Kate Warne and the Art of Mental Jui-Jitsu

Part five in the story of Kate Warne’s first big case

The minute Mrs. Moroney left, and Kate was clear she went downstairs and to the telegraph office.

She wrote out her message and handed it to the operator. I need to send this to Montgomery she said.

Tom stop Mrs. M returning to Montgomery. Stop. Please watch for her arrival. Stop. Mrs.I.

She paid her fee, the man sent it, and she received her receipt.

Just because Maroney was in jail didn’t mean Alan Pinkerton had pulled his agents out of Montgomery. The case was still far from solved and no one knew where the money was. Tom was the Pinkerton operative who was working with the Express company. He’d helped build the book on the Moroney’s and he and the remaining agents would know what to do.

When Mrs. Moroney arrived in Montgomery, she was tailed by several agents. All of then expected her to make a bid for the money. But instead of doing that, she and her daughter checked into the Exchange Hotel. She saw a few people, but not many. Her visit was quiet at the least.

She didn’t stay in Montgomery long.

Kate and DeForrest were sitting in her room at the Merchants Hotel. They were discussing the case when there was a knock on the door. Kate answered to find a young boy with a message for her. She tipped the young man and then opened the message he’d brought and read through it.

“The game isn’t over,” she said.

“Oh,” Deforrest said. “What’s going on?”

She handed him the message and he read it.

Mrs I. Stop. Mrs, M returning to Pittsburgh. Stop. Please meet her. Stop. Tom

“You know what I think?” he said.

“What?”

“I think the money is nearby. That’s why she’s coming back. It might have been here all along.”

Kate nodded in agreement. “And here I thought it was because we were friends.”

***

“How was your trip?” Kate asked. She was fully in her guise of Madame Imbert. Then she looked at Mrs. Moroney’s face. It told the whole story. “Dear, you look terrible. Please, sit.” Ever the gracious host, she poured her friend a cup of tea.

“Horrible,” Mrs. Moroney answered as she sat. Taking the cup of tea from Madam Imbert must have made her feel like she’d indeed come home.

“I went to visit several friends,” she went on. “But things changed. They were cordial but very cold to me.”

“Why?”

“They seem convinced Nathan is guilty of stealing the money.”

“Money? What money?” Kate acted like she’d forgotten about that, but now it was time to push it.

Mrs. Moroney had inadvertently let a very large cat out of the bag. By saying it, she’d taken a step towards admitting he’d done it.

“That’s why my husband is in prison. He’s stolen thousands of dollars from the Adams Express Company where he worked.”

Thousands of dollars, is not exactly something to sneeze at even today.

“Oh dear,” Kate said.

This was the first clear cut admission that Nathan was guilty of the thefts. Kate paused, as if thinking of a new course of action. It was actually a brilliant piece of improv. “Would they drop the matter if you gave the money back? I assume you have the money?”

“I do.”

Checkmate, Kate thought.

“Would they drop the charges if the money was returned?”

Mrs. Moroney must have shaken her head. “That money is all I have. It’s all I might ever have. If I lost it, I wouldn’t know what to do.”

Despite trying to keep the conversation going, Mrs. Moroney decided she wanted to write her husband and let him know what had transpired up to that point.

Kate alerted other Pinkerton operatives who intercepted the letter. They opened it, copied it, and then sent it on it way.

Later, Kate sat in her room with DeForrest reading the report. “Either the team in Montgomery missed her moving it or its been here for some time,” she said.

The report included a verbatim transcript of the letter. In it, Mrs. Moroney assured her husband she’d retrieved the money. She went on to say it was safely hidden here in Pittsburgh.

“Maybe it was never in Montgomery,” Deforrest ventured.

Kate had to concede the point. They couldn’t have eyes on her during the whole trip. The agency didn’t have enough people to provide that kind of coverage.

That was yesterday. Now, she sat, drinking tea, and pouring out her heart. Now that she’d confessed to Kate and nothing had happened, Mrs. Moroney talked with her more and more about it. As they spoke, she began to trust Madam Imbert even more. There’s an old expression that goes “Confession is good for the soul.” In Mrs. Moroney’s case, it certainly was. It was almost as if a weight had been lifted off her.

About a week later, she asked Kate, “Would you like to go into New York with me? I want to visit with my husband?”

“I’d would love to,” Kate said.

The following day they left to see Nathan in prison.

Kate must have turned the charm up to the maximum setting. She would later report that, “He was very impressed with me.”

She wasn’t lying.

Nathan told his wife that Madam Imbert was a woman of good character. She could be trusted with anything she was shown or told.

“If you need any help, trust her with it. And please. Consider this,” he told his wife. He probably looked bleakly around at the stone walls before continuing.

The New York jail at the time (I think it still does) had the nickname “The Tombs.” It was a stone structure inspired by Egyptian Architecture; it was far from a comfortable setting. Even then it was overcrowded, food was poor, and it was trying on anyone incarcerated there. It was nothing like today’s American jails. It must have been like being in some wretched third world nation’s idea of a jail.

Seeing the place must have filled Mrs. Moroney with pity for her husband. And she just might do anything he asked.

“What is that?”

“I asked you before. Give my lawyer the money. It’s the only way we can make this thing go away.”

“Nathan,” she whispered. “It’s all I have.”

“I need this to go away. I miss you and Flora so much.”

The thought of her husband in the prison weighed on Mrs. Moroney’s mind. I’m sure she spent an uncomfortable night thinking of it.

At her wit’s end, she confided with Kate/Madam Imbert. “My husband took forty thousand dollars from his company!”

“Is that all?” Kate asked. She downplayed her tone as if this was trivial sum of money.

“He took another ten thousand the year before.”

“I see.”

“There it is. I’ve said it, and I’m glad.” For the first time in days, she smiled. Saying it had freed her soul.

“What does he want done with the money?”

“He has a lawyer. His lawyer says he can make this go away if we turn the money over to him.”

“He must know some people, then.”

“I don’t trust him. I think he’d take the money and we’d never see him or it again.”

“Is the money close by?”

“It’s here in the city. Nathan sent it to me and I hid it.”

No wonder we never saw her move it, Kate thought. DeForrest was right. It’s been here all along.

And that explained why she was in Pittsburgh and came back here again.

“Then this matter can be taken care of quickly.” She saw the look in her friend’s eye. “You must have confidence.”

“Confidence? I’d rather take it and run off myself,” Mrs. Moroney confessed. “It’s all I have. It might be all I ever have again.”

Kate knew this was a high stakes game she was playing. She could still lose. Even with several people following, Mrs. Moroney might lose her tail. She’d then retrieve the money and disappear.

The only cards Kate really held was appealing to her in the name of her incarcerated husband.

“You think Mr. Bangs would steal the money? I don’t think so,” Kate/Madam Imbert said. “Your husband seems a good judge of character. I’m sure he thinks he can be trusted.”

“My husband -“

“You love him and he loves you. Do it for him.”