THURSDAY, 25 APRIL 1921
The front-page article of The New York Times:
SENATOR’S WIFE & FILM PRODUCER CHARGED WITH MURDER
By Judson Quinn
NEW YORK – Amelia Spencer, wife of Senator Theodore Spencer of Long Island, has been charged with the murder of millionaire Prince Hans von Hassler in his Lexington Avenue penthouse.
Hollywood producer Howard Parker (60), best known for Baby and the Bluebird, has been charged as an accessory to the murder in which the prince (83) was struck on the back of the head.
In a sensational sting, orchestrated by undercover NYT reporters Rollo Rolandson and Poppy Denby – in which Miss Denby and her friend the actress Delilah Marconi’s lives were at risk – Mrs Spencer (55) admitted to killing the prince to “keep him quiet” about her husband’s love life.
Sources in the NYPD have told the Times that she allegedly then went on to use her husband’s senatorial credentials to put pressure on the coroner’s office to declare the death accidental. Police are currently investigating those allegations.
Howard Parker, who lives in the apartment below the prince, allegedly found out about the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death via the prince’s housekeeper, a Mrs Nora Lawson (68), who had worked for von Hassler for twenty years.
Investigations by this newspaper have revealed that he then examined the visitor book in the lobby of Lexington Towers, a luxury apartment complex in the heart of Manhattan, and discovered that Mrs Spencer visited the prince on the night of his death.
Further investigations have revealed Parker, Senator Spencer, and von Hassler were partners in the film company Black Horse Productions, which was financed by means of profit from a factory in the New York Garment District, Magriet Fashions.
A parallel investigation by this newspaper has uncovered that Magriet Fashions was using illegal immigrants as slave labor and, in some cases, forced prostitution.
Evidence of this has been passed to the Department of Immigration, which has assured the Times that in return for their co-operation in exposing the trafficking ring – which is believed to have trans-Atlantic connections – the fifteen women who were imprisoned there will be granted leave to remain in the United States.
Prince von Hassler’s attorney, Richard Barnes, has told the Times he has passed evidence over to the police that Howard Parker was attempting to frame the prince’s nephew and heir, Count Otto von Riesling, for his uncle’s murder.
Mr Barnes suggests this was in order to remove von Riesling from the board of Magriet Fashions. Von Riesling and his uncle had allegedly been concerned about the use of slave labor in the factory.
Mrs Nora Lawson, the housekeeper, confessed to the Times that she had taken a bribe from Parker to implicate von Riesling. She said she had agreed because “I didn’t like the boy and he has made Prince Hans’s life a misery”. It is alleged that von Riesling had been blackmailing his uncle for the last three years about his involvement in homosexual activities.
However, in a bizarre twist, it can be revealed that the Times, in a joint investigation with the British Secret Service, has discovered that the real Otto von Riesling is in fact in Monte Carlo and that a British aristocrat, Viscount Alfie Dorchester, had been impersonating him in New York.
Dorchester, a disgraced war hero who has been stripped of his fraudulently obtained Victoria Cross, is already wanted for attempted murder in London, and is a fugitive from justice.
This newspaper can now reveal that the woman he tried to kill in England is none other than our very own reporter, Poppy Denby, who is currently on loan to us from the London Daily Globe.
However, in circumstances that are still unclear, Dorchester, with the help of his sister Elizabeth, helped save the life of Miss Delilah Marconi in the sting that brought Amelia Spencer and Howard Parker to justice at the Spencers’ luxury holiday lodge on Lake Ronkonkoma.
Dorchester is again on the run and we may never know his true motivation until he is caught. If anyone recognizes Dorchester (aka von Riesling) from the photograph below, please report it to the police immediately.
THREE MONTHS LATER: 13 JULY 1921, SOUTHAMPTON
Poppy, Delilah, Rollo, Aunt Dot, and Miss King waited for the gangplank from the Olympic to be lowered at Southampton harbour. It was a glorious summer’s day and Poppy felt hot in her new green coat, bought to replace the one she had given to Mimi Yazierska three months earlier.
Poppy smiled as she thought of the last time she had seen Mimi and Estie. It was at Elizabeth’s settlement house. The former suffragette had offered to take the two girls in until their status with the Immigration Department and the various court cases involving the Spencers and Parker were finalized. Although Estie spoke no English, the bubbly Helena soon befriended her and the girls were now inseparable.
Mimi was given the job of managing the small library. Her English was improving every day, and with money received from the von Hassler estate for suffering endured in one of the prince’s businesses, she intended to go to college and fulfil her dream of becoming a teacher.
Poppy had got very little more information from Elizabeth about her brother. The older woman had become guarded and just said: “Let sleeping dogs lie, Poppy.” It galled Poppy to do so, but she agreed – for now. She also agreed not to mention to the police that Elizabeth had given refuge to Alfie. Whatever her thoughts about the suffragette’s gullibility regarding her dastardly brother, Poppy recognized that Elizabeth was doing a wonderful job with the settlement house and she had, after all, saved Delilah’s life.
Poppy finally found out what had happened at the beach. Delilah, it seemed, had weights tied to her ankles and was about to be dropped from the boat by Slick, while Parker filmed from the shore. He was so busy preparing to capture the dying moments of the Lady of the Lake that he didn’t hear Elizabeth and Alfie sneak up behind him. There was a scuffle which was swiftly brought to an end when Elizabeth retrieved the gun from the director’s chair.
Alfie swam out and dealt with Slick, who, without his weapon, was no match for the younger man, but in the process Slick and Delilah fell overboard. Slick swam back to shore where he was greeted by Elizabeth at gunpoint, while Alfie dived in and saved Delilah from drowning. And it was all captured on film! The police, who arrived shortly afterwards, confiscated the reel for evidence.
But that was as far as Delilah’s film career went. Although he had been cleared of any involvement in von Hassler’s murder or the shenanigans at the garment factory, Delilah could not bring herself to go to Hollywood with Miles. They parted as friends, and Poppy would not be the least surprised if something came of the relationship – and the film career – in the future.
Instead, for the next three months, Delilah worked with Aunt Dot on a series of radio dramas. Poppy smiled down at her aunt, resplendent in her fuchsia travelling coat and hat. The ageing actress and former suffragette had come alive in New York as she was given a chance to re-launch her career. She was returning to London as an up-and-coming radio star – and, Poppy chuckled, London had better watch out!
Behind her the quiet, dependable figure of Miss King was always present to serve her employer’s needs. But her days were numbered. On the cruise home she had informed Aunt Dot that she had been offered a post as a companion in the south of France and she would be serving her notice when they got home. Aunt Dot said she would write her an excellent reference and wished her well.
Aunt Dot had a few months still to find a replacement, but, thought Poppy, if the information from Yasmin Reece-Lansdale was anything to go by, she need not worry. Yasmin, Rollo’s sweetheart and now Aunt Dot’s solicitor, had hope that Grace Wilson – Dot’s dearest friend – might soon be released on parole. So all would again be well in Aunt Dot’s world.
“Happy to be home, Poppy?” asked Rollo.
Poppy looked down at her editor and grinned. “Oh yes; it’s been a long three months. An exciting three months, but my word, am I looking forward to a few quiet gallery openings!”
Rollo laughed. “And I’m looking forward to kicking that shyster Archie Weinstein out of my office!”
Poppy chuckled. The day before they had left New York Rollo received a telegram from senior reporter Ike Garfield which read: “Greetings Rollo STOP Re your request to get intel from ad dept STOP Weinstein swore them to secrecy STOP But a couple of beers loosened tongues STOP Happy to report Weinstein failed to double ad revenue STOP Welcome back chief STOP”.
So, having won the bet with his former colleague, Rollo was returning to London once again the sole proprietor of The Daily Globe. He was relishing getting back to work – the old Rollo was back!
However, Poppy noticed, there was something different about him. He appeared more at peace with himself and the world. He had spent the last three months being reconciled with his mother while she did everything she could to distance herself from the disgraced Amelia Spencer. She even resigned from the board of the Eugenics Society and allowed Rollo to accompany her to various social engagements, where she introduced him as “my son the journalist who exposed that dreadful Spencer woman”.
Rollo had done more than simply “expose that dreadful Spencer woman”, Poppy thought. If he and the Dorchesters hadn’t arrived when they did, Delilah would have been dead and she, Mimi, and Estie… Well, she wasn’t sure what would have happened, but she doubted she could have saved the girls on her own.
On the drive back to New York, once statements had been given to the police, and Slick, Parker, and Amelia had been carted off, Rollo told Poppy, Delilah, and Elizabeth what had happened with Mrs Lawson.
He had met her at the apartment, as arranged, but the woman had seemed distracted and kept looking at her watch. She had been evasive, too, when questioned, and Rollo soon suspected something was wrong. Rollo decided to put some pressure on her and informed her that he knew she was the second beneficiary to the will and that the police might consider that motivation for murder. She almost fainted when she heard that, and, when recovered, blurted out her innocence and pointed the finger squarely at Amelia Spencer. The housekeeper told him that Mr Parker downstairs had discovered Mrs Spencer was the real killer but had paid her to keep quiet about it and help him, instead, frame the nephew, Otto von Riesling.
After hearing all that Rollo had rushed downstairs to ask the concierge to accompany him to Parker’s apartment. But it was too late. By the time they got there, Parker, Delilah, and Poppy had gone.
Fearing the worst, Rollo was not sure what to do at first. Then he remembered what Poppy had told him about Elizabeth saying Alfie knew something about the murder. So he called a cab and went over to Elizabeth’s house to press her further.
When Elizabeth heard Poppy and Delilah might be in danger she told Rollo her brother was still hiding out, waiting to leave the next morning on a train. She took Rollo to him; then, after hearing what was at stake and being begged to help by his sister, Alfie took them to the factory where he said they could find Parker’s assistant, a fella called Slick. But at the factory, which, as a shareholder “Otto von Riesling” was able to gain entry to, they were told Slick had left with a couple of girls. When pressed, and threatened with being turned over to Immigration, one of the other girls – a blonde Russian called Kat – told them Slick had taken two of the girls to see “the Boss Man” out at the lake.
Rollo telephoned Quinn from the factory and asked him to use his contacts to get the police out to Ronkonkoma. Quinn said he would, but it might take a while as the NYPD would have to ask the Suffolk County PD for help. But Rollo wasn’t prepared to wait it out. Instead, he commandeered a motor car and Alfie drove him and Elizabeth out to the lake, arriving there shortly before midnight and – as if it were the plot of a detective novel – they got there just in time to help Poppy and save Delilah.
Phew! It was exhausting just thinking about it. Yes, thought Poppy, a few quiet gallery openings are just what I need. I’ve had enough complications in my life for a while – professionally and personally.
Poppy sighed as she thought of Toby. Needless to say she did not manage to get to the dinner date with the young doctor. And although in the subsequent three months he was cleared of any involvement in his mother’s crimes, any spark of romance that might have been between them was well and truly quenched. She saw him, occasionally, with his father, accompanying Amelia to court, but they never had another conversation. Oh well, perhaps it’s for the best.
Now that she was back in London she would see Daniel every day at work. She had no idea how she would cope with that. She fingered the red enamel poppy brooch he had given her for her birthday. She had started wearing it about a month ago. Delilah noticed and asked her if that meant things were back on again. Poppy said she wasn’t sure. Too much water might have gone under the bridge. She was still angry with him for not being prepared to support her in her career, and although, she admitted, she still loved him, there could be no future for them unless his views in that regard had changed.
Might they have changed? Poppy simply did not know.
The gangplank was finally down. Poppy and her friends descended with the rest of the first-class passengers and at the bottom were greeted by the smiling face of Ike Garfield.
“Rollo! Poppy!” Then he tipped his hat to the rest of the party. “Welcome home, ladies. As per your request, Miss Denby, I arranged to get the yellow Rolls out of storage. My, what a lovely vehicle! There’ll be room for you three ladies and your luggage.” Then he turned to Poppy and Rollo. “I’ve made other arrangements for you two.”
“What’s that?” asked Rollo.
But Ike didn’t have to answer. Strolling through the crowd with car keys in hand was Daniel. “He’s brought the Model T,” Ike explained.
“Not much room in there,” observed Rollo. “Surely you can squeeze another one into the Rolls, Ike.”
Ike grinned. “We’ll give it a go, chief.”
Delilah and Aunt Dot giggled.
They’re setting us up! thought Poppy. But she didn’t care. And neither, it seemed, did Daniel. He barely looked at the rest of the party and homed in on the young blonde woman in the middle.
“Welcome back, Poppy,” he said, his grey eyes full of love.
Poppy felt her heart melt.
“Thank you, Daniel. It’s very good to be home.”