Murder on Lexington Avenue (28 page)

Unfortunately, he couldn’t just confront either Young, father or son. Men that powerful would have his job if he overstepped his bounds. He’d need to be sure. He’d need more evidence. And he’d need to know that the same person who’d killed Wooten had killed Leander. It was still possible that Leander had killed his father, then gone down to the Bowery to drink himself into a stupor out of guilt on the night of the funeral, and been beaten and robbed by some stranger. He needed to find out where Leander had been last Saturday when his father was killed.

Which meant he needed the names of Leander’s college friends so he could send someone to New Jersey to question them. And that, of course, meant another visit to the Wooten house.

 

 

S
ARAH HAD JUST CHECKED ON MRS. WOOTEN, WHO HAD refused to eat more than a few bites of toast before demanding another dose of the medicine Dr. Smith had left for her. Sarah couldn’t blame her for preferring oblivion to facing the loss of her son. She was in Mrs. Wooten’s sitting room when Minnie came in looking for her. Sarah had been expecting Malloy’s visit today, so she wasn’t surprised, but Minnie’s expression told her something was amiss.

“I’m sorry to bother you, Mrs. Brandt, but I don’t know what to do.”

“What is it, Minnie?”

The girl was literally wringing her hands. “Mr. Young is here. Mr. Terry Young. He . . . Well, Mrs. Parmer won’t see him and Mrs. Wooten can’t see him and I don’t think Miss Electra should see him, but he won’t leave until . . .”

“Until what?” Sarah asked in amazement.

“He wants to see the baby.”

“Oh, dear.”

“Yes,” Minnie agreed. “The rest of the staff don’t know what to do with him!”

Sarah’s mind was racing. Malloy had asked her to find out if Terry Young was the baby’s father. She was now certain he was, but might she find out something more if she observed Mr. Young with his new son? “Where is Mrs. Parmer?”

“She’s in the family parlor. I already asked her, and she—”

“I’ll speak to her,” Sarah said. “Stay here in case Mrs. Wooten needs anything.”

Sarah found Mrs. Parmer fuming. “Did you know that Terry Young had the effrontery to come here and demand to see Valora’s baby?” she asked Sarah.

“Yes, Minnie told me. She also told me you refused to admit him, but he has still refused to leave. This has put the servants in a difficult position.”

“Refused to leave? How dare he?” she asked in outrage. “He can’t possibly expect any consideration from anyone in this house!”

“I know how you feel about him, and I certainly sympathize with you, but perhaps it would be crueler to allow him to see the child than to refuse.”

Mrs. Parmer stared at Sarah, uncomprehending. “What do you mean?”

“You are thinking that it would be kind to allow him to see the baby, and you have no wish to be kind to Mr. Young. However, I’m thinking that allowing him to see the child, knowing he can never claim him as his son, would actually not be kind at all. It is exactly the sort of punishment your brother would have wished on the man who cuckolded him.”

“Oh, Mrs. Brandt, you are so right! And exactly what he deserves. Of course, we are assuming Terry Young possesses the normal human emotions.”

“He must possess some of them, or he wouldn’t care about seeing the child,” Sarah said. “The easiest thing for him to do now would be to never return to this house and never see Mrs. Wooten again. The family isn’t going to tell anyone what happened, and if he keeps away, there will be no gossip to betray him. Instead, here he is at your door to see his child.”

Mrs. Parmer nodded her agreement. “Mrs. Brandt, would you take Mr. Young up to the nursery? He may only stay for a few minutes. We don’t want the child and his nurse disturbed.”

“I would be happy to,” Sarah said.

She found Terry Young waiting in the same unwelcoming room where they usually put Malloy. He rose the instant she entered, then frowned when he didn’t recognize her. She introduced herself to him as the midwife.

“Mrs. Parmer has given me permission to take you to the nursery for a visit,” she told him. “But you cannot stay long. We don’t want the baby or his nurse disturbed.”

“Of course, of course,” he quickly agreed. “I just want . . . Well, I was curious, you know, to see him. It’s a boy, I understand.”

“Yes, it is. Please follow me.”

She led him up to the third floor and made him wait outside while she consulted with the nurse. “A family friend is here to see the baby.”

“He’s just been fed,” the nurse said, exercising her authority. “He shouldn’t be jostled at all.”

She admitted Mr. Young, who looked around the room as if he’d never entered a nursery before. Perhaps he hadn’t since the days when he’d been a resident of one himself. The nurse was holding the baby. She’d dressed him in a long white gown and a bonnet more suitable for a stroll in the park than for an afternoon at home. She turned him so Mr. Young could see his little face.

“He’s . . . very small,” Mr. Young managed, his voice a bit hoarse.

“He’ll grow,” Sarah said. “Would you like to hold him?”

His eyes widened with terror. “Oh, no, not at all! I wouldn’t know what to do. I just . . . Well, I wanted to make sure he’s sound.”

“He’s perfectly sound,” Sarah assured him.

Mr. Young admired the boy for a few more minutes, then pronounced himself satisfied and thanked Sarah and the nurse for humoring him. Sarah escorted him out of the room and back down the stairs to the second-floor landing. Sarah had to admit he looked shaken. She had been right that seeing his son under such circumstances had been very unsettling and much more traumatic than he had expected. She was wracking her brain, trying to think what Malloy would want her to ask him and coming up with nothing.

He turned to thank her again and take his leave when one of the maids approached her. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Brandt, but Mr. Malloy is here to see you.”

“Oh, thank you,” Sarah said, but the girl was looking at Mr. Young.

“He said he also wants to see Mr. Young before he leaves.”

F
RANK COULDN’T BELIEVE HIS LUCK IN FINDING TERRY Young at the Wooten house. He would have bet a week’s pay that Young wouldn’t ever darken the door here again, but he would have underestimated Young’s audacity. The man apparently had no shame at all.

When Sarah ushered him into the small waiting room, however, he looked as if he felt nothing but shame. Sarah, on the other hand, was trying hard not to smile. “Mr. Malloy, how nice to see you again,” she said.

“Mrs. Brandt,” he said by way of greeting. “Would you mind leaving me alone with Mr. Young for a few minutes? I have several questions to ask him.”

“I can’t imagine what you want to ask me,” Young said nervously, his eyes darting around as if looking for a means of escape. “I’ve already told you everything I know.”

“Just send the maid for me when you’re finished,” Sarah said and discretely withdrew, closing the door behind her.

“Mr. Young,” Frank began, “when the maid told me Mrs. Brandt was with you just now, I remembered something I’ve been meaning to ask you about. You told me you were going to meet with Mr. Wooten on Saturday afternoon about something, but that you changed your mind.”

“I . . . I believe I did, yes,” he allowed.

“What was it you were going to discuss with him again?”

“I . . . It was about Electra. I’d learned she was seeing some deaf man secretly. But then I found out he already knew.”

“And how did you find out about Electra and this man?” That was what had been bothering Frank, the thing he hadn’t been able to feel comfortable about.

“What?” Young asked in surprise.

“Who told you that Electra was seeing this man? You see, only a few people knew, and I was wondering which one of them would have told you about it.”

“I really don’t . . . I mean, what does it matter? Someone told me, and I thought Mr. Wooten should know.”

“But surely you remember who told you. Something that shocking? I wouldn’t forget who told me. The only people who knew were Leander, Electra, the man himself, and another teacher. Which one of them was it?”

Young’s eyes were darting again as he thought frantically. “It was Leander,” he decided, probably because Leander was no longer able to confirm or deny it.

Frank nodded as if he believed him. He wouldn’t even bother to ask why Leander would have confided this dangerous secret to a man he would have no reason to trust. “When did he tell you?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean when did you see him? He was away at school, I understand, and had been for several weeks.”

“He . . . he told me before he left for school.”

“And you kept the secret for several weeks?” Frank asked, feigning surprise. “Why did you suddenly decide to tell Mr. Wooten on that particular day?”

“I just did. I felt he needed to know.” Young was starting to feel more comfortable with his lie.

“I don’t believe you, Mr. Young.”

Fear flashed in his eyes, but he raised his chin defiantly. “It doesn’t matter whether you believe me or not.”

“Yes, it does, because I’m trying to figure out who did go to see Mr. Wooten that afternoon he was killed.”

“Stop toying with me. You know perfectly well that I did have an appointment with him that afternoon. I just didn’t keep it,” Young said. Sweat was beginning to bead on his forehead.

Frank suddenly realized how odd it was that Young had volunteered that information the first time he’d questioned him. If he hadn’t kept the appointment and therefore hadn’t been at the office that afternoon, why mention it at all? “And how did I know that?” he asked.

“Do you think I’m a fool? You must have seen it in his appointment book,” Young snapped. “He always wrote everything in his appointment book.”

But for some reason Wooten hadn’t written this one down. Young had been afraid Frank would find the appointment scheduled and believe Young had been there, so he’d made sure Frank knew he hadn’t kept it. But why lie about the reason for the meeting?

Because the real reason was too embarrassing.

“You were afraid I’d see that you had an appointment with Mr. Wooten at . . . one o’clock,” he guessed, remembering that Higginbotham’s had been at two. “And you wanted me to know you didn’t keep it, so you couldn’t have been there when he was killed.”

“I didn’t! I wasn’t!” he insisted.

“And it doesn’t really matter why you had to see him, I guess. Unless you were going to talk to him about the money that’s missing from the company, the money
he’d just discovered
was missing from the company.” Frank let his gaze drift to the chair where he’d laid the ledger.

Young’s eyes widened when he saw it. “No, that’s not true! Nothing is missing! It’s all a mistake,” he said, really sweating now.

“Is that what you told him? That it was just a mistake all those invoices were never entered into the books?”

“I didn’t tell him anything! I never had a chance!”

“Why? Because you got so angry that you picked up a trophy and smashed it into his head first?”

“No, because I never saw him!”

“Why not?” Frank asked with interest. “You did go to the office, didn’t you? You did keep the appointment.”

“Yes, but . . .” He pulled out his handkerchief and mopped his face. “Someone was already there, in the office with him.”

“Who was it?”

“I don’t know! I didn’t see. I just saw that the door was closed, and I heard Wooten’s voice.”

“What was he saying?”

“I couldn’t hear the words, just his tone. Mocking. He was mocking somebody, the way he did when he thought he was right and you were stupid.” Terry had obviously heard that tone many times.

“You must have heard the other man’s voice,” Frank said. “Who was it?”

“I didn’t! I didn’t stay long enough. I heard Wooten, and I decided I didn’t want to see him after all. I left. And I’m leaving now. If you ask me about this again, I’ll say that I was never there, and you can’t prove otherwise. Good day, Mr. Malloy.”

He didn’t try to stop Young from leaving. There was no point. The man had already given him all the information he intended to. Actually, he’d given him
more
information than he’d intended to. But what did it mean?

And he was lying. Frank knew he was lying, but what part of the story wasn’t true?

Frank was still trying to figure that out when Sarah appeared in the doorway.

“He left in a hurry,” she observed.

“He got tired of telling me lies,” Frank replied with a small grin.

She came in and closed the door. “What did he tell you?”

“That he had an appointment with Wooten on Saturday at one o’clock.”

Her blue eyes widened in surprise. “That’s interesting.”

“Yes, especially because he lied about it the first time I talked to him. He’d made the appointment with Wooten, but for some reason Wooten didn’t put it in his appointment book. He usually did write them down, though, so Young thought I had seen it and believed he’d been back to meet with Wooten at the time he was killed.”

“Did he keep the appointment?”

“At first he told me he didn’t. He said he’d just found out—yes, that
is
what he said,” Frank mused, remembering. “He said he’d
just
found out that Electra was secretly seeing a deaf man, and he was going to tell Wooten about it. Then he found out Higginbotham had already told him, so he didn’t keep the appointment.”

“But he did keep it,” she guessed.

“Yes, but I couldn’t figure out why he’d lied about the reason for the meeting, and that’s how I caught him. See, I’d believed him the first time when he said he didn’t keep the appointment, but something was bothering me. Today I realized it was the reason he gave me. He couldn’t have known Electra was seeing Oldham unless somebody told him.”