who could set men against each other. Had she persuaded, or somehow coerced, Alden to get rid of the threat for her? I was old enough to know some women made the story of Eve tempting Adam to evil believable. Was Kathlyn Williams one of them? Babe reminded me of my own younger self, before I knew how twisted people could become. Babe might believe that Kathlyn had shot the man herself, but I could imagine that she might be ultimately responsible, without ever pulling the trigger. Had Alden really gone so far astray?

At that moment, Kathlyn and Olga came out of the leopard cage and headed toward the main building. Kathlyn rushed past, but Olga slowed to look us over with an impudent stare. When she saw Babe watching Kathlyn with concern, she said, “It is nothing. A mere scratch. A love scratch. The cats mark their toys.”

Having barely recovered from the lion’s attack, I bit my lip at the thought of being marked by a leopard’s claws.

Babe looked angry. “Well, that is just too much. Poor Kathlyn. I’ll go see if I can help her.” She left without a backward glance and I felt a twinge of animosity between her and Olga. I wondered if they had a history.

Olga smiled. “The little one has not the strength of Kathlyn. She has not the need of the other. She would not do so well in the cage. She thinks she could do it better than Kathlyn, but she lies to herself.”

I wondered if Babe had ever been trained by the mysterious Olga. Perhaps the Leopard Lady made those she trained pass tests, and Babe had failed. That could account for the animosity. I knew I would never want to train with the Leopard Lady. I had quite enough tests being thrown at me by my children.

“Miss Celeste, did you know the film censor who died…Mr. Hyde?” I asked.

She turned her dark eyes on me and seemed amused. She seemed as wild and unpredictable as her leopards. It made me wonder if her life was the basis for the story Kathlyn Williams was filming.

“The man who was shot? No, I did not know him. He had a taste for the heroines in the film stories, I think. I do not appear in the films.”

“Why not?” I blurted out the question without thought. My own manners were quickly degrading in the company of these people.

Her eyes lit up a bit as she looked at me. “I cannot pretend,” she said. “You will excuse me. The animals, they demand attention.”

I watched as she walked away slowly, her head held high and on alert.