Raise the Titanic dp-4 Page 8

  "Does the Army know?"

  "Oh heavens, yes. 1 wrote letters to the War Department notifying them of my marital status a long time ago, but they simply sent polite, noncommittal replies and kept mailing the checks."

  "Even though you'd remarried?"

  Adeline shrugged. "I'm only human, Mr. Seagram. Why argue with the government. If they insist on sending money, who's to tell them they're crazy?"

  "A lucrative little arrangement."

  She nodded. "I won't deny it, particularly when you include the ten thousand dollars I received at Jake's death."

  Seagram leaned forward, his eyes narrowed. "The Army paid you a ten-thousand-dollar indemnity? Wasn't that a bit steep for 1912?"

  "You couldn't be half as surprised as I was then," she said. "Yes, that amount of money was a small fortune in those days."

  "Was there any explanation?"

  "None," she replied. "I can still see the check after all these years. All it said was `Widow's Payment' and it was made out to me. That's all there was to it."

  "Perhaps we can start at the beginning."

  "When I met Jake?"

  Seagram nodded.

  Her eyes looked beyond him for a few moments. "I met Jake during the terrible winter of 1910. It was in Leadville, Colorado, and I had just turned sixteen. My father was on a business trip to the mining fields to investigate possible investment in several claims, and since it was close to Christmas, and I had a few days vacation from school, he relented and took Mother and me along. The train barely made it into Leadville station when the worst blizzard in forty years struck the high country of Colorado. It lasted for two weeks, and believe me, it was no picnic, especially when you consider that the altitude of Leadville is over ten thousand feet."

  "It must have been quite an adventure for a sixteen-year-old girl."

  "It was. Dad paced the hotel lobby like a trapped bull while Mother just sat and worried, but I thought it was marvelous."

  "And Jake?"

  "One day, Mother and I were struggling across the street to the general store-an ordeal when you are lashed by fifty-mile-an-hour winds at twenty degrees below zero when out of nowhere this giant brute of a man picks each of us up under one arm and carries us through the snowdrifts and deposits us on the doorstep of the store, just as sassy as you please."

  "It was Jake?"

  "Yes," she said distantly, "it was Jake."

  "What did he look like?"

  "He was a large man, over six feet, barrel-chested. He'd worked in the mines in Wales when he was a boy. Anytime you saw a crowd of men a mile away, you could easily pick Jake out. He was the one with the bright red hair and heard who was always laughing."

  "Red hair and beard?"

  "Yes, he was quite proud of the fact that he stood out from the rest."

  "All the world loves a man who laughs."

  She smiled broadly. "It certainly wasn't love at first sight on my part, I can tell you. To me, Jake looked like a big uncouth bear. He was hardly the type to tickle a young girl's fancy."

  "But you married him."

  She nodded. "He courted me all during the blizzard, and when the sun finally broke through the clouds on the fourteenth day, I accepted his proposal. Mother and Dad were distraught, of course, but Jake won them over, too."

  "You couldn't have been married long?"

  "I saw him for the last time a year later."

  "The day he and the others were lost in the Little Angel." It was more statement than question.

  "Yes," she said wistfully. She avoided his stare and looked nervously toward the kitchen. "My goodness, I'd better fix us some lunch. You must be starving, Mr. Seagram."

  But Seagram's businesslike expression faded and his eyes came alight with sudden excitement. "You heard from Jake after the Little Angel accident, didn't you, Mrs. Austin?"

  She seemed to retreat into the cushions of her chair. Apprehension spread across her gentle face. "I don't know what you mean."

  "I think you do," he said softly.

  "No . . . no, you're mistaken."

  "Why are you afraid?"

  Her hands were trembling now. "I've told you all I can."

  "There's more, much more, Mrs. Austin." He reached over and took her hands. "Why are you afraid?" he repeated.

  "I'm sworn to secrecy," she murmured.

  "Can you explain?"

  She said, hesitantly, "You're with the government, Mr. Seagram. You know what it is to keep a secret."

  "Who was it? Jake? Did he ask you to remain silent?"

  She shook her head.

  "Then who?"

  "Please believe me," she pleaded. "I can't tell you . . . I can't tell you anything."

  Seagram stood up and looked down on her. She seemed to have aged, the wrinkles etched more deeply in her ancient skin. She had withdrawn into a shell. It would take a mild form of shock treatment to get her to open up.

  "May I use your telephone, Mrs. Austin?"

  "Yes, of course. You'll find the nearest extension in the kitchen''

  It was seven minutes before the familiar voice came through the earpiece. Quickly, Seagram explained the situation and made his request. Then he turned back to the living room. "Mrs. Austin. Can you come here a moment?"

  Timidly, she approached him.

  He handed her the receiver. "Here is someone who wishes to speak to you."

  Cautiously, she took it from his hands. "Hello," she muttered, "this is Adeline Austin."

  For a brief instant, an expression of confusion was mirrored in her eyes, then it was slowly transformed and froze into genuine astonishment. She kept nodding, saying nothing, as though the detached voice over the line was standing before her.

  Finally, at the end of the one-sided conversation, she managed to utter a few words "Yes, sir . . . I will. Goodby."

  Slowly, she replaced the receiver and stood in a trancelike bewilderment. "Was . . . was that really the President of the United States?"

  "It was. You can verify it if you wish. Call long distance and ask for the White House. When they answer, talk to Gregg Collins. He's the President's chief aide. It was he who passed along my call."

  "Just imagine, the President asked me to help him." She shook her head dazedly. "I can't believe it really happened."

  "It happened, Mrs. Austin. Believe me, any information you can give us concerning your first husband and the strange circumstances surrounding his death would be of great benefit to the nation. I know that sounds like a trite way of stating it, but . . ."

  "Who can turn down a President?" The sweet smile was back. The tremor was gone from Adeline's hands. She was back on balance, outwardly, at least.

  Seagram took her arm and gently guided her back to her chair in the living room. "Now then, tell me about Jake Hobart's relationship with Joshua Hays Brewster."

  "Jake was an explosives specialist, a blaster, one of the best in the fields. He knew dynamite like a blacksmith knew his forge, and since Mr. Brewster insisted on only the top men to make up his mining crews, he often hired Jake to handle the blasting."

  "Did Brewster know Jake was married?"

  "Odd you should ask that. We had a little house in Boulder, away from the mining camps, because Jake didn't want it known he had a wife. He claimed that mine foremen wouldn't hire a blaster who was married."

  "So naturally, Brewster, unaware of Jake's marital status, paid him to blast in the Little Angel mine."

  "I know what was printed in the newspapers, Mr. Seagram, but Jake never set foot in the Little Angel mine, nor did the rest of the crew."

  Seagram pulled his chair closer so that they were almost touching knees. "Then the disaster was a hoax," he said hoarsely.

  She looked up. "You know . . . you know that?"

  "We suspected, but have no proof."

  "If it's proof you want, Mr. Austin, I'll get it for you." She rose to her feet, shrugging off Seagram's attempts to help her, and disappeared into another room. She returned carryi
ng an old shoebox, which she proceeded to open reverently.

  "The day before he was to enter the Little Angel, Jake took me down to Denver and we went on a shopping spree. He bought me fancy clothes, jewelry, and treated me to champagne at the finest restaurant in town. We spent our last night together in the honeymoon suite of the Brown Palace Hotel. Do you know of it?"

  "I have a friend staying there right now."

  "In the morning, he told me not to believe what I heard or read in the newspapers about his death in a mining accident, and that he would be gone for several months on a job somewhere in Russia. When he returned, he said we would be rich beyond our wildest dreams. Then he mentioned something I've never understood."

  "What was that?"

  "He said the Frenchies were taking care of everything and that when it was all over, we would live in Paris." Her face took on a dreamlike quality. "In the morning he was gone. on his pillow was a note that simply said, 'I love you, Ad' and an envelope containing five thousand dollars."

  "Do you have any idea where the money came from?"

  "None. We only had about three hundred dollars in the bank at the time."

  "And that was the last you heard from him?"

  "No." She handed Seagram a faded postcard with a tinted photograph of the Eiffel Tower on the front. "This came in the mail about a month later."

  Dear Ad, The weather is rainy here and the beer awful. Am fine and so is the other boys. Don't fret. As you can tell I ain't dead by a long shot. You know who.

  The handwriting was obviously from a heavy hand. The postmark on the card was dated Paris, December 1, 1911.

  "It was followed in a week by a second card," Adeline said as she handed it to Seagram. It depicted Sacra Coeur but was postmarked Le Havre.

  DearAd, We're headin for the arctic. This will be my last message for some time. Be brave. The Frenchies are treating us right. Good food, good ship. You know who.

  "You're certain it's Jake's handwriting?" Seagram asked. "Absolutely. I have other papers and old letters of Jake's. You can compare them if you wish."

  "That won't be necessary, Ad." She smiled when she heard her nickname. "Was there any further communication?"

  She nodded. "The third and last. Jake must have stocked up on picture postcards of Paris. This one shows the Sainte-Chapelle, but it was mailed from Aberdeen, Scotland, on April 4, 1912."

  DearAd, This is a frightful place. The cold is fearsome. We don't know if we will survive. If I can somehow get this to you, you will be taken care of. God Bless. Jake.

  Along the side, another hand had written in:

  Dear Mrs. Hobart. We lost Jake in a storm. We gave him a Christian readin. We're sorry. V.H.

  Seagram took out the list of the crew's names that Donner had read him over the phone.

  "V.H. must have been Vernon Hall," he said.

  "Yes, Vern and Jake were good friends."

  "What happened after that? Who swore you to secrecy?"

  "About two months later, I think it was early in June, a Colonel Patman or Patmore-I can't remember which came to the house in Boulder and told me it was imperative that I never reveal any contact from Jake after the Little Angel mine affair."

  "Did he give any reason?"

  She shook her head. "No, he simply said it was in the interest of the government to remain silent, and then he handed me the check for ten thousand dollars and departed."

  Seagram sagged in his chair as though a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. It didn't seem possible that this little ninety-three-year-old woman should have the key to a lost billion-dollar ore cache, but she did.

  Seagram looked at her and smiled. "That offer of lunch is beginning to sound awfully good about now."

  She grinned back and he could see the mischief in her eyes. "As Jake would have said, to hell with lunch. Let's have a beer first."

  16

  The crimson rays of the sunset were still lingering on the western horizon when the first rumble of distant thunder signaled the approach of a lightning storm. The air was warm and the gentle offshore breeze felt good on Seagram's face as he sat on the terrace of the Balboa Bay Club and sipped his after-dinner cognac.

  It was eight o'clock, the hour when the fashionable residents of Newport Beach began their evening socializing. Seagram had taken a dip in the club pool and then eaten early. He sat there listening to the grumbling of the nearing storm. The air became thick and charged with electricity, but there was no sign of rain or wind. In the photographic flash of the lightning he could see pleasure boats cruising up the bay, showing red and green navigation lights, their white paint giving them the appearance of silent gliding ghosts. Lightning stabbed the night air again, a jagged fork splitting the clouded sky. He watched it strike somewhere behind the Balboa Island rooftops, and in almost the same instant, the roar of the thunder thrust against his eardrums like a cannon barrage.

  Everyone else had nervously moved inside the dining room, and Seagram soon found the terrace deserted. He stayed, enjoying mother nature's display of fireworks. He finished off the cognac and leaned back in his chair, watching for the next flash of lightning. It soon came and illuminated a figure standing beside his table. In that instant of light, he made out a tall man with black hair and rugged features staring down at him through cool, piercing eyes. Then the stranger blended into the darkness again.

  As the thunder rumbled away, a seemingly disembodied voice asked, "Are you Gene Seagram?"

  Seagram hesitated, waiting for his eyes to readjust themselves to the dark that followed the flash. "I am."

  "I believe you've been looking for me."

  "At the moment, you have the advantage."

  "My apologies. I'm Dirk Pitt."

  The skies lit up again and Seagram was relieved to see a smiling face. "It would seem, Mr. Pitt, that dramatic entrances are a habit with you. Did you also conjure up this electrical storm?"

  Pitt's answering laugh came to the accompaniment of a clap of thunder.

  "I haven't mastered that feat yet, but I am making progress at parting the Red Sea."

  Seagram gestured to an empty chair. "Won't you sit down?"

  "Thank you."

  "I'd offer you a drink, but my waiter apparently has a fear of lightning."

  "The worst of it is passing," Pitt said, looking skyward. The voice was quiet and controlled.

  "How did you find me?" Seagram asked.

  "A step-by-step process," Pitt replied. "I called your wife in Washington, and she said you were on a business trip to Leisure World. Since it's only a few miles from here, I checked with the guard at the gate. He told me he had admitted a Gene Seagram who was okayed for entry by a Mrs Bertram Austin.. She in turn mentioned she had recommended the Balboa Bay Club when you stated a desire to postpone your flight back to Washington and lay over until tomorrow. The rest was easy."

  "I should feel flattered by your persistent style."

  Pitt nodded. "All very elementary."

  "A fortunate circumstance that we happened to be in the same neck of the woods," Seagram said.

  "I always like to take a few days off and go surfing about this time of year. My parents have a house just across the hay. I could have contacted you sooner, but Admiral Sandecker said there was no hurry."

  "You know the Admiral?"

  "I work for him."

  "Then you're with NUMA?"

  "Yes, I'm the agency's special projects director."

  "I thought your name sounded vaguely familiar. My wife has mentioned you."

  "Dana?".

  "Yes, have you worked with her?"

  "Only once. I flew in supplies to Pitcairn Island last summer when she and her NUMA archaeological team were diving for artifacts from the Bounty. "

  Seagram looked at him. "So Admiral Sandecker told you there was no hurry to contact me."

  Pitt smiled. "From what I gather, you rubbed him wrong with a middle-of-the-night phone call."

  The black clouds had r
olled seaward and the lightning was stabbing at Catalina across the channel.

  "Now that you have me in your sights," Pitt said, "what can I do for you?"

  "You can begin by telling me about Novaya Zemlya."

  "Not much to tell," Pitt said casually. "I was in charge of the expedition to pick up your man. When he didn't show on schedule, I borrowed the ship's helicopter and made a reconnaissance flight toward the Russian island."

  "You took a chance. Soviet radar might have picked you up on their scopes."

  "I took that possibility into consideration. I stayed within ten feet of the water and kept my air speed down to fifteen knots. Even if I had been spotted, my radar blip would have read as a small fishing boat."

  "What happened after you reached the island?"

  "I cruised the shoreline until I found Koplin's sloop moored in a cove. I set the copter down on the beach nearby and began searching for him. It was then I heard shots through a wall of swirling snow that had been kicked up by a gust of wind."

  "How was it possible to run onto Koplin and the Russian patrol guard? Finding them in the middle of a snowstorm is akin to stumbling on a needle in a frozen haystack."

  "Needles don't bark," Pitt answered. "I followed the sound of a dog on the hunt. It led me to Koplin and the guard."

  "The latter, of course, you murdered," Seagram said.

  "I suppose a prosecuting attorney might suggest that." Pitt gestured airily. "On the other hand, it seemed the thing to do at the time."

  "What if the guard had been one of my agents also?"

  "Comrades-in-arms don't sadistically drag each other through the snow by the scruff of the neck, especially when one of them is seriously wounded."

  "And the dog, did you have to kill the dog?"

  "The thought occurred to me that left to his own devices, he might have led a search patrol back to his master's body. As it is, chances are neither will be discovered, ever."

  "Do you always carry a gun with a silencer?"

  "This wasn't the first time Admiral Sandecker called upon me for a dirty job outside my normal duties," Pitt said.

  "Before you flew Koplin to your ship, I take it you destroyed his sloop," Seagram said.