“He’s hanging on. They let me see him this morning. His eyes were open, and I believe he recognized me. . Josephine, I have to ask you something.”
“What?”
“Look at the wing stays.”
“What about them?”
“Do you notice how they converge at these triangular king posts, top and bottom?”
“Of course.”
“Do you notice how the triangles form in essence single lightweight steel struts? The point thrusting above the wing is actually the top of the broad base that extends below the wing.”
“Of course. It’s very strong, that way.”
“And do you see how ingeniously it’s braced by the chassis?” She crouched down beside him, and they studied the strong X-braced support that connected the body of the aeroplane to its skids and wheels.
“It’s the same system as on your Celere, isn’t it?” Bell asked.
“It looks similar,” she admitted.
“I haven’t seen anything like it on any other monoplane. I have to ask you, is it possible that Marco Celere, shall we say, ‘borrowed’ his wing-strengthening innovation from Di Vecchio?”
“Absolutely not!” Josephine said vehemently.
Bell observed that the ordinarily exuberant aviatrix seemed troubled by his blunt accusation. She jumped to her feet. Her grin had gone out like a light, and a flush was gathering on her cheeks. Did she suspect, even fear, that it was true?
“Or, perhaps, could Marco have unconsciously copied it?” he asked gently.
“No.”
“Did Marco ever tell you he worked for Di Vecchio?”
“No.”
Then, oddly, she was smiling again. Smugly, Bell thought. And he wondered why. The tension had left her slim frame, and she stood in her usual pert manner, as if about to spring into motion.
“Did Marco never mention that he worked for Di Vecchio?”
“Di Vecchio worked for Marco,” she retorted, which explained her peaceful smile. “Until Marco had to fire him.”
“I heard it was the other way around.”
“You heard wrong.”
“Perhaps I misunderstood. Did Marco tell you that Di Vecchio’s daughter stabbed him last year?”
“That crazy woman almost killed him. She left a terrible scar on his arm.”
“Did Marco tell you why?”
“Of course. She was jealous. She wanted to marry him. But Marco wasn’t interested. In fact, he told me that her father was pushing her into it, hoping that Marco would rehire him.”
“Did Marco tell you that she accused him of being a thief?”
Josephine said, “That poor lunatic. All that talk about ‘stealing her heart’? She’s insane. That’s why they locked her up. It was all in her head.”
“I see,” said Bell.
“Marco had no feelings for her. He never did. Never. I can guarantee you that, Mr. Bell.”
Isaac Bell thought quickly. He did not believe her, but in order to protect her life he needed Josephine to trust him.
“Josephine,” he smiled warmly, “you are a very polite young lady, but we’re going to be working very closely. Don’t you think it’s time you call me Isaac?”
“Sure thing, Isaac. If you like.” She studied the detective’s face as if seeing him for the first time. “Do you have a girl, Isaac?”
“Yes. I am engaged to be married.”
She gave him a flirtatious grin. “Who’s the lucky lady?”
“Miss Marion Morgan of San Francisco.”
“Oh! Mr. Whiteway mentioned her. Isn’t she the lady who will be taking moving pictures?”
“Yes, she’ll be here soon.”
“So will Mr. Whiteway.”
Josephine glanced at the ladies’ watch she wore sewn to her flying jacket sleeve.
“Which reminds me, I’ve got to get back to the train. He’s sent a dress designer and a seamstress with another flying costume I’m supposed to wear for the newspaper reporters.” She raised her pretty eyes longingly to the sky. It was the soft blue color of the warm and windless early afternoons before strong sea breezes swept across Belmont Park and made it dangerous to fly.
“You look like you’d rather go flying,” said Bell.
“I sure as heck would. I don’t need a special costume. Did you see that white getup he made me wear the other day? Didn’t stay white long when we pulled the head off the Antoinette. This is all I need,” she said, indicating her worn flared leather gloves, wool jacket belted at her tiny waist, jodhpurs tucked into high laced boots. “Now Mr. Whiteway wants me to pose in a purple silk flying costume. And at night I’m supposed to wear long white dresses and black silk gloves.”
“I saw your outfit last night. Very becoming.”
“Thank you,” she said with another flirtatious grin. “But just between us chickens, Isaac, I couldn’t wait to get back into my overalls and help the boys fixing my machine. I’m not complaining. I know that Mr. Whiteway is anxious for me to draw any publicity I can to help the race.”
Bell walked her to the train yard. “Hasn’t he asked you to call him Preston instead of Mr. Whiteway?”
“All the time. But I don’t want him to get the wrong idea, using first names.”
After Bell got her safely aboard the bright yellow Josephine Special and in the care of the dress designer and the Van Dorn who guarded her train, he hurried to the headquarters car, which had a telegraph key linked to the detective agency’s private system.
“Anything yet from San Francisco?” he asked the duty officer.
“Sorry, Mr. Bell. Not yet.”
“Wire James Dashwood again.”
The young man reached for the key. “Ready, sir.”
“NEED CELERE AND PRESTOGIACOMO INFORMATION SOONEST.”
Bell paused. The widely divergent opinions of Marco Celere held by Danielle Di Vecchio and Josephine Josephs Frost would raise interesting questions about any murder victim, but they were particularly interesting when the victim had disappeared.
“Is that it, sir? Shall I send it?”
“Continue: ‘PARTIAL STORY BETTER THAN NONE.’
“And then add: ‘ON THE JUMP.’
“In fact, add ‘ON THE JUMP’ twice.”
“There it is, sir. Shall I send it?”
Bell considered. If only it were possible to telephone long-distance all the way to San Francisco, he could query the usually reliable Dashwood as to what was taking him so long and impress upon him the urgency he felt.
“Add another ‘ON THE JUMP’!”
14
“I HEAR THE WRIGHT BROTHERS started a flying school, Mr. Bell,” Andy Moser called from the front of the Eagle when Isaac Bell ordered him to spin the propeller to start the sleek machine.
“I don’t have time to go to Ohio. The race starts next week. Besides, how many teachers have driven flying machines for more than a year? Most aviators pick it up on their own, just like Josephine. Spin her over.”
It was a perfect day for flying, a sunny late-spring morning at Belmont Park with a light west wind. Andy and the mechanicians who Bell had hired to assist him had rolled the Eagle to a distant stretch of grass far from the main activity of the infield. They had chocked the wheels, and when they heard Bell order Andy to start the motor, they grabbed the chocks’ ropes and prepared to steady the machine as wing runners.
Bell was seated behind the wing, with his head, shoulders, and chest exposed. The motor was ahead of him – the safest place for it, Eddison-Sydney-Martin insisted, where it wouldn’t crush the driver in a smash. Ahead of the motor gleamed a nine-foot, two-bladed propeller of polished walnut – the most expensive place for it, Joe Mudd had noted. “If you come down hard on the nose, it’ll cost you a hundred bucks for a new one.”