The Hindenburg Murders
Praise for The Titanic Murders…
“Collins does a fine job of insinuating a mystery into a world-famous disaster… [He] manage[s] to raise plenty of goosebumps before the ship goes down for the count… Whether your interest is disasters, forgotten writers, or good murder mysteries, Collins is able to deliver the goods.”
—
Mystery News
… and for Max Allan Collins
“No one can twist you through a maze with the intensity and suspense of Max Allan Collins.”
—
Clive Cussler
“Max Allan Collins blends fact and fiction like no other writer.”
—Andrew Vachss, author of
Flood
“A terrific writer!”
—
Mickey Spillane
“Max Allan Collins masterfully blends fact and fiction… Transcends the historical thriller.”
—
Jeffery Deaver
“Collins displays a compelling talent for flowing narrative and concise, believable dialogue.”
—
Library Journal
“No one fictionalizes real-life mysteries better.”
—Armchair Detective
“An uncanny ability to blend fact and fiction.”
—South Bend Tribune
“Collins has an outwardly artless style that conceals a great deal of art.”
—
New York Times
“Collins’ blending of fact and fancy is masterful—there’s no better word for it. And his ability to sustain suspense, even when the outcome is known, is the mark of an exceptional storyteller.”
—
San Diego Union-Tribune
“Probably no one except E. L. Doctorow in
Ragtime
has so successfully blended real characters and events with fictional ones. The versatile Collins is an excellent storyteller.”
—
The Tennessean
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Text copyright © 1999 Max Allan Collins
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Thomas & Mercer
P.O. Box 400818
Las Vegas, NV 89140
ISBN-10: 1612185177
EAN-13: 9781612185170
To Joe Pittman—for helping keep the Collins balloon aloft
CONTENTS
ONE: HOW THE HINDENBURG VOYAGE BEGAN IN A HOTEL, AND LESLIE CHARTERIS MADE NEW FRIENDS
TWO: HOW THE HINDENBURG DISEMBARKED, AND LESLIE CHARTERIS MET TWO WOMEN
THREE: HOW THE HINDENBURG FLOATED INTO THE NIGHT, AND LESLIE CHARTERIS SHARED A CABIN
FOUR: HOW THE HINDENBURG DELIVERED THE MAIL, AND LESLIE CHARTERIS SLEPT ALONE
FIVE: HOW THE HINDENBURG MISPLACED A PASSENGER, AND LESLIE CHARTERIS WALKED THE PLANK
SIX: HOW THE HINDENBURG’S DOCTOR PRESCRIBED SLIPPERS, AND LESLIE CHARTERIS WAS SUMMONED
SEVEN: HOW THE HINDENBURG LOST CONTACT WITH HOME, AND LESLIE CHARTERIS WAS RECRUITED
EIGHT: HOW THE HINDENBURG CONSERVED WATER, AND LESLIE CHARTERIS FOUND A CABIN MATE
DAY THREE: WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 1937
NINE: HOW THE HINDENBURG PROVIDED A PUZZLE, AND LESLIE CHARTERIS POSTED CARDS
TEN: HOW THE HINDENBURG SHADOWED THE TITANIC, AND LESLIE CHARTERIS MET A FAN
ELEVEN: HOW THE HINDENBURG’S ERSTWHILE CAPTAIN ENTERTAINED, AND LESLIE CHARTERIS HAD A CALLER
DAY FOUR: THURSDAY, MAY 6, 1937
TWELVE: HOW THE HINDENBURG BUZZED BOSTON, AND LESLIE CHARTERIS TUGGED A PANT LEG
THIRTEEN: HOW THE HINDENBURG TOURED NEW YORK CITY, AND LESLIE CHARTERIS SPENT HIS MARKS
FOURTEEN: HOW THE HINDENBURG MADE A DETOUR, AND LESLIE CHARTERIS PLAYED A HUNCH
FIFTEEN: HOW THE HINDENBURG ALIGHTED AT LAKEHURST, AND LESLIE CHARTERIS DEBARKED
SIXTEEN: HOW THE HINDENBURG SMOLDERED, AND LESLIE CHARTERIS BURNED
Though this work is fanciful, an underpinning of history supports the events depicted in these pages. The author intends no disrespect for the real people who inspired the characterizations herein, nor to take lightly the disaster that took so many lives, and brought an end to the golden age of the airship.
“A finger of intense radiance appeared suddenly on one of her sides, unfolded upwards with a swift blossoming, and pointed into the sky with a burst of glare….”
—Leslie Charteris
“It must have been an infernal machine.”
—Ernst Lehmann,
Hindenburg
captain, from his deathbed
DAY ONE
MONDAY, MAY 3, 1937
ONE
HOW THE HINDENBURG VOYAGE BEGAN IN A HOTEL, AND LESLIE CHARTERIS MADE NEW FRIENDS
D
ESPITE THE ELEGANT SURROUNDINGS, IT
had all been vaguely demeaning—thirty-six well-heeled passengers scheduled to board the airship
Hindenburg,
herded into the main dining room of the Frankfurter Hof by Zeppelin Company representatives, quasi-military in their midnight-blue uniforms. There amid the hotel’s tall mirrors and burnished mahogany columns, under the unforgiving eyes of customs officials in Nazi-style black-and-gray uniforms, baggage was screened by bulky X-ray machines, suitcase linings frequently knifed loose; sealed packages were rudely unwrapped, shaving kits disassembled, bon voyage candy boxes slitted open, perfume bottles uncorked, flashbulbs and flashlights and other dry-cell battery-operated gizmos seized like contraband. The suspects at the end of a murder mystery were treated with more dignity.
That was a subject with which Leslie Charteris was well acquainted—murder mysteries—as the dapper Englishman was the creator of the popular “Saint” stories. At a muscular
six-foot-two, with his monocle, Clark Gable mustache, and jet-black, brushed-back hair, Charteris could easily have posed for book-jacket representations of his fictional Saint—Simon Templar, the “modern Robin Hood” who extracted booty (and vengeance) from criminals.
Despite the urbane veneer, however, the man in the chalk-line oxford-gray herringbone two-button suit conveyed an unmistakable air of the exotic. His thirtieth birthday little more than a week away, Charteris had been born in the British colony of Singapore, his mother English, his father a wealthy Chinese surgeon, which lent his handsome features a distinctly Eurasian cast.
He’d been born Leslie Charles Bowyer Yin (a descendant of Shang dynasty emperors) but had legally changed his name to that of his literary pseudonym, ten years or so before; “Charteris” was an expansion of “Charles,” but also a nod to notorious gambler and rake Colonel Francis Charteris, founding member of the Hellfire Club.
Charteris was doing his best not to be annoyed; the day outside the hotel was a dreary, overcast one, drizzling intermittently, discouraging excursions to the Altermarkt or the Liebfrauenkirche or other Frankfurt tourist attractions. Several hours ago, the passengers had been gathered here and required to read and abide by a compendium of regulations far more restrictive than those of any ocean liner. And it was now four o’clock
P.M
., as this humiliating procedure dragged on—interesting treatment for passengers paying $400 one-way passage to America.
His two suitcases passed inspection, but there’d been a tense moment at the inspection table when the young Aryan customs agent had asked the author in perfect but stiltedly spoken English, “Are you a Communist or anarchist?”
And Charteris had replied, “Are there any other choices?”
This seemed to puzzle the lad, who was in the process of checking the author’s passport and tickets, and Charteris had done his best to amplify: “Communists rarely wear suits from Savile Row, and as for anarchists, everybody knows they can be identified by their untidy whiskers and the round black bombs behind their backs—the ones with the sputtering fuses?”
The young Aryan was frowning now, but a trim, somber gentleman in his early forties, his graying blond hair combed back on an oblong head, stepped forward.
“This gentleman is a friend of mine,” said the formidable fellow—whom Charteris had never seen before in his life.
The young customs agent nodded curtly, as if to a superior officer, though Charteris’s rescuer, despite an obvious military bearing, wore a nondescript three-piece brown business suit.
As the pair of bags were tagged and stickered (a bold “C” for Charteris), the author was passed through. He sought out his savior—some passengers were pacing, others had taken seats at the linen-covered tables—and spied the gent standing by himself near an ornately gilt-framed mirror.
“Thank you,” Charteris said to the man. “Comes in handy having a friend in high places, doesn’t it? By the way, what’s your name?”