(1988) The Golden Room

by Irving Wallace

  Alan lowered his voice. ‘Bruce, I don’t like it. I don’t believe that Cathleen and Karen left to go somewhere else. It makes no sense. They had no place to go, neither of them. They didn’t know the Everleigh Club was open again. Karen had rented out her rooms. No hotel rooms were available last

  night. They had no idea where Minna and Aida might be staying. Why would they leave with no destination?’

  ‘What are you trying to say?’

  Alan came even closer to Bruce. ‘I think they’re still here.’

  ‘Why wouldn’t the doctor tell us so?’

  ‘Maybe he wants to keep them here against their will for some reason like —’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘Sex, white slavery, I don’t know what. I only know I don’t like him and I don’t trust him. I say we go back into his house for another look.’

  ‘What if he catches us?’

  Alan jiggled the keys in his palm. ‘I could say the ring got caught in my pocket and I just found it and wanted to return it.’

  ‘He’ll never accept that.’

  ‘Then he can accuse us of trespassing and call the police.’

  ‘I doubt he’d do that,’ said Bruce.

  Alan gazed at Bruce. ‘Want to come along with me?’

  Bruce smiled, took the keys out of Alan’s hand, and started for Holmes’s front door. Alan fell in beside him.

  ‘This will have to be a very quiet operation,’ whispered Bruce.

  He began sorting the keys and pushed the first one into the front door keyhole. It didn’t turn. He tried the second key. Same result.

  The third key worked.

  Gently, Bruce eased the front door open, praying it wouldn’t make a noise. Well oiled, the massive door yielded without a sound.

  As they squeezed inside, Alan’s head tilted forward, indicating something ahead.

  Dr Herman Holmes was visible in the hall, his back to them, as if meditating.

  Silently, Bruce and Alan entered the shadowy foyer and closed the door. Bruce signalled Alan to duck behind the dark corner of a pillar with him and hide there.

  After a brief interval, although desperate to keep out of sight, Bruce risked peeking out from behind the pillar.

  He saw Dr Holmes still standing in contemplation where he had been when they re-entered. But now, Holmes was no longer looking towards his office. Instead, he was staring at the blank wall.

  Now that he had rid himself of the intruders, and was in complete control once more, Dr Holmes had come to a different decision about what he would do next.

  He had been about to lift the gas lever that would exterminate the two imprisoned women. However, with the visit of those two meddling young men, a delay had occurred. Dr Holmes could imagine how that passage of time had affected Cathleen and Karen. They had expected to die at once. Certainly, this waiting, trapped, had tortured them, weakened their resolve to resist him. Perhaps they were less ready to die. Likely, they’d had time to reconsider Holmes’s demand, and probably now saw it as the lesser of two evils.

  Fantasizing what it was like to have Karen naked beneath him, that soft, fresh body, to be followed by Cathleen’s body, Holmes changed the direction of his next step.

  He would give them another chance.

  Slowly, Holmes walked to the blank wall, reached behind the broad-leafed rubber plant to the button opening the sliding door. As the wall began to slide open, Holmes reached into his pocket for the Colt .45. He pointed it into the room.

  He observed Karen off to his left, on her hands and knees exploring the floor of the room, as if seeking a means of escape. He saw Cathleen seated on the examination table, crying quietly.

  Both women sprang upright at the sound of the opening door and, as they realized that Holmes had returned, looked at him with dread and disgust.

  ‘Karen!’ Holmes shouted. ‘Get over to the examination table where you belong, next to Cathleen!’

  Obediently, Karen straightened and marched back to the table and stood beside Cathleen.

  ‘All right, listen to me,’ announced Holmes. ‘I’m giving both of you a second chance. It’s your last chance, and you’d be wise to take it. You, Cathleen, I want you to come up to my bedroom with me.’

  There was a long interval of silence before Cathleen began sobbing loudly. ‘No - no, I can’t -I can’t do that.’

  Holmes spoke again. ‘All right, that was Cathleen’s death sentence. What about you, Karen? Do you want a reprieve?’

  ‘Get out of my sight, you lousy scum, and let me die in peace!’ Karen shouted.

  Holmes grunted. ‘You will now have your wish, each of you. I’m locking you in. I’m going to turn on the poison gas and leave it on until you choke to death. Goodbye, you fools!’

  With that, Holmes stepped outside the room and pressed the button, waiting while the wall slid shut on his victims.

  Pleased, he pocketed the gun, and in measured strides made for his office.

  Bruce pulled back into the shadows behind the pillar.

  ‘You heard that,’ he whispered. ‘We’ve got to act fast, right now.’

  ‘He’s got a gun,’ Alan whispered back. ‘If he hears us, he’ll shoot us dead and kill the girls too.’

  Bruce was already removing his boots. ‘Take off your shoes, Alan. He’s not going to hear us.’

  In seconds they were both in their stocking feet.

  ‘Let’s go,’ Bruce whispered urgently.

  They stepped out into the foyer and crept quietly down the central hallway.

  They paused.

  In the dim light off to their left, they could see that Dr Holmes had entered his office. He was rubbing his hands together as he headed towards what Bruce guessed was a control panel.

  Without another word, Bruce signalled Alan to follow him as he hurried on padded feet across the hall into Holmes’s office.

  Dr Holmes was reaching up for a lever.

  Abruptly, Bruce gestured for Alan to circle around to Holmes’s other side. Alan did so as Bruce closed in on Holmes directly from behind.

  Holmes’s finger was already on the lever.

  Bruce cocked his head towards Alan.

  With a shriek, Alan leaped at Holmes, hammering one fist against the doctor’s arm, knocking his hand away from the lever.

  Startled, wild-eyed, Holmes lunged at Alan with a fist as his free hand snaked into his jacket for the Colt .45.

  Behind him, Bruce saw the gun in Holmes’s hand. Instantly, Bruce grabbed for Holmes’s wrist, wrenching hard. The Colt .45 wobbled in Holmes’s grip, then flew to the floor.

  Holmes whirled about to confront Bruce, slipped beneath a blow, and hooked out with a right and left to Bruce’s jaw. The power of the punches rocked Bruce, momentarily paralysing him as he went down heavily on his back.

  In a flash, Holmes kneeled, swept up the Colt .45 once more, gripped it, and spun around to fire at Alan, who was coming at him.

  Bruce staggered to his feet, in a frenzy scanned the room for any heavy object - he saw the solid-looking Venus de Milo vase with its dried flowers on the mantelpiece. With both hands Bruce reached up for it and turned in time to see Holmes taking aim at the retreating Alan.

  Bruce lifted the vase high above him, and with all his strength brought it down with a loud thud on the top of the doctor’s skull.

  The blow shattered the vase.

  Clearly, it also shattered part of Dr Holmes’s head.

  Dr Holmes crumpled, and then pitched unconscious to the office floor. He lay spreadeagled between Bruce and Alan.

  Losing no time, Bruce dropped to his knees, released the Colt .45 from the doctor’s slack fingers, and shoved it into his own pocket. Turning the doctor over, he could see that Holmes was totally unconscious and fresh bright blood was matting his hair.

  ‘He’s out,’ Bruce gasped.

  ‘Thank God,’ said Alan breathlessly.

  With difficulty, Bruce came to his feet. ‘The girls…’ he croaked. ‘Let’s
get them out of there before something goes wrong - before they die of fright.’

  Alan was already on the run, out of the office and heading for the blank wall. Alan searched desperately for the button to the sliding door. At last he found it, and pressed hard.

  The portion of the wall slid wide open.

  Alan peered inside the room.

  Cathleen and Karen were standing in front of the examination table, clinging to each other as they waited for death. At the sound of the sliding door, they both gazed with disbelief at the opening, as if they were seeing an apparition.

  ‘Oh, Alan… Alan… it’s you,’ Cathleen moaned. She pulled free of Karen and stumbled towards Alan as he entered the death chamber. She threw her arms around him and he hugged and kissed her.

  Bruce was in the room now, advancing on the shaken Karen. His arms went around her tightly and his mouth found her lips. He kissed her over and over again until she could scarcely breathe.

  ‘How … how did you get here?’ Karen wanted to know.

  ‘Aunt Minna sent us to bring you back,’ replied Bruce. ‘Dr Holmes tried to bluff us into believing you weren’t here, that you’d left, but we were suspicious of him. We managed to hide out and discover that he was trying to kill you. Then we overcame him.’

  Cathleen tore away from Alan. ‘Where is Dr Holmes?’ she asked, still fearful. ‘Where is that maniac?’

  ‘Come along,’ said Bruce.

  The four of them emerged from the death chamber.

  They crossed the central hall to the doctor’s office. Stretched out on the floor, still unconscious, was Dr Holmes.

  Bruce looked at Alan. ‘We’ve got to lock him up,’ said Bruce. ‘Help me, Alan. We’ll carry him into the gas chamber. After we close the sliding door, we’ll call the police.’

  They both bent down, Bruce taking Dr Holmes by the armpits and Alan taking his legs, and they carried him away, as the two women, with hatred in their eyes, watched his body go.

  Minutes later, the four of them were gathered in the doctor’s office.

  Bruce’s gaze met Alan’s. ‘You know what I’d like to do,’ said Bruce. ‘Give the bastard a taste of his own medicine. But we can’t do that.’

  ‘Why not?’ said Alan furiously.

  ‘We just can’t. We can’t do what Holmes planned to do — commit murder. We’ve got enough evidence to see that justice is done under the law. I’m calling the police right now.’

  Rapidly, Bruce made his call to the police station, explained what had taken place, and when the police captain promised to send someone over, he hung up and turned to the two women. ‘Are you feeling any better?’

  Karen and Cathleen nodded uncertainly.

  ‘You’d better sit down, both of you,’ Bruce ordered. ‘Since you left the Club, a great many things have happened. Alan, you start it off.’

  Alan feasted his eyes on Cathleen. ‘Darling, we’re getting married this very evening. My father gave us his blessing.’

  ‘What?’ exclaimed Cathleen, half out of her chair.

  Alan went to her and kissed her, and settled her down. ‘It was the price your Aunt Minna demanded to open the Everleigh Club again.’

  Karen was in mild shock. ‘Minna bargained to open the

  Everleigh Club again? After all the work the mayor went to -to shut it down? How can that be?’

  Alan gestured to Bruce. ‘You take over from here, Bruce.’

  Grinning, Bruce recounted the astonishing events of the past hours.

  ‘The prince of Prussia arrived in Chicago this morning. The mayor, Mr Armbruster, and an entire reception committee were there to greet him. What the prince did was to throw the mayor’s complete agenda out the window. He would have none of it. He was very forthright. He told everyone what he did want. The only place he wanted to see in Chicago was the Everleigh Club.’

  It dawned on Karen first. ‘Oh, no!’ she blurted, and began to laugh. ‘And the Everleigh Club was out of business, shut down, closed.’

  ‘Exactly,’ said Bruce. ‘Well, the mayor was on the spot. So was Alan’s father, who wants to be our ambassador to Germany. They both knew that they couldn’t disappoint him. They simply couldn’t deny his one request. So the mayor and Mr Armbruster agreed, as one, that the Everleigh Club must be opened. But there were only two persons who could do that.’

  ‘Aunt Minna and Aunt Aida,’ said Cathleen.

  ‘Yes - and both were in jail,’ said Bruce. ‘You can bet they were freed at once. Then Minna drove her hard bargain. She and Aida would get the Club in shape and throw it open for the prince (/“they could host the prince’s welcoming banquet in the Club, and if Cathleen and Alan were allowed to be married there before the festivities.’ Bruce grinned at his sister. ‘Mayor Harrison and Mr Armbruster offered no opposition. The Everleigh Club is being readied right now and you, Cathleen and Alan, are going to tie the knot there this evening.’

  That moment the front doorbell rang and continued to ring, and there was a hammering at the door.

  ‘It can’t be the police so fast,’ Bruce said. ‘Who the devil can that be?’

  Cautiously opening the front door a ,crack and then flinging it wide, Bruce found himself confronting a man in a braid-trimmed police uniform, another burly man in a business suit, and five policemen in plain blue.

  ‘Who are you?’ the man in the street clothes wanted to know.

  Taken aback, Bruce announced, ‘I’m Bruce Lester. What are you doing here?’

  ‘I’m William Pinkerton, a private investigator working for Miss Minna Everleigh. You must be the nephew. This is Chief of Police Francis O’Neill. The other men are his officers.’ Pinkerton swallowed. ‘We’ve come about the ladies -Cathleen Lester and Karen Grant - are they all right?’

  ‘They’re safe now,’ said Bruce. ‘Come in and see for yourselves.’

  Bruce led the seven men into the office. With the chief’s help, he introduced everyone.

  The chief of police looked around, as if missing someone. ‘Where’s Dr Herman Holmes?’ he wanted to know.

  ‘He’s unconscious in the next room,’ Bruce said. ‘Alan and I jumped him just as he was about to kill the women with gas. Holmes had a gun. He shot at Alan and missed, and was about to shoot again, when I smashed him on the head with a heavy vase and knocked him out. We locked him in the next room.’

  ‘Wait a minute,’ said the chief. ‘Are you sure he’s not dead?’

  ‘For all I know, he might be. You want to find out?’”

  ‘Immediately,’ said the chief.

  ‘Let’s go,’ said Bruce. ‘I’ll open up the next room.’ While Alan, the chief, and Pinkerton followed him out of the office, Bruce went straight to the rubber tree at the far end of the blank wall. ‘Holmes has a button concealed back here. You push it and it automatically opens up a portion of the wall that leads you into an airtight room - where Holmes intended to gas Karen and Cathleen to death. Look.’

  Bruce worked his arm behind the branches of deep-green foliage, found the button, and pressed it.

  With only the slightest rumble, a portion of the wall slid smoothly to one side.

  Bruce pointed into the room. ‘There’s Dr Holmes on the table the way we left him. I think he’s still unconscious.’

  The chief grunted. ‘Let’s hope he’s not dead. Let me have a look.’

  Bruce and the others stood aside as Chief of Police O’Neill entered the room by himself. He walked straight to Dr Holmes’s inert body, peered down at it, saw the eyes closed, the face almost bloodless. Then he lifted a wrist and felt for a pulse.

  After a while, he lowered Holmes’s arm, turned away and left the room to rejoin Bruce, Alan, and Pinkerton. ‘He’s alive, but barely,’ the chief said. ‘His pulse is very feeble. I don’t know if he’ll make it. We’d better get him to the County Hospital at once.’

  That moment the doorbell rang, and Alan answered it. The policemen summoned by Bruce rushed into the room.

  The chief, hastenin
g back to the office, called out, ‘Sorenson. Prescott. Nadler. What are you doing here?’

  ‘A Mr Lester telephoned us about a Dr Holmes. He -‘

  ‘We already know,’ said the chief. ‘Glad you’re here. The three of you carry Dr Holmes out to your car. Take him to the County Hospital. He’s in poor shape. We don’t want to lose him, so take it easy, but don’t waste a minute. Stay there for word of his condition. The minute you know if he’ll live or die, telephone and let me know. Take down this number.’

  One of the men copied the number, then hurried to help his partners remove Holmes’s body from the chamber.

  The chief of police confronted Bruce. ‘Now tell me again what happened. Why did you hit the doctor on the skull like that?’

  ‘I had to get Holmes before he got Alan.’

  The chief frowned. ‘Better back up a step and tell me how you got mixed up with Dr Holmes in the first place.’

  Bruce tried to restrain his impatience. ‘My aunt Minna Everleigh was looking for a place for Karen and Cathleen to stay, and Dr Holmes volunteered his house. When the Club was reopened, Alan and I were sent to pick up the ladies. Dr Holmes was here, but he told us Karen and Cathleen had left already. His answers were so evasive that Alan became suspicious. Alan managed to get his hands on a set of the doctor’s keys. After we’d left here, we let ourselves in for another look. We hid in the entry and saw Holmes tell Karen and Cathleen they had to sleep with him or he’d kill them. They both refused. Holmes locked them up in that crazy room, and he was just about to turn on the gas. Then Alan and I came out of hiding and we overpowered him. That’s when I smashed Holmes on the head.’

  ‘You shouldn’t have done that,’ said the chief of police sternly. ‘You might have killed him.’

  ‘He was trying to kill them,’ Bruce protested.

  ‘You can’t be sure of that,’ said the chief. ‘He may have said he was going to do so, but he may not have meant it.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Bruce exploded. ‘I saw him going for the gas lever -‘

  ‘He may never have used it.’

  ‘I can’t believe what I’m hearing,’ Bruce said.

  ‘Wait a minute,’ Pinkerton interrupted. He faced the chief of police. ‘When I went to the police station and showed you all the evidence I’d gathered against Holmes, you agreed to come here with me to see if the ladies were safe.’