Let Me Whisper in Your Ear (18 page)

She waited to see if she could get the
Final Jeopardy!
question and then rose and took her plate to the kitchen, rinsing it in the sink. She was about to get undressed for the night when she remembered she had not picked up the mail.

Inside the lobby mailbox, a heavy, legal-sized manila envelope waited. The return address read
ALBERT, HAYDEN AND NEWSOME, COUNSELORS AT LAW
.

As she rode back up the elevator, Laura began to read the letter.

Dear Ms. Walsh:

This is your notice that you have been named the primary beneficiary under the last will and testament of Gwyneth Gilpatric. A copy of the will is enclosed herewith for your review.

63

T
HE COLORFUL
P
ALISADES
Amusement Park website entertained Matthew Voigt for most of the evening before his interview of Emmett Walsh. The site was a fairly elaborate one with a photo gallery, a jukebox, a history of the park, a place where people could share their memories of the park—and even a souvenir shop. He ordered a pair of black Palisades Park baseball caps for himself and Laura.

A transplanted midwesterner, Matthew had never been to the amusement park. Even if he had grown up in the New York metropolitan area, he was too young to have gone there. But he had heard it referred to often.

He clicked on
PARK HISTORY
. He scrolled down each page, reading about the park's inception through to its closing.

The Palisades Park era stretched back to 1898 when the densely wooded acreage overlooking the Hudson River had been fitted with picnic groves and playgrounds to lure riders to the end of the trolley line.

As the century turned, the park was used as a location by the infant motion picture industry, which was then centered in Fort Lee. The famous
Perils of Pauline
was thought to have been shot at the park and Mary Pickford and Buster Keaton made their early two-reelers there.

As the years went by, a bandstand was built, refreshment stands were added and a carousel appeared. In those days the big attraction was balloon ascensions, and flights from Palisades to Times Square earned front-page headlines.

Eventually, the world's largest saltwater pool, 400 feet wide, 600 feet long was built and filled daily with over two million gallons of water pumped up the high bluff from the Hudson River.

In the 1930s, a pair of enterprising show-business brothers named Irving and Jack Rosenthal bought the park and added more rides and replaced the park's green and white color scheme with a wild assortment of colors. The park's publicists claimed that every season three thousand cans of paint in as many as two hundred different hues were used to make the park a riot of color.

Over the years, thousands of people, most of whom lived in the immediate area, were employed at the park during its four-month seasons. For many youngsters, Palisades Park offered their first job. A position was almost guaranteed if you lived in the area and wanted to work. Senior citizens were hired as ticket takers, gatekeepers and concessionaires, giving the park the “Mom and Pop” atmosphere for which it became known. All the old people who collected tickets for the sixteen-week season could collect unemployment when the winter months came.

There was always something going on. Babies were born in the park and people got married on the sky ride or merry-go-round. Once, a jungle ride was built and the monkeys climbed the light cables to escape. The monkeys were found all over town. Press agents used every possible opportunity to thrust the park's name before the public. Two or three special events were held each week, including contests to pick Miss American Teen-Ager, Little Miss America, Miss Polish, Latin, German and Italian America, Miss American Starlet, World's Best-Looking Grandmother and even Miss Fat America and Miss Hot Pants. The pageants became so popular that at one point a sign that framed an entrance to the park read:
THROUGH THESE PORTALS PASS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRLS IN THE WORLD
!

Music was always a part of the park's drawing power, but when the rock-and-roll era began, large crowds of teenagers from the very influential New York City media market flocked to Palisades. Near the end of the “Fabulous Fifties,” “Cousin” Bruce Morrow, a high-profile New York disc jockey, began to do shows at Palisades. His programs broadcast from the park attracted many of the hottest names in show business. Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, Fabian, Little Anthony, Petula Clark, the Jackson Five, Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Fifth Dimension, the Rascals, the Lovin' Spoonful, the Shangri-Las and the Comets all sang their hearts out at Palisades to the delight of their screaming fans.

Advertising for the park floated over the airwaves. Television commercials ran between the hours of three and six o'clock when the kids had arrived home from school. Children would watch their twenty-seven minutes of Huckleberry Hound or the Three Stooges interrupted by five Palisades Park ads. Throughout the metropolitan area, billboards and posters beckoned patrons to “come on over.” Matchbooks featured ads, guaranteeing free admission if presented at the gate. Those who were lucky enough to find the face of Pal, the park's mascot, under the flap would also receive tickets for free rides. Comic books had discount coupons and free admission passes on the back pages.

Irving Rosenthal encouraged the park's association with comic book characters. In a deal he made with Harvey Comics, he changed the old Tunnel of Love into Casper's Ghostland. The popularity of the automobile had lessened the tunnel's attraction to young lovers who wanted to kiss and caress in the darkness. Casper, Wendy the Witch and Spooky the Tough Little Ghost roamed the redesigned attraction. Casper's Ghostland became one of the park's most successful attractions.

Of course, there were less than favorable things that happened at the park, but the publicist learned how to tone down the stories of accidents or violence. He had good relationships with the media, so most negative news was kept out of the newspapers. Palisades Park was fun, fun, fun for generations of families who came from miles around. But as time went on and the crowds grew, local residents began to view the park less favorably. They complained about the bright lights, the noise and the traffic that jammed the streets and blocked their driveways. The high-rise apartments that were beginning to dot the cliffs facing Manhattan offered an opportunity to boost property-tax revenues. When the Palisades Park property was rezoned for high-rise use, the days remaining for the granddaddy of amusement parks were numbered. At the time the park closed, Cliffside Park was collecting $50,000 a year in property taxes from the site. When the first two Winston Tower high-rises were built and occupied on the Palisades Amusement Park acreage, approximately $3 million went into the town coffers.

Feeling melancholy, Matthew left the computer running and went to the refrigerator for a beer.
Why did it always come down to money?
He remembered that, when he was a child, his parents worried about money, as his father's business always seemed to be struggling. His parents fought often about money, very often ending with his mother in tears and his father storming angrily from their small Waukegan house. Young Matthew worried that his parents would divorce, but they never did. To this day, they lived in the house of his childhood, but Matthew didn't like to go back there very much.

He supposed that the situation of his childhood had something to do with why, at thirty-five, he was still single. He had wanted to establish himself, professionally and financially, before he even thought about marriage. That and the fact that no one had ever really lived up to his dream about whom he would want to spend the rest of his life with.

Now there was Laura.

He was extremely attracted to her physically, admired her brightness, and saw a vulnerability in her that touched him deeply. He wanted to get closer to her and get to know her better, but he sensed a reticence on her part. She seemed to be holding herself back. And he wasn't sure what to do to bring her around.

He went back to his desk and played around at the computer screen some more, downloading the Chuck Barris song about Palisades Park from the
JUKE BOX
. Matthew found himself humming the tune and thinking of Laura as he clicked onto
FOND MEMORIES
. Listed there were reminiscences of people who had loved the park.

• “I remember each summer, it was a big treat to go to Palisades Park. My sister and I would look forward to it all winter long.”

• “The ride operators would play matchmaker, pairing together single men and women. I met my first wife on the Himalaya.”

• “My brothers and I would gorge ourselves on those mouthwatering roast beef sandwiches. The Palisades Park french fries were the best.”

• “I've spent my life in a wheelchair. One of my happiest childhood memories is being bused to the park by off-duty police officers and being given free tickets for rides and food.”

• “It was such a big thrill when I won by throwing that Ping-Pong ball into the narrow opening of that fishbowl filled with colored water and a single goldfish. But my parents made me dump the fish into the water at Jungleland. I still I have the fishbowl.”

Matthew made special note of the next entry.

• “I lived next door to the park, in Fort Lee, so I got to spend a lot of time there. The last summer that it was open, I used to think it was so cool that the guy who operated the Cyclone would give me free rides after the park closed for the night, if I'd just run and get him Cokes or cigarettes during the day when he couldn't leave his post. Of course that was when little kids had no problem buying cigarettes. Anyway, I used to feel so special. Then I found out that the Cyclone guy had lots of kids working for him.”

Something to ask Laura's father about tomorrow.

64

Thursday, January 6

L
AURA STOPPED AT
Dunkin' Donuts, picked up a cup of coffee and a low-fat blueberry muffin, and walked the last few blocks to the Broadcast Center, dreading the call she would make when she got to her office. Did Detective Ortiz know about Gwyneth's will? Was that why he wanted to talk to her?

She was still in absolute shock over the lawyer's letter. What had she done to deserve Gwyneth's bequest? Laura hardly knew Gwyneth Gilpatric, really, and although she had been flattered by the anchorwoman's attention, she had never quite understood why Gwyneth had singled her out. Laura liked to think that she held few illusions about herself. She knew she was bright and hardworking and had some talent, but she didn't consider herself all that outstanding, considering the highly gifted people she worked with every day. Most of them had keen minds and some of them were driven to work even harder than she did, totally sacrificing their personal lives for the sake of their professional careers.

Why had Gwyneth focused on her? Why had she left her a fortune? It was unbelievable, really, like winning the lottery!

Of course, it will be great to have all that money,
she thought, as her gloved hand reached beneath her wispy bangs and rubbed the scar on her forehead. The first thing she would do was schedule the expensive elective plastic surgery to wipe away the painful reminder of Emmett's anger.

Worrying about the rent and bills would be, incredibly, a thing of the past. She wouldn't have to budget, wouldn't have to carefully calculate how much of her credit card bills to pay off each month. She could afford to live anywhere she wanted, even if she chose not to live in Gwyneth's opulent penthouse. She could sell it and find a place of her own choosing, a smaller apartment that fit her better. Or maybe she would move into Gwyneth's for a while, and see what it was like to live as only a very small number of people were privileged to live.

Laura could do anything she wanted and the realization of the infinite possibilities of that fact was only slowly seeping into her mind.

The biting January wind whipped off the Hudson River, blowing across Laura's exposed face and temporarily distracting her from the thoughts of what Gwyneth's bequest would mean for her. She was chilled to the bone and cursed herself for not bothering to wear a hat.

Gratefully, she reached the heavy revolving door to the warm Broadcast Center lobby. She greeted the receptionist and the uniformed guards, slipped her identification card across the security scanner and hurried to the elevator. Matthew Voigt, his own Styrofoam cup of coffee in hand, greeted her as the elevator doors slid open.

“I just saw the crew downstairs in the cafeteria. We can leave in about twenty minutes.”

“Fine,” Laura answered. “I have a phone call I have to make and then I'll be ready to go.”

She didn't take off her coat when she got to her office. Slipping off the lid of the steaming cup of coffee, Laura took several sips to fortify herself. Then she dialed the number.

“Twentieth Precinct.”

“Detective Ortiz, please.”

Laura waited.

“Ortiz here.”

“Detective Ortiz? This is Laura Walsh returning your call.”

“Oh, yes, Miss Walsh. Thank you for getting back to me so promptly. I hope you can help me with something.”

“Surely, if I can.”

“In going through some of Miss Gilpatric's papers, I've come across the name Emmett Walsh. Before I ran a national computer search, I thought I'd try you and see if that name means anything to you.”

Laura's heart pounded and she forgot completely about being cold.

“Miss Walsh?”

“My father's name is Emmett Walsh.”

“Then he knew Gwyneth Gilpatric also?”

“Not as far as I know,” Laura answered, puzzled. “Of course, he knew
of
her from
Hourglass
and I spoke of her sometimes to him, but they didn't have any personal contact.”

“He never met her?”