Breaking up.-- Doubts and Queries.-- Suspected
Developments.-- The Detectives completely outwitted.-- On
the Trail again.-- From Rochester to St. Louis.-- A
prophetic Hotel Clerk.-- More Detectives and more Need for
them.-- Lightning Changes.
Bristol and Fox happened around in time to participate in the general
excitement which the undertaker's visit had awakened, and after getting
as full particulars as possible from the people below, who refused to
believe that some dark deed had not been committed upstairs, they
proceeded to the rooms, where they found the door to Mrs. Winslow's
private apartment closed, and the two, finding no opportunity to
converse with their landlady, shortly went out for supper.
On their return they found Mrs. Winslow in a remarkably pleasant frame
of mind, and quite full of jokes about the order for a coffin--so much
so, in fact, that my operatives were quite surprised at the change from
her previous demeanor under similar circumstances. Altogether they
passed one of the pleasantest evenings since they became the woman's
tenants. Several ladies that lived in the same building were invited in,
refreshments of wines and some rare fruits out of season were served,
singing, card-playing, and piano-playing with some waltzing were
indulged in, and it was noticed by the two men that Mrs. Winslow was
almost hysterically happy, as if she had decided upon some exceedingly
brilliant and satisfactory plan, the execution of which was being
preluded in this way.
At the close of the evening she casually announced that the next time
she had any company she hoped to show them a better place.
Somebody at once inquired if she was going away, whereupon she gayly
replied that instead of going away she was going to make better
arrangements for staying. She had intended all along, she said, tidying
up the place, but had been so lazy that she had kept neglecting it until
it was really too bad, and now she had decided to begin tearing up
things to-morrow.
In answer to Bristol and Fox's inquiries as to what was to be done with
them in the meantime, she said that she had already arranged that, and
had secured a pleasant room at the Osborn House, where they were to
remain without additional expense to themselves until she had concluded
her changes. This rather dashed the operatives, but they made no further
remark upon the subject until the company had dispersed, when they urged
the propriety, both on the grounds of economy and convenience of
"doubling up," as Bristol termed it, in one room until another was
finished, and then removing to that, until their respective apartments
had been renovated. But Mrs. Winslow was obdurate, alleging that on
account of these annoyances she had become weak and nervous of late,
and did not desire to be annoyed with either the argument or
arrangement.
So that early on the next morning, when Mrs. Winslow announced to the
detectives that an express wagon was in waiting to convey their baggage
to the Osborn House, there was no alternative but to go, as the persons
engaged to do the renovating were on hand and had already begun their
work of turning the rooms into chaos. Mrs. Winslow assured them that but
a few days would elapse before they would all be together again in their
old quarters; and as they grumblingly went away complaining of short
notice and the like, she bade them a merry good-by, adding that she
should stay about with some of her Spiritualistic friends in the city,
and perhaps take a little trip down to Batavia; but in any event would
let them know the first moment that the rooms were ready for occupancy.
While Bristol and Fox were settling themselves in their new quarters
they indulged in a very heated argument as to Mrs. Winslow's object in
this all but forcibly ejecting them from their rooms, which they had
occupied so long that they had come to consider them something of a
home; as to whether Mrs. Winslow meant to do without their presence
hereafter or not, Bristol feeling sure that the woman meditated some
future action which was to relieve herself of their society, if indeed
it did not mean more than that, while Fox felt equally as certain that
the whole affair was only one of the whimful woman's whims, that, being
satisfied, would result in their early recall.
In any event in this way the combination of mediumistic and detective
talent was broken up.
I was at once informed about the turn things had taken, and ordered that
extra diligence should be used in keeping the woman under notice, as I
felt apprehensive that making her rooms tidy was not her object at all.
I had no right to detain her, go wherever she might; but Lyon's counsel
had been for some time absent from Rochester, and some things in
connection with the defence had not yet received proper attention. The
depositions as to the woman's character and adventures throughout
Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri had not yet been taken, nor indeed had the
very necessary formula of serving notice upon Mrs. Winslow of the
proposed taking of such evidence been gone through; so that, as it would
require some time to take this evidence after notice had been served, it
was very desirable that she should be kept in sight.
The next development, showing her to be a very shrewd woman, was in her
sending word over to the hotel, the same day that my operatives left her
rooms, that she had been taken suddenly and severely ill, and had been
obliged to turn over the work to a lady friend of hers, and might not be
able to resume the supervision of it for several days.
Bristol called, ostensibly to tender his condolence, but was unable to
find Mrs. Winslow, being met by a very smart little lady, who informed
him that it would be impossible to see his former landlady, as she was
extremely ill and could not be at present disturbed; but that should
any change in her condition occur, both he and Fox should be promptly
informed. I had instructed them to do their best in watching the
premises, which I am satisfied they had done, and I had also put the two
other men, Grey and Watson, on the lookout, but none of them had
observed her either pass out of or into the place, and they began to be
convinced that she really was lying ill within the building.
During this condition of things, and being somewhat anxious about the
matter, I went to Rochester myself, and held a consultation with my men,
having the block further examined under various guises and pretexts,
which proved beyond doubt that the woman was gone, and had probably left
the building a very few minutes after the operatives had departed; and,
for some reason best known to herself, but probably on account of the
mysterious annoyances which had been following each other very rapidly,
had either left the city entirely or was hiding very closely within it,
with a view to discover whether, with the two men out of her society,
and herself in peaceful retiracy, she could not ascertain from what
source her troubles came, or avoid them altogether.
To my further annoyance, the magnificent Harcout appeared and kindly
offered me countless suggestions and theories, which were each one
considered by Mr. Harcout to be worthy of immediate adoption; and in
order to get rid of him, I was obliged to appear to acquiesce in an
imaginative theory of Mrs. Winslow's flight to New York, and represent
myself as so interested in his idea of how she could be traced to her
hiding-place, that I desired of him as a personal favor that he would
follow the trail, giving him a man, and the man a wink--and there never
was a finer picture of pomposity and assumption than when Harcout and
his man started for New York. Rid of him, I again turned to my work of
getting upon the right trail.
I was sure the woman had left the city, and further inquiry at the rooms
convinced me that I was correct. The little woman finally acknowledged
flatly that she had gone, but would under no circumstances tell whether
she had left the city or not. She also exhibited a bill of sale of the
goods and a transfer of the lease, and wanted to know if _that_ did not
look as though she had gone? But she persisted in her refusal to give
further information, and that was the end of it.
No one had seen any trunks or packages leave the place, nor could my
detectives get any trace of her having left the city over any of the
different roads. Inquiries made at all the leading livery stables,
express and hack-stands, of the city, failed to discover that Mrs.
Winslow had been conveyed to any near railroad station where she might
have taken a train; nor could it be by any means ascertained that such a
person had purchased a ticket at any of the adjacent towns for any point
to the east, west, or south.
In fact, all trace of Mrs. Winslow was lost, and I was satisfied that
she had for some time been sure of the danger of her surroundings; and,
while not able to fasten any particular suspicious act upon Bristol or
Fox, undoubtedly intuitively felt that they were either directly
responsible for her troubles, or were in some unexplainable way
connected with their cause; and being enough of a professional litigant
to be aware of the necessity of service of notice upon her as to the
taking of evidence before such evidence could be taken, and that it
would be possible by a sudden disappearance and remaining secreted until
the case might be called, to defeat Lyon's attorneys from using this
mountain of evidence which she knew existed against her, whether she
knew we had collected it or not, the double motive for her mysterious
absence was plainly apparent.
Remembering Bristol and Fox's reports as to her threat to go to St.
Louis and "attend to her cases" there unless the annoyances ceased, and
knowing from previous evidence already secured that she had figured
extensively in various capacities, but principally as Spiritualist,
blackmailer and courtesan in that city, I finally concluded that she had
gone there, though her mode of leaving Rochester, if she had left the
city, had certainly been such as to demonstrate ability worthy of a
better cause.
I accordingly directed Bristol and Fox to return to New York, and
detailed the two men who had made it lively for Mrs. Winslow, and who,
of course, knew her, but whom she had not seen face to face, the
"materializations" having all been done for them by other parties, to
proceed to St. Louis in search of her, stopping at any point where
railroad divergences were made from the trunk lines between the east and
the west, and make extremely diligent inquiries for her, while I left
another man in Rochester for the purpose of watching for her
reappearance there, which would undoubtedly occur as soon as her former
tenants were gone, in the event that she was secreted in Rochester,
instead of being at the west, and to make this plan more certain, caused
Bristol to write a letter to Mrs. Winslow, stating that both he and Fox
had made numberless efforts to see her, but, failing to ascertain either
where she was, or the cause of her sudden disappearance, and both being
out of active business, they had concluded to go on to New York, but
would return to Rochester should she resume charge of the rooms and
desire them for tenants. I made arrangements also at the post-office to
ascertain whether any letters were reforwarded to her at any point, and
also at the express office regarding packages, so it could be hardly
possible for her to keep up any correspondence or relation of any kind
with parties in Rochester without disclosing her place of retreat.
Having completed these arrangements, I returned to New York and
anxiously waited for some news from the West.
No trace was found of the woman until Operatives Grey and Watson had
arrived at Chicago, where they immediately circulated among the
Spiritualists of that city, who are both numerous and of rather doubtful
moral standing. They ascertained that a woman answering her description
had been there, and advertised largely under another _alias_ than Mrs.
Winslow, but nothing definitely could be learned until in their reports
I discovered that the little Frenchman, Le Compte, was figuring as the
unknown lady's companion and business manager, when I telegraphed to
follow Le Compte and his woman, being morally certain that these two
were Monsieur the Mineral Locater and the celebrated plaintiff in the
Winslow-Lyon breach of promise suit.
It was discovered after some trouble, and with the assistance of my
Chicago Agency, that Le Compte had suddenly left that city for some
southern or south-western point, possibly St. Louis, but no information
could be gained as to what direction Mrs. Winslow had taken, it being
evidently her plan to avoid pursuit, should there be any made. My
conviction still being strong that her objective point was St. Louis, I
ordered the men on there, without positively knowing that either of the
parties were there; but was gratified to learn that Le Compte had been
in the city, whether he was there or not on the operatives' arrival. The
operatives, Grey and Watson, at once searched the newspapers and found
no advertisements which would cover the desired couple, or either of
them; but, notwithstanding, visited all the mediums, clairvoyants, and
prominent Spiritualists of the city, but could find no trace of the
fugitives from that generally very prolific source, and began to have
the impression that her trip there, if she were in the city at all, was
one of pleasure or of blackmail business outside of her regular
clairvoyant line.
The next move made by the men was to search about among the hotels and
boarding-houses, and really ferret her out. This was a tedious process,
and very little success was made in this endeavor for two or three days,
when one noon, as Grey was wandering about the city in a seemingly
useless endeavor to find the woman, he stepped into the Denver House,
formerly the old City Hotel, and began to search over the register. He
had not proceeded far when the clerk, eyeing him cautiously, said:
"See here, Mister, ain't you lookin' for somebody?"
"Certainly I am," he replied pleasantly.
Grey looked at him a moment and saw that he would not drop the subject,
and immediately endeavored to mislead him by answering, "Of course I am;
I came in from the country this morning, and I don't know what hotel she
was going to."
"Ah, ha," mused the clerk, as if at loss how to proceed, "I guess you
didn't know where to find her, and you haven't found her yet, have you?"
"No," Grey replied quietly.
"Is she big or little?"
"Well, she ain't little," answered Grey.
"Now, see here, my friend, that's all right; but I'm pretty sure you
didn't just come in from the country, and further, I think I can show
you the woman you've been hunting."
Grey smiled and intimated that he was perfectly willing to be shown the
woman.
"Well, you just let me have your hat; I'll put it on the hat-rack
inside the dining-room door, then you go to the wash-room and pass into
the dining-room as though you had forgotten your hat and had come back
for it. Look at the head of the first table over by the windows, and if
you don't find your woman with a little Frenchman, I'll treat!"
Grey was surprised at the revelation, as there could be no possible
means for him to know of his mission; but the clerk's reference to the
"little Frenchman" convinced him that there was something worth
following up in the matter, and he followed his new friend's
instructions implicitly, passed into the dining-room, took his hat from
the rack, turned and got a good view of the fair Mrs. Winslow and the
faultless Monsieur Le Compte, who were evidently enjoying life as
thoroughly as perfect freedom from restraint, and spiritualistic free
love, would enable them.
He expressed no surprise, however, at seeing the woman, and remarked to
the clerk as he passed into the hall, "Why, that isn't any friend of
mine!"
"Nor anybody else's!" said the clerk with a leer. "But really, now," he
anxiously added, "_ain't_ you after her?"
"Certainly not," Grey stoutly replied; but as the clerk took him into
the bar-room to treat him according to agreement, which he submitted to
unblushingly, he admitted that he had a curiosity to know something
about her, as he had either seen her, or heard of her, previously.
Then the clerk told him a good deal about the woman, unnecessary for me
to recite to my readers, which only further showed her vile character,
and so worked upon my operative's curiosity and interest that he decided
to come to the hotel for a few days; but as he was informed that Mrs.
Winslow's intentions were to remain there the remainder of the week, and
the clerk promised to keep a good lookout for her, he concluded to hunt
up his companion, inform him of his good fortune, and transfer their
baggage to that hotel.
As it was now about two o'clock, Grey did not find Watson before six,
and it was fully eight o'clock before they got settled at the Denver
House. But their eyes were not gladdened by a sight of the fugitive on
that evening, nor was she at breakfast next morning. The operatives
began to be alarmed lest the bland clerk had taken them in, and were
particularly so, when, at their request, for the purpose of ascertaining
whether she was in her room, he knocked at her door, and after a few
minutes returned with a blank, scared face, saying that the Jezebel had
left, and more than that, that she owed the hotel over fifty dollars for
board and wine furnished on the strength of her elegant and dashing
appearance.
On further examination of the room it was evident that the woman had not
occupied it at all during the previous night, but had left the hotel
immediately after dinner whether from a previous decision to do so, or
from one of those sudden impulses, quite contrary to the general rule of
human action, which made her an extraordinarily difficult quarry to
follow, or still, from some suspicion that she was being followed.
Grey felt quite crestfallen that he had lost Mrs. Winslow by one of her
characteristic manoeuvres, and at once made inquiries concerning her
baggage, ascertaining from the clerk that she only had a portmanteau
with her at the hotel, but had had a trunk check which she had exhibited
when asking some question about the arrival and departure of trains.
Grey sent Watson to intersections of prominent streets to keep a lookout
for parties, while he at once proceeded to the "Chicago Baggage Room,"
as it is called, under the Planters' House, where he ascertained, after
considerable trouble and representing himself as an employee of the
Chicago, Alton, and St. Louis road, looking for lost baggage, that Mrs.
Winslow had come there personally about two o'clock the day previous and
presented the check for her trunk, which had been taken away by an
expressman with "a gray horse and a covered wagon."
The next step, of course, was to find the expressman with the gray horse
and covered wagon, who had taken the woman's trunk, and this was no easy
matter to do. There were plenty answering that description, but Grey
labored hard and long to find the right one, and finally found it this
way.
Being an Irishman himself, and a pretty jolly sort of a fellow, he was
not long in finding a compatriot the owner of a gray horse and a covered
wagon, of whom he asked:
"Did you move the big woman with the big trunk at two o'clock
yesterday?"
"An' if I did?" said the expressman, on the defensive.
"Nothing if you did; but _did_ you?" replied Grey.
"It's chilly weather," replied the expressman, winking hard at a saloon
opposite.
"Yes, and I think a drop of something wouldn't hurt us," added Grey,
following the direction of the expressman's wink and thought quickly.
They stepped over to the saloon and were soon calmly looking at each
other through the bottom of some glasses where there had been whiskey
and sugar. They looked at each other twice this way, and finally they
were obliged to take the third telescopic view of each other before they
could resume the subject.
Then the expressman looked very wise at Grey, remarking musingly, "A big
'oman with a big trunk, eh?"
"Yes, a pretty fine-looking woman, too."
"Purty cranky?"
"Yes."
"And steps purty high wid a long sthride?"
"Exactly."
"'N has clothes that stand up sthiff wid starch 'n silk 'n the makin'?"
"The very same," said Grey anxiously.
"I didn't move her," said the expressman, shaking his head solemnly.
Grey felt like "giving him one," as he said in his reports, but
repressed himself and said pleasantly that he was sorry he had troubled
him, and turned to go away, knowing this would unloosen his companion's
tongue, if anything would.
"Sthop a bit, sthop a bit; you didn't ax me did I know ef any other
party moved her?"
"That's so," said Grey, smiling and waiting patiently for developments.
"Av coorse it's so." Then looking very knowingly, he said mysteriously,
"The man's just ferninst the Planters',--not a sthone's throw away. He's
a big Dutchman, 'n got a dollar fur the job."
They were both around the corner in a moment, and Grey at once made
inquiries of the German owner of a "grey horse and a covered wagon" as
to what part of the city he had removed the trunk.
He was very secretive about the matter, and refused any information
whatever.
"Come, come, me duck," said the Irishman, "me frind here is an officer,
'n ef ye don't unbosom yerself in a howly minit, ye'll be altogether
shnaked before the coort!"
He said this with such an air of pompous sincerity, as if he had the
whole power of the government at his back, that the German at once began
relating the circumstances in such a detailed manner that he would have
certainly been engaged an entire hour in the narrative, if Grey had not,
as he himself expressed it, "out of the tail of his eye" seen Mrs.
Winslow, not twenty feet away, sailing down Fourth street, towards the
Planters'. In another moment she would pass the corner of the
court-house square, where she could not help but see the little crowd of
expressmen, hackmen and runners, his inquiries, and the statement by his
companion that he was an officer, had attracted.