SA: She sometimes didn’t allow her personal maid into her dressing room.

FR: I’m not a maid.

SA: She typically locked the door, did she not?

FR: I have a key. Do you have a light for a cigarette?

SA: Sure.

[Pause.]

SA: So you let yourself into Mrs. Ellingham’s private dressing room with your own key? How long have you had a key?

FR: Oh, I don’t know. Some time.

SA: It seems odd to me that you would take the time to go into a locked room to look out of a window.

FR: It may seem odd to you . . . but that’s what happened.

SA: How long were you in the room?

FR: I don’t know. I lost track of time.

SA: If you could guess.

FR: I don’t know . . . fifteen minutes?

SA: And then someone came and got you. The maid, Ruth. She says she looked for you and found you at eight fifty. She called for you but you did not reply.

FR: I didn’t hear her.

SA: She was out in the hall.

FR: I was very distracted.

SA: Mrs. Ellingham keeps some very valuable things in that room.

FR: Most of her things are valuable. Everything in this house is valuable. It’s not all locked up.

SA: That’s a fair point, Miss Robinson. But there are some things of unusual value in that room. Isn’t that why it is normally locked?

FR: Of course.

SA: You’re not as wealthy as Mrs. Ellingham, are you, Miss Robinson?

FR: Few people are.

SA: You’re not a wealthy woman, are you? That’s what I’m asking.

FR: I resent this. My closest friend is . . .

SA: We’re doing this because your closest friend is missing. There’s no shame in not being rich, Miss Robinson. I’m simply saying you are from different backgrounds.

FR: She would give me anything. Anything. Iris is the most generous person. Look at this school! They built a school that children could go to for free! They invite them into this house!

SA: They are very generous. But let’s keep to the subject. What route did you use to get to Mrs. Ellingham’s room?

FR: What route?

SA: You didn’t come down the main stairs.

FR: No, I took the side stairs.

SA: The servant stairs?

FR: Yes.

SA: Why not the more direct method, down the main stairs?

FR: I don’t know.

SA: And you didn’t hear anyone calling you?

FR: No.

SA: If anything, Miss Robinson, I would think you’d be more attuned to someone calling your name at that moment. You spent all of that time looking out the window?

FR: I was in a state.

SA: But you heard the maid knocking.

FR: Yes.

SA: She said it was several moments before you answered the door.

FR: I was in a state. I’d just heard my best friend was missing. It’s just what I did. I don’t know why.

SA: There are many valuable things in that room.

FR: Why do you keep mentioning how much her things are worth?

SA: Because she’s missing and someone is asking for a lot of money for her return.

FR: My best friend is missing. Why are you doing this?

SA: I have to establish the facts.

FR: What facts?

SA: I need to know why you were in her room.

FR: I just told you. You should be out looking for them.

SA: Almost every police officer within a hundred miles is looking for them, and even more police beyond that, in every city on the East Coast. But what I need to know from you, right now, is what you were doing in Mrs. Ellingham’s dressing room for those fifteen minutes.

FR: I told you . . .

SA: You were looking out the window.

FR: I was.

SA: Miss Robinson, let me be perfectly clear. This is no time to lie. Every second you waste by lying is a second Iris Ellingham and Alice Ellingham could be in danger. When you lie, you put them at risk and you put yourself at risk.

FR: I’m not . . .

SA: You could hear people in the hall calling for you. The house was in chaos. There was nothing going on outside to see. It was dark. It was foggy.

FR: I’m aware.

SA: So you spent fifteen minutes looking at nothing?

FR: More or less, yes.

SA: We know a bit about you, Miss Robinson. We know you were a hostess at Carmine’s, the speakeasy on Twenty-Ninth Street. Carmine’s was owned by Big Bill Thompson, the mob boss. You worked directly for him. [REDACTED DUE TO ONGOING INVESTIGATION. SEE FILE 248B-2.]

FR: My job was to sing, to entertain, to talk to people. It was a social job, and Iris and I got to be friendly because we liked each other.

SA: One of the richest women in America and a speakeasy hostess.

FR: I met a lot of important people at Carmine’s. Half of New York society passed through that door. Artists. Writers. Actors and actresses. Politicians. Policemen. We saw a lot of those in there.

SA: Big Bill Thompson is also associated with smuggling operations that come down from Canada. His associates have been known to be in this area. You may know that from the fact that another FBI agent frequents this house.

FR: You think George Marsh talks about his work? George Marsh is a brick wall about whatever he does for you. And I haven’t spoken to Bill in years. I’m here because I’m visiting my friend Iris, and my friend is missing.

SA: It must be good to have rich friends.

FR: It’s good to have friends, no matter what they’re worth. Iris is my friend, and she’d be my friend if she was poor as anything. Let me tell you something about Iris. She makes me laugh.

SA: Makes you laugh?

FR: That’s right. And that’s hard to do. Iris and I are friends, real friends. I understand her. I would do anything for her. You don’t know what it was like for her, coming here. She had such a good life in New York. Iris is an athlete. Did you know that? You should see her swim. She writes, did you know that? She wrote an entire novel. I’ve read it. It’s good. She doesn’t show anyone because she thinks they’ll dismiss her as Albert Ellingham’s wife and nothing more. But she is more. She should never have been up this godforsaken mountain, but she’s also very loyal, so she supported this school because Albert had a dream. You don’t know Iris. I do. She needs stimulation. . . .

SA: And how does she get that stimulation here?

[Silence.]

SA: Miss Robinson . . .

FR: I’ve told you everything I know. I have nothing more to say. I will do anything in my power to help my friend, but this is not helping. I’d go to the ends of the earth for that woman and for Alice. So why don’t you get out there and find them? Because if you don’t, so help me, I will get in a car and do it myself. Just try and stop me.

[Interview terminated 1:13 p.m.]

* * *

18

THE EVIDENCE WAS ALL OVER THE FLOOR—THE PAPER CLIPS AND PEN caps. A sunbeam illuminated a dent she’d made in the case board.

The morning had come, and brought reality with it. And questions. Lots of questions, dancing around in her head in circles.

The questions, in no particular order:

What would the media make of this, another death at the infamous Ellingham Academy?

Wait, never mind the media—what would her parents make of this? Fancy School Manages to Kill Student. And the fact that she had been there?

Would the school close?

Maybe close for a few days. It couldn’t close for the year because of this, could it?