1954.

Seeing Sylvia on the rooftop the night before, masked as Lady Luna, unsettled Eddie less than opening the door of Finn Manor to her the next day in broad daylight. Perhaps it was the smile she wore — the kind that said, I’m in on the secret, part of the club. Eddie didn’t remember sending her an invitation.

“Good afternoon, Edward,” she said. “May I come in?”

She wore red — a jacket, dress, and wide-brimmed hat, offset by white gloves and a string of pearls. A sign of solidarity, Eddie thought bitterly, with his father’s Crimson Wraith. Her hair still rippled in waves like Veronica Lake, although streaks of gray ran through the gold.

“Of course, Miss Madison. My father is resting in the sunroom.”

“Has he seen a doctor yet?”

“Sort of. Our mechanic, Chubby, has grown handy with tweezers, thread, and gauze. I’m told you know him.”

“That I do. A dear friend. It warms me to see the two of them together again. I only wish I’d joined sooner. Strange, isn’t it, that Will and I took such similar paths apart, and now share the same… hobby?”

Eddie forced a smile. “Call it what you like.”

Hobby? His stomach tightened. This wasn’t pastime or play. It was the mission that gave his father life. That gave Eddie meaning. To her, it sounded like an amusement. He hated her for it.

They entered the sunroom. Chubby sat at Will’s side, shaking his head. “Gosh, Will, I just can’t see you going out again like this. Not for a while.”

“I know, old friend,” said Will. “But there is something in this that men would kill and die for.” He held the file they retrieved from the gunmen.

“Perhaps I can help?” said Sylvia.

The two looked at her like puppies at the sound of their mistress’s voice, and Chubby leaped to welcome her with an embrace. “It really is you! Gosh, and just as beautiful as ever! Haven’t changed one bit!”

“I can’t say the same for you. Not so chubby anymore, Mr. Chumley.”

Chubby ran a hand down his svelte frame, across the now-firm abdomen where once his belly had been. “Oh, this? Well, I have to stay in shape for my better half.”

“Better half?” said Sylvia. “Did I hear correctly, Will? Did our Chubby go and find himself a wife?”

A voice that bore traces of a Cockney accent caused Sylvia to turn. “He sure did, miss.” The rosy-cheeked Mrs. Chumley joined them in her maid’s uniform. The cart she pushed into the room carried a sandwich tray and a big bowl of salad. “Lunch is served!” she announced.

Will gestured to her, “Sylvia Madison, might I introduce my head of house, Mrs. Candace Chumley.”

Mrs. Chumley extended a hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Miss Madison.”

“And a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Chumley.”

“Oh, please, call me ‘Candy.’ Everyone does.”

Chubby wrapped his wife in an affectionate squeeze. “And everyone knows how much Chubby loves Candy.”

She giggled in response. “Oh, stop it, you!”

Eddie looked away. The two of them were utterly unbearable when they started acting all lovey-dovey, and this, Eddie realized, was why Sylvia’s appearance at the doorstep of Finn Manor worried him. Candy Chumley had shown just how dire a danger a woman in their house could be. 

Sure, thanks to her insistence on his salad eating, Chubby had transformed into a more physically fit figure, but at what cost? She had ensnared his mind, enslaved him. Where once Chubby had been teaching Eddie the ins-and-outs of this-or-that mechanical device, always available for any escapade, and full of jokes you don’t tell in mixed company, suddenly his comings-and-goings all submitted to her authority. Chubby had all the fun taken out of him, and Eddie shuddered to think what marriage might do to his father.

Candy said to Sylvia. “I’ve heard ever-so much about you from our boys here.”

“Have you indeed?”

“Oh, yes! All about your adventures at Ellsworth and Fletcher.”

“And none of our more recent adventures?” Sylvia looked to Will with a questioning gaze.

“Do you mean about these boys going off as the Crimson Wraith and Wily Wisp?” Candy asked, just as casually as anything.

Will smiled. “Candy is aware of all of our adventures, Sylvia, every one. Why, she is a vital part of the operation. You see, Chubby keeps all of our equipment going, and Candy keeps Chubby going.”

Eddie looked away to conceal his involuntary eye roll from his father.

Sylvia asked, “And what has been keeping you going, Will, in the absence of a wife of your own?”

“Oh, simply the sport of it!” Will proclaimed. “Quite the game, don’t you think, dressing up in shocking costumes and having such adventures?”

That was absolutely not the essence of their mission, but it made Eddie feel a little better to hear his father say that it was. That meant he was testing Sylvia, which meant he didn’t trust her.

She laughed though. “Do you think I could have performed with you so many times on the Ellsworth stage and not know when you are acting? I know you don’t take this so lightly.”

Chubby whistled. “Gosh. Can’t get anything past her, can you, Will?”

“No, I don’t suppose I ever could. You knew it was me under that skull right away, didn’t you?”

“Of course,” said Sylvia. “Can’t say as the costume has changed too much since that night we scared Kelly Winchester, and stories of the Crimson Wraith have traveled beyond Titan City, you know. As soon as the papers described the skull-masked vigilante cloaked in red, I knew just who it was.

“At first, I was frightened of the risks you were taking. But the more I read, the more I imagined what it was like for you, and the more I envied you. 

“My first husband, the longhorn rancher, had seemed so romantic when I was younger, but made it clear he wanted nothing more than a pretty face to show to his friends and a babysitter for the children of his first wife. So, I started to wonder if I could find what I was missing by also going out into the night in a mask.”

“And your bow and arrow, right?” said Chubby. “You were such a good shot back at Fletcher. Could have gone to the Olympics with that arm!”

“Maybe I should have,” she sighed. “But there have been many roads not taken over the years.” 

Will met her eye, and Eddie saw the spark between them in that moment. Something inside his chest burned. Don’t you dare take my father from me.

Sylvia broke their gaze. “I already had a taste for crime-fighting when I met husband number two, the film producer. I tried to put aside my mask and bow for him, but again the role he wanted me to serve was merely ornamental. By the time that marriage failed, I had reached an age where marriage did not seem likely anymore, so I told my family I would be going on a tour of Europe and embracing my role as the ‘the gay divorcee.’”

“Just like Ginger Rogers!” chirped Candy.

“Just like Ginger Rogers,” said Sylvia, “Except instead of dancing with Fred Astaire, I sought out denizens of the criminal underworld.”

Will said, “Charming dance partners, no doubt.”

“Oh, very charming. And then, someone new arrived on the scene, someone who made all the other criminals quake in fear. Lesser gangs joined together under a single command, and proud old families who resisted did not last. But I did not hear a name for this figure until I was in France, where they knew him as L’Ombre Grande.”

Regardless of his dislike for Sylvia, this information from her was part of the mission Eddie and Will shared. “The Great Shadow? Father, you don’t think that could be…”

“Shadowmaster!” said Will, “But I saw him die ten years ago!”

“Well,” said Sylvia, “whoever this Great Shadow is, he has stolen materials that have now been shipped here under various business names, but all using the same accounting firm.”

“Maxwell W. Gaines.”

“Exactly. That was what brought me to his office last night.”

Eddie said, “Maxwell must have put the details together, figured out those different companies were all under one master.”

“And the materials shipped come together to produce one thing only.” Sylvia looked to each of them in turn. “A nuclear bomb.”

Will said, “Exactly what the Shadowmaster attempted before.”

Candy exclaimed, “Oh, my stars!”

“Gosh!” Chubby gasped. “A nuclear bomb? Here? In Titan City? But where could they be hiding it?”

Will held up the file he had been examining. “This must be the bomb’s location.” Opening the file, he pointed to the heading of the very first document inside — Mikado Imports.

Sylvia nodded. “That must be the place.”

Turning to Eddie, William said, “ It seems Mr. Maxwell W. Gaines did have something very dire indeed to share, and now it is up to the Crimson Wraith to stop Shadowmaster once more.”

“But how?” said Eddie. “Not with that bullet you took last night!”“I didn’t say I was going to stop him. I said the Crimson Wraith must.” He pointed to Eddie. “And tonight, my son, you must be the Crimson Wraith.”