Murder on Sisters' Row (20 page)

“I have to consider all the possibilities. Her husband asked me to investigate, though.”

“He did? I wonder why.”

“Maybe he wants the guilty person punished.”

“So I guess that means he’s not the guilty person. More’s the pity, although I don’t suppose you’d arrest a man like Gregory Van Orner no matter what he did, would you?”

They both knew the answer to that question, so Frank saw no reason to respond. “Do you have any idea who might want to harm Mrs. Van Orner—either in her home or the rescue house?”

“Besides Gregory, I don’t know—not that he really cared enough to murder her, of course, but I’m sure he’s not particularly grieved at her death either. Maybe one of the women we’d rescued. Sometimes they get very angry. Vivian did what she could for them, but she couldn’t keep them forever. They have to learn to make their way in the world.”

“Do you know of one in particular who was unhappy?”

“Not really. I don’t even know who’s living at the rescue house now. I haven’t seen Vivian in over a week, at least.”

“Was that unusual?”

“Oh, no. I’m very busy with my business and my family responsibilities. She only called on me when she had a rescue at a brothel, and that rarely happened, I’m afraid. It’s very dangerous, you see.”

Frank took a chance. “What do you know about Miss Yingling?”

“Miss Yingling? Why do you ask?”

“I just thought it was strange that she lived with the Van Orners.”

Mr. Porter smiled slightly. “I thought it was strange, too, considering the rumors about Gregory.”

“What rumors?”

Porter leaned forward and lowered his voice conspiratorially. “That he enjoyed the company of harlots.”

“What does that have to do with Miss Yingling?”

“Oh, didn’t you know? Tamar Yingling was the first whore Vivian ever rescued.”

 

 

S
ARAH ARRIVED HOME TO FIND MRS. ELLSWORTH HELPING the girls with supper. They were full of questions about her day spent helping Mr. Malloy, but she couldn’t answer them fully until they’d tucked Catherine into bed for the night.

Sarah took the opportunity to read Catherine a bedtime story. When she came back downstairs, Mrs. Ellsworth and Maeve were sitting around the kitchen table, chatting while they awaited her return.

“I already told Mrs. Ellsworth all about how Mr. Malloy came to get you this afternoon,” Maeve said as Sarah took a seat at the table with them.

“He must have been desperate indeed,” Mrs. Ellsworth said. “I know how much he hates having you involved in his cases.”

“He wasn’t happy about it this time either, but he needed to question the women who live in the rescue house, and they don’t allow men inside.”

“Is that the place where they take the fallen women after they’ve gotten them out of the brothel?” Mrs. Ellsworth asked.

“Yes, they let the women stay there for a period of time. I’m not sure how long, but until they can find a job, I suppose.”

“That must be difficult. I mean, if they could find honest work, they wouldn’t have had to sell themselves in the first place.”

“If only everyone understood that,” Sarah said, feeling grateful that she had a friend who was as open-minded as Mrs. Ellsworth. “So many people think these women are immoral or wicked when they’re really just desperate.”

“So did you get in to interview the women?” Maeve asked.

“Yes, but I don’t think I was much help. I did speak with Miss Biafore, the young woman who manages the house, and two of the rescued girls, but the one I really wanted to speak with was Amy, and she’s gone.”

“Gone! Where did she go?” Maeve asked.

“Nobody knows. She just packed up her baby and left.”

“Is this the girl whose baby you delivered?” Mrs. Ellsworth asked.

“Yes, and I’m very worried about her. I don’t know how she can take care of herself and a child, too.”

“Do you think she’s the one who poisoned Mrs. Van Orner?” Maeve asked. “That would explain why she ran away.”

Sarah had been struggling with the same question all afternoon. “We don’t have any reason to think she did, at least not yet. We do know she and Mrs. Van Orner had some sort of discussion yesterday, and Mrs. Van Orner was upset afterwards, but nobody else knows what they talked about.”

“And a few hours later, Mrs. Van Orner was dead, and Amy has disappeared,” Mrs. Ellsworth mused.

“Exactly. As Maeve pointed out, it doesn’t look good for her.”

The front doorbell rang, and Sarah sighed. She should be happy at the prospect of a delivery. She had a family to support, after all. But she was even happier to see Malloy standing on her front stoop.

“I thought you were coming tomorrow,” she said as he stepped inside.

“I found out something very interesting, and I thought you should know it right away. Hello, Mrs. Ellsworth. Maeve.”

Maeve and her neighbor had come out to see who’d arrived.

Mrs. Ellsworth was equally happy to see Malloy. “It’s always nice to see you, Mr. Malloy. Are you hungry? We can heat up something from supper for you.”

“No, thanks, I already ate. I could use some coffee, though.”

Mrs. Ellsworth insisted on preparing the coffee, and the rest of them sat around the table.

“What did you learn?” Sarah asked as soon as they were settled.

“Before I tell you, did you find out anything interesting from Mrs. Spratt-Williams?”

“Who’s that?” Mrs. Ellsworth asked over her shoulder as she put the coffee on to boil.

“She’s one of Mrs. Van Orner’s helpers. I went to see her this afternoon, too.” Sarah turned back to Malloy. “She told me that she and Mrs. Van Orner were talking about Amy just before Mrs. Van Orner left the house. She said she told Mrs. Van Orner she should be more patient with Amy and not put her out just because she was difficult. Mrs. Van Orner refused to discuss it.”

“That’s all they talked about?”

“That’s what she said, but I had a feeling she wasn’t being entirely truthful with me. I did ask her who knew about Mrs. Van Orner’s drinking habits.”

“Oh, my, this is getting very interesting,” Mrs. Ellsworth said, taking her seat at the table while she waited for the coffee to boil. “Don’t stop to explain, though. Just keep going.”

Sarah thought Malloy wanted to roll his eyes, but he just smiled politely and said, “Who did she say knew?”

“Just herself, Mr. Van Orner, and Miss Yingling.”

“Who is Miss Yingling?” Mrs. Ellsworth whispered to Maeve.

“Mrs. Van Orner’s secretary,” Maeve whispered back.

“More people than that knew about her drinking,” Malloy said, resolutely ignoring Mrs. Ellsworth.

Sarah managed not to smile. “I know. Even Mrs. Spratt-Williams realized it when I challenged her. She allowed that the Van Orners’ servants probably knew, at least her maid.”

“Oh, yes, maids know everything,” Mrs. Ellsworth agreed.

“Mr. Porter knew, too,” Malloy said.

“Who’s Mr. Porter?” Mrs. Ellsworth whispered to Maeve again.

“Another one of Mrs. Van Orner’s helpers,” Malloy answered impatiently, without waiting for Maeve. “He said everybody who worked with her knew about the flask she carried. They never let on, but they all knew.”

“So any one of them could have poisoned her,” Maeve said.

“No, they had to have an opportunity to put the poison in the flask yesterday, too,” Sarah reminded them.

“Why did it have to be yesterday?” Maeve asked.

Everyone looked at her in surprise.

The color bloomed in her fair cheeks at the sudden attention, but she didn’t hesitate. “Just because she drank it yesterday doesn’t mean the killer put it in yesterday. They could have put it in anytime before that, and she just happened to drink it when she did.”

“Maeve is right,” Sarah said. “I guess we’ve been assuming that she drank from the flask every day.”

“Do you know how often she did drink from it?” Mrs. Ellsworth asked.

Sarah looked at Malloy, who shrugged. “Miss Yingling said she took a drink when she got upset, to calm her down.”

“She smelled of mint the two times I met with her in her office,” Sarah remembered. “She carried peppermints, and she even offered me one. I think she must have used them to cover the smell of the liquor on her breath.”

“It takes more than a peppermint to do that,” Maeve said with authority.

No one asked how she knew this.

“The stuff she carried in her flask was a liqueur that smelled like mint,” Malloy told her.

“It’s called crème de menthe,” Sarah added. “It’s very sweet.”

“I’ve tasted that. It’s delicious,” Mrs. Ellsworth said. “I can’t imagine gulping it down from a flask, though.”

Sarah smiled. “I’m sure you’d get used to it if you drank it all the time.”

“So you need to find out if she drank every day,” Maeve said. “And who could’ve put the poison in her flask.”

“According to everyone I talked to, anyone at the rescue house could have done it, since she usually left her purse lying on the hallway table. And now,” Sarah added with growing dismay, “it looks like anyone at her home could have done it and maybe other people as well. We don’t know where she might have been in the days before she died.”

“What kind of poison was it?” Mrs. Ellsworth asked.

“Laudanum,” Malloy said.

“Oh, my, anyone could have gotten hold of that, too.”

“We found an empty bottle of it at the rescue house,” Sarah said.

Malloy shook his head. “That doesn’t prove anything. Every house in the city probably has a bottle that’s at least half-empty.”

“Including the Van Orners,” Sarah said. “Oh, the coffee’s boiling over.”

Maeve jumped up before Mrs. Ellsworth could.

“Could her husband have poisoned her?” Mrs. Ellsworth asked as Maeve started to fill the cups the older woman had set out.

“He’s the one who told me to find her killer,” Malloy said. “I doubt he would’ve done that if he was the killer.”

“Her servants, then?” Mrs. Ellsworth suggested. “Or somebody else who lives at her house?”

“Miss Yingling lives there,” Sarah recalled.

“Why would she want to kill Mrs. Van Orner, though? She’d lose her job,” Maeve said, setting cups in front of Malloy and Mrs. Ellsworth.

Sarah tried to think of a reason. “Maybe Mrs. Van Orner had learned something bad about her and was going to let her go. Maybe she was even going to make a scandal and ruin her reputation.”

“Yes,” Mrs. Ellsworth agreed eagerly as Maeve set down cups for Sarah and herself. “Oh, wait, that one was for Mrs.—” She seemed to catch herself and set about vigorously stirring her own coffee.

Maeve gave her an odd look, then sat down and picked up the spoon from her own saucer. “Oh, look,” she said in feigned surprise. “I have two spoons. Doesn’t that mean I’m going to get married soon, Mrs. Ellsworth?”

Mrs. Ellsworth also feigned surprise, but since she’d set out the cups and spoons, nobody imagined for a moment that she was. She’d obviously meant the two spoons to go to Sarah. This wouldn’t be the first time she’d tried to “arrange” a superstition for her. “Well, yes, it
can
mean that. It can also mean you’re going to marry twice, so I hope you don’t feel you must hurry to find a beau.”

Sarah covered her mouth to hide a smile while Malloy looked on, completely bewildered by the exchange. She wasn’t about to explain it to him. “So where were we? Oh, yes, we decided that Mrs. Van Orner was going to ruin Miss Yingling and she was desperate to save herself. She was afraid she might end up in a brothel like those other girls, so she had to kill Mrs. Van Orner.”

“I see,” said Maeve. “And if she killed Mrs. Van Orner before she told anyone about Miss Yingling, someone else would give her a job after Mrs. Van Orner died.”

Malloy sighed in exasperation. “That’s fine except for one thing.”

“What’s that?” Sarah asked.

“Miss Yingling was a prostitute herself.”

“What!” all three women cried in unison.

“Who told you that?” Sarah asked in amazement.

“Mr. Porter. She was the first prostitute Mrs. Van Orner rescued. That’s what I came here to tell you.”

10

S
ARAH SHOOK HER HEAD, TRYING TO UNDERSTAND. “DID the other people at Rahab’s Daughters know Miss Yingling had been a prostitute? Oh, wait, of course they did. Now it all makes sense.”

“What makes sense?” Malloy asked.

“The way they treated her, that day we had the meeting in Mrs. Van Orner’s office to plan how we were going to rescue Amy from the brothel. Mrs. Spratt-Williams and the two gentlemen, they acted like she wasn’t even there. I don’t think they even looked at her unless they had to. I thought they were just too proud to speak to a lowly secretary, but that wasn’t it at all.”

“How did Mrs. Van Orner treat her?” Maeve asked. Sarah tried to recall. “She treated her like she was a servant, but that didn’t seem strange, because in a sense, she was.”

“Except she lived in the Van Orners’ house,” Malloy reminded her.

“So do their other servants,” Sarah said. “What I can’t understand is why Mr. Van Orner allowed it.”

“You’re forgetting the rumors about Mr. Van Orner,” Malloy said. “They say he likes prostitutes.”

“But would he like one living under his own roof?” Mrs. Ellsworth scoffed. “He’d be a laughingstock.”

Malloy refused to give in. “Maybe
his
friends didn’t know. Maybe
he
didn’t even know. I can’t imagine his wife telling him.”

Sarah shook her head. “And I can’t believe Miss Yingling was a prostitute. She’s one of the most prim and proper young women I’ve ever met.”

“That’s what she’d want Mrs. Van Orner and everybody else to think,” Malloy argued back. “You didn’t see her last night, though.”

“What do you mean?”