man say, “He’s stiff.”
“All right,” Malloy said after another moment, and when they looked, they saw the dead man’s bare back. The sheet had been draped to cover the buttocks. Malloy and the young man were holding the body balanced on its side. Rigor mor tis was still present, and the body seemed carved of stone. Sarah could clearly see a large, brown birthmark on the left shoulder blade.
The girl made a whimpering sound.
“Serafina?” Sarah asked anxiously.
Serafina sounded for a moment as if she couldn’t breathe, and then the awful choking noises collapsed upon themselves into wracking sobs that convulsed her young body.
“Is it Nicola?” Malloy asked, shouting to be heard.
“Yes, yes!” she cried, and ran from the room.
Sarah hurried after her and found her slumped on the stairs, sobbing.
“Come upstairs,” Sarah coaxed her. “We’ll find someplace quiet and-”
“No, no, take me out of this place!” she begged, lurching to her feet. “Please, I cannot stay here.”
“Of course,” Sarah said and helped her up the stairs and out into the street, where the Decker carriage waited in silent splendor. The driver jumped down and helped them inside. Although he’d been trained not to show emotion, even he seemed moved by the girl’s anguished grief.
“I’m so sorry,” Sarah said, wrapping her arms around the girl’s slender body and pulling her close. She held her while she wept out her pain, and by the time Malloy had finished his business inside and rejoined them, she was exhausted and drained and lay limp in Sarah’s arms.
Malloy instructed the driver to return them to Sarah’s house. The trip back was conducted in near silence, but when they were almost there, Serafina pulled away from Sarah and sat upright, her spine suddenly rigid.
“Nicola did not kill Mrs. Gittings,” she told them both.
“We know he didn’t,” Sarah assured her, earning a black look from Malloy.
When Malloy didn’t confirm her sentiments, Serafina turned her marvelous eyes on him. “But you will stop looking for the killer now, will you not?”
“I told you before, I can only question those people once.
Cunningham and Sharpe didn’t confess, and Mrs. Burke fainted. The Professor is the only other person there, and he wasn’t in the room. There isn’t much more I can do.”
“Nicola is not a killer. I will not let people think he is.” Sarah knew that few people would think about Nicola DiLoreto at all, but she didn’t want to upset Serafina again by saying so. She would broach the subject later, when the girl was calmer. “We know he was innocent,” she tried. “That’s what’s important.”
“No, finding the real killer is important,” Serafina said.
“Do you know who it is?” Malloy asked with great interest.
“I will find out,” Serafina said with perfect confidence. “The spirits will tell me.”
Malloy ran a hand over his face to hide his exasperation. “When they do,” he said when he’d recovered his composure, “let me know.”
And just as if he’d made a perfectly logical request, she said, “I will.”
BACK AT SARAH’S HOUSE, MRS. DECKER AND MAEVE WERE saddened to learn that the dead man really was Nicola. Even Catherine offered her sympathies by climbing into Serafina’s lap and wrapping her small arms around the girl’s neck.
Maeve made tea for everyone and set out cookies that she and Catherine had made while they were gone, but Malloy declined the offer and took his leave. Sarah saw him to the door, and when they were alone, he said, “I’m sorry you had to go to that place.”
“I didn’t mind. I couldn’t let her face that alone.”
“I was hoping it wasn’t him,” he confessed. “At least part of me was. The other part hoped it was, because I’m still convinced he was the one who killed Mrs. Gittings.”
“So this is the end of the investigation, I suppose.”
“Unless something turns up to change my mind,” he told her with an apologetic shrug.
“At least Serafina won’t have to see Nicola tried for murder.”
“Or executed,” Malloy added grimly.
Someone knocked on Sarah’s front door. “Oh, dear, I hope it isn’t a delivery,” she muttered. “After the day I’ve had, I’m not in any condition to do one right now.”
Malloy stood back so she could open the door, and they were both surprised to see John Sharpe standing on her doorstep.
“Mrs. Brandt, please forgive me for intruding,” Sharpe said while he was pushing his way into the house, belying his apology even as he was making it. “I was told… What are
“I could ask you the same question,” Malloy said mildly.
“I have some business with Madame Serafina,” he informed them both. “I was told she is here.”
“Who told you that?” Malloy asked with interest.
“Professor Rogers was kind enough to give me the information. He’s been quite worried about her, and he asked if I could locate Mrs. Brandt and make sure Madame Serafina is all right.”
“She’s just fine,” Malloy told him, “so you can be on your way.”
Sharpe gave him a look that had probably intimidated many underlings and a multitude of servants, but it didn’t phase Malloy, who gave it right back. “I told you,” Sharpe tried indignantly, “I have business with Madame Serafina.”
“What kind of business?” Malloy insisted.
“Mr. Sharpe,” Serafina said, surprising them all. While they had been arguing, she had come out and stood just inside the office doorway. She still wore the clothes she had worn to the morgue, the ones that made her look like an ordinary young woman, but something about her had changed ever so subtly now that Sharpe was here, Sarah noticed. She carried herself differently, and her voice was lower, more sensual. “How kind of you to come.”
“Madame Serafina,” he said, brushing past Sarah and Frank to meet her as she crossed Sarah’s office, coming toward them. “How are you? You look like you’ve been crying,” he added with a glance of accusation at Sarah and Malloy.
“I am still mourning poor Mrs. Gittings,” she said without a trace of irony. “She was like a mother to me. I do not know how I can go on without her.” She held out her hand, and he grasped it eagerly with both of his.
“But you must!” Sharpe said. “Your work is too important. That’s why I’ve come, to make sure you can continue.”
“You are very good to me.” The look she gave him would have melted a much stronger man than John Sharpe.
Sarah suddenly realized that with Mrs. Gittings and Nicola both dead, Serafina was now free to take any of the offers that Mrs. Gittings had refused on her behalf. Sharpe’s offer to set her up in a house of her own had certainly been the most attractive and by far the most honorable.
“Mr. Sharpe,” Mrs. Decker greeted him as she came into the room as well.
Sharpe looked up in surprise and instantly dropped Serafina’s hand, as if he had been caught doing something unseemly. “Mrs. Decker, what are you doing here?”
“I’m visiting my daughter, Mr. Sharpe, and I must admit I’m amazed to see you here. However did you find us?”
“Mrs. Brandt is listed in the City Directory,” Sharpe said a bit defensively. “It was merely a matter of giving my driver the address.”
“But how did you know Madame Serafina was here?” Mrs. Decker asked with interest.
“The Professor told him,” Malloy reported before Sharpe could reply.
Sarah saw Catherine and Maeve lurking in the shadows just beyond the door. They would be watching the scene with avid interest. The only thing missing was Mrs. Ellsworth, and she was bound to show up any minute with a cake in hand to find out who Sarah’s latest visitor was.
“The Professor was worried about Madame Serafina,” Sharpe quickly explained.
“Then why didn’t he come himself?” Mrs. Decker said, asking the question Sarah and Malloy should have
