The Willoughby Affair

By Cristopher Taylor

The year is 1915 and the gruesome murder of James Redcliffs wife and son takes place in the upper-class Back Bay area of Boston. James Redcliff himself is found dead as he returns home from Albany. With little to go on, the Boston Police are at a loss on what or who is behind the familys murder. But a letter, which James sent before leaving New York, will shed light on the case. The letter alludes to a conspiracy by Franz von Papen and German agents to bring the United States into the war in Europe. A German U-Boat sails to fulfill Papens agenda, where hundreds, maybe thousands will die.

Joined by the beautiful niece of Redcliff and a private detective, Royden Cheney receives the letter and the three find themselves racing from the streets of Boston to Northern Vermont. They become entangled in a conspiracy by a secret council that threatens the security of the United States as they seek to solve the murders before it is too late.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 14, 2011
• ISBN: 9781456714222

Cristopher Taylor

Cristopher Taylor is the grandson of Royden Cheney and a direct descendent of Isaac Allerton who sailed on the Mayflower. He operated a company for twenty years and then worked as an executive analyst before turning to the field of psychology. Currently finishing his doctorate Cristopher is semi-retired and lives in Northwest Pennsylvania.As a practicing psychotherapist he has written in professional journals and currently has a series of children’s stories ready for publication dealing with mental illness. This is his first full-length novel.

Book preview

MAP ILLUSTRATIONS

New Amsterdam (Circa 1640)

Boston (Circa 1915)

For:

Claire Cheney Taylor

With Special Thanks to:

Raymond and Carol Taylor

Peggy Johnson

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Contents

PROLOGUE

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

XI

XII

XIII

XIV

XV

XVI

XVII

XVIII

XIX

XX

XXI

XXII

XXIII

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XXVI

XXVII

XVIII

XXIX

XXX

XXXI

EPILOGUE

PROLOGUE

New Amsterdam: November, 1647

Winter had not yet set on the new world. The last leaves, hold outs from a mild fall season were still dropping from trees and the ground was covered with them. The Spanish ship Maan sailed from New Netherlands to Spain in 1645. Spain and the Netherlands had been in conflict for some time, but the colony permitted her vessels in port for merchant trade. Now she had returned and was anchored majestically in the harbor. The Maan was a merchant vessel, but she was refitted with twenty-four heavy guns and thirty light cannon. Isaac Allerton, still gaining his land legs from fourteen months at sea decided to walk the distance to the southern tip of New Amsterdam. Walking stick in hand he wove through white pines and maples along the shore of the North River, also called the Hudson. His stick penetrated the dry leaves with a crackling sound as he took each step. His thoughts went to a time when only stream and wood occupied New Amsterdam. Now houses stood side by side to his east, all the way up to the wall, and a strip of land bordered the river on his west.

Passing Fort Amsterdam, completed by the Dutch West India Company fifteen years earlier, he marveled at the modern star-shaped structure, black iron cannons peeking through its wooden abutments along the top. As he rounded the southern tip of the island, he could see the house of Cornelis Melyn ahead of him. His business was there. The year was 1647.

Melyn’s plantation on Staaten Island had been destroyed in 1643 by the Lenape tribes. The uprising came to be known as Kieft’s War, named for William Kieft who was a Director of the colony. Allerton thought Kieft a fool, lacking in both judgment and experience. He suspected Kieft procured his position through family connections, not competence. Allerton’s assessment was validated by Kieft’s actions. The native tribes supplied furs and pelts, which were the foundation of the colony’s economic lifeblood. The Lenape tribes, including the Raritan and Wappinger occupied the land surrounding the island. The Mohawk and Mahican tribes were to the north. It would spell hardship and perhaps disaster if the Algonquian peoples united against the English and Dutch settlers.

Kieft’s agitation against the native peoples did just this. Kieft raised taxes on the tribes living in the area and promoted incidents of provocation against them. Many people sought to dissuade Kieft from further action, but he had a natural inclination of prejudice against the surrounding natives and continued to harass their well-being. In 1643 Kieft was behind the slaughter of one hundred and twenty natives at Parvonia across from Staaten Island, including women and children. Many considered it an act of genocide.

In the fall of 1643 Melyn and others were forced to abandon his plantation on Staaten Island for the sake of saving his and his family’s lives. The tribes, numbering more than fifteen hundred took the island in protest. Kieft established a group of citizen advisors in hopes they would support his retaliation for this and other events, but he failed to recognize the colonist’s sentiments. The longer a conflict continued with the native tribes, the higher economic price would be extracted from the daily lives of New Netherland’s citizens. Not only would the colonists suffer, but the Dutch West India Company would suffer as well. Since Keift’s advisors were representatives of the people they refused to support Kieft, and to what ends he would have profited were still unclear to Allerton and his associates.

Relations were finally starting to improve again. Isaac thought to himself that it was only a matter of time before Cornelis Melyn would be able to return to his land on Staaten. Isaac Allerton walked to the front door of Melyn’s two-story home and knocked on the door. Greeted by Cornelis with a handshake and slap on the back he was escorted inside.

In Melyn’s parlor were seven others for a total of eight men. Two were English merchants and two were with the Dutch West India Company. The others in addition to Melyn were Jan Everts Bout, a native of Holland who sat at Melyn’s large desk. Bout had suffered at the hand of Kieft, as he also had holdings in the Parvonia area and was forced to abandon his home and relocate on New Amsterdam. Abraham Pietersen van Deusen, a native of Holland, stood in the center of the room, pipe in hand, properly packed and ready for fire. He moved to Haarlem when he married into the family of Tryntie Melchior Abrahams. Van Deusen with help from the seven others had successfully petitioned the States-General, blaming Kieft for the settlement’s economic decline.

Together these men belonged to The Undertakers, a large association of businessmen who promoted economic interests in the communities of the new world. They also formed a council of eight men by themselves, devoted to measures that would assure the continuation of free trade and political support. Operating outside the realm of public knowledge they sought to assure a capital agenda by means of their own.

As a result of their petition Kieft was recalled to The Netherlands to account for his actions. In 1645, Kieft boarded the Dutch merchant vessel Princess in the new world harbor. The Maan followed two days behind her.

Isaac reported on his journey to the council. The Maan served the group well, returning both profits and Allerton to the New World. It was reported the Princess was sunk off the coast of Wales and Kieft was lost at sea, never to be seen again. Officially, it was reported that the Princess ran aground in foul weather, but Allerton and the seven others knew the unofficial truth. Isaac Allerton sat back in a large chair in Melyn’s parlor. He packed his pipe and was offered fire by van Deusen. Pulling chairs to a table, Melyn produced a deck of cards. He made two piles of the cards. Each man, in turn added a single card to the table. Melyn shuffled each pile of cards and said

Tarot is the game, old friends. Now it is finished. Isaac puffed twice on his pipe and then nodded.

It is good to be back on dry land gentlemen, good to be back on dry land.

As he slowly exhaled the smoke curled into the air.

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Boston: Friday, March 24, 1915

It was March. The year was 1915. The streets of Boston were covered in snow. Outside the window of a small apartment near the Public Gardens the temperature had fallen into the teens. Inside, flames consumed wooden logs behind a metal screen that was perched on a hearth in front of an open fireplace. A large coal furnace below the apartment drove warm air up through vents in the floor and a kettle of hot water sat on the stove in the kitchen just a few steps away.

Off the main parlor, two pocket doors were recessed in the wall. Beyond them a round table sat in the middle of a room surrounded by eight high-back leather chairs. Each chair supported a man and each was pulled up to the table. On the table a solitary playing card was turned over in front of each. The only other things on the table were ashtrays and china cups partially filled with tea. Two smoked pipes, three cigars, two cigarettes, and one didn’t smoke at all.

One by one each man turned his card over. James Watson Gerard turned over the Emperor. He would have been fine with anything but the Emperor, except Death that is. The other men looked at him and waited for an answer. Any of the major Arcana cards could represent people, but the Emperor was the kind of energy that manifested in the form of a leader. Obviously all kinds of leaders and fathers harbored some of his influence, but he could also show someone who acted like a father by setting tone and imposing structure. The Emperor was a regulating force and thus associated with the government, bureaucracy and the legal system; his appearance often indicated an encounter with one or more of these systems. The Emperor personified power and control. Gerard was the United States Ambassador to Germany and now assumed the leadership role for the council’s upcoming task.

I accept this card. He said.

James Redcliff took the Eight of Swords. On the face of the card was a tied and blindfolded woman surrounded by swords. Everyone knew the blindfold was an important symbol in American justice. Now the scales of justice had tipped to one side. They had gone too far to the side of neutrality. There were those who refused to see, refused to act, unwilling to face the truth. The ropes that tied the woman prohibited action. The question that was asked from the beginning was, why? Why did some refuse to see, refuse to act? Redcliff knew the swords must cut through this injustice. Release from the bindings meant release from one way of thinking to a new way of thinking, from inaction to action.

Foreign shipments at Redcliff’s company were doing poorly. Shipments to the British Isles, France, and Mediterranean countries were down more than forty percent since the beginning of the war in Europe. Shipments to Germany had ceased altogether. Foreign markets accounted for more than two-thirds of his business. Over the past two years stores of sugar and some related products had filled the warehouses in Cuba and Boston. Inventory was too high and sales were too low. Sugar prices in Europe continued to rise, but he couldn’t get it there. Redcliff’s company had not suffered attacks from German U-Boats - at least not yet, but transport ships were difficult to secure and crews were even scarcer. Cane was lying in the field and workers were laid off.

I accept this card. Redcliff said.

Louis Weinstein accepted his card next.

Franz von Papen sat along the far wall. He was not an Allerton descendent and did not take a card. He was brought in to assist the council by Louis Weinstein. It was rare to use an outsider, but not unprecedented. It had been done before. Franz von Papen had German contacts. He was personal friends with Commander Herman Bauer of the German submarine flotilla, and Bauer’s cooperation would be needed.

One by one, each man accepted a card: The Star, the Eight of Pentacles, the World, the Eight of Cups, and the Magician. An eight-card spread had served them well for years. It had served generations of men like them back to the infancy of colonial America. Each man knew there was no turning back. Each knew his face would never be recognized, his deeds would never be written about in the pages of history books, but history would be changed. The game was in play. These men would climb across a moment in history.

Cuba, Monday, April 13, 1915

It was ninety degrees and crazy humid. The Insular electric trolley ran through Havana to Marianao. Franz von Papen looked out through the open trolley car as it rumbled over the Calle San Pedro. He left the docks below and was heading to Vedado. At the docks stores of munitions and black powder were ready for transport to Germany.

America’s policy was ‘hands-off’ and had been since the termination of The Spanish-American War. Cuba did not want U.S. involvement. Cuba was in a state of unrest, near the brink of revolution. The American President couldn’t get involved in a tiny country ninety miles from Florida when he refused to get involved in a world war, where important allies like England had literally begged for involvement, raging across the Atlantic. Therefore, Cuba provided a perfect origin for shipment of arms and war goods by the German underground from Western factories, whereas it was impossible to ship out of U.S. ports.

Franz von Papen played two roles in his life. Officially he was military attaché to the United States and secretly doubled as an agent of Germany. His objectives, unknown to the Americans included sabotaging U.S. interests and prolonging the war in Europe. For the next few weeks he played the council’s confidant assisting to bring a quick conclusion to Europe’s troubles. Papen served only one master though - Deutschland and he planned to use the council’s plan to do just that.

Franz von Papen had an appointment to meet with Karl Boy-Ed at Vedado. Boy-Ed had been dispatched to the United States in 1911 as Germany’s Naval Attaché. Boy-Ed worked for von Papen. Boy-Ed and von Papen convinced a Jewish man named Louis Weinstein, who had a contact named Bailey at the New York harbor to help them with an upcoming itinerary. The two believed their concealed plan would serve Germany’s interests. They planned on secretly smuggling explosives into New York Harbor. Papen walked off the trolley in Vedado and into a cantina where Boy-Ed sat waiting. The two ordered tequila.

Tell me you had success. Von Papen said

My man has agreed to produce two manifests. One will be presented upon sailing and the second will be substituted later.

And the cargo?

There is a shipment of furs traveling on the Pennsylvania Railroad even as we speak. The powder is hidden in the crates. It moves from DuPont de Nemours in Hopewell, Virginia. They will not be listed on the initial manifest. We expect no inspection of the crates in New York. When they are discovered at sea our friends in America will be forced to explain.

Kapitänleutnant Schwieger? von Papen asked.

He is sailing U-20. The boat refuels then leaves for Ireland in two weeks. He is to sit and wait in the Bristol Channel off of Ireland. He has authorization to attack other vessels, but must hold two torpedoes back. I will continue to be in radio contact with him.

Commander Herman Bauer has approved our plan. It is he who will order ‘Goldfish’. Papen assured him.

This is good Franz. Did your council vote to embark on their mission?

Yes. I came from Boston three weeks ago. It is all set.

The cards have been dealt. The council feels their plan will promote their objectives.

And our plan will promote ours as well.

Yes Karl, ours as well.

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Monday, April 20, 1915

Amy Redcliff Hutchison, age twenty eight, was the daughter of Winfield Hutchison and the niece of James and Adeline Redcliff. She lived with the Redcliffs on Newbury Street in the Back Bay District of Boston during the school year from September to the end of May. Her father commissioned vessels and managed shipping interests on the Great Lakes and sometimes the Atlantic. He made his business in Erie, Pennsylvania. Transport of sugar, grains, and related goods proved efficient by means of the New York and Erie Canals from Albany to Erie and the New York Central railroad to points on the Great Lakes from Rochester to Chicago.

Monday morning Amy told Maggie, one of the Redcliff’s house servants that they would sneak out together under pretense of grocery shopping.

What say you my confidant? Amy directed her attention to Maggie. It made Maggie feel special when Amy talked to her that way.

We really must fill that grocery list, or heaven knows we shall all starve. Amy spoke loud enough so her Aunt Adeline could hear her, and Adeline did.

Amy child, there is no need for you to be attending the market, we have employees for that!

Amy laughed out loud, but quietly put her index finger to her lips as she looked Maggie’s way.

But Aunt Adeline, I feel like taking in a view of the dresses at C. Hollidge. You wouldn’t deny my dreams, would you?

I would indeed, my young rebel. Of course Adeline knew she wouldn’t win the argument.

Amy’s disposition was strong and independent though and at first this caused much consternation for her father. He encouraged her to read and write and as she grew he noticed strength in her similar to a man’s will. She loved languages and was self-taught in classical Latin. To her father’s credit, he promoted these behaviors with her. Yet, she also loved to dress the latest style when attending social functions or church services. It pleased her to obey her father’s wishes which in some regards she was prone to misinterpret at times. When she grew to a young woman of twenty she displayed a feminine beauty that rivaled anyone and had offers from older gentlemen, usually of substantial means in the Erie business community. When she featured her intellect and drive most men were put off, fearful they might not measure up to her abilities.

Ma’am, are you sure you want to go with me? speaking to Amy, Maggie continued I will just hold you up picking tomatoes and such.

Amy gave Maggie a secret wink and then turned her head to the air.

I really must, and furthermore, you must follow my instructions young lady. I have every intention of coming with you. Someone must keep an eye on the family budget. After this, Maggie bowed her head as if admonished, but she quickly looked up, turned to and fro to make sure nobody saw her, and gave Amy a returning wink!

Amy Hutchison stood at a crossroads in her life that mirrored the crossroads of America at the time. She studied the shipping business under her father’s rule while attending a teaching college near Erie. When she reached twenty-four years of age her academic achievements were duly reflected by an invitation to attend Tufts University. Tufts opened its doors to women in 1909 with the establishment of The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences on Walnut Hill five miles north of Boston City. Having family in Boston, Winfield reluctantly permitted this venture. Seen by Winfield as an opportunity to bring modern thinking to his company, he asked Adeline and James Redcliff to provide for his only child as she completed her education. The Redcliff’s accommodated his wish.

After a rather well acted display, put on for the sole purpose of impressing her aunt, Amy accompanied Maggie, a household staff member to the Fens for groceries. The Fens was an area of Boston filled with markets and mercantile establishments.

Hurry Maggie Amy called as they prepared to leave early that morning. Amy was fond of Maggie, a young maid nineteen years of age. Before leaving Amy commented to Adeline, Isn’t it wonderful a girl can go shopping with such a fine friend? Mildly horrified, Adeline replied,

What is this world coming to?

How time passes rapidly, Adeline thought. The waters that filled her life hardly gathered under the feet of Amy. Her pleasures of home and obedience to James proved dull to Amy. Time rushed by too quickly, its lights vanished and a minute later there was no sign of it as if everything conspired to end as quickly as it began.

Amy loved to shop and outfitted herself in the more modern garments, not always meeting Adeline’s style. The outing gave her an excuse to leave the house under pretense of assisting Maggie. One of these days, she told herself, she would get her aunt out and the two of them would let loose on the shops of Boston.

She left Maggie at the Fens to purchase the grocery needs for the family and spent an hour or so at C. Hollidge Department Store. She then secretly treated Maggie to lunch at Clark’s on Beacon Hill.

Maggie, I insist you order an ice cream for desert. she said. Accustomed to such frivolous behavior when Amy was with her Maggie told the clerk,

I’ll have two scoops. and Amy said

And make it chocolate, for both of us! Adeline would not have approved, but she didn’t need to know. They spent the better part of the day together. At the close of the day Maggie took the groceries back to the mansion on Newbury Street and Amy took the trolley to Walnut Hill in Medford.

Tell Aunt Adeline I am going to stay at the University for the night. I promise to return first thing in the morning. Amy kissed Maggie on the cheek and ran down the road to catch the trolley.

To say Amy’s Uncle James Jeremiah Redcliff was a man of means would be understating the fact. He was a Calvinist, which meant he was destined to be all that he was. He stood six feet and three inches high in bare feet, and although sixty-two years old felt proud that he could stand up to any man his height, even though most were less. He came to America from London where he married Adeline May Campbell thirty-eight years ago. He called her ‘Adi’ and he was the only one permitted to do so. When they came to Boston he had eighteen dollars in his pocket. Adeline and James both attended lectures at The University of London Kings College, Adi by means of scholarship and James by means of hard work and some deception.

Monday evening James Redcliff retired to his room in Albany after an arduous weekend of meetings at his district office. Redcliff’s’ room at Albany’s Wellington Hotel was well appointed. Situated on State Street, it was a short walk to the capital and fairly close to his company office. He usually stayed at the Wellington when in Albany and taxied to the company’s export office on Central Avenue.

James never finished his elementary education. As an adolescent of twelve he saw no purpose to learning Shakespeare or Keats. His father, a merchant marine, was gone most of the time and his mother clerked at a clothier during the day and drank wine at night to chase the loneliness. He ran away from home, it would be one less mouth for her to feed.

Hired on as a laborer in a printing shop, he took a flat with five others his age. He slept on the floor and saved what money he could. He moved up in the same shop to foreman at the age of twenty-one. Pretending to be a student, he frequented social gatherings and lectures, standing in the back corner of the hall at Kings College. It was there that his eyes set on Adi. He forged his diploma and transcript at the print shop. It credited him with an education from The Normal School in Liverpool and he was admitted to Kings College. It was there that he courted and won Adeline.

Theirs was a relationship of true love. Their crossing to America rested on the promise James gave her of success, wealth, and enduring affection for the rest of her life. He kept his promise. James grew an empire based on the trade of sugar and had an export warehouse in Boston, an office in Albany, and a refining plant in Cuba. He finished his degree at Harvard in 1881 attending part-time and he worked endless hours in the warehouse. He eventually bought the company. He stated more than once that he only required four hours sleep each night. Adi observed that he often slept longer during the night and on several occasions stole afternoon naps. She knew better than to confront him with her knowledge of this.

Redcliff sat at a small Queen Ann’s desk in his hotel room with pen in hand. He had just completed correspondence to Major William Heimke, whom he knew well from his business in Cuba. Heimke was an invaluable associate over the years. They were both graduates of Harvard, where they first met through the Allerton Society. They shared allegiances with some other Allerton members who advocated free trade, lower tariffs, and a quick end to the hostilities abroad.

When Redcliff was in Albany, Rudolf Bailey called him about an upcoming shipment Redcliff’s company planned to make. The two had worked together many times over the years in Redcliff’s domestic business along the eastern seaboard as well as shipping from Cuba. Bailey was responsible for ship manifests in New York Harbor. In passing Bailey mentioned Franz von Papen. He knew that Redcliff and von Papen knew each other. Franz von Papen told Bailey there was a late cargo of furs coming and to leave the cargo of furs off the initial manifest for a May 1st shipment across the Atlantic. The furs were coming from Hopewell, Virginia. It wasn’t unusual to file two manifests, so Bailey agreed.

Redcliff had suspicions about Papen. Now they were confirmed. Hopewell, Virginia meant DuPont, DuPont meant explosive powders; explosive powders meant people would die, maybe thousands would die. He knew the explosives had to be hidden in the crates of furs. Franz von Papen was using the council’s plan to further his own interests - Germany’s interests. Redcliff confronted Papen earlier in the day over the phone. If Papen refused to cooperate James told him that he would expose him to the press. He denied his actions and told James to stay with the council’s plan. James knew he was lying and he wanted out. When he returned to Boston he planned to call the others together and expose Franz von Papen’s acts. He wrote a letter to the New York Times and planned to mail it to himself for safety. Before things got out of hand, Redcliff decided he would not participate in the council’s plan. William Heimke was a friend of Redcliff and James wanted to explain his actions. He wanted to give Heimke a chance to distance himself from Papen’s actions as well.

The letter to Heimke was written on fine cotton stationary he bought that day in the hotel lobby. He scribbled his signature upon the letter on his desk. He read it softly out loud to himself and then folded it and slid it into a new envelope on his desk.

As was his habit, James had drafted a first copy of his letter to Heimke, which was now crumpled in the waste can next to the desk. Thinking better of it, he took the copy out of the trash can and folded it several times. In his brief he had a letter