For a woman in her early fifties, Virginia Sullivan is a sultry dame with a body that could stop traffic. With a low, smooth voice and eyes that burn like hot coals in winter, she makes no apologies for her outsized presence. Many people would mistake her for a Hollywood star, but Mrs. Sullivan had no need for the silver screen to make her fortune.

In the late 1920s, Virginia suspected her husband, Charles, of having multiple affairs. She hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to trail her spouse, and Eddy McIver was assigned to the case. Over the course of nearly a year, Eddy discovered that Charles was not being unfaithful, but rather was mixed up in an opium distribution scheme with Chinese mobsters, and Charles ended up behind bars. For her part, Virginia was incredibly grateful to Mr. McIver…maybe a little too grateful, if rumors were to be believed.

Virginia did not divorce Charles, though she certainly had grounds, and has kept his name in part for their children’s sake. Her son, Terrence, is an up-and-coming architect with a family of his own. A scandal-laden divorce proceeding would likely ruin his reputation. A woman of scruples, Virginia could not put her son through such pain for the vanity of removing the stain of Charles’s name.