“I don’t want you to think I just sit by my window watching who comes and goes next door,” Miss Stone said, a little offended.
Frank gave her his charming smile, the one that used to work on his mother when he was a boy. “I know that a lady living alone likes to know who comes and goes in the neighborhood. You can’t be too careful, you know. I’m sure if you saw anything suspicious, you’d report it immediately.”
Miss Stone allowed herself to be placated again. “Of course I would. Except I didn’t see anything suspicious that night. I did see a gentleman come to call earlier in the evening, but I’m not even sure which one it was. They’re very careful about turning their faces away, you understand, and I never imagined it would be important to keep track of them.”
“Do you have any idea when he left?”
“I’m sorry to say I don’t. Why would that…? Oh, I see, if the girl had left with him, he might be the killer.”
Miss Stone was proving to be quite a detective herself. Too bad she wasn’t quite as nosy as Mrs. Ellsworth. He bet Mrs. Ellsworth could’ve told him the eye color and religious affiliation of each and every one of the Walcotts’ gentlemen callers.
“Have I been any help at all?” she asked anxiously.
“It’s hard to tell,” Frank lied. “Sometimes the smallest detail is the one that solves the case. Like I said, you may have seen something important without realizing it. If you think of anything else, please send for me.” He gave her his card, thanked her for the refreshments, and took his leave.
Frank glanced at the Walcott house as he left Miss Stone’s. All seemed quiet, and he considered trying again to talk with Mrs. Walcott. Then he decided he’d have a better chance of seeing Giddings at his place of business at this time of day, something he could do without breaking his promise not to tell Giddings’s wife what had happened. Frank wanted to find out if he was the one who’d called on Anna the night she died. He’d stop by the Walcotts’ early tomorrow to catch the landlady before she had a chance to leave the house. Maybe she could at least explain why someone had opened her cellar door late that night.
Sarah arrived home to discover several reporters on the sidewalk in front of the Ellsworths’ house. Poor Mrs. Ellsworth, the most exciting thing to happen on this street in her lifetime, and she already knew all about it. More, in fact, than she wanted to know.
Sarah debated the wisdom of trying to get past the reporters to the Ellsworths’ front door, but she decided to try to sneak in the back instead. Unfortunately, she still had to deal with them. As soon as they recognized her, they converged on her, plying her with shouted questions and offering her bribes to get them in to see the Ellsworths.
“Mr. Ellsworth had nothing to do with Anna Blake’s murder,” she tried shouting above the din.
“How do you know?” one of them asked. “Was he with you that night?”
“Why are you trying to protect him?” another called.
Malloy was right, she thought in disgust. There was no way to convince these jackals of the truth. They were only interested in uncovering a scandal-or inventing one. She shoved her way through them and up her front steps and into her house, slamming the door behind her.
Once inside, she went to the window to see what they would do. Deprived of their latest prey, they returned to their vigil at the Ellsworths’ front stoop, waiting for a new victim. Poor Mrs. Ellsworth, held prisoner in her own home. Nelson, at least, had gotten himself into this mess with his poor judgment, but his mother had done nothing at all. Sarah wondered if they had enough food or if they needed anything. At least their captivity meant they hadn’t been able to get out to buy a newspaper and had been spared that outrage.
Sarah went to her own pantry and found a few potatoes, half a loaf of stale bread, and a bag of beans. She’d shop for them tomorrow, if Malloy still hadn’t solved the case by then. In the meantime, at least they wouldn’t starve. Throwing the food items into a market basket, Sarah went to her back door and checked to make sure no reporters had taken up a vigil in the alley. Finding the way clear, she hurried next door and banged on the door.
Mrs. Ellsworth peered out before letting her in. “Oh, Mrs. Brandt, thank heaven you’re here! I’m half insane with worrying. Has Mr. Malloy found the killer yet?”
“Not yet,” she said, “but I’m sure it won’t be much longer.” Malloy wouldn’t thank her for the lie, but it was all she had to offer. “Where’s Nelson?”
“Up in his room. I think he’s a little embarrassed about everything that happened, and he’s also mourning that poor girl. He really cared for her. And when he saw what they wrote about him in the newspaper…” Her voice broke.
“How did you see a newspaper?” Sarah asked in dismay.
“Mr. Holsinger across the street brought one over this morning, before the reporters got here.”
“How thoughtful of him,” Sarah said sarcastically.
“Oh, he wasn’t being kind,” Mrs. Ellsworth assured her. “He was furious that Nelson had brought a scandal into the neighborhood. He wanted to know what we were going to do about it.”
“What did he have in mind?” Sarah asked in astonishment.
“Heaven knows,” Mrs. Ellsworth said with a sigh, sinking down into one of the kitchen chairs. She looked as if she hadn’t slept much the night before, and Sarah wanted to check her pulse and her heartbeat to make sure she wasn’t truly ill. Perhaps she’d bring her medical bag when she came the next time.
Sarah set her market basket on the table. “I didn’t know if you had any food in the house, but I knew you couldn’t go shopping, so I brought over what I had.”
“That’s kind of you, but neither of us feels very hungry, I’m afraid.”
“You can’t stop eating. You’ll make yourself sick. How are you feeling?”
Mrs. Ellsworth looked up at Sarah through bloodshot eyes. “Frightened,” she said. “What if Mr. Malloy can’t find the real killer, and they arrest Nelson? He could be executed!”
“Don’t think that way! Malloy will find the killer, and if he doesn’t, I will. Nelson will never go to jail,” she promised rashly.
Mrs. Ellsworth smiled sadly. “You are such a good friend, Mrs. Brandt.”
Sarah returned her smile. “As I recall, you’ve been a good friend to me, too. Now let’s peel these potatoes and see if we can’t get some hot food into the two of you.”
Mrs. Ellsworth found a knife, and Sarah took it from her and began to peel. “Which newspaper did Mr. Holsinger bring you?” she asked after a moment.
“It seems likely,” Sarah said, remembering him only too well.
“He looked like such a nice young man, but… Can you tell me, Mrs. Brandt, are the things he said about Nelson true?”
“I’m sure very little of it was true,” Sarah hedged.
“But was that poor girl with child, like the paper said? Nelson won’t talk about it at all. I think he’s trying to protect me, but the truth can’t be any worse than what I’m imagining.”
“She’d told Nelson she was with child,” Sarah said, deciding that telling the truth was really the only way to protect her friend. “He thought perhaps she might be mistaken, so he asked me to visit her to make sure.”
“What a cad!” she exclaimed in outrage. “I’d never expect my own son to behave so unchivalrously! To seduce an innocent girl was bad enough. He should have offered to marry her at once!”
“He did,” Sarah assured her. “But for some reason, she didn’t want to marry him.”
This shocked Mrs. Ellsworth as much as it had Sarah. “Why on earth not?”
“According to Nelson, she didn’t think she was good enough for him or something. At least that’s what she said. Nelson is a modest man, and he was afraid she just couldn’t stand the idea of being married to him.”
“That’s ridiculous! Nelson is a fine catch, and a girl in her position would marry a hunchbacked imbecile, in any case, just to give her child a name.”
Sarah could only agree. “I don’t pretend to understand any of this. I’m just repeating what I was told. Nelson thought that if there wasn’t a child, Anna wouldn’t be forced into a marriage she didn’t want.”
“So he asked you to make sure,” Mrs. Ellsworth guessed. “And did you?”
“No. Miss Blake wouldn’t even speak with me. And the next day she was murdered.”
