The Echo of Old Books(45)
Ashlyn laid the new pieces end to end. Steven Schwab. Young and handsome. Worked for one of Goldie’s papers. An aspiring novelist with no books to his credit. Was it possible Hemi and Steven Schwab were one and the same? If her math was right, Hemi was twenty-six when he and Belle met in 1941, which meant he’d be in his sixties now.
The thought raised a host of possibilities. “Ruth, you didn’t happen to run across anything that mentioned where Mr. Schwab might be living these days, did you?”
“He doesn’t live anywhere. He’s dead. Goldie died in ’79 and he went a couple years later. I tried to find more on him, but apart from his connection to Goldie, he appears to have been remarkably unremarkable. At any rate, he’s dead.”
Dead. The word left Ashlyn feeling vaguely deflated. “Right.”
“So now are you going to tell me what you’re working on? I must say, I’m intrigued by the naughty Miss Spencer.”
Ashlyn bit her lip. Revealing what she’d stumbled upon, now that she knew Belle and Hemi’s story was true, would feel like betraying a confidence.
“I don’t blame you for being curious about Goldie. She’s certainly a colorful character. But at this point, I don’t think I should share much. Partly because I don’t know much but also because of privacy issues. For now, I think it best that I keep what I do know to myself and just keep digging.”
Ruth blew a sigh into the phone, clearly disappointed. “All right. I get it. I made copies of a few of the articles and photos. I’m guessing you’d like to have those.”
“I would. I’m not sure when I can pick them up, though.”
“I’m off at two today. I’ll run them by the shop if that works.”
“Thank you. I owe you huge, Ruth.”
“Yes, you do. But honestly, it was fun. I think I may have missed my calling. Maybe I’ll pen a series of novels about a crusty New England literary detective and give Agatha Christie and her Miss Marple a run for their money. See you after two.”
At ten after two, Ruth Truman dashed into the shop waving a large manila envelope. Ashlyn was in the travel section, helping a customer select a book for her husband’s birthday, when she heard the bells on the shop door jangle. She signaled with the wave of a hand, but Ruth kept moving, pausing just long enough to slap the envelope on the counter and explain that she was illegally parked and that her husband had vowed to take away her keys if she came home with one more parking ticket.
It was all Ashlyn could do not to step away from her customer and steal a peek at the envelope. As it was, her customer continued to dither for nearly an hour and ended up leaving empty-handed. Ashlyn didn’t care and barely waited until the woman was out the door before making a beeline for the counter.
She held her breath as she unwound the envelope’s string closure and slid out the contents. The sight of the pages made her stomach do a little flip. A few had been neatly paper-clipped. Others were single sheets with bold headlines and grainy black-and-white photos. The print quality wasn’t good—printed microfilm materials seldom were—but with a magnifying glass, she ought to be able to make out most of it.
She laid out the pieces like a hand of solitaire, arranging them in chronological order. When she was finished, she pulled Frank’s enormous magnifying glass from beneath the counter and picked up the first item, a Chicago Tribune article dated January 14, 1920.
Chicago Business Mogul Ronald P. Spencer Believed Dead at Sea
January 15, 1920 (Chicago)—Noted businessman and Chicago native Ronald Spencer and wife, Edith, are believed to have perished in the sinking of the S.S. Afrique on the early morning of January 13th, when the ship carrying some 600 passengers and a crew of 135 was driven off course and struck a reef off the French coast. The ship, owned by French shipping company Compagnie des Chargeurs Réunis, was bound for Senegal when the accident occurred. Generators in the engine room are said to have failed during the storm, leaving the ship unable to maneuver. At 11:58 p.m., the ship was thrown against a reef, fatally damaging the hull. At 3 a.m., all contact with the Afrique was lost and the ship sank soon after. Of the passengers and crew, only 34 survived. Ronald and Edith Spencer are survived by one daughter, Miss Geraldine Spencer, 21.
The rest of the article was about Ronald Spencer’s net worth and business holdings. Ashlyn didn’t care about any of that. She was much more interested in the photo of the young woman at the bottom of the page—GERALDINE “GOLDIE” SPENCER, 21.
She picked up the magnifying glass again, studying Goldie more closely. Platinum-haired and sloe-eyed, with a perfectly painted bow of a mouth, staring back at the camera as if someone had dared her to do it. It wasn’t difficult to imagine her as the woman Belle had described, brazen and flamboyant, with a taste for parties and young men. Hemi’s boss. And lover, too, perhaps.
The second article was also from the Tribune, an opinion piece dated twelve weeks later, lamenting the takeover of Spencer Publishing by a “twenty-one-year-old flapper” who would soon turn her father’s redoubtable print holdings into a string of cheap entertainment rags, covering nightclub openings and the latest fashion crazes. The piece ended with a call for the board to take swift steps.
The third piece was much more colorful.
Tattler Owner Goldie Spencer Nabbed in Jazz Club Raid
June 14, 1928 (New York)—In the early-morning hours of June 13, police carried out a secret raid at the basement speakeasy known as the Nitty Gritty Club. Police were acting on a tip that illegally imported liquor was being served at the West 125th Street jazz club. A sizable stockpile of beer and spirits, discovered behind a false wall, was confiscated and is slated to be destroyed. A small amount of marijuana was also found on the premises. Forty-two patrons were taken into custody, including owner Lively Abbot, noted actor and man about town Reginald Bennett, and newspaper heiress Goldie Spencer. Bennett and Spencer were arraigned in county court and ordered to pay a $50 fine. Abbot, who has had repeated brushes with the law, faces up to a year in jail and fines in excess of $700.