Walcott seemed surprised. “Yes, I suppose… Well, of course, we don’t take anyone who wouldn’t be able to support themselves, but we want respectable young ladies, too. If you put out a sign, you never know who might come along.”
“It’s my understanding that Anna Blake didn’t have a job. How did she convince you she could pay the rent?” Frank inquired.
“Well, uh, that is… You’d really have to ask Mrs. Walcott about that. She handles all the arrangements. I don’t involve myself in such matters.”
Frank was becoming annoyed with Walcott, but he didn’t let it show. “Tell me what happened the night Anna died.”
Now it was Walcott’s turn to be annoyed, and he didn’t bother to hide it. “I don’t know what happened. I wasn’t here that night.”
“Where were you? Traveling?” He managed to make his skepticism known.
“Yes, I was in Philadelphia.”
“Can you prove it?” Frank asked mildly.
Walcott’s face had grown red. “If necessary,” he replied tightly.
“So you would have no idea why Anna went out that night?”
“None at all.”
“Was she in the habit of going out alone at night?”
“We keep a decent house here, Detective. Any young ladies in the habit of going out at night would be asked to leave.”
“I guess that means you wouldn’t allow them gentleman callers, either.”
“In the parlor, where they could be chaperoned,” Walcott snapped.
“Then can you explain how Anna Black got herself with child?”
“What?” Walcott looked genuinely shocked.
“Anna Blake claimed she was with child, and from what I’ve been given to understand, she got that way right here in your house.”
“I can’t imagine who gave you an idea like that, but it’s completely false. Such a thing could never happen here.”
“How can you be sure? You said yourself that you don’t spend much time at home.”
Walcott was insulted now. “My wife would never let such a thing happen either. She’s very careful. She has her own reputation to protect, after all.”
“Maybe she didn’t know about it,” Frank suggested, but Walcott wasn’t going to be placated.
“Are you finished with me?” he asked, rising from his chair. “As I told you, I have an appointment and-” The sound of someone knocking on the front door interrupted him, and he signed in exasperation. “I hope that isn’t one of those reporters. There were about a dozen of them outside this morning when we woke up. I thought they were going to break down the door. Poor Catherine, our other lodger, was nearly hysterical with fright.”
“How did you get rid of them?” Frank asked curiously.
“I told them the name of the bank where Nelson Ellsworth is employed,” he said, and Frank nearly groaned aloud. So much for protecting Nelson’s employer from the onslaught of the press.
Frank saw a maid come from the rear of the house to answer the door, and then he did groan aloud because the person she admitted was Sarah Brandt.
“Malloy,” she said when she saw him through the open parlor door, smiling too smugly for Frank’s taste.
He rose to his feet, but he didn’t return her greeting as she brazenly came into the room without waiting for an invitation. She waited a moment for him to make introductions, and when he didn’t, she offered Walcott her hand.
“I’m Sarah Brandt, a friend of Anna Blake’s.”
Even Frank was impressed with her audacity. Walcott was simply confused.
“I’m sorry, Miss Brandt, but Anna… Something terrible has happened and-”
“It’s Mrs. Brandt, and I know what happened to poor, dear Anna,” she told him. “I’ve come to see if there is anything I can do to help. I’m sure Mrs. Walcott must be very upset, and I thought I might be of some assistance to her. Is she receiving visitors?”
“She’s out shopping,” Frank informed her.
Mrs. Brandt raised her fine eyebrows to express her surprise at such a thing
“I’ll be sure to tell her you called,” Mr. Walcott assured her hastily.
“The other lodger is pretty upset,” Frank offered. “Maybe she’d appreciate a visit.”
Mrs. Brandt’s eyebrows rose higher, probably to express her shock that Frank had asked for her assistance, but she was gracious enough not to betray any other reaction.
“Are you a friend of Miss Porter’s, too?” Walcott asked her suspiciously.
Frank never got to hear what bold-faced lie Sarah Brandt might have told because just then someone else started pounding insistently on the front door.
“Reporters,” Walcott muttered furiously, and this time he didn’t wait for the maid to answer.
Striding purposefully back out into the foyer, he opened the door, prepared to do battle with a member of the Fourth Estate. Instead, a very distraught middle-aged man pushed his way into the house. “Where is she?” he demanded.
Walcott seemed genuinely alarmed. “This isn’t an opportune time, Mr. Giddings,” he said, hurrying over and closing the door to the parlor in Frank’s face. But if he’d thought the act would give him privacy, he was mistaken.
“Don’t try to stop me,” Giddings shouted, his voice clearly audible through the door. “I have to see her. Where is she?”
“She isn’t here,” Walcott said anxiously. “You must leave. The police-”
“Don’t threaten me with the police! Do you think I give a damn about them? I’ve got to see her.
Walcott said something Frank couldn’t understand, and then he heard the sounds of a scuffle. In another moment, footsteps pounded up the stairs, and Giddings was calling for Anna again.
Frank exchanged a questioning glance with Mrs. Brandt.
“I think you should be the one to deal with him,” she said generously. “I’ll see if I can find out anything from the maid.”
It galled Frank, but he said, “See if that other girl lodger is still here. Maybe she knows something, too.”
Frank opened the parlor door and found Walcott staring helplessly up the stairs, as if unable to decide upon a course of action. Giddings was throwing open doors on the second floor and calling Anna’s name.
Frank shouldered Walcott out of the way and started climbing the stairs. By the time he’d reached the top, Giddings was standing in the open doorway of one of the rooms, staring stupidly into it. Hearing Frank’s approach, he turned accusingly.
“Where is she?” he demanded. Then he realized Frank wasn’t Walcott. “Who are you?”
“Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy with the New York City Police,” he said. His tone wasn’t particularly menacing, but it didn’t have to be. Those words were enough to strike fear into a normally law-abiding citizen who had been causing a disturbance.
Giddings stiffened. “I’ve done nothing wrong,” he insisted.
“Besides forcing your way into someone’s home?” Frank inquired mildly.
“I was just-”
“Who are you looking for?” Frank asked sharply.
“I… Really, it isn’t important.” Giddings was starting to sweat in spite of the coolness of the day. He was probably remembering stories he’d heard about the police and how they treated people they arrested, innocent or not. Frank supposed he owed the press a debt of gratitude for their sensational stories if they put the fear of God into people like this Giddings.
“Were you looking for Anna Blake?” Frank asked.
“I… Yes, I was concerned about her. I haven’t seen her for several days and-”
“What is your relationship to her?”
Giddings needed a moment to think about that. “We’re… that is… She’s my fiancee,” he finally decided. He
