Free Stolen Away by Max Allan Collins Page A

second letter.”
    The usually unflappable Irey sat up; Wilson was already sitting forward.
    Lindbergh handed Irey another white bond sheet, written on both sides in ink. Again, I read over Irey’s shoulder:
    Dear Sir. We have warned you note to make
anyding Public also notify the Polise
now you have to take consequences, ths
means we will have to hold the baby untill everyding
is quiet. We can note make any appointment
just now. We know very well what it
means to us. Is it rely necessary to
make a world affair out off this, or to
get your baby back as sun as possible.
To settle those affair in a quick way
will be better for both seits. Dont be
afraid about the baby two ladys
keeping care of it day and night.
We also will feed him
according to the diet.
     
    Below this were the words “Singtuere on all letters” and an arrow pointing to a symbol similar to the one on the first note, but in this case the blue circles were distinct. The central, smaller circle was again blood-red; and three holes had again been punched.
    Irey turned the letter over and on the other side it said:
    We are interested to send him back in
gut health. Ouer ransom was made aus
for 50000 $ but now we have to take
another person to it and probable have
to keep the baby for a longer time as we
expected. So the amount will be 70,000—
20.000 in 50 $ bills 25.000 $ in 20 $ bills
15000 $ in 10 $ bills and 10.000 in 5$ bills
don’t mark any bills or take them
from one serial noumer. We will
inform you latter were to deliver the
mony. but we will note do so
until the Police is out of ths case
and the pappers are quiet.
The Kidnaping we preparet
for years, so we are preparet
for everyding.
     
    “When did you receive this?” Irey asked.
    “Yesterday,” Lindbergh said.
    Irey passed the note to Wilson, who’d already leaned over to read it, but now read it again. “I’m no handwriting expert,” Irey said, “but that does look very similar. As does the distinctive symbol.”
    “It’s not exactly the same,” I pointed out.
    “But close,” Irey said. “Can I see the first note again?”
    Lindbergh obliged him.
    “They contain many of the same misspellings,” Irey said, pointing to the first note. “Good is ‘g-u-t,’ money is ‘m-o-n-y.’”
    “Signature is misspelled in both notes,” I pointed out, “but in two different ways.”
    Wilson said, to nobody in particular, “A German, you think?”
    “Possibly,” Irey said. “Probably.”
    “Or somebody trying to sound German,” I said.
    Lindbergh’s eyes narrowed. “Why would anyone do that?”
    I shrugged. “Same reason you’d try to disguise your handwriting. To leave a false trail. The war’s not that distant in the American mind—Germans make swell fall guys.”
    “You might be right, Mr. Heller,” Irey admitted. “There’s another oddity, here—particularly in the second note. Small, easy words like ‘not’ and ‘soon’ and ‘hole’ are misspelled; but larger, more difficult words, such as ‘consequences,’ ‘appointment,’ ‘interested,’ among others, are spelled correctly.”
    “So maybe somebody’s posing,” I said. “Maybe it’s somebody literate playing semiliterate German immigrant.”
    “Or,” Wilson offered, “a semiliterate German using an English/German dictionary…looking up only the hard words.”
    “Could be that,” I admitted.
    Lindbergh seemed to be enjoying listening to some real cops discuss the case; Schwarzkopf, not surprisingly, hadn’t contributed a goddamn thing. His face twitched with frustration.
    “What interests me more than the way the letter looks,” Lindbergh said, “is what it says. It says my son is in good health, and that his abductors saw the diet Anne and I gave to the papers, and they’re following it. That’s good news.”
    “They’re also hitting you up for another twenty grand,” I said.
    “That doesn’t concern me,” Lindbergh said.
    I didn’t know whether that meant that he was rolling in