Part Sixteen – 1912
The almost famous Egyptologist, Alvin McSwain was a friend and partner of Grafton Elliot Smith. In 1912, Smith wrote a book about the royal mummies of Egypt. Grafton Elliot Smith did not acknowledge the help of his partner Alvin McSwain. Alvin sued the greedy Grafton Elliot Smith but was unsuccessful.
Alvin McSwain’s sister Rebecca, was several years younger than Alvin, and she hated him. When Rebecca was fourteen years old, Alvin started making nightly visits to her room. At first, he would just talk to her. He had a way of making her feel comfortable and soon gained her trust. After a few weeks, he started touching her. She knew it was wrong, but she did not dare to tell her parents, because Alvin was their favorite.
After months of abuse Rebecca finally pushed his hand away one night and told him no. Alvin slapped her on the side of her head so hard he broke her ear drum. She could barely hear, when he said. “Go ahead, tell them. Let’s see who they believe.”
To escape the abuse, Rebecca married the first man she met. It didn’t take much to convince Lloyd Braxton, she just used tricks she had learned from Alvin. Shortly after their first encounter Lloyd asked her to marry him. She was only sixteen years old. Her new husband Lloyd was fifteen years older than she was and was not much better than Alvin. She had escaped one type of abuse and had fallen into another type of abuse. Lloyd Braxton liked to gamble and he liked to drink. When Lloyd got drunk, he liked to hit Rebecca.
Five months after the wedding, Rebecca found herself pregnant. Lloyd behaved for the next eight months, but when he became convinced that he was not the father, he started beating Rebecca again. “I saved you!” he would say, “And this is how you repay me, you ungrateful bitch.” During a particularly violent session, Rebecca went into labor and baby Ellen was born. Baby Ellen was small and fragile. She had been born early and it took the doctor’s considerable effort to keep Ellen alive during the first few months of her life. As the doctor’s bills started piling up, the beatings intensified. Rebecca became convinced that Lloyd would eventually kill her.
When Ellen was six months old, Rebecca pushed her drunken husband over the railing of their second story New Orleans apartment. With Ellen in her arms, she rushed down to him as he laid bleeding on the cobblestone streets of Canal Street. Next to his head was a piece of loose cobblestone. Rebecca worked the piece of cobblestone free and looked to make sure there was no one was watching. She did not stop striking Lloyd’s head until she heard the breaking of bone. Then she casually replaced the piece of cobblestone and began crying for help.
Ellen was a beautiful child. Rebecca was very strict and kept a close eye on Ellen. Lloyd had recently bought a large life insurance policy so she did not lack for money and she never felt the need for another man in her life.
Rebecca found she was good with money and before long the money from the life insurance had amassed into a small fortune. When Ellen was twelve, her uncle Alvin came for a visit to ask Rebecca for “A small business loan.” Once Rebecca saw the way Alvin looked at Ellen she picked up an old hunting rifle of Lloyds and chased him away from her home. Rebecca died of consumption just three years later.
Alvin McSwain was Rebecca’s only living relative and heir. Ellen was moved into his home and Alvin started visiting Ellen’s room soon after.
Most of their friends and family suspected there might be something going on and had blamed Katherine. They liked to say, “If Katherine took care of her husband like a good wife, Alvin would not have to seek comfort elsewhere.”
Katherine knew about the abuse and felt sorry for Ellen, but didn’t dare do anything about it. Besides, her husband was very often gone on one of his many trips to Egypt. When he was gone, she cherished the time she spent with Ellen. One day as a gift to them both, she purchased a puppy. The puppy was a white standard poodle. They named the poodle King Louis, after the former king of France, King Louis the ninth.
King Louis loved Katherine and Ellen. As he grew he became a constant and jealous companion. Alvin did not like King Louis and kept him locked in an outside kennel whenever he was at home.
One the way back from his last trip to Egypt, Alvin had purchased a Stanley Steamer. Alvin loved his new Stanley Steamer. It was red and had much more power than Ford’s ugly black model T. He loved the vehicle so much that it became an obsession. He wanted to visit the hotel that Freelan Oscar Stanley had built in the mountains. He hoped to meet Mr. Stanley and had plans to invest in Mr. Stanley’s company.
Even with the powerful two stroke steam engine, it took considerable effort to baby the Steamer up the Colorado Mountains. He had to use the parking brake several times to avoid a backwards roll. To pull the Steamer up the steepest inclines, Alvin had a makeshift winch. Alvin blamed the extra effort on King Louis. King Louis was large for a standard poodle and when he was fully grown he weighed close to one hundred pounds. “If they had not insisted on bringing that damn dog, we would have been there hours ago.” He thought to himself. “Going to have to do something about that dog.”
After several hours, they eventually pulled into the grassy area in front of The Stanley Hotel. While Alvin made arrangements for their luggage, Katherine and Ellen walked King Louis up ahead toward the hotel. On their way up the hill Katherine saw a flash of light behind them. She turned and found that someone had just taken their photograph. Katherine and Alvin would share a room and Ellen would stay in the room across the hall. Katherine and Alvin were in room 202.
One week later Alvin and Ellen left the hotel together. Katherine and King Louis were nowhere to be found. The story Alvin told was that Katherine had run off with a man she had met at years earlier in New Orleans. That she had arranged to meet him in Colorado and they had both run off to Buffalo, New York. No one ever bothered to check Alvin’s story. After all he was the almost famous Egyptologist. When one of the hotel maids found the large dark stain on the hardwood floors of room 202, she just went about trying to clean it. She scrubbed for an hour, but was not able to remove the stain completely. She never questioned why the foam from her scrub brush was pink.
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