Murder on Washington Square

Anna Blake appeared to be the innocent young girl Nelson believed her to be, but Sarah thought back to the moment when their eyes had first met. Anna hadn’t cringed or even seemed the least bit embarrassed, in spite of her protests to the contrary. In fact, she’d seemed almost defiant or… Sarah shook her head, certain she must have been mistaken. But no, she recalled clearly the odd impression she’d had that Anna Blake was actually glad to see Sarah, or at least relieved.

Why she should have been, Sarah had no idea. After all, if Sarah did have a prior claim to Nelson’s affections, as she’d so quaintly phrased it, she should have been as humiliated as she’d claimed to be. In fact, she’d been determined to make Sarah her rival, in spite of all the protests she and Nelson had made. And for all her weeping and protestations, Sarah couldn’t help recalling that Anna’s delicate face hadn’t grown the least bit blotchy, nor had her eyes gotten red or her little, turned-up nose started running.

Well, it was all beyond her, but since it also wasn’t her problem to solve, she mentally washed her hands of the whole situation. If Anna Blake decided to see her as a patient, she’d deal with her. If not, she’d keep her promise not to mention the situation to Nelson’s mother and let him sort it out himself.

2

THE NEXT MORNING, SARAH LEFT THE HOUSE TO FIND Nelson Ellsworth’s mother out sweeping her front porch. This wasn’t particularly surprising, since Mrs. Ellsworth had made sweeping her front porch her life’s work, the better to know everything going on in the neighborhood firsthand. For once, Sarah knew a secret her next-door neighbor didn’t, but she would honor her pledge to keep it.

“Good morning, Mrs. Brandt,” Mrs. Ellsworth called when she saw Sarah. “Are you off to deliver a baby?”

“No, I’m off to visit Mr. Malloy’s son,” she replied, knowing this would capture Mrs. Ellsworth’s complete attention.

“How is the sweet little thing doing? Do they know if the surgery was successful yet?” Mrs. Ellsworth asked in concern. She was particularly fond of Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy, although Malloy wasn’t the type of man old ladies were typically fond of. She even seemed to think that Malloy and Sarah would make a good match. Mrs. Ellsworth was probably the only person in New York who believed an Irish Cop and a Knickerbocker Debutante could live happily ever after, but Sarah humored her romantic notions.

“Mr. Malloy hasn’t seen fit to keep me informed of Brian’s progress, so I’m going to see for myself,” Sarah said.

“Good for you!” Mrs. Ellsworth said approvingly. “Please tell Mr. Malloy I send my best wishes for the boy.”

“I doubt I’ll be seeing Mr. Malloy,” Sarah said. “I’m sure he’s working at this time of day.”

Mrs. Ellsworth’s wrinkles slid into a frown. “You’re going to visit Mr. Malloy’s mother then?”

“I’m going to visit his son,” Sarah corrected her with a smile, “but I’m afraid his mother will most certainly be there, too.”

Mrs. Ellsworth shook her head. Sarah had told her that Mrs. Malloy didn’t approve of her son’s acquaintance with Sarah. For some reason, the old woman thought Sarah had set her cap for Frank Malloy, and she disapproved even more than Mrs. Ellsworth approved of such a match. “You must take something along with you for good luck, then,” she said, searching in the pocket of her skirt for what she might have available in the way of good luck charms.

“I won’t need luck,” Sarah scolded her. “I’m just going for a visit.”

“That woman might give you the evil eye or something,” Mrs. Ellsworth warned. The old woman was a firm believer in things like the evil eye and good luck charms. “You can’t be too careful. Here, take this.” She came down her porch steps and pressed a shiny new penny into Sarah’s hand.

Sarah couldn’t help herself. “This will protect me from the evil eye?” she asked skeptically.

“Pennies are notoriously lucky,” Mrs. Ellsworth assured her. “I’d give you a rabbit’s foot, but I don’t seem to have one with me. The only other thing I have is a nutmeg,” she said, pulling it out of her pocket to prove it. “Nutmegs are also very lucky, but only in protecting you from rheumatism and boils, which won’t be of much use to you with Mrs. Malloy, now will it? But if you’d prefer a rabbit’s foot, I’m sure I can find one in the house if you don’t mind waiting…”

“Oh, no, don’t go to any trouble,” Sarah said, biting back a smile. “I’m sure the penny will do very nicely. Thank you very much.”

Sarah waved good-bye and was walking away when Mrs. Ellsworth stopped her again.

“Oh, Mrs. Brandt, I almost forgot. Did you have a visitor last night? Late, I mean. Someone who knocked on your door?” For some reason, Mrs. Ellsworth looked a little anxious.

“If I did, I slept through it,” Sarah replied, a little worried herself. She would hate to have missed a call to deliver a baby. “Why, did you hear someone knocking?”

Mrs. Ellsworth frowned, absently fingering her nutmeg, as if for comfort. “Yes, but… Well, I’m sure it’s nothing. Just an old woman’s fancies. I didn’t mean to keep you. Give Mr. Malloy’s son a kiss for me.”

“I will,” she promised and walked away shaking her head. Hearing knocking was probably some kind of omen. Mrs. Ellsworth was always seeing omens in everything. Sarah hoped it didn’t portend something evil. Even though Sarah knew it meant nothing, poor Mrs. Ellsworth would worry herself sick over it.

Frank Malloy’s flat was in the Seventeenth Ward, where the Irish and the German immigrants had settled in adjoining neighborhoods and had now begun to mix. The streets were noisy from the roar of the Second Avenue Elevated Railroad, the clatter of horses and wagons on the cobblestones, the cries of the drivers and the street vendors and ragmen, the squeals of children playing in the gutters, and the shouts of women calling warnings to them and gossip to each other. Sarah absorbed the clamor into her very pores, drawing life from it. This was the city she loved, not the tidy orderliness of the neighborhood where her wealthy parents lived uptown.

On such a lovely day, she had expected to find Mrs. Malloy outside with the other women who had gathered on the stoop to visit and gossip and escape the confines of their small, dingy flats. But the old woman wasn’t there, nor was Brian. Sarah suspected Mrs. Malloy’s habit had been to keep him inside, hidden away. For the first three years of his life, she had believed him to be a simple-minded cripple. Now she knew he was deaf, and his club foot had been surgically repaired, or at least it had been operated on. Of course, Mrs. Malloy would consider his deafness equally as shameful as being feebleminded, so Sarah shouldn’t be surprised he was still being hidden away.

Although Sarah had never met any of the neighbors, they obviously knew who she was and greeted her with knowing smiles.

“You’ll be looking for the Malloys, now won’t you?” one of the women asked with a grin that revealed several missing molars. “Francis isn’t home, though. He works for a living, he does.”

Sarah managed not to look embarrassed or annoyed. “Is Mrs. Malloy at home?” she asked pointedly.

“She usually is,” another woman said sourly. Her pinched expression revealed either a dislike for Mrs. Malloy or for the entire world in general. “Keeps that boy locked up so nobody’ll know what’s wrong with him. As if we don’t all know just the same.”

Sarah bit her tongue to keep from replying. “Thank you,” she said, making her way past them up the front stairs and into the tenement building.

The front door stood open to allow both light and air into the passageway and up the stairs. In the winter and at night, when the door was closed, the area would be pitch dark except for what little light might escape beneath the doors to the various flats. The hallway smelled like cabbage, but it probably always did, from years of people cooking cabbage here. The floors were relatively clean, though, evidence that the tenants took pride in their home, no matter how they might struggle otherwise.

On the second floor, Sarah found the correct door and knocked. In a few moments, it opened a crack and one suspicious eye peered out.

“Good morning, Mrs. Malloy,” Sarah said with determined cheerfulness. “Mr. Malloy told me I might find you and