BA Hammer History Ch. 05

I am waiting for an old attorney from Chicago and Stevie to find an old lady upstate. I don't like just waiting. I called Homer to see if he had found anything new.

Homer answered immediately. "Mr. Hammer, I found several items about Hackett. It appears he is trying to build a new building in Chicago. He has the land, but still needs city approval. He might also need money to build it. There are a couple of stories in the last six months about him working on this new project."

"Thanks, anything on the others?"

"Yes, it appears the Gilberts are going on the offensive. Bone has scheduled a press conference for tomorrow afternoon."

"Wonderful, that gives me less than 24 hours to solve this. Send your bill to Liz and she will take care of it."

I called Liz into my office. "How's the classes going on computers with Homer?"

"Good. I am almost ready to try programming. I am a long way from hacking, but we can let him do that for a while."

"Okay, he will be sending you his latest bill. Please pay for it when you get it.

Stevie called later with his report from upstate. Pauley's daughter was surprised someone was asking about her father. She was even more surprised he was asking about 1923 and Hackett.

"She told me her father had talked about the early days a couple of times before he died. She said the four friends and their girlfriends were in Vaudeville back in the day. They all played a lot of little theaters together until Hackett died. Gilbert took it hard and stopped performing after Hackett died. She told me her father and the other two men knew Mary Hackett was a great dancer but a lousy cook. They were all pretty sure she had left the fish she was going to cook out all day because she didn't know better. They all believed she had accidentally poisoned her husband trying to cook him something she knew he liked but had no idea how to prepare. I have a statement of this signed by her I am bringing to you."

"Thanks, man, you are a lifesaver. Bring it to Liz as soon as you can." That was great as background, but everything she said was hearsay. I will still need DeVore's daughter Susan to talk to me.

I next called Thaddeus Smiley, Gilbert's attorney. "Mr. Smiley, I see your new mouthpiece has scheduled a press conference for tomorrow afternoon."

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Whatever. I am telling you that I am close to finishing this case in your client's favor. However, you need to keep your dog on a lease for a couple of days. If you do, they won't have to pay him. If he has a press conference, and everything works out like I think it will, Gilbert will have a lot of explaining to do and two large bills to pay. You do whatever the fuck you want, I don't care, but I thought privacy was what they wanted."

"You don't have to be rude, Mr. hammer. I understand your point of view. I will convey it to Mr. Gilbert."

"If you think I'm rude now, you just wait until my attorney, Percy Blackstone, has a press conference of his own."

"Percy Blackstone?" He sounded less offended by the terms I used, and more by Brick's name. "I will speak to them."

"Thank you, sir. I shall probably make my report by the day after tomorrow." At least I hope I can.

I went home that afternoon without hearing from Chicago. That was not a good sign. If she won't talk to me, I am really done. I will have to bluff Hackett III with what I think I know.

I went home and settled into my favorite chair to think. Mary was working and it was quiet. The call finally came in a couple of hours later.

"BA, this is Sam. It took a little convincing, but Rotella has agreed for you to talk to his wife. Truthfully, I think she insisted, but don't quote me. Can you be here tomorrow afternoon in my office at 2?"

"You know I can, and thank you very much. I am sure you were more involved than you let on and I appreciate it very much. I'll see you tomorrow."

Now I have a chance. If only Mary Hackett left her daughter something in writing.

I walked into Sam's office just before 2. Sam's secretary took me into a conference room to wait. A few minutes later, Sam led Susan Rosella and another man into the room. "BA, this is Susan Rotella and her attorney, Justin Sommerset. This is BA Hammer, a private investigator from Hew York. BA, would you be so kind as to explain why you are here?"

"Certainly. Mrs. Rosella, I was hired to determine the veracity of your stepbrother's claims against the Gilbert Theater Group. I am not here to slant the facts in any way. I was hired to find the truth, not my client's preferred truth. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me about your mother. Whatever you have that can give me insight into the truth may help everyone involved to put this old matter at rest would be most appreciated."

She sat quietly as if she was considering what to do. "Thank you, Mr. Hammer. I do have the papers my mother left me. My brother was given the business but my mother didn't want him to have certain papers. She gave me pictures of her early life with father and his friends." She showed us several older pictures of her family. "My mother talked to me a couple of times about their early life. However, she never would speak to me about her first husband's death. It disturbed her greatly every time we got close to that time."

She got up and got a glass of water and stood at the window looking outside for several minutes. She turned and came back and sat down.

"Mother did tell me about the early days. She and her first husband were part of a vaudeville troupe. It was them, the Gilberts, and a couple of other people. They would perform in several small theaters around New York. Here are some pictures." She handed us a batch of old pictures. There was a group of performers, and there was a young Hackett and his wife.

She sat still, looking down. "Is that everything, Mrs. Rosella? Everything? I believe there must be something more. A letter perhaps?" I just took a shot. Mary may have confessed at the end. I was guessing she had.

"Yes, there is more. She called me to her home shortly before she died. She told me she had to clear her conscience. She wrote everything down in a statement. I have it here." She took an old envelope out of her bag and put it on the table.

I reached down and opened it in front of everyone. I read it to myself first. "May I read this out loud, Mrs. Rosella?" She nodded.

The statement of Mary Hackett DeVore.

I, Mary Hackett Devore, am writing this statement to clarify certain matters in my early life that may be of concern to my heirs at some time in the future. This is a true and complete testament as to the events of my first husband's death in 1923.My husband and myself were in a vaudeville troupe that consisted of ourselves, Walter Gilbert, Jeremiah Pauley, Arthur Rosedale and a couple of girlfriends. It was going pretty well. So good that Walter and Roscoe decided to buy a small vaudeville theater of their own so we wouldn't have to keep moving around and paying for the other theaters. They drew up a contract between them and started looking for a theater. During this time, I decided to fix Roscoe his favorite dinner, fresh fish. I was young, and didn't realize how to preserve fish. Shortly after dinner, Roscoe got sick. He began throwing up and had a bad fever. I called the ambulance, but he was dead before they arrived. Shortly afterwards, the police were there. They talked to me for a minute but left with his body. It wasn't until later that they returned to talk to me again. They interviewed all the other people. A policeman in regular clothes sat down with me to ask me about his last dinner. I explained what I had done and how I had prepared the meal. He nodded and left. Several days later he returned with a police report concerning Roscoe. He told me they were ruling it an accidental death, but I knew what he meant. He said he was sorry my son would have to grow up with just a mother and he left. I knew he knew I had killed my own husband with the fish. I guess he didn't want my son to be an orphan.

Afterwards, the troupe broke up. Gilbert and the other men found regular jobs. Later, Walter came to tell me he was going to stay in the theater business. I told him I didn't want to have anything to do with it. He and I talked about old times, and he left. I later told my son about what had happened. He had all my husband's papers.

I have lived with this my entire life. I will take this to my grave. I can only hope this will give everyone involved a little peace.

It had been signed Mary Hackett DeVore and dated August 18^th, 1979.

Mrs. Rosella stood up. "I am happy this is finally out in the open. My stepbrother apparently knew the truth and never pursued it. However, his son didn't have this information. Mr. Hammer, my nephew is an ambitious man and needs money to complete his latest project. I am instructing my attorney to write an agreement with Sam that allows Mr. Hammer to have a copy of this letter. I will leave the original with Sam in his safe. If a court needs to see the original, I will allow Sam to turn it over to the courts."

Her attorney produced the agreement, and everyone signed and got a copy. Sam made a copy of the agreement for me and everyone else left.

Sam and I sat down to talk. "Thank you, Sam for your help. This letter should be enough combined with the other evidence I have gathered to end this entire affair. Could you make another copy of this for me? I have an idea."

Sam looked at me and called his secretary. She made me another copy and I left.

It seems Hackett II had been a real private person. He had never told his own son about what had happened. I felt it was time he was brought up to date before he went too far with this.

I called Hackett's office, and, after a little tap dancing, was finally connected to Hackett.

"Mr. Hackett, this is BA Hammer, the private investigator."

"I remember who you are. Why would I want to see you again?"

"Well, I have some information about your case, and I only think it fair that you have all the information that I am going to give the Gilberts. I will bring it to you now if you are interested."

"You bet your sweet ass I want to see it. I can't believe you'd be stupid enough to help me, but I won't turn you down."

"I will be right there." I headed to his office and went in.

"Mr. Hackett, you have been working with only half of the information. You have your father's papers, but not your mother's. She wrote a letter explaining everything that happened before she died. She gave it to your stepsister. I know it won't make any difference, but her accident changed everyone's life around them. She carried that to her deathbed. I am going to give you a copy of that letter now and to Gilbert tomorrow. My attorney here in Chicago has the original and your stepsister's permission to turn the original over to a court if it becomes necessary. I only hope we can end this quietly, without expensive attorneys."

I laid a copy of the letter on his desk and left. As I walked out, I saw him reading the letter. I flew home and sat up waiting for Mary to come home from the play. I wanted to celebrate and I was sure she would too.

The next morning, I called Thaddeus P. Smiley, Gilbert's attorney, and asked him to come over. He arrived shortly afterwards.

"Mr. Smiley, I am glad you convinced Bone to delay his press conference. I have proof that there was no murder, and the contract was for a small vaudeville theater that was never purchased." I handed him a copy of the letter and he read it in front of me.

"This should be helpful."

"More than that. I also gave a copy to Hackett."

"What the hell would you do that for? We don't want him to know what we have."

"You might want to prevent a court case and keep everything quiet. Mr. Hackett seemed quite subdued. He also needs money. The contract is a little vague and he could draw it out in public. I am suggesting GTG settles with him."

"Settles with him. That would be an admission of guilt."

"There is another possible course of action. Hackett is building a large area near downtown Chicago. A Broadway type theater would fit in nicely. GTG could partner with him for the theater. They would be expanding into the Midwest, and everyone wins. You discuss it with them and let me know if they need anything else. I have more information that I have not presented yet."

Smiley put the letter away and got up to leave. "I can tell you aren't an attorney."

"Thank God for that. You people seem to enjoy twisting people just like you are keeping score of some game instead of people's lives. Good day, Smiley."

Liz typed up the report and she sent it to GTG. That was that. I got a call from "Bob Burger" about our little escapade.

"I just wanted to let you know the outcome of our latest adventure. You know, it would have been easier if you had left one of them alive to interrogate. However, we managed. The girls are all back with their families now. They really know nothing except for the man who tricked them into the car, and he can't help us any longer. We did find the man who helped him in Nightingales. He was terrified, but we persuaded him to co-operate. With his tip, we were able to severely cripple the Russian sex trafficking ring. We have been working on this for years, and it could take them a year to get back up and running again. Thanks again."

That was too easy, but I'm not looking at it again. That's their problem and I was staying as far away as I could.

The next couple of months went by quietly. Mary was doing great in the play and our business was growing rapidly. I had to hire another investigator. Liz was getting very good with computers, and she handled all our paperwork. I had to hire an accounting firm to do our taxes. I called David Anderson. I met him while working on the embezzlement case for Fat Tony. He and his brother own a well-known accounting firm in New York. I had smoothed things over between his firm and Fat Tony. He agreed to have his firm handle our accounts at a reasonable rate. My firm was doing okay.

It was around this time that I got an unexpected call from Thaddeus Smiley, the attorney for Gilbert. "I am sure you are surprised to hear from me. Mr. Gilbert would like to speak to you. Would you mind coming to the GTG's office in the morning around 10?"

I was surprised, really surprised. Their check had cleared, and I thought we were done. "Sure, I'll come around tomorrow."

This could be interesting. I arrived at the theater company's headquarters before 10 the next morning. I was shown into Nathaniel Gilbert's office as soon as I arrived.

"Mr. Hammer, thank you for coming. I don't have any more problems, but I wanted to let you know how our issue with the Hackett's turned out. You suggested we should not fight with them but join them. I had my financial people investigate your idea of going in with Hackett on his project in Chicago by adding a Gilbert theater. My people thought it would be profitable to do so. We contacted Hackett, and as you stated, he was happy to accept our offer. We will be building a theater for his project. I just wanted to thank you for suggesting this and to let you know it is happening."

"You're welcome. I hope it all works out."

That was nice. It's time to move on to the next adventure.