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A shadow of confusion passed over Pitt’s eyes While he couldn’t recount the names of the other miners, he did remember none of them were named Bell “You’ve lost me”
“I’m not surprised Are you faency?”
“Yes I know they were as big and famous as Pinkerton”
“In an age when hotels had their own in-house detectives, and railways hired ar business around the ive up! Never!’ Isaac Bell was the lead investigator Perhaps the greatest detective of his—or any—generation”
“Okay,” Pitt said cautiously “I don’t doubt that, but you need to believethe byzaniule it aboard the Titanic I lived that project for what seemed like the better part of a year There were no private investigators involved”
“Mr Bell kept his presence out of all records He even rewrote Brewster’s notes so that his naed”
Pitt’s face still showed nothing but confusion
“Let me explain it this way, Mr Pitt”
“Dirk,” he said absently “Please”
“Sure, Dirk Okay So, Isaac Bell, over the course of his long career, cas that could ruin family dynasties, destroy the credibility of companies and even nations, and reveal hidden motives and behind-the-scenes players of some of the most pivotal events of the first half of the twentieth century He had all this inforar Hoover, the FBI’s first director, Bell had no interest in furthering hih blackmail or intimidation He was just a man who knew a lot of secrets
“When he retired, he decided to record secrets and stories I ood as a detective, he could have been a pulp fiction writer Tales of his exploits read like adventure books He also knew that while soht of day—and those journals were likely burned upon his death—he felt that other stories could be made public at so dead and the legacy had been relegated to the ‘dusty corner of history’ Those are his exact words
“These files he placed in trust with his attorney with detailed instructions as to when and hohtforward, like ‘Thirty years after the death of so-and-so, please see that his surviving children are given this envelope If they are deceased, please see that it is given to a grandchild’ That sort of thing”
“Sounds reasonable”
“There were other files that he left up to the attorney’s discretion as to who to share the inforh Bell did specify the year in which to make the disburseh I’ve seen a few that just give a date with no explanation
“So noe spring ahead decades after Bell’s death, and his attorney built a practice into what is now Gitterman, Shankle, and Capps My current eest law firms And to this day we continue to honor our co the last few Isaac Bell files find their proper home”