THE NEXT MORNING I was helping Norma dust the chickens for mites and keeping a wary eye on the road when the sheriff’s wagon pulled into our drive. It was Deputy Morris.
“I’m sorry we ran out on you last night, Miss Kopp,” he said.
“Don’t worry about me. Did you catch him?”
A wide smile emerged under his beard. “Of course we did. Although he goes awfully fast on that club of his. Anyway, the sheriff wants me to bring you in to view the evidence.”
When we arrived, Sheriff Heath was standing over a table looking at some papers. There was the letter I had written to George Ewing to request a meeting, along with other letters addressed to him I didn’t recognize. There was also a notebook with a page of scribbles, a handkerchief, and a bottle that looked like it came from a druggist.
“What’s this?” I said, pointing to the bottle.
“Chloroform.”
Everything went still for a minute. I took a half-step back from the bottle as if it could reach out and poison me. Sheriff Heath pulled a chair out for me and then sat down next to me. He spoke quietly and carefully. “We believe he intended to take you to a hotel and drug you.”
“A hotel? By what means would he have persuaded me to visit a hotel with him?”
He smiled. “I don’t think Mr. Ewing considered who he was dealing with. But this is the way these men work. It takes nothing more than a little chloroform on a handkerchief to overpower a lady. We’ve seen it before.”
I shook my head. “Well, he’s not very bright if he thought that would work on me.”
“Have a look at this.” Sheriff Heath pushed the notebook toward me with the end of a pencil. I could barely make out the writing.
“What is it?”
“It appears to be his plan to kidnap Fleurette and sell her to white slavers.”
“This is his plan? All written down on notepaper for anyone to read?”
“He makes it easy for us. I’m about to go interview him. That’s another thing. He’s claiming responsibility for all of the threats against the three of you.”
“All the letters from last year? Everything Henry Kaufman did?”
He nodded. “I’m afraid so. He says he acted alone. Says he never heard of a Henry Kaufman.”
“But that was him!” I protested. “With the wooden leg! I told you I’ve seen him with Mr. Kaufman!”
“And you’re certain of that? It was the same man?”
“Of course. I told you about his front teeth, didn’t I? And the leg. How many men with wooden legs do we have running around this town?”
“I just want to be sure,” he said. “Mr. Ewing was arrested in Somerset County for stripping the lighting wires from their poles with a gang of thieves, all of whom got away. I don’t know if they were Kaufman’s friends or not. But Mr. Ewing served his sentence in the state prison and was released right before your collision with Henry Kaufman last summer.”
Just then the guard opened the door and said that the prisoner was ready to be interviewed. Sheriff Heath stood to leave. “Just be careful,” he said. “Stay home and keep quiet for a while. You have your guns. We’ll drive by when we can.”
I didn’t tell him I’d found Lucy. If she was right—if Henry Kaufman really would come after her if she ever went to the police—I didn’t want to be the one who brought that down on her. She’d gotten away, even though she hadn’t gone far. She could stay hidden a while longer.
SAYS HE WAS KOPP BLACK HAND “GANG”
Confession by Convict Clears
Jersey Blackmail Mystery Case
HACKENSACK, N.J. JAN. 23—“I am alone responsible for the writing of Black Hand letters to Miss Constance Kopp, of Wyckoff, threatening to abduct her pretty sister, Florette. I had learned that the Kopp family were wealthy and I thought this was an easy way to make a bunch of coin.”
This was the confession made to-day by George Ewing, an ex-convict, who was captured in the Neshanic Mountains a few days ago by Sheriff Heath, of Hackensack. A bottle of chloroform found in his pocket has led to the discovery, it is believed, of an additional plot to kidnap Florette Kopp and turn her over to “white slavers” in Chicago.
The confession ends a reign of terror that had prevailed in the Kopp home since last July, when Miss Constance Kopp started suit against Henry Kaufman, owner of a silk dyeing establishment in Paterson, to recover damages for being run down by Kaufman’s auto. Black Hand letters began to reach the Kopp home, and prowling men appeared after dark, shooting at the house.
“He’s claiming responsibility for all of it?” said Fleurette, grabbing the newspaper out of my hand before I could finish. “Why would he do that?”
“To keep Henry Kaufman out of trouble, I suppose,” I said. “Can I have my paper back?”
But Fleurette held on to it, reading bits of it aloud but mostly mumbling to herself. “It says here that Ewing planned to entice you to a hotel and use chloroform on you,” she said. “I thought I was the one being kidnapped. What does he want with you?”
“Don’t talk like that,” Norma said. “The fact that you’ve received the most threats does not make you the most popular.”
“What does it make me?”
“The smallest. They are threatening you because you are the smallest and the youngest, and somehow they have the idea that we, therefore, value you the most and would pay more to get you back.”
“Well, of course you would.”
“Don’t be so sure.”
“And why would anyone write out the plan for the crime they intend to commit and carry it around in their pocket like that?”
“You heard what Constance said. This is not the smartest criminal we’ve ever met.”
“We haven’t met many criminals. Although if this keeps up, we’ll soon know every con man and Black Hander in New Jersey.”
“That’s enough from both of you,” I said, having recovered my newspaper and finished reading the story. “All that matters now is that we caught him.”
“Does this mean Henry Kaufman gets away with everything?” Norma asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Then it’s a good thing we went to the papers so all the criminals could learn our particulars,” Norma declared. “I don’t know why you ever took that man’s advice.”
“Sheriff Heath? You didn’t mind so much when he was issuing you a revolver. You didn’t turn down his help then.”
“I don’t know what choice I had. Now what is he going to do about Mr. Ewing?”
“He’ll be sent to jail for the kidnapping attempt,” I said. “I have to give a statement to the prosecutor tomorrow, and then I’m going to go take care of a few other things in town.” I was going to see Lucy, but I didn’t want to say it.
“I’m coming with you!” Fleurette said, scrambling to her feet. “I’ll wear my black crepe. I have a very serious sort of hat that would give the impression—”
I stood and took her face in my hands, forcing her to look up at me. Her cheeks were pink with excitement and her eyes were flashing. She had the face of a small, sleek animal, a mink or a fox.
“Listen to me. Under no circumstances will you ever be in the same room with George Ewing or any of his gang. Ever.”
She squirmed and got away from me. “It doesn’t seem like I’ll ever be in the same room with anyone except the two of you,” she said, pouting as only a girl of her age could do.
“I’d like that just fine.”