Depth of Deception (A Titanic Murder Mystery) (48 page)

Suddenly, the cries of Myra’s young son snapped her back to the moment.

"
Eddie?
"

Little Eddie, her sweet little boy, came waddling to the doorway of his room, clutching Mr. Fluffy with one hand and rubbing his eyes with
the
other as he whimpered, "Mommy... I had night mirror."

Myra rushed over to him and scooped him up into her arms. She sat with him on the lush red chaise and then rocked him, while rhythmically tapping his shoulder. Soothed, the little boy stopped crying. The image of the older version of her son flashed through her mind.

"
What’s the date?
"
Myra asked as nonchalantly as she could.

Archie pointed to the elegant Art Nouveau gilt-bronze and mahogany clock on the fireplace mantle,
"
It’s still Sunday…April 14th.’

"
Nineteen Twelve?
"

"
Well of course nineteen twelve. How long did you think you slept?
"

Myra studied the clock herself. Quarter-to-twelve. In the
future
, she recalled reading in one of the books that the
Titanic
struck the iceberg at Eleven-Forty.
That was five minutes ago.
She looked at her little boy in her arms.
Could this mean it never happened?
It was all a horrible nightmare. An uncharacteristically detailed nightmare, but a nightmare nevertheless.

Yet, this was also the week that Otto Slade would be executed. For an insane instant she thought of tearing open the Teddy Bear. If she found the brooch, there was still time to send a letter to Callum’s grandfather, Detective Toughill, who was still a police... then she suppressed a laugh.
Are you listening to yourself?
She sounded like she had taken complete leave of her senses. She was still reacting to her horrendous nightmare.

The truth was: the
Titanic
did not strike an iceberg. It was still unsinkable. She paused as she looked at her husband, then at Miss Langlea. They were not killers. Her tea was not poisoned. And after the tea calmed her nerves the terrible and bizarre dream would fade away like a stain of breath on the window.

Myra glanced down and saw her little boy using her pencil to draw on the inside cover of her book,
"
No, Eddie. You don’t draw in books.
"

Myra kindly took the book away from him and looked at his sketch of wavy lines and an oddly shaped rectangle.
Not bad for a two year old.
She looked down at Eddie,
"
This is nice, though. Is this a boat on the waves?
"

Little Eddie smiled. She adored his smile. She closed the book and looked at the cover,
Futility
. The story was set in the month of April, aboard an enormous ocean liner named
Titan
. In the story, the ship is referred to as ‘unsinkable’. The story goes on to tell how the ship was traveling too quickly, struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic and sank. More than half the passengers perished due to the lack of lifeboats.

Myra now recalled how she couldn’t finish reading it. Though it had been printed fourteen years earlier, it was far too unsettling, given that she was traveling on a ship with a similar name. Some other names were also striking too familiar a chord with Myra. It was as if this book was a foretelling of the fate of the
Titanic
. She had put
the book down with her room key
and retired for the evening.

It was little wonder that in her sleep her imagination would run wild, creating her own prognostication of the future. And what a future it was! Not only did the
Titanic
sink but New York had become a towering, cold-hearted city. Two world wars, high-speeding automobiles with phone
s, aircrafts and worst of all: a
future where her husband had murdered his mother, framed an innocent man, poisoned her tea and left her to die as he fled with thei
r son and a
mistress to become an industrial tyrant – ridiculous!

Miss Langlea re-entered the room, pushing the teacart with a pot and two cups already poured. Myra set Eddie down gently on the chaise chair and was about to reach for the closest teacup when Archibald studied his pocket watch and compared the time to the clock.

"
I daresay that one of these timepieces is wrong,
"
said Archie.

Myra’s hand pulled away from the teacup as she felt warmth drain from her veins,
"
Wrong? In what way?
"

"
One of them is five minutes off.
"

In that instant, there was a sudden jolt beneath their feet along with a dull thud that echoed in the night. Mr. Fuffy fell from the chair and rolled under the chaise. The tea set on the cart rattled violently.

As everyone else was distracted by the large specter of the massive iceberg scraping by the starboard side of the
Titanic
past their porthole window, Myra simply stared at the two teacups.

. . . _ _ _ . . .

###

Historical Notes
:

RMS
Titanic

The characters of Myra and Edward are fictitious and not directly based on any
Titanic
survivors. Their names, however, were inspired by truth.

There was a Mary (or May) Sloan (or Sloane), aboard the RMS
Titanic
, who is credited with saving many lives due to the fact that she knocked on many doors, waking up a number of passengers and informing them that
Titanic
had collided with an iceberg. Many witnesses state that she pulled life jackets out of cargo bins and helped people board lifeboats. By all accounts, Mary/May Sloan(e) was the last person to board the last lifeboat before the ship sank into the ocean. What happened to her after the survivors arrived in New York in 1912 remains a mystery.

There were no real Hoffmans aboard the RMS
Titanic
, but the name was used as an alias by Mr. Michel Navartil, from France, who had kidnapped his two sons from his estranged wife. As the ship was sinking, only women and children were allowed to get onto the lifeboats, so the two boys survived but Michel Navartil aka 'Mr. Louis Hoffman' did not. The children were later reunited with their mother.

There actually was an Alice Cleaver on
Titanic
who served as a nanny to the Allison family. Due to an unfortunate miscommunication she had taken the boy, Trevor, up to the lifeboats to safety and assumed that Mr. Allison would follow with his wife and daughter. They perished looking for Trevor. There have been many non-fiction historic books and even a TV mini-series that stated that this Alice Cleaver was the same Alice Cleaver who murdered her infant son in 1909, but this information isn't correct. Callum's discovery that they are two separate people is historically accurate: Alice Mary Cleaver was in jail for murdering her son when Alice Catherine Cleaver was escaping
Titanic
.

In 1940, a woman called Loraine Kramer claimed to be Loraine Allison, the little girl from first class who perished on
Titanic
. The wild story described in this novel is based on her actual tale, including a "Mrs. Gray" as did Alice Mary Cleaver in 1909. After it was proven she was not the real Loraine Allison, Kramer disappeared.

Other details of
Titanic
such as the descriptions of the contract ticket, the stateroom, the dining area, the music and the flowers are as accurate as possible. (The menu is faithful but the change of meal is my fabrication.) Even the fact that the RMS
Titanic
was insured after it sank is true. (
Risky Business, An Insider`s Account of the Disaster at Lloyd`s of London
, by Elizabeth Luessenhop and Martin Mayer.)

Futility
is a short novel written by Morgan Robertson. Its first edition with the cover illustration of a ship sinking next to an iceberg was first published in 1898 - fourteen years
before
the
Titanic
set sail. (A photo of the first edition and other details can be found on DepthOfDeception.com.) Our Edward points out several eerie similarities between
Futility
's
Titan
and the real
Titanic
, all of which are authentic.

One of the characters in the novel,
Futility
, is a little girl named Myra.

Unsolved Glasgow Murder

The murder of Agatha Gilcrest is based on the true life case of Marion Gilchrist, who was brutally murdered in 1909. The only thing missing from her home was one piece of jewelry from her extensive collection. A man by the name of Oscar Slater was arrested, and despite having flimsy evidence against him, he was sentenced to hang. Lord Pentland, the Secretary for Scotland, received an anonymous letter from Marion Gilchrist's 'relative' who wrote: "I am so frightened you are going to hang Oscar Slater - He never committed the murder."

Oscar Slater was given a stay of execution from the King, but with a condition that he had to remain in prison for the rest of his life.

The author of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle eventually took up the cause and was able to prove Oscar Slater's innocence. After spending almost twenty years in prison, Oscar Slater was freed and was awarded six thousand pounds for wrongful conviction.

An early draft of
Depth of Deception
had incorporated Doyle's defense of Otto Slade, but the feedback was unanimous: it was too far-fetched to believe that the author and creator of Sherlock Holmes would come to the legal aid of an innocent man. After all, I was already asking my readers to believe so much.

For more information on the actual historic case, I recommend a wonderfully researched book:
Oscar Slater: The Immortal Case of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
by Thomas Toughill. (A link to buy this book is available on my website.) The details of the web of conspiracy and cover-up are far more tangled with family and political connections than in my novel. Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction.

Thomas Toughill's book was dedicated to John Trench, the original investigating officer who tried to prove Oscar Slater's innocence
; as well as
to the 'a
nonymous lady' who sent the letter
. Trench was dishonourably discharged from the Glasgow Police Force for doing what was right. Due to Thomas Toughill's research, Chief Constable John Orr of the Strathclyde Police paid tribute to the late Detective John Trench in 1999 by unveiling a small memorial plaque dedicated to Trench's integrity.

Locations

The descriptions of real locations such as Times Square, Straus Park, St. Georges Glasgow Station, the Mitchell Library (Glasgow), West Register House (Edinburgh), Cobh Cove (Ireland), etc., are accurately described as they were in 1982.

The offices of the Strathclyde Police, Lloyd`s of London and Interpol are, in this novel, in their actual 1982 locations. All three have moved since then.

For residential areas in Glasgow (ie. where Agatha was murdered or Dolanna's home) I used Victorian-era street names in order to respect the privacy of anyone who happens to live there now. Likewise, there is no Church of St. George & St. Michael in Scotland.

There has not been an HMS
McKinley
in the British navy since WWII. It had been reported destroyed by the Japanese, but its fate has remained a mystery.

The base used by the British Ministry of Defence now known as HMNB Clyde used to be the HMS
Neptune
but was expanded in 1982.

'Camp X' was a secret spy training facility in Ontario, Canada operated by American and British Intelligence and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police during World War II. The Canadian Government was unaware of its existence. (As an author, I found 'Camp X' particularly fascinating, and I do believe that Edward's adventure there will be expanded in a future novel.)

Other Details

In 1982, car phones were rare, very expensive and had to remain in the car. Computers were not common nor were they very powerful so electric typewriters were still widely used. Pay phones were everywhere and fax machines were the latest communications gadgets. Hospitals were using 3-lead ECGs (electrocardiograms) and bellows-style ventilators. DNA was still a new and unproven science - it would be another five years before it was introduced as legal evidence.

Events described in this book, such as shows on Broadway, popular films, the Great Blizzard of April 1982, the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands, and Queen Elizabeth traveling to New York on her way to Canada to sign their Constitution, are historically accurate right down to the dates mentioned in the novel. Although there was no
Titan
or
Titanic II
in existence, there were plans for a
Titanic 2
to be built in South Africa, but it was going to cost $500,000,000 and the plans were postponed indefinitely.