Death, Diamonds, and Deception

by Rosemary Simpson

  “There’s nothing of mine left,” Lena said dispassionately. “Whatever remained after giving so much of it to Morgan over the years was lost in the gold mine fiasco.”

  “You gave him access to your private fortune?” Lady Rotherton plainly thought Lena had made a serious and foolish mistake.

  “He forged my name,” Lena whispered. “He never intended to steal the money. Morgan believed he’d be able to pay it back with interest.”

  “He was swindled.” Prudence remembered the whispers at his funeral.

  “Every dime he and I possessed went down the shaft of that phony gold mine. That’s why he got so drunk the night he died. He couldn’t face having to tell me what had happened.”

  “How did you find out?”

  “Everett told me. After he’d informed William. He said he had a hunch there might be something wrong, so he took a look at my account before the quarterly audit was due. He found the papers Morgan had forged that authorized him to withdraw funds. He didn’t try to hide them because he didn’t think anyone would ever examine them that closely. He never meant any harm. My son loved me, Prudence. We were everything to one another.”

  “Did Everett take over the business as well as the household?” Lady Rotherton asked. She poured herself and Prudence another Courvoisier.

  “That same day. Banking and investment management is built on trust. Clients and employees alike have to believe that the institution handling their money is built on solid ground. The incapacitation of one man can’t be allowed to disturb the smooth flow of business.”

  “Is that what Everett told you?”

  “My husband believed it as well. He stepped into his father’s shoes under much the same circumstances.”

  “Have you seen the documents giving Everett control of the business?” Lady Rotherton demanded. “Seen them, not just been told about them?”

  “William promoted him to second-in-command around the time Morgan went to Illinois to take the Keeley Cure.”

  “Your husband obviously didn’t have much faith in the good doctor’s bichloride of gold injections.”

  “He called it quackery,” Prudence remembered.

  “But Morgan believed in them. That’s what was important,” Lena said.

  “The documents? Have you read them?” Lady Rotherton persisted.

  Lena’s straight back sagged and her face fell. “I don’t know anything about William’s business,” she confessed. “He was generous with the household allowances and with everything else. He paid the bills I put on his desk and never asked me to explain a single one.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question.”

  “Does it really matter, Lady Rotherton?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, girl. Of course it matters. Either you own De Vries Bank and Trust and De Vries Capital or you don’t. Has Everett given you anything to sign?”

  “In the library,” Lena said. “He brought some documents home yesterday, but the doctor was here, so I put them in the desk drawer to sign as soon as he left. That was when William took his turn. From that moment on, I never left his side.”

  “Everett will lay them in front of you once we’re gone,” Lady Rotherton predicted.

  Prudence made a beeline for the parlor door. “Is the library desk locked?” she asked just before she reached for the handle.

  “No,” Lena answered. “It’s a large buff-colored envelope. In the middle drawer.”

  When Prudence returned she was carrying the packet Lena had described. “I haven’t opened it,” she said.

  “Use this.” Lady Rotherton handed her a wickedly sharp hat pin.

  “Lena?”

  “Please, Prudence. I’m not sure I could manage it.”

  By the time Prudence had extracted a sheaf of papers from the envelope, Lena had downed her small glass of Courvoisier, guided by Lady Rotherton’s insistent hand. Her cheeks flushed from the liquor, she straightened her back and reached for the documents her husband’s nephew had prepared for her. Lady Rotherton leaned in close enough to read them over her shoulder.

  “I think that’s rather self-evident,” Lady Rotherton said when they had skimmed the final page. “Everett must know the contents of your husband’s will, Lena. Otherwise he wouldn’t need you to sign the business over to him outright. In recognition of his contributions to the firm and at the express wish of his uncle, William De Vries. Nicely put. It makes it sound as though you and your husband were in agreement and that William was in the process of changing his will when he was suddenly and unexpectedly struck down.”

  “You can’t sign this, Lena,” Prudence said.

  “Burn it.” Lena’s fingers trembled.

  “No.” Prudence placed the deed of gift back into the envelope before Lena could fling it into the fireplace. “Geoffrey will want to see this. It’s evidence of an attempt to defraud.”

  “Perhaps more than that,” Lady Rotherton said.

  “What do you mean, Aunt Gillian?”

  “Everett said he discovered Morgan’s looting of your fortune because he became suspicious and thought to check your account. Didn’t you once tell us that he had made substantial profits on behalf of the clients William entrusted to him?”

  “More than any of the other brokers or account managers,” Lena confirmed. “William was ecstatic. I don’t think I ever heard him heap as much praise on any of the young men he’d hired. Each of them had to prove himself, you know. Morgan was no exception, even though he was my son. But there was no comparison to what Everett accomplished.”

  “Interesting,” Lady Rotherton murmured.

  “Don’t tell him what we’ve discovered,” Prudence cautioned. “When Everett asks what you’ve done with the papers he wanted you to sign, act confused. Burst into tears. Tell him you can’t remember where you put them, but that you’ll instruct your lady’s maid to look for them. Whatever else you do, you must appear so overcome by grief that you can’t possibly attend to business right away.”

  “You’ll have to be careful though,” Lady Rotherton cautioned. “You mustn’t seem to be so distraught that you don’t know what you’re doing. Your husband’s nephew could pounce on that as an indication you’re not in your right mind. And that way lies a court order appointing him your legal guardian.”

  “I can’t believe what I’m hearing,” Lena said.

  “Believe it,” Prudence declared vehemently. After the death of her father, a greedy and vicious stepmother had plotted to have her declared mentally incompetent and locked up in an institution that administered regular doses of laudanum to women whose families wanted them out of the way. Lena was skirting perilously close to being also victimized by greed.

  “Let him make the funeral arrangements,” Lady Rotherton advised. “I’m sure he has something grand in mind, a service commensurate with William’s importance to the city and the world of finance.”

  “You’re already in mourning for Morgan, but there’s no reason why you can’t turn to Everett to support you in this hour of increased need,” Prudence counseled. “Allow him to believe that you see him as stepping naturally into your husband’s roles both at home and at the firm. Don’t do or say anything to make him suspect you intend to take charge of your own affairs. You’ll have to behave like a legal infant, Lena.”

  “What if he brings another set of those papers home for me to sign?”

  “Faint,” Lady Rotherton said. “That always confuses them. He’ll call for the doctor, who will confine you to bed and tell you to take laudanum to soothe your nerves.”

  “Don’t do that, either,” Prudence said. “Tell him you’re taking it, but pour it down the drain dose by dose. Act sleepy and supremely calm. Can you do that?”

  “I’ve seen what laudanum can do to an otherwise intelligent woman,” Lena said bitterly. “There was a time when William thought it would help me endure Morgan’s many falls from grace. I didn’t argue with him, but neither did I allow him to persuade me. One drunken member of
the family was quite enough, thank you.”

  “It’s not exactly the same as alcohol,” Prudence told her.

  “Close enough,” Lady Rotherton snapped. “Whatever causes you to lose control of your senses and your willpower is to be avoided. Too much wine, laudanum, a lust for money or power, passionate love—they’re all the same in the end.”

  An undertaker’s van was pulling around the block toward the De Vries stables as Prudence and Lady Rotherton left.

  Their next stop would be the offices of Hunter and MacKenzie, Investigative Law.

  CHAPTER 27

  Geoffrey’s conclusion that there was nothing blatantly illegal in the papers Prudence and Lady Rotherton brought him to examine was soon eclipsed by the announcement of Everett Rinehart’s engagement to Lorinda Bouwmeester.

  “It’s been coming for a long time,” Prudence said. “No one should be the least surprised.”

  “The timing is what has everyone talking,” Lady Rotherton declared. “It’s too soon after William’s death. The family will still be in deep mourning when the wedding takes place. I’m surprised the Bouwmeesters consented to so early a spring date, given the circumstances.”

  “Gossip has it that tickets to Europe for the honeymoon were already purchased and hotel reservations made before William’s stroke threatened to knock everyone’s plans into a cocked hat,” Josiah contributed.

  “Are you sure?” Prudence asked. Even Josiah’s most outlandish statements usually turned out to be accurate, but this one seemed particularly speculative.

  “According to Amos Lang’s most recent report, copies of letters written to the various hotels were found in the Bouwmeester library wastebasket, as well as notes referring to the sailing. It would seem that much of the honeymoon is a gift from the bride’s parents, and being old New York Knickerbockers, they organized it to a fare-thee-well and negotiated favorable rates by booking well in advance. The groom’s future father-in-law kept him informed of how the plans were proceeding.”

  “How convenient,” Lady Rotherton sniffed. “What of Lena in all this?”

  “She has apparently withdrawn into a proper widow’s seclusion,” Prudence reported. “I haven’t heard a word from her in over two weeks.”

  “Nor have I,” Lady Rotherton confirmed. “It’s time we paid a call.”

  “She won’t be receiving,” Prudence objected.

  “She wasn’t welcoming callers after Morgan died, either,” Lady Rotherton said. “That didn’t stop us.”

  “As far as I know, we’re still on the case,” Geoffrey put in. “My ex-Pinks are picking up whatever tidbits they can, but it’s not much.”

  “We’re continuing to bill for their hours,” Josiah said. His records were impeccably accurate.

  “What I want to know is whether young Mr. Rinehart is aware of his aunt’s interesting condition,” Lady Rotherton said. “And what he makes of it.”

  “Has it been confirmed then? Do we know if Lena has seen a physician?” Geoffrey asked.

  “She’s in the family way, doctor or no doctor,” Lady Rotherton stated firmly. “I’ve never known anyone to be able to hide the condition indefinitely. Too many women, especially maids, know exactly what to look for.”

  “Not a word from Amos Lang about Mrs. De Vries’s expectations.” Josiah phrased it as delicately as he could.

  “Amos is a man,” Lady Rotherton said dismissively.

  * * *

  Not even a man could be in any doubt about Lena De Vries’s impending motherhood. She had lost the wasp waist affected by society women and grown a slight but definite abdominal protuberance. Her skin had the rich creaminess of a well-fed breeding woman, and her eyes reflected the deep calm of someone who looks toward the future with joyful anticipation. The child she carried was already taking the place of the child she had lost.

  “I’ve decided to name him William if it’s a boy, Wilhelmina if a girl,” she told Prudence and Lady Rotherton.

  “Leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind about the infant’s parentage,” Lady Rotherton commented waspishly.

  “None whatsoever,” Lena agreed. She smiled complacently.

  “Lena,” Prudence began. She and Geoffrey had decided that it was time to be unapologetically honest with their client. “I’m afraid we haven’t been successful in finding proof of Morgan’s innocence. Both Geoffrey and I feel it would be deceptive for us to continue to keep up your hopes that we’ll discover something we’re afraid may never materialize.”

  “Are you telling me you want to withdraw from the case?”

  “What I’m telling you is that there is no more case. Every lead we’ve followed has smacked us against a brick wall. As time passes, the trails get colder. There really is nothing we haven’t tried. I’m so sorry.”

  “I thought if anyone could clear his name, it would be you two,” Lena said. Heartbreak was on her face and in her voice.

  “We thought it might be possible. At the beginning,” Prudence admitted.

  “What changed your minds?”

  “Shall I tell you what we think happened? How the diamonds were stolen and who was responsible?”

  Lena shrugged.

  “This is all speculation, you understand,” Prudence said, glancing at her aunt for support. “Those who could tell us the truth are dead. We’ve had to extrapolate the story from the few facts others have been able to supply and the clues we feel we can trust.”

  “It’s logical, Lena,” Lady Rotherton said. “And while it won’t restore Morgan’s reputation, it will give you some peace of mind. Listen to what Prudence has to say. Believe it.” She reached for Lena’s hands and held them lightly, comfortingly, in her own.

  “It all started because of a need for money,” Prudence began. “Aubrey Canfield and Morgan were in desperate straits. Neither of them knew how they were going to cover their debts. Both feared what would happen if they couldn’t. It was almost an accident that they came up with the scheme to steal your diamonds. If you can take comfort in anything I’m about to tell you, it’s that the idea didn’t come from Morgan.”

  “My son would never have done anything to hurt or distress me.”

  “Except continue a lifestyle that brought you pain and suffering,” Lady Rotherton said bluntly. “He loved you, Lena, as a son should love his mother. But he wasn’t strong enough to choose you over liquor and gambling. Morgan was one of the weak ones for whom we can still feel affection, but for whose actions we cannot make excuses.”

  Lena slipped her hands from Lady Rotherton’s. A mulish stubbornness settled onto the features of her face.

  “He changed his mind as things got worse and there were threats from the people to whom he and Aubrey owed money. In the end, Aubrey persuaded him that they had no choice. They may even have agreed that both of them would eventually go back to the Keeley Institute and try once more to get and stay sober.”

  “They talked themselves into becoming thieves in pursuit of what they perceived to be a greater good,” Lady Rotherton said. “One has to feel sorry for them.”

  “Aubrey had already begun a liaison with your footman cum valet, Leonard,” Prudence continued. “There can be no doubt that it was sincerely felt on both sides. Taylor was an unwitting dupe in their plans. Leonard pretended to want her help in learning to care for a gentleman’s diamond studs and cuff links. She showed him how to clean them, what to do if one of the prongs holding a stone in place needed tightening.”

  “Which also meant he learned how to bend a prong just enough to slip the diamond out and put a paste duplicate in its place,” Lady Rotherton explained.

  “We think Taylor wondered later if what she showed him had been put to a use she never intended.”

  “But you haven’t asked her?”

  “Not in so many words, Lena. We’re convinced she had nothing to do with the actual theft.” Prudence waited until Lena nodded her acceptance of Taylor’s limited role in the drama of her diamonds. “Aubrey and Leonard wer
e the ones who pried the stones out of the necklace, and not all at once. They got bolder after the first few imitations passed for real. We think the final extractions were done right before Lady Rotherton blew the lid off their scheme. Leonard had met Vincent Reynolds during his early days in the city, when he had run away from his father’s farm on Long Island and was forced to earn his living on the street. Reynolds put him on to James Carpenter, who was open to buying stones that had no provenance, and offered to act as intermediary. Carpenter sold and recut the stones, Reynolds took his fee, and the rest of the money went to Aubrey and Morgan. If you look at the debts they paid off, it’s obvious what was going on and where they found the money.”

  “We think Leonard killed both Carpenter and Reynolds,” Lady Rotherton said. “There had to have been some sort of falling out among thieves. Either someone wanted a bigger cut or there was a threat to expose Aubrey and Morgan. Whichever it was, Leonard believed that the future he saw with Aubrey was slipping through his fingers. You have to remember that he didn’t go directly from his family’s farm into the servants’ hall of a great house. We can only guess at what he did to survive during the interim, but we know it was in the Five Points, and there’s no more dangerous or depraved place in New York City. He killed Carpenter to save Aubrey and then he eliminated the only link between himself and Carpenter. Which was Reynolds.”

  “A cold-blooded killer doesn’t commit suicide when it looks as though he’s gotten away with two murders,” Lena protested.

  “Leonard wasn’t just a cold-blooded murderer,” Prudence said. “He was a man in love. After he’d killed for Aubrey and for their future together, something happened to make him believe it had all been in vain. We’ll never know what that was, but it thrust him into a despair from which he was convinced the only escape was to take his life.”

  “The rest of it we know,” Lady Rotherton said. “Aubrey’s death was a tragic accident, as was Morgan’s.”