be much use to us.”
Sharpe scowled, but he nodded his understanding, then made his apologies to Mrs. Decker and to Sarah and took his leave.
“Oh, my,” Mrs. Decker said when he was gone, “what have we gotten ourselves into?”
Sarah looked up the stairs where Serafina had disappeared and wondered if she should go after the girl. She’d had a terrible shock today at the morgue, seeing Nicola’s body, and now she had made plans to relive Mrs. Gittings’s murder. She really shouldn’t be alone, but before she could decide what to do, Maeve came up beside her and called, “He’s gone! You can come back down!”
She’d brought Catherine with her, holding the child’s hand, and Catherine instantly moved to Sarah’s side. Sarah instinctively reached down and picked her up, settling the child on her hip.
Serafina appeared at the top of the stairs and hurried down. “Did he say he would visit Mr. Cunningham?” she asked before she even reached the bottom of the steps.
“Yes, and Mrs. Decker is going to visit Mrs. Burke,” Maeve told her. “Do you think you should write her a note?”
“Yes, I must,” Serafina said. “She is afraid to come, so I must make her more afraid not to come.”
“But that’s cruel,” Mrs. Decker protested.
“Not if she is the killer,” Serafina said coldly.
Maeve bit back a grin. “There’s writing paper here in the desk,” she said, leading the other girl over to the desk that had been Sarah’s husband’s. She started opening drawers and pulling out the items Serafina needed.
“Sarah, you’ll go with us, won’t you?” Mrs. Decker asked. Sarah had rarely seen her mother so unsure of herself. “If that’s all right,” she added to Serafina.
“Oh, yes,” the girl said absently as she selected a sheet of writing paper. “She must be there to see who the killer is.”
“So you’ll go?” Mrs. Decker asked Sarah to confirm.
“Of course, Mother. I wouldn’t miss this for anything.”
“I don’t want to go,” Catherine informed everyone.
“You can stay with Mrs. Ellsworth, sweetheart,” Sarah assured her, then she turned to Malloy. “I’ll tell you everything that happens.”
“You won’t need to,” Malloy replied smugly. “I wouldn’t miss this for anything either. Besides, if the spirits are going to tell her who the killer is, I need to be there to arrest him. Or
“I hardly even knew that woman!” she reminded him.
“He’s only teasing you, Mother,” Sarah said. “Just ignore him.”
“It isn’t nice to tease people, Mr. Malloy,” Catherine told him sternly.
“I’m sorry,” Malloy said, feigning meekness. “I won’t tease Mrs. Decker anymore.”
“Mr. Malloy,” Serafina asked from where she was sitting at the desk. “Will you take a message to the Professor? I want to be sure he is there when we come and that everything is ready.”
“I would be happy to,” Malloy said graciously, surprising Sarah. “I should probably tell him about Nicola, too.”
Serafina’s head jerked up, and her eyes blazed. “No, please do not tell him. I will do that when I see him. And also do not tell him we are trying to find the killer. It will be better if he thinks I am just going to start doing the sittings again. I will tell him we must begin again since all the money is gone.”
“What money is that?” Mrs. Decker asked.
“Nicola took all the money that Mrs. Gittings was holding for us when he ran away,” Serafina said before anyone else could speak.
Maeve hastened to confirm her story. “Someone must have robbed him before… Well, he didn’t have the money anymore when they found him.”
Sarah exchanged a glance with Malloy, who shrugged. If that was the story Serafina wanted to tell, it was of no concern to him.
“Please, I must write this note for Mr. Malloy to take to the Professor,” Serafina said.
“Let’s go in the kitchen,” Sarah suggested.
Mrs. Decker led the way. Sarah followed, still carrying Catherine, and Malloy came behind. Maeve stayed in the office with Serafina while she composed her notes.
“What do you make of all this?” Mrs. Decker asked in a whisper.
“She just wants to prove Nicola was innocent,” Sarah said, setting Catherine down on one of the chairs. “Would you like another cookie, sweetheart?”
“Yes, please,” she said and accepted one.
“I’m starting to think Serafina knows more than she’s told us,” Malloy said with a frown.
“You mean you think she knows who killed Mrs. Gittings?” Mrs. Decker asked in surprise.
“If she does, why didn’t she say so in the first place?” Sarah asked.
“Maybe she couldn’t prove it, and she didn’t think I’d believe her,” Malloy said.
“So she was hoping Mr. Malloy would figure it out for himself,” Mrs. Decker suggested.
“But now that Nicola is dead, she knows I’m going to stop investigating,” Malloy concluded.
“We could just ask her,” Sarah said.
“She’d lie,” Malloy said. “She wants to have her seance.”
“And what if she has it, and we still don’t figure out who killed Mrs. Gittings?” Mrs. Decker asked.
“Then there’s nothing else I can do, and I’ll be finished with this whole thing,” Malloy said with more than a trace of happy anticipation.
“You’d just give up?” Mrs. Decker asked in amazement.
“Mother, Malloy can’t badger people like Mr. Sharpe and Mrs. Burke, especially when he doesn’t have any reason to think they’re guilty. He’d lose his job,” Sarah said.
Mrs. Decker sighed. “I just wish there was something else I could do. Serafina is all alone in the world now, except for that Professor fellow, and I don’t trust him one bit.”
Malloy turned to Sarah. “Have you had a chance to ask Maeve what she thinks of Serafina?”
“No,” Sarah said, remembering that Malloy had suggested this the day he’d given her custody of the girl. “She seems awfully anxious to help her, though.”
“Or maybe she just wants to go to a seance,” Malloy countered.
“I don’t like the idea of her playing Mrs. Gittings’s part,” Sarah said with a frown.
“You can’t think someone would try to harm her,” Mrs. Decker said. “No one there even knows her.”
“I know, but still… I just feel uneasy about it.”
“Maeve can take care of herself,” Malloy reminded her.
Sarah remembered exactly how Maeve had taken care of herself just a few short weeks ago and shivered involuntarily. “I just wish we could be in the room during the seance, in case something happens.”
“We can be on the other side of the cabinet,” Malloy said reasonably. “We’ll hear everything that happens, and we can be in the room in a minute if we’re needed.”
“But what if the killer decides to…” Sarah stopped, trying to think of possible scenarios.
“What if he decides to do what?” Malloy prodded her. “Kill Madame Serafina? I think the killer was trying to help her by killing Mrs. Gittings, so why would he want to kill Serafina now? Nobody even knows Maeve, so she’s safe, and what reason does anybody have to kill any of the others? Also, nobody knows who the killer is, so nobody else is in danger of betraying him.”
“I know you’re right,” Sarah admitted.
“Of course I am,” he said without a trace of humility.
She glared at him. “I just hate the thought of her sitting there in the dark, helpless.”
Malloy considered this a moment. “I think I have something to make her a little less helpless.”
“Not a weapon,” Sarah protested.
“No, something better.”
Before she could question him, Maeve and Serafina returned to the kitchen. Maeve handed an envelope to Malloy. “This is for the Professor.”
“Is it going to make him run?” Malloy asked with a doubtful glance at the envelope.
