May 15, 2025 • 9 mins
In the heart of New York, a corporate lawyer plunges eighteen stories from the ominously named Black Eagle Building. Police quickly rule it a suicide, but Molly Morgenthau Babbits, an audacious part-time detective, isnt so easily convinced. The deceased, Hollings Harland, was rumored to be involved in a covert organization controlling the copper market, and was on the brink of being exposed. Just before his death, Harland had a heated argument with the affluent Johnston Barker, another suspected member of the secretive organization. Could Harland have been considering defection? Or was there something more sinister at play? With the help of an insider at the Black Eagle, Molly dives headfirst into her own unofficial investigation, suspecting a foul play murder.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter twenty one of The Black Ego Mystery. This is
a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Read by Mike overby Midland, Washington, dedicated to UNI. The
(00:20):
Black Ego Mystery by Geraldine Bonner, Chapter twenty one, Molly
ends the story. They all came back on Wednesday night,
late in the small hours. I had a wire from
Babbitts and Gosh. As I sat up waiting for him,
I thought I'd die right there on my own parlor carpet.
(00:42):
For of course, I supposed she'd tell them what I'd done,
and he was coming straight home to divorce me. First off,
when he came in, I was afraid to move. Then,
when I got a good look at his face, I
saw he didn't know. He was so crazy with joy
and triumph. He didn't notice how I acted trembly and
excited about the things that didn't matter. How did she
(01:04):
get there? What made her go? Were the questions I
was keen to have answered. Did it off on her own?
Pat recognized a voice on the phone, instinct knew all
along something was wrong. And just rushed off without thinking
of anything. She was a tip topper, wonderful girl. Seemed
almost as if she was clairvoyant, Didn't I think so? Yes?
I did, But maybe when it was your father you
(01:24):
felt that way. And I sank back against the cushions
of the Davenport, weak in the knees and swallowing down
a lump in my throat as big as a new potato.
The next day I had a letter from her that
made me sick, gratitude bubbling out of every line, and
saying she'd told Jack and how never as long as
either of them lived would they reveal it to a soul.
That made me sicker, the two of them down on
(01:47):
their bended knees. I've lied in my life, and though
it's come back on me like a bad dream, I'd
been able to bear it. But having two people like
that ready to worship you because you did something that
you didn't do would take the spirit out of Theodore Roosevelt.
Then came the great excitement, the case going to the
public and Babbits's getting his big story. It made a
(02:08):
worse uproar than the suicide and disappearance. The city was stunned,
and thrilled and everything else it could be, not a man,
woman or child, but was reading the dispatch and asking
you if you'd ever heard of such an awful thing,
and enjoying every word of it. Babbitts's picture was all
in the papers and a raise. Well, I guess so
it would have been the proudest moment of my life.
(02:30):
But who can be proud when they're full up with
nothing but guilty conscience? Not me anyway. Even when Babbitts
came home on Friday night with a set of black
links furs, carrying them himself and putting them on me,
I felt no joy. Can you understand it? Having a
secret from the one you loved best, and not knowing
if he knew that secret, whether he wouldn't drop you
out of his arms like a live coal, and you'd
(02:52):
see the love dying from his face. Oh it was awful.
I had to turn away from him to the mirror,
getting up the right smile for a first when a
rope of pearls wouldn't have lifted the misery off me.
Someday Jack asked us to his place for dinner, just
us too, in Miss Whitehall, all the way down town
Babbitts had wondered why it was only Miss Whitehall. Sort
(03:12):
of funny he didn't include mister George, who was often there,
and even the old man, seeing it was to be
a dinner of the Harland Case outfit. I had my
own ideas on the subject, and they made me limp.
Sitting small and peaked beside Babbitts with my hands damp
and clammy in my new white gloves. It was a
swell dinner, the finest things to eat I ever had.
(03:33):
Even there, Miss Whitehall all in black with her neck
bear and Jack in his dress suit. Where such a
grand pair. I'd have enjoyed the mere sight of them,
only for that terrible secret. It wasn't till the end
of the dinner Old David gone into the kitchen that
the thing I'd been waiting for came out. Jack's face
told me it was coming. Happiness and pride were shining
(03:55):
from it like a light. He'd asked us there, his
best and truest friends, to tell us before anyone else,
that he and Miss Whitehall were going to be married.
They looked across the table at each other, a beautiful
beaming look, and Babbitts with his mouth open, looked at them,
and I looked down at my plate, where the ice
cream was melting in a pink pool. Then Jack poured
(04:18):
champagne into our glasses, and raising them high, we drank
their health and then clinked the rims together and laughed
and wished them joy. It ought to have been perfectly lovely,
and would have been if that fiendish, guilty conscience of
mine could only have gone to sleep for a few minutes.
And then came the awful and unexpected. I didn't think
he'd dare to do it, but he did, turning to
(04:40):
me with his glass in his hand and his face
so kind. It made me melt like the ice cream.
Jack said, and there's gonna be another health drunk Molli's
Molly Babbitts, the best friend any man and woman ever had,
the passint who did the biggest thing in the whole
Holland case. He wasn't going to tell. He knew enough
(05:00):
for that. He knew that Babbits wasn't on, but he
wanted me to understand. I looked at their faces, Jack
with its grateful message and Carroll's sang the same, and
Babbits's red with pride and joy. Then I couldn't bear it,
Feeling queer and weak, I sat dumb, not touching my glass,
looking at the plate. Why, Molly said, babbits surprised. Aren't
(05:24):
you going to answer? No, I said, suddenly, not till
I've told something first. I guess I looked as cheerful
as the skeletons they used to have at feasts in
foreign countries. Anyway, I saw them all amazed, their eyes
staring on me. I stiffened up and set both my
hands hard on the edge of the table and looked
at Carrol. My lips were so shaky I could hardly
(05:46):
get out the words you're all wrong, You've made a mistake.
I didn't do it for you the way you think I.
I turned to Jack, and the tears began to spill
out of my eyes. I did it for him me,
he exclaimed, Yes, you. We swore to be friends once,
and that's what I am. I saw you were going
to tell her. I thought it would ruin you, and
(06:08):
I knew I couldn't stop you, so so as I
didn't matter, I did it myself before you could. He
pushed back his chair, all stirred and pale. Carol, with
a catch of her breath, said my name, just Molly,
nothing more. But Babbitts, who didn't know where he was at,
cried out, did what for heaven's sake, what's it all about? Then?
(06:33):
I told him the whole thing out. It came, with
tears and sobs, all to him, every word of it,
with not a voice to interrupt. And when it was done,
down went my head to the table with my hair
and the ice cream. Well, what do you think happened?
Was he mad? Did he say you're a false and
deceitful woman? Be gone? Oh he didn't, he didn't. He
(06:58):
got up and came around the and Carol and Jack
slipped away somewhere and left us alone. Afterward in the parlor,
me a sight, with my nose red and the ice
cream only half out of my hair. We talked it
all out and they, oh, well, they said a lot
of things. I can't tell you what, too many and
sort of affecting. It made me feel awful, uncomfortable, not
knowing what to say. But Babbitts, adored it, couldn't get
(07:20):
enough of it, just sat there nodding like the Chinese
image on the mantelpiece. While those two fine people sat
and threw bouquets at his wife. On the way to
the street, we didn't say much, walking close together, hand
tucked in arm, but suddenly, up under one of those
big arc lights in Gramercy Park, he stopped, short and
(07:41):
looking strange and solemn, gave me a kiss, a good
loud smack, instaid sort of husky. I love you more
this evening morning, Dew than I ever did since the
day I first met you. Well, that's the end. Jack
and Carol are going to be married this spring and
go to Fire Hill Babbitts and I have a standing
(08:02):
invitation down there for every Sunday and all summer if
we want. There's a great lawsuit started to prove the
claims of missus Whitehall and Carol as Johnston Barker's wife
and child. He died without a will, so in the
end they'll get most all he left, piles and piles
of money. It's in the Whitney office. And last time
I saw mister Whitney, he told me Carol would someday
(08:22):
be one of the richest women in New York. It
won't spoil her. She's not that kind a grand fine woman.
True blue, every inch of her. I've come to know
her well, and I'm satisfied she's just the girl I
would have chosen for Jack Ready, queer, isn't it the
way things come about? Here was I searching for a
wife for him, turning them all down, and he goes
(08:44):
and stumbles on the only one in the country. I'd think,
good enough. That's the way it is with life. When
it looks most like a muddle, it's going to be straightest.
It sure is sort of confusing, but it's a good
old world after all. End of Chapter twenty, end of
The Black Eagle Mystery by Geraldine Bonner
Chapter twenty one of The Black Ego Mystery. This is
a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Read by Mike overby Midland, Washington, dedicated to UNI. The
(00:20):
Black Ego Mystery by Geraldine Bonner, Chapter twenty one, Molly
ends the story. They all came back on Wednesday night,
late in the small hours. I had a wire from
Babbitts and Gosh. As I sat up waiting for him,
I thought I'd die right there on my own parlor carpet.
(00:42):
For of course, I supposed she'd tell them what I'd done,
and he was coming straight home to divorce me. First off,
when he came in, I was afraid to move. Then,
when I got a good look at his face, I
saw he didn't know. He was so crazy with joy
and triumph. He didn't notice how I acted trembly and
excited about the things that didn't matter. How did she
(01:04):
get there? What made her go? Were the questions I
was keen to have answered. Did it off on her own?
Pat recognized a voice on the phone, instinct knew all
along something was wrong. And just rushed off without thinking
of anything. She was a tip topper, wonderful girl. Seemed
almost as if she was clairvoyant, Didn't I think so? Yes?
I did, But maybe when it was your father you
(01:24):
felt that way. And I sank back against the cushions
of the Davenport, weak in the knees and swallowing down
a lump in my throat as big as a new potato.
The next day I had a letter from her that
made me sick, gratitude bubbling out of every line, and
saying she'd told Jack and how never as long as
either of them lived would they reveal it to a soul.
That made me sicker, the two of them down on
(01:47):
their bended knees. I've lied in my life, and though
it's come back on me like a bad dream, I'd
been able to bear it. But having two people like
that ready to worship you because you did something that
you didn't do would take the spirit out of Theodore Roosevelt.
Then came the great excitement, the case going to the
public and Babbits's getting his big story. It made a
(02:08):
worse uproar than the suicide and disappearance. The city was stunned,
and thrilled and everything else it could be, not a man,
woman or child, but was reading the dispatch and asking
you if you'd ever heard of such an awful thing,
and enjoying every word of it. Babbitts's picture was all
in the papers and a raise. Well, I guess so
it would have been the proudest moment of my life.
(02:30):
But who can be proud when they're full up with
nothing but guilty conscience? Not me anyway. Even when Babbitts
came home on Friday night with a set of black
links furs, carrying them himself and putting them on me,
I felt no joy. Can you understand it? Having a
secret from the one you loved best, and not knowing
if he knew that secret, whether he wouldn't drop you
out of his arms like a live coal, and you'd
(02:52):
see the love dying from his face. Oh it was awful.
I had to turn away from him to the mirror,
getting up the right smile for a first when a
rope of pearls wouldn't have lifted the misery off me.
Someday Jack asked us to his place for dinner, just
us too, in Miss Whitehall, all the way down town
Babbitts had wondered why it was only Miss Whitehall. Sort
(03:12):
of funny he didn't include mister George, who was often there,
and even the old man, seeing it was to be
a dinner of the Harland Case outfit. I had my
own ideas on the subject, and they made me limp.
Sitting small and peaked beside Babbitts with my hands damp
and clammy in my new white gloves. It was a
swell dinner, the finest things to eat I ever had.
(03:33):
Even there, Miss Whitehall all in black with her neck
bear and Jack in his dress suit. Where such a
grand pair. I'd have enjoyed the mere sight of them,
only for that terrible secret. It wasn't till the end
of the dinner Old David gone into the kitchen that
the thing I'd been waiting for came out. Jack's face
told me it was coming. Happiness and pride were shining
(03:55):
from it like a light. He'd asked us there, his
best and truest friends, to tell us before anyone else,
that he and Miss Whitehall were going to be married.
They looked across the table at each other, a beautiful
beaming look, and Babbitts with his mouth open, looked at them,
and I looked down at my plate, where the ice
cream was melting in a pink pool. Then Jack poured
(04:18):
champagne into our glasses, and raising them high, we drank
their health and then clinked the rims together and laughed
and wished them joy. It ought to have been perfectly lovely,
and would have been if that fiendish, guilty conscience of
mine could only have gone to sleep for a few minutes.
And then came the awful and unexpected. I didn't think
he'd dare to do it, but he did, turning to
(04:40):
me with his glass in his hand and his face
so kind. It made me melt like the ice cream.
Jack said, and there's gonna be another health drunk Molli's
Molly Babbitts, the best friend any man and woman ever had,
the passint who did the biggest thing in the whole
Holland case. He wasn't going to tell. He knew enough
(05:00):
for that. He knew that Babbits wasn't on, but he
wanted me to understand. I looked at their faces, Jack
with its grateful message and Carroll's sang the same, and
Babbits's red with pride and joy. Then I couldn't bear it,
Feeling queer and weak, I sat dumb, not touching my glass,
looking at the plate. Why, Molly said, babbits surprised. Aren't
(05:24):
you going to answer? No, I said, suddenly, not till
I've told something first. I guess I looked as cheerful
as the skeletons they used to have at feasts in
foreign countries. Anyway, I saw them all amazed, their eyes
staring on me. I stiffened up and set both my
hands hard on the edge of the table and looked
at Carrol. My lips were so shaky I could hardly
(05:46):
get out the words you're all wrong, You've made a mistake.
I didn't do it for you the way you think I.
I turned to Jack, and the tears began to spill
out of my eyes. I did it for him me,
he exclaimed, Yes, you. We swore to be friends once,
and that's what I am. I saw you were going
to tell her. I thought it would ruin you, and
(06:08):
I knew I couldn't stop you, so so as I
didn't matter, I did it myself before you could. He
pushed back his chair, all stirred and pale. Carol, with
a catch of her breath, said my name, just Molly,
nothing more. But Babbitts, who didn't know where he was at,
cried out, did what for heaven's sake, what's it all about? Then?
(06:33):
I told him the whole thing out. It came, with
tears and sobs, all to him, every word of it,
with not a voice to interrupt. And when it was done,
down went my head to the table with my hair
and the ice cream. Well, what do you think happened?
Was he mad? Did he say you're a false and
deceitful woman? Be gone? Oh he didn't, he didn't. He
(06:58):
got up and came around the and Carol and Jack
slipped away somewhere and left us alone. Afterward in the parlor,
me a sight, with my nose red and the ice
cream only half out of my hair. We talked it
all out and they, oh, well, they said a lot
of things. I can't tell you what, too many and
sort of affecting. It made me feel awful, uncomfortable, not
knowing what to say. But Babbitts, adored it, couldn't get
(07:20):
enough of it, just sat there nodding like the Chinese
image on the mantelpiece. While those two fine people sat
and threw bouquets at his wife. On the way to
the street, we didn't say much, walking close together, hand
tucked in arm, but suddenly, up under one of those
big arc lights in Gramercy Park, he stopped, short and
(07:41):
looking strange and solemn, gave me a kiss, a good
loud smack, instaid sort of husky. I love you more
this evening morning, Dew than I ever did since the
day I first met you. Well, that's the end. Jack
and Carol are going to be married this spring and
go to Fire Hill Babbitts and I have a standing
(08:02):
invitation down there for every Sunday and all summer if
we want. There's a great lawsuit started to prove the
claims of missus Whitehall and Carol as Johnston Barker's wife
and child. He died without a will, so in the
end they'll get most all he left, piles and piles
of money. It's in the Whitney office. And last time
I saw mister Whitney, he told me Carol would someday
(08:22):
be one of the richest women in New York. It
won't spoil her. She's not that kind a grand fine woman.
True blue, every inch of her. I've come to know
her well, and I'm satisfied she's just the girl I
would have chosen for Jack Ready, queer, isn't it the
way things come about? Here was I searching for a
wife for him, turning them all down, and he goes
(08:44):
and stumbles on the only one in the country. I'd think,
good enough. That's the way it is with life. When
it looks most like a muddle, it's going to be straightest.
It sure is sort of confusing, but it's a good
old world after all. End of Chapter twenty, end of
The Black Eagle Mystery by Geraldine Bonner
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