“You know a policeman?” Madame asked, staring at Sarah and her mother in amazement. People like Mrs. Decker did not know policemen.
“Yes, we do,” Mrs. Decker confirmed. “Mr. Malloy will make sure that the real killer is found and punished.”
Sarah hoped he would be able to do this. Right now, she knew too little of what had transpired here to be sure. “Can you tell me what happened? The policeman who came to get me didn’t know very much except that Mrs. Gittings had been stabbed.”
Madame straightened, looking back at Sarah with some apprehension. “I do not know what happened,” she said rather stiffly. “I was… Yellow Feather was there. I was in a trance. The first thing I knew was Mrs. Burke was screaming that Mrs. Gittings had fainted.”
Sarah wanted to ask her a question, but her mother jumped in before she could.
“It was horrible, Sarah. Yellow Feather was trying to contact Maggie, but there were a lot of spirits there today, and they were all talking at once. He couldn’t hear what she was saying. He started shouting, trying to quiet them down, and then everyone else starting talking at once.”
“The spirits?” Sarah asked in confusion.
“No, of course not. Everyone in the room. They all wanted to ask questions, so they started shouting, trying to make themselves heard. They were extremely rude,” she added, a bit outraged. “I couldn’t understand a thing.”
“When was Mrs. Gittings stabbed?” Sarah asked. She glanced at Madame Serafina, but she was studying her hands where they were folded in her lap.
Her mother had to think about it. “That’s just it, we don’t know exactly when she was stabbed. She didn’t scream or anything, so far as I heard, which now seems very strange. Wouldn’t you scream or at least cry out if someone stabbed you? The first hint we had that something was wrong was when Kathy… Mrs. Burke, she started screaming.”
“Did she see Mrs. Gittings get stabbed?”
“Oh, no,” her mother assured her. “None of us did. The room was dark, just the way it was at the seance you attended, dear.”
Sarah nodded, remembering how she hadn’t been able to see a thing in the pitch-dark room. “Were you holding hands?”
“Yes, just the way we did that other time. Everyone was holding someone else’s hands or, rather, their wrists. So of course we would have known if anyone at the table had let go to… Well, you know. Then Kathy… Mrs. Burke started to scream that Mrs. Gittings had fainted. That’s what she thought, of course.”
“Why did she think that?”
“Because she fell out of her chair, and naturally, she wouldn’t assume the woman had died, at least not at first. Mrs. Burke said she fell against her. She was quite hysterical when she realized the woman was actually dead.”
“I’m sure she was,” Sarah said. “When did
“As soon as someone opened the door, and we got a good look at her. The knife… Well, we all saw it sticking out of her back.” Suddenly, her mother looked a bit pale.
Sarah reached over and took her hand. “I’m so sorry you had to go through this.”
“Not your fault,” her mother reminded her sheepishly. “You made me promise not to come back here, didn’t you.”
“I’ll say I told you so later,” she promised in return and turned back to Madame Serafina. “Could anyone else have gotten into the room?”
“Oh, no,” Mrs. Decker answered for her. “Remember, we would have seen if someone had opened the door. I’m sure no one else could have come in.”
Sarah nodded, recalling quite clearly. That meant someone at the table must have killed the woman, although that didn’t really seem possible. Fortunately, figuring out how it had happened was Malloy’s job. She might be able to help him along, though. “Do you have any idea why someone would
Madame Serafina looked up, her expression guarded. “No, none at all.”
“What do you know about her?” Sarah asked. “Does she have any family? I suppose someone should send for them, if they haven’t already.”
“No, she has no family,” Madame said quickly.
“That must be why she spent so much time here,” Mrs. Decker said. “Mrs. Burke said she attended all the seances.”
But Sarah was still looking at the girl. She was hiding something. “Madame,” she said kindly. “What do you know about her? You have to tell us everything so we can help you,” she added, not sure if it was true but knowing it would work.
“Mrs. Gittings is…” The girl looked uncertainly at Mrs. Decker, then back at Sarah again. Her dark eyes looked even darker. “This is her house. She… finds people to come here, and she takes the money.”
“Are you saying that she’s your manager?” Sarah asked in surprise.
“Yes, that is it. She is my manager,” she said, grateful for the suggestion. “She takes care of everything for me so I do not have to worry.” This sounded like something Mrs. Gittings would have told her.
Sarah looked at her mother, who gave her a small shake of the head to indicate she’d had no idea. Sarah wondered briefly if Malloy knew this yet. “So you live here with her and… and who else?”
“Nicola,” she admitted reluctantly. “And the Professor.”
“How did you get involved with her in the first place?” Sarah asked, excusing her nosiness with the certainty that any information she could get about Mrs. Gittings might help identify her killer.
“She found me,” the girl said, obviously choosing her words carefully. “I was telling fortunes. I told her fortune one day, and she said I had a gift. She said I was wasting my talent, and she could help me. She said I could be rich.”
“So she brought you here?” Sarah guessed.
“Yes. She helped me to… to contact the spirits. Then she found people to come.” The girl was starting to look uneasy again.
Sarah had a million questions about how Mrs. Gittings had helped her to contact the spirits. “How did she-?”
“Please,” Madame interrupted anxiously. “What will happen with Nicola? He did not do anything wrong. You cannot let them take him to jail!”
“Nobody’s going to take him to jail,” Mrs. Decker promised rashly.
“That policeman hit him!” the girl said, tears pooling in her eyes again.
“Which policeman?” Sarah asked. “Not Mr. Malloy!”
“No, no, one in uniform,” the girl said, the tears spilling down her cheeks. “Please, do not let anything happen to him!”
“If he’s innocent, nothing will happen to him,” Sarah promised even more rashly. “But the only way to prove he’s innocent is to figure out who really did it. Do you have any idea at all?”
“None!” the girl insisted. “Please, can you find out what they are doing to Nicola? Can you talk to your friend Mr. Malloy and ask him?”
Sarah gave her a reassuring smile. “I’ll see what I can do.”
FRANK WENT BACK TO FIND THE PROFESSOR SITTING WITH his head bowed, rubbing his forehead. When he looked up, his face was gray with strain.
He took his chair opposite the Professor again. “Who was this Mrs. Gittings to you?”
He stiffened. “I worked for her.”
“What else? Don’t lie to me,” Frank warned. “I’ll just get annoyed, and you won’t like what happens after that.”
The Professor had been around long enough to know how the police behaved when they got annoyed. “We were partners,” he said, his face rigid with reluctance.
“You split the profits of this little scam?”
