Last Girls Alive (Detective Katie Scott #4) - Jennifer Chase Page 0,33
tapped a few keys, bringing up several black-and-white photographs.
Katie took a seat next to him and readied her notebook.
“Here is a photograph that was taken by a local photographer, Edison Evans. He took many of the area’s landscapes and buildings. Anyway… this is a photo of Elm Hill Mansion located at 403 Elm Hill Road just after it was built in 1894.”
“I thought it was built in 1895.”
“The house was finished in 1894, but the landscaped grounds weren’t completed until 1895. The property actually takes in 403, 405, and 407 Elm Hill Road, but its official address is 403 Elm Hill Road.”
“Amazing…” Katie said as she studied the photographs, noticing how much smaller the trees were. Each image was from a different angle. The mansion was so beautiful and grand, situated high up on the hilltop. The details of the doors and windows were like something out of a children’s story book with intricately cut flower designs and fringing in common art deco motifs.
There were several photos showing a parlor with a fainting couch and two high-back chairs, an ornate fireplace with the same designs as the windows, and a simple bedroom containing an iron bedframe with a quilt folded neatly across the bottom. Then a photo of two people standing just outside the front door next to one of the main windows on the front porch.
“Are they the original owners?” she asked.
“That’s Emily and Frederick Von Slovnick. They were immigrants who came to this country from Germany. Frederick made his significant amount of money in railroads and the building industry. He built that huge house for Emily where they planned on having many children.”
Katie studied the couple. They stood stiffly next to one another, side by side, arms straight down at their sides, wearing what most likely were their best outfits. Emily had on a dark dress, ankle-length, buttoned up with a light collar, with dark buttoned boots. No jewelry was visible, not even a wedding ring. Frederick wore a loose-fitting dark suit with a light-colored tie and a slim-fitting rounded hat. The couple both looked solemn and serious.
“Are there any photos with their children?”
“That’s where history gets convoluted,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“Emily became pregnant several times, but she never was able to carry the baby to full term. All the babies were stillborn.”
“How awful.”
“But, I couldn’t find any death certificates to support that—until…”
“What do you think happened?”
“Well…” He clicked to more photographs, these showing a horse-drawn carriage pulling a hearse.
“Did they die?”
Shane clicked on a newspaper article dated 1911 from the Sacramento Bee: Couple Dies in Unknown Circumstances: Five baby corpses found buried in backyard.
“I’ve never heard about this before, aside from the usual high school rumors about a woman in a long dress wandering around the grounds like she was searching for something.” She laughed. “When kids got bored of that, no one ever really talked about the place until it was donated for the project to house troubled foster girls.”
“From everything I’ve been able to find out from newspaper articles and family history online, it appeared that Mr. Von Slovnick poisoned his wife’s after-dinner drink and then took his life as well. You would assume because of the loss of the children, but I can’t find actual proof. That drives me crazy.”
“Sounds more like a movie plot.”
“You could see how stories and gossip could easily take on lives of their own over the years.”
“Definitely.” Katie quickly reviewed the photos again. “This is fascinating stuff, but what does it have to do with the foster home?”
“Two things. This is where it gets a little interesting. Here’s the list of owners since the Slovnicks.” He pulled out a piece of paper from a file showing a dozen names and gave it to Katie. “Nothing unusual, except the fact that most only owned the home for short periods of time, a year, three years, and most never lived in it until Sara and Jonathan McKinzie who lived there for almost twenty years. They then sold to MDI, Magnum Development, Incorporated.”
“Do you have any contact information for the McKinzies?”
“Yes and no.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to sound like I’m taking you on a wild goose chase. I couldn’t find anything else about them. It’s almost as if…”
“They’re ghosts,” said Katie. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist. It most likely means that they were bogus names. But why?”
“Keeping identities hidden usually means that they have something to hide…”
“Something criminal,” she said. “Well, thank you, Shane, it’s been interesting as