Robert Walker - Shadows in the White City

Once in the darkened room, Ransom had immediately begun studying the faces to ID the family members sitting about a rippling candle throwing off shadows across the center table. Jane’s bejeweled glass chandelier dangled low over this same center, creating a mesmerizing effect like none Ransom had ever seen.

Meanwhile, Dr. James Phineas Tewes held court. In gruff voice, “he” pontificated on the nature of the dead, launched into a sprig of philosophy followed by theology. Before Alastair had arrived, Tewes had undoubtedly insisted that everyone join hands in harmony and unity, so as together they might create a bridge and a bond with the other side, and so that Tewes had the energy to ask help of “his” spirit guide-a lost and wandering soul named Mariah, who had nothing better to do than make continued contact with Dr. Tewes. And today, this moment in fact, Mariah was going to bring Grandfather Nichodemus Pelham to his assembled heirs and assigns.

They were chanting this request of Mariah in no time at all.

Jane did not acknowledge Alastair as she was in a trance-or rather wanted the others to believe Dr. Tewes was in a deep trancelike state.

Alastair remained standing beside Gabby, his stare a study in disbelief. At the same instant that Alastair cleared his throat, one of the ladies in the group around the table swooned and said, “That’s him! I’d know that snort anywhere. He was a tobacco man, you know. Chewed Red Man.”

Jane as Tewes now said, “The spirits must learn to speak across the chasm between the living and the dead. Grunts, snorts…coughing is a simple matter for them, but words…words are as difficult for them as for any animal.”

“Grandfather spoke in grunts and snorts; he never used words,” said a young fellow at the table. “It’s him, all right.”

“Spirits have a unique function,” Dr. Tewes informed his guests. “They provide dispatches from the other side. In fact, I met one once who was a fighting angel in a war for God and his throne. And like demons, once spirits have seen your face, they can always find you. So beware…be careful, vigilant at all times.”

“That’s precisely what the old bastard said he’d do,” chimed in the older man at the table. “That he’d haunt me from the grave.”

“But he is at peace now and holds no animosity toward anyone,” said Tewes.

“He said that?” asked the elder son.

“He wants you all to be at peace as he is at peace.”

“You mean dead?” asked the younger man.

“You’ve got it all wrong Tewes,” said the elder son. “What he’s saying is he’d as soon see us all dead as to find that will of his!”

“Charles! You’ll frighten his spirit off!” chastised the woman.

“I’m afraid it is too late,” announced Tewes, breaking the chain of hands and standing. “I have lost his presence. He is gone.”

“Gone?”

“Just like that?”

“Afraid we will have to try again, perhaps at another time,” said Tewes as Gabby lit a gas lamp, and the disgruntled family began leaving, accusing one another of lousing up the reading and getting them nowhere.

Some of the family members recognized Ransom as they filed out, one asking if he were here to arrest “that charlatan Tewes.”

“Oh, but we can appeal to the spirits again, Mr. Pelham, Mrs. Pelham?” said Dr. Tewes to his clients. “Do not despair. Call again.”

With a good deal of grumbling, the Pelhams were gone. Jane dropped back into the cushioned chair and let out a long breath of air as she pulled away her mustache, ascot, and wig.

“Are you mad?” Alastair asked her.

“Whatever do you mean?”

“Jane…spiritualism? Atop phrenology and magnetic healing?”

“Hey, my therapy worked on you, didn’t it?”

“Don’t change the subject. You seem bent on getting yourself thrown into jail or shot as a flimflam artist.”

“Oh, please! You can be as dramatic as Mrs. Pelham!”

“And how long do you think your disguise would fool anyone behind bars? Ever hear of a strip search?”

“Tewes serves a purpose, Alastair, both for me and the community.”

“Yes, to line your pockets while revealing lost wills of testament for ingrates.”

“I don’t know that they are ingrates, or that they won’t use newfound wealth to, say, contribute to Hull House or the Salvation Army, now do I?”

“Either way Tewes gets his fee?”

“Yes, and why not? He performs a service.”

“It’s fraud, Jane, pure and simple.”

“I don’t see it that way.”

“Are you a mentalist now, a medium, a gifted who speaks to the dead? No, you are a highly educated woman taking advantage of the less educated.”

Gabby had vacated the moment voices were raised, but now she’d returned with steeping hot tea. “There’s no arguing with her, Inspector. I’ve tired of trying.” Gabby poured tea into cups as she spoke. “She means to have the capital at all cost.”

“It’s the only way to see you through Rush, young lady. They don’t give women scholarship funds, I assure you.”

“All I have…all you’ve given me, Mother, since…well, since meeting Audra and her street family, I feel guilty.”

“For what?”

“For all we have, and all they will never have.”

“And it is my avowed purpose in life, Gabrielle Tewes, to make sure you never become one of them! Do you understand? Do both of you understand?”

“Noble reasons for duping others out of their money, Jane.”

“I carefully screen my clients in the séance end of things, Alastair, and those who get this far, as you saw, deserve a good fleecing.”

“Then you admit to fraud?”

“What merchant in the city isn’t a fraud? Have you seen the costs of medical insurance recently?”

“Call it what you will, it appears very bad.”

“We are at a crossroads, and we’re not to discuss it since none of us will agree,” said Jane. “Besides, I’m exhausted.”

“I’m sure after a long day, and now this business with Grandfather Pelham.”

Gabby piped in. “It takes a great deal out of one to hold a séance, results or no.”

They sipped at tea in silence, each lost in thought.

“I’ve spoken to Philo Keane about what we learned from the street children,” Ransom said to the ladies between sips.

“Oh? And did he find it amusing?” Jane asked.

“On the contrary. He is and has been planning an unusual move with regard to the sheltered and homeless children. Contemplating it for some time, in fact.”

“Would you care to give us some details?” Jane asked.

“Yes, do,” added Gabby, curious.

Alastair related all that had transpired between Philo Keane and himself on the subject. The ladies were duly impressed with Keane’s insights and his desire to help the children through his art.

“It’s this sort of thing that restores my faith in the human heart,” said Jane. She then stood and began pacing before turning to the others. “All right, I have a confession to make regarding the séances.”

“What is it, Mother?”

“Go on, Jane.”

“I’m setting aside all proceeds from Dr. Tewes’s forays into the supernatural for a sizable donation, I hope, to Jane Addams’s settlement community.”

Gabby smiled wide. “For the shelter children, oh, Mother, how wonderful.”

Ransom dropped his head and shook it from side to side as Gabby embraced her mother. “Isn’t she wonderful, Alastair?” Gabby said.

“Aye, she is that and bravo, Jane. I’ll have to come in and have you contact my uncle Faraday sometime so’s I can contribute.”

“Do that, Alastair. You do that.” She toasted his health with an upraised teacup.