Murder on Sisters' Row (17 page)

Lisa screwed up her face with the effort of remembering. “What she always did. She went into her office with Miss Yingling, and they looked over the accounts.”

“She kept track of how much you spent here?”

“Oh, yes. Her husband didn’t give her any money for this house, you see. He didn’t like her doing this sort of work at all.”

“How did she pay for it then?”

“She had some money of her own, I think, and her friends helped. But we had to be very careful. Sometimes she had to bring us food from her own house so we’d have enough.”

“So she and Miss Yingling were in her office together. Was anyone with them?”

“They called me in and asked me some questions about some things I’d bought, but just for a minute. Then I told her Amy wanted to see her.”

“Why did Amy want to see her?”

“I don’t know, probably to complain. That’s all she ever did. She didn’t like the food, she didn’t like her room, she didn’t like the clothes we got for her. Nothing was ever good enough for her. You’d think she’d forgot she’d been a whore when she came here with nothing but the clothes on her back.”

“How is her baby doing?” Sarah had to ask.

“Oh, he’s doing fine. Fat little thing, cute as a button. Not that she cares. She complains about having to feed him, too. If it was up to her, he’d never have a clean diaper either. The other girls and me, we look after him.”

“That’s very nice of you.”

“It’s only natural, ain’t it? To want to take care of a baby, even if it’s not yours?”

“Yes, it is, or at least it should be.”

Sarah checked the tea and judged it to be ready. She poured each of them a cup, remembering too late her promise to Malloy not to eat or drink anything. Of course, she’d prepared this with her own hands, so she thought it was pretty safe. “Where are the rest of the girls?”

“There’s only two here now, and they’re in their rooms. I think they’re scared of what’s going to happen to them. We’ve all been real quiet today.”

“So Amy and Mrs. Van Orner had a talk. Was Miss Yingling with them?”

“Oh, no. Mrs. Van Orner sent her out. Amy wouldn’t have nothing to do with Miss Yingling, and Miss Yingling didn’t have much use for Amy neither.”

“Did you happen to overhear anything?”

“Do you mean were they shouting? Oh, no, Mrs. Van Orner was too well bred to shout. Not like my family was. They’d scream about every little thing. I had a hard time of it when I first come here. Mrs. Van Orner always says a lady doesn’t raise her voice. Took a long time for me to learn that.”

“I still have a difficult time with it,” Sarah confided. “So you didn’t hear anything they said. How did Amy act when she came out?”

“You mean was she mad or something?”

“Yes, that’s what I mean.”

“She wasn’t mad, that’s for sure.”

“Happy?”

“No, not that. I never seen Amy happy. Seems like nothing pleases her.”

“Sad? Disappointed?”

“Oh, no, just the opposite. She . . . she looked like the cat who swallowed the canary.”

“Satisfied?”

“That’s it. Satisfied, like she got her way about something.”

“Did she say anything about it?”

“Her? Not likely. She kept to herself. Never wanted nobody to know her business. Of course, we all figured she didn’t have any business. She liked to pretend she had secrets, but nobody ever coaxed her to tell them.”

“What do you think her secrets were about?”

“I don’t know. She called her baby Gregory. That’s Mr. Van Orner’s name, and she knowed it, too. That’s why she did it, I’m sure. She was mean that way.”

“Maybe she named her baby after Mrs. Van Orner’s husband out of gratitude for what Mrs. Van Orner had done for her.”

Lisa snorted rudely. “Not likely. If she was grateful, she never let on. No, I think she did it to be mean. It hurt Mrs. Van Orner, too. You could tell, even though she never said a thing. She never had children of her own, you know.”

“No, I didn’t know that.”

“She never talked about it to me, of course, but Miss Yingling told me never to mention it to her. Said it was one of the biggest disappointments of her life.”

“I was here the day Amy named her baby,” Sarah reminded her. “She said she was naming him after his father.”

“Oh, law, did she? That little witch! I don’t suppose she’s ever set eyes on Mr. Van Orner neither. I’m glad she’s gone.”

“You’re glad Mrs. Van Orner’s gone?” Sarah asked in surprise.

“Oh, no, I’m glad Amy’s gone, and good riddance to her, too.”

“She’s
gone
? What happened to her?” If Mrs. Van Orner had thrown her out . . .

“She packed up and left this morning right after breakfast. Never said nothing to nobody.”

“Did she take the baby?”

“Oh, yes. She wouldn’t part with him. She said he was her future, whatever that meant. I just wonder who’s gonna change his diapers now. Not her, I’m sure.”

“Where would she have gone?”

“Lord knows, maybe back to that house where she worked before. Girls always think they’ll take them back, but they never do. They can’t trust them no more. I don’t see why it matters, since they never trusted them to start with, but that’s how it is. She’ll be on the street, I suppose.”

Sarah thought of the poor, innocent baby, and her heart ached. They were getting off the subject, though. Malloy would never let that happen. “So you thought Amy looked satisfied after her meeting with Mrs. Van Orner. How did Mrs. Van Orner look?”

“That’s when I told you she looked mad. Not like a normal person would, mind you, but mad for her. She had her mouth all pinched together and her eyes was all bright, like she had a fire inside of her. Then she saw me looking at her, and she quick went back in her office and shut the door.”

Sarah remembered the way Mrs. Van Orner usually calmed herself down. “Did she have her purse in the office with her?”

“Her purse?”

“Yes, her purse. I know it doesn’t sound important, but it is.”

Lisa looked confused but she gave the question some thought. “I don’t know for sure. I wasn’t looking for it.”

“Where did she usually put it when she was here?”

“Oh, I know. She usually put it on the table in the hall. I remember because the first time I saw her do it, I said she should keep it with her, considering the type of women who live in this house, and she said to me—I’ll never forget—she said, ‘Miss Biafore, we must treat these women the same way we would treat them if they was respectable if we ever hope they will become respectable.’ ”

“So she usually left her purse out where anyone could have found it?”

“Yes, and as far as I know, nobody ever bothered it.”

Sarah didn’t mention that someone had undoubtedly bothered it yesterday. “So what else did Mrs. Van Orner do after she met with Amy?”

“She was only in the office alone for a few minutes before Mrs. Spratt-Williams went in to see her.”

“Had Mrs. Spratt-Williams just arrived?”

“Oh, no, she was here for a while. She’d brought over some things for the baby and some clothes she’d collected at her church. For the women. They never have decent clothes when they come here.”

“Do you know what she talked with Mrs. Van Orner about?”

Lisa stiffened slightly. “No. They don’t tell me their business.”

“But you have an idea.”

“How could I have an idea? They don’t tell me nothing.”

“Miss Yingling said you were the last one to speak with Mrs. Van Orner before she left the house yesterday.”

“I guess I was,” she said unhappily.

“Did she seem angry or upset about anything?”

Lisa shook her head. “She was always kind to me. I told her Amy was causing all kinds of trouble, and she said I shouldn’t worry about it. She said Amy would be gone soon.”

“And that’s all?”

“Yes, she seemed like she was in a hurry, and she left right after that. Miss Yingling came asking after her a few minutes later and was real surprised that she’d left without her. I was, too.”

“So she must have had something on her mind that distracted her. Can you think of what it might have been?”

Lisa stared at Sarah for a long moment, as if trying to judge her intent, and then she shook her head.

Sarah knew she was lying. She reached over and laid her hand on Lisa’s arm. “You’ve been in charge of this place for a long time. I’m sure you know everything that goes on here. You’re not being disloyal to talk about it now, and you might help us find out who killed Mrs. Van Orner.”

Lisa’s dark eyes widened. “
Killed?
You don’t mean she was
murdered
!”

Sarah wanted to bite her tongue. “Well, they don’t know for sure,” she hedged quickly.

“Miss Yingling never said nothing about murder. She said Mrs. Van Orner died real sudden, that’s all.”

“That’s all she knew then. As I said, we aren’t really sure yet.”

“What do they think killed her then?”

“She may have eaten something that . . .” Sarah gestured vaguely.

Lisa’s eyes widened with horror. “She was
poisoned
?”

“It’s possible.”

“Not from something she ate here. She never ate nothing here. She and Miss Yingling, they was always real careful not to use up our supplies. She’d hardly drink a cup of coffee here.”

“Did she drink any yesterday?”

“Not that I know of. She was pretty busy. No, if somebody poisoned her, it was probably somebody at her own house.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because that’s where she ate her food, isn’t it? She didn’t get no poison here.”

“Do you keep anything here that could be poisonous?”

“You mean like rat poison?”

“Yes, or . . .” Sarah pretended to think. “Or medicines. Some medicines can be dangerous if you use too much.”

“We keep Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound, of course. When you’ve got a houseful of females, you need to be prepared for female complaints. We’ve got Dr. Morse’s Indian Root Pills, I think, and I know we’ve got some Pine Toothache drops. I used them myself last month.”

“Mrs. Van Orner mentioned laudanum to me when Amy first came here. I remember because I told her I didn’t like to use it because it passes through the milk and makes the baby sleep too much.”

“Oh, yes, I think we do have some.”

“Could you check and see?”

Lisa frowned. “I told you already, it don’t matter. Mrs. Van Orner never got poisoned here.”

“I know, but could you check anyway? Just to be sure? We don’t want anyone here to be falsely accused of anything.”

This was something Lisa could understand. “I never thought of that! I’ll check right away.” She jumped up and went to the pantry. Reaching up to the top shelf, she pulled down a small wooden box that contained an assortment of patent medicine bottles and started sorting through it. “Here it is.” She pulled out a small brown bottle and held it up. Then she shook it and looked at it more closely. “That’s funny.”

Sarah felt the hairs on her arms prickling. “What?”

“It’s empty.”

 

 

F
RANK HAD READ THREE NEWSPAPERS AND FELT NO BETTER informed than he had been before. He looked up automatically when the coffee shop door opened and was surprised to see Sarah. For a minute, he thought she might have brought someone for him to question, but she was alone. He rose from his chair and pulled out another at his table for her. “That didn’t take long.”

“There was a bottle of laudanum at the house, but it’s empty. Miss Biafore is certain it was nearly full the last time she noticed it. She would have bought more if she knew someone had used the last of it.”

“So that could be what killed her. Did you find out where her purse was?”

“Not for certain, but Miss Biafore said she usually just laid it on the table in the hallway. She wanted the women who lived there to think she trusted them.”

“But you don’t know for sure?”

“No. I’ll have to ask Miss Yingling and Mrs. Spratt-Williams if they remember.”

“Either of them could be the killer, you know.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Miss Yingling is the one who convinced Mr. Van Orner to let you investigate, and I can’t think of any possible reason why Mrs. Spratt-Williams would want to kill her friend.”

“Just because you can’t think of it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. What did that girl Amy have to say for herself?”

“I didn’t see her. She’s gone.”

“What do you mean, she’s gone?”

“I mean she packed up herself and her baby and left this morning.”

“Where did she go?”

“They don’t know. She didn’t even tell anyone she was leaving. Lisa—Miss Biafore—thinks she may have gone back to Mrs. Walker’s house.”

“Why would she go there? Mrs. Walker was going to give her baby away.”

“I didn’t say she did. I said that’s all Lisa could think of. I don’t think Amy had any money of her own, and if she had family, why didn’t she go there before? Nothing else makes sense.”

“What about the other women in the house?”

“I talked to both of them, but they’re too frightened to be much help. They don’t remember anything that happened yesterday or even who was in the house. They never noticed Mrs. Van Orner’s purse or who she talked to. I can’t imagine either of them would want to kill her. Without her, they don’t have any hope at all.”

“You’re probably right, and Amy running away doesn’t look good for her,” Frank said.

“But we still don’t know any reason why she’d want Mrs. Van Orner dead, and if she did have one, wouldn’t she stay around to benefit from it?”

“Maybe she’s afraid of getting caught.”

“When Miss Yingling came over last night to tell them the news, she didn’t say Mrs. Van Orner was murdered, only that she’d died suddenly. It’s possible nobody would have ever figured out she was poisoned. Why run away until there was real danger?”