her at the Hotel Alms.
When he arrived he found the door to her suite open. A valise was open on the bed, crammed with clothes and toiletries. “I’m going away,” she explained. “I’m going to Michigan.” She planned to be gone for at least a week, and it was imperative that Truesdale complete his assignment soon; he needed to kill Remus before the divorce trial started on October 6. He should call the Hotel Alms regularly to inquire if she was back, and they would meet again soon.
After this conversation, Truesdale returned to Hamilton, Ohio, where he knew Remus had some business. He watched Remus get into a limousine and head to the Grand Hotel, well known for providing bootleg liquor and subterranean rooms for clandestine deals.
He called the Alms Hotel and discovered that Imogene had returned. Wait there, she told Truesdale. She would meet him in Hamilton that evening in front of the Rentschler Building, at the corner of Second and High Streets. Midnight, sharp.
* * *
—
At the appointed hour, as Truesdale walked toward Imogene, he noticed a man across the street, tall and broad and backlit by the moon.
“Is that man with you?” Truesdale asked.
“He is,” Imogene said. “That’s Franklin Dodge. It’s the same man who’s to give you five thousand dollars.”
Imogene and Truesdale entered the Grand Hotel to scan the register, checking for Remus’s name or a name written in his handwriting. They found neither, so they decided to wait outside; hopefully they would catch him coming or going.
Within a moment a blue coupe pulled up next to Dodge, idling in the street. Imogene excused herself and walked over, poking her head into the car. When she returned to Truesdale she was carrying a pistol.
“If he should come up here,” she said, “I’ll shoot him.”
They sat on a concrete block and talked for a while longer, looking up and down the street, monitoring everyone who approached the hotel. Truesdale had a sudden and disturbing thought: Imogene never intended to pay him. She had never mentioned any associates besides Franklin Dodge, and yet there was a carful of men across the street who were aware of their plans. In fact, at this point, it was fair to assume that Imogene was planning to double-cross him in some way, killing him to ensure his silence or turning him in to the police, anonymously, as a hired killer. He had failed to execute the plan on her schedule. He knew too much and had done too little.
As they talked, Truesdale watched her play with the gun in her lap, turning it over, running a finger along the barrel. He felt a hot stab of fear.
“If I see him now,” Imogene repeated, “I will kill him myself.”
They sat and waited, to no avail. Imogene decided to return to Cincinnati with Dodge. Truesdale was to stay behind and keep watch, and come to the Hotel Alms the following day.
Instead, Truesdale went to the Hotel Sinton to tell Remus of his wife’s plans.
* * *
—
When Truesdale finished telling his story, Remus jumped up from his chair. “He started raving,” Truesdale later said, “and I didn’t know what was the matter with the man….I thought that the man would go crazy, he gripped his hands, the perspiration burst out of his forehead, his eyes bulged out, and he run across the room like he was going to jump out of the window.”
In that moment Truesdale didn’t know which Remus, Imogene or George, was more dangerous.
Q. Mrs. Bachman, I am going to call your attention to the 5th day of October. Where were you that day?
A. I was at the Hotel Alms.
Q. During the evening of October 5, did Mrs. Remus leave the rooms?
A. Yes, sir, she left the Hotel Alms around 7 o’clock.
Q. Did she make a statement of any kind?
A. When she left she made this remark—that she was going out on an errand and she would let me know the next day the outcome of that errand; it would be very valuable to her if it materialized.
Q. That closes your answer, doesn’t it?
A. Yes, sir, that is all she said.
AT 10 P.M., A few hours after Harry Truesdale left his suite at the Sinton, Remus called his driver, George Klug, for a ride back to the Price Hill mansion. Remus was quiet until they pulled up into the driveway, at which point he gave Klug an order: “Be here about seven o’clock. You will take me to the Alms Hotel.