“What do you think of that?” Whiteway demanded.
Isaac Bell observed quietly to Van Dorn, “I’ve seen men more at ease in gun battles.”
Van Dorn said, “Rest assured the agency will bill Whiteway for your idea.”
A brave old senior editor not far from retirement spoke up at last: “Very good, sir. Very, very good.”
Whiteway beamed.
“ ‘America’s Sweetheart of the Air’!” cried the managing editor, and the others took up the chant.
“Draw that! Put her on a flying machine. Make her pretty – no, make her beautiful.”
Invisible smiles passed between the detectives. Sounded to Isaac Bell and Joseph Van Dorn like Preston Whiteway had fallen for his personal entry.
Back in Whiteway’s private office, the publisher turned grave. “I imagine you can guess what I want from you.”
“We can,” Joseph Van Dorn answered. “But perhaps it would be better to hear it in your own words.”
“Before we start,” Bell interrupted, turning to the only member of the entourage who had followed them back into Whiteway’s office and taken a faraway chair in the corner, “may I ask who you are, sir?”
He was dressed in a brown suit and vest, celluloid stand-up collar, and bow tie. His hair was brilliantined to his skull like a shiny helmet. He blinked at Bell’s question. Whiteway answered for him.
“Weiner from Accounting. I had him deputized by the American Aeronautical Society, which will officially sanction the race, to preside as Chief Rule Keeper. You’ll be seeing a lot him. Weiner will keep a record of every contestant’s time and settle disputes. His word is final. Even
“And he enjoys your confidence in this meeting?”
“I pay his salary and own the property he rents to house his family.”
“Then we will speak openly,” said Van Dorn. “Welcome, Mr. Weiner. We are about to hear why Mr. Whiteway wants to engage my detective agency.”
“Protection,” said Whiteway. “I want Josephine protected from her husband. Before Harry Frost shot at her, he murdered Marco Celere, the inventor who built her aeroplanes, in an insane fit of jealous rage. The vicious lunatic is on the run, and I fear that he is stalking her – the only witness to his crime.”
“There are rumors of murder,” said Isaac Bell. “But, in fact, no one has seen Marco Celere dead, and the district attorney has filed no charges as there is no body.”
“Find it!” Whiteway shot back. “Charges are pending. Josephine witnessed Frost shooting Celere. Why do you think Frost ran? Van Dorn, I want your agency to investigate the disappearance of Marco Celere and build a murder case that will require that hick-town prosecutor to get Harry Frost locked up forever. Or hanged. Do what you must, and damn the expense! Anything to protect the girl from that raving lunatic.”
“Would that Frost were only a raving lunatic,” said Joseph Van Dorn.
“What do you mean?”
“Harry Frost is the most dangerous criminal not currently behind bars that I know of.”
“No,” Whiteway protested. “Harry Frost was a first-class businessman before he lost his mind.”
ISAAC BELL DIRECTED A COLD GLARE at the newspaper publisher. “Perhaps you are not aware how Mr. Frost got started in business.”
“I am aware of his success. Frost was the top newsstand distributor in the nation when I took command of my father’s papers. When he retired – at the age of thirty-five, I might add – he controlled every newsstand in every railroad station in the country. However cruel he’s been to poor Josephine, Frost commanded great success in forging his continental chain. Frankly, as one businessman to another, I would admire him, if he weren’t trying to kill his wife.”
“I’d sooner admire a rabid wolf,” Isaac Bell countered grimly. “Harry Frost is a brutal mastermind. He ‘forged his continental chain,’ as you put it, by slaughtering every rival in his path.”
“I still say he was a fine businessman before he became a lunatic,” Whiteway objected. “Instead of living on the interest of his wealth when he retired, he invested it in steel, railroads, and Postum Cereals. He possesses a fortune that would do J. P. Morgan proud.”
Joseph Van Dorn’s cheeks flamed with such fury that they were suddenly redder than his whiskers. He retorted sharply, the normally faint Irish lilt in his voice thickening into a brogue as heavy as a Dublin ferry captain’s.
“J. P. Morgan has been accused of many things, sir, but even if they were all true, he would not be proud of such a fortune. Harry Frost possesses the managemental skills of General Grant, the strength of a grizzly, and the scruples of Satan.”
Isaac Bell put it plainly: “We know how Frost operates. The Van Dorn Detective Agency tangled with him ten years ago.”
Whiteway snickered. “Isaac, ten years ago you were in prep school.”
“Not so,” Van Dorn interrupted. “Isaac had just signed on as an apprentice and the god-awful truth is Harry Frost got the best of both of us. When the dust had settled, he controlled every railroad newsstand within five hundred miles of Chicago, and those of our clients who were not bankrupted were dead. Having established that blood-soaked foundation right under our noses, he expanded east and west. He’s as slippery as they come. We could never build a case that would stand up in court.”
Whiteway saw an opportunity to negotiate a low fee for the Van Dorn services.
“Have I put too much faith in the famous Van Dorn motto, ‘We Never Give Up. Never’? Ought I shop around for better detectives?”
Isaac Bell and Joseph Van Dorn stood up and put on their hats.
“Good day, sir,” said Van Dorn. “As your cross-country race will span the continent, I recommend you ‘shop around’ for an investigative outfit with a national reach equal to mine.”
“Hold on! Hold on! Don’t go off half-cocked. I was merely-”
“We admitted the drubbing Frost dealt us in order to warn you not to underestimate him. Harry Frost is mad as a hatter and violent as a longhorn, but, unlike most madmen, he is coldly efficient.”
Bell said, “Faced with the choice between the asylum or the hangman, Frost has nothing to lose, which makes him even more lethal. Don’t think for a moment he’ll be content harming Josephine. Now that you’ve made her your champion in the race, he will attack your entire enterprise.”
“One man? What can one man do? Particularly a man on the run.”
“Frost organized gangs of outlaws in every city in the country to build his empire – thieves, arsonists, strikebreaker thugs, and murderers.”
“I have no objection to strikebreakers,” Whiteway said staunchly. “Someone’s got to keep labor in line.”
“You’ll object to them beating up your fliers’ mechanicians,” Isaac Bell shot back coldly. “The infields of racetracks and fairgrounds where your racers will land their machines at night are a favored habitat of gamblers. The gamblers will make book on your race. Gambling draws criminals. Frost knows where to find them, and they’ll be glad to see him.”
“Which is why,” said Van Dorn, “you must prepare to battle Frost at every stop on the route.”
“This sounds expensive,” Whiteway said. “Appallingly expensive.”
Bell and Van Dorn still had their hats on. Bell reached for the door.
“Wait – How many men will it take to cover the entire route?”
Isaac Bell said, “I traced it on my way west this past week. It’s fully four thousand miles.”
“How could you trace my route?” Whiteway demanded. “I haven’t published it yet.”
The detectives exchanged another invisible smile. No Van Dorn worth his salt arrived at a meeting ignorant of a potential client’s needs. That went double for the founder of the agency and his chief investigator.
Bell said, “There is a necessary logic to your route: Flying machines can’t cross high mountains like the Appalachians and the Rockies, the competitors’ support trains will have to follow the railroad lines, and your newspapers will want the greatest number of spectators to take notice. Consequently, I rode the Twentieth Century Limited from New York City to Chicago on the Water Level Route up the Hudson River and along the Erie Canal and Lake Erie. At Chicago I transferred to the Golden State Limited through Kansas City, south to Texas, and crossed the Rockies at the lowest point in the Continental Divide through the New Mexico and Arizona territories and across California to Los Angeles and up the Central Valley to San Francisco.”
