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Valhalla
Since this blog began a week ago so many of you have called or emailed me to ask for my opinion about the disappearance of Charlotte Horne, the controversial columnist for one of America’s leading gossip magazines. Though this subject will be covered in considerable detail in my book The Pollette Saga, I feel compelled to preview some insights I’ve gleaned about the Twenty-first Century’s most talked about missing person’s case.
Charlotte was last seen on the early morning of May 11th a year ago. A man living on Hillcrest Avenue in Valhalla, one Abel Corrales, 55, a local storeowner, was walking his sheepdog at around one a.m. after watching late nite TV. During his walk he noticed a woman in a beige raincoat wandering in the vicinity of the secured gate that surrounds the Pollette estate.
It was starting to drizzle about the time Abel noticed the stroller. He and his dog hurried home before the drizzle became a downpour. The police accepted the assumption that the individual was, indeed, a female because they found ladies footprints in the vicinity the next day. They nailed the point later when they checked Charlotte’s shoe size. She had more than one hundred pairs of shoes in her closet, all the same six and a half size that matched the footprints outside Pollette’s estate.
As you know the Pollette estate is currently inhabited by Elinor MacEvoy, the former Pollette housekeeper, her 51-year-old widowed daughter, Mary Lou, and her son, the increasingly renown painter, Bobby Pollette, who had been hidden by Ernest in a mental institution for almost thirty years. Occasionally joining them at the estate are Millie Campbell, a black retired cleaning woman, and her grandson Vashon. Campbell and her grandson had been among Elinor’s staunchest supporters during her more difficult years.
On the night that the woman believed to have been Charlotte Horne was noticed by Abel Corrales outside the Pollette gates, the only known inhabitant at the mansion was Daisy Pollette. Daisy had arrived in Valhalla less than a day earlier from France to attend her father’s funeral and to deal with legal matters concerning Ernest’s estate.
The police cannot state for certain that the person seen outside the Pollette gates was indeed Charlotte. After all, there are plenty of women in the state of New York, I’ll wager, wearing size six and a half shoes and beige raincoats. What the cops do know is that Charlotte had visited the former Pollette gardener, one Nicholas Pachello, at approximately 10:30 the night of her disappearance. Nick may have been the last person to exchange words with Charlotte prior to her disappearance. Apparently Charlotte bribed Nick into turning over keys to her that would allegedly allow her to gain entrance to the highly secured Pollette manor.
Nick described Charlotte as dressed in a beige coat, but unaccountably having gray hair. Charlotte is notable for her bright red dyed hair. The Valhalla police found a gray wig in her rental car the next day when the search for her began. Theories have been broached that Charlotte wore a disguise to Pachello’s so that she might not be properly identified if an issue concerning the stolen keys ever arose after Charlotte had carried out her plans.
You see, Nick Pachello had not been officially employed by Ernest Pollette for some nine years. He claimed that Ernest had given him the keys so that he and some friends could play pool inside the mansion during one of Ernest’s long absences. Nick is not believed in this matter by the police, but neither Daisy nor Elinor have chosen to file any charges against the ex-gardener.
It gets much, much juicier, but I can’t say a great deal more or you might not need to buy my book. (Believe me, the book is a lot hotter than this pale summary!) Reportedly, one of Nick’s pool buddies was one Patrick Gogel, who was (until he was fired) a dispatcher for White Plains Security which handled all the protection for the Pollette estate. Not juicy enough for you? Well now, it was noted in Charlotte’s computer that Pat Gogel’s brother was Mike Gogel, a young builder who had been murdered in 1999, his body dumped in the Kensico Reservoir.
Less than one month after the discovery of Mike’s body, Daisy Pollette departed from Valhalla for Paris, never returning to the United States until daddy’s death had made it necessary. According to Nick Pachello, substantiated by Ginny (Pachello) Bugliese, his daughter, Mike Gogel had hinted at a secret affair with Daisy. Mike, apparently, was a handsome devil and a skirt chaser, despite being married, but there is no proof that Daisy had fallen for his alleged charms. Our too rich to be happy gal has left few croissant crumbs for us to follow her anywhere.
This all happened during a brief period when both Mike and Ginny were helping Nick with maintenance of the Pollette flora. Is this the juicy scandal -involving a love tryst and murder that Charlotte was beginning to unearth? Daisy? Anything to say? Charlotte…?
Thanks Kennebec for giving me the blog space. Good luck with Valhalla. It’s a great script. This is a movie that should get made!
See you on the book tour,
Juliette Spindler
New Rochelle
O5/18/2010