Whatever loyalty he’d had, evaporated. “Sylvester Mattingly,” he gasped.
This wasn’t news, but at least he’d gotten the boy to tell the truth.
“Why did he want to find the girl?”
“I don’t know. It ain’t my place to ask. I just do like I’m told.”
This was also probably true. “All right, then, if you were supposed to find her, why didn’t you just tell Mattingly where she was? Why did you move into the boardinghouse with her for a week?”
His eyes rolled as he looked around desperately for some escape, but he found none.
“It’s late, and I’m tired, Mr. Fisher,” Frank said. “If you make me exert myself, I’m going to be in a very bad mood.”
“She had something,” he reluctantly admitted.
“Something you were supposed to steal? Her jewelry, maybe?” Would the VanDamms have hired someone just to get the jewels back and the hell with their daughter?
“I never stole nothing! Not no jewelry, anyways,” he added quickly when Frank started to press on his throat again.
“What then?”
“A… a book.”
This made no sense. “What book?”
“It was a diary, they told me. She wrote in it all the time. I was to find it and make sure I brought it back before they went to fetch her.”
Frank recognized the irony of this. Hadn’t he hoped to find just such a book when he’d searched Alicia’s room last week?
“And did you find it?” he asked.
Fisher rolled his eyes again. Even in the shadows of the alley, Frank could see his fear. And smell it, too. Fisher reeked of it. “I don’t know,” he tried, but Frank was having none of it. He leaned in, bearing down with his forearm again until Fisher was writhing.
After a few moments, Frank released him. “I’m only going to ask you once more, Mr. Fisher,” he said while the boy gasped for breath. “Did you find the diary?”
“I found it, but…”
“But what?” Frank demanded.
“He said it was the wrong one.”
“Who said?”
“Mr. Mattingly. He said it wasn’t the right book. He said there was another one, and that was the one he wanted, but she hardly ever left her room, so I never had much time to look for it. I didn’t find another one, though, even though I tried. It just wasn’t there.”
This made no sense to Frank. “The girl kept two diaries?”
“The one he wanted was the old one. The one she’d had for years. What I found was just from when she’d left home. The old one wasn’t in her room.”
“So you killed her and ran away,” Frank guessed.
“You’re pretty sure of that, which probably means you killed her.”
“No, no, I swear! I saw her let somebody into her room, and then I got my stuff and left. She was alive then.”
“Who did you let into the house that night? If what you say is true, maybe he was the one who killed her.”
Fisher was quaking now, like a man possessed. Surely, he knew that betraying Mattingly wasn’t the smartest thing he’d ever done. “It wasn’t just a man. He had a woman with him, too.”
“And you know who they are, don’t you?”
“I don’t! I swear!”
“Stop swearing and tell me the truth. Who was the man?”
“I don’t know. Some swell. I never saw him before. Mattingly sent me word he’d be coming that night, and I should let him in. That’s all I know!”
“What did he look like?”
“I told you, a swell. Expensive clothes. Skinny little mustache.”
“Blond or dark?”
“Blond. Talked through his nose, like they all do. Walked like he had a stick up his ass.”
“How old was he?”
“How should I know? Maybe your age. I don’t know for sure. He didn’t really let me get a good look at him, and I sure as hell didn’t care.”
“What about the woman? Did she call him by name?”
“She called him ‘sir.’ That’s all. That’s all I know. Now let me go!”
Frank was pretty sure he knew more. “Just one more thing, Fisher. What are you doing in the Brass Lantern?”
Frank caught a glimpse of the sass that must have been the boy’s stock and trade. “I was trying to get some sleep when you rousted me out.”
Frank gave him a slap. Just a friendly one, nothing serious, just to remind the boy who was in charge and that he knew Fisher was responsible for Alicia VanDamm being dead. “You know what I mean. Mattingly must pay you well enough so you don’t have to sleep in a flophouse. And look at you.” He took in the boy’s dirty clothes and week’s growth of beard with a disdainful glance. “A swell like Mattingly would demand a little more flash from his hired help.”
“I… I don’t work for him no more,” he insisted.
“And why not? He fire you after Miss VanDamm turned up dead?”
“No, I…”
“You what?” Frank demanded, raising his hand to strike the boy again. But he didn’t have to.
“I quit!”
“Why?”
“I… They didn’t say they was gonna kill her! She was a nice girl. They didn’t have no call to kill her!”
Frank didn’t quite believe the boy’s sense of honor had been so badly offended. “And you figured they’d try to pin it on you, didn’t you? That’s why you ran. That’s why you’re living here instead of at your flat.”
The boy was trembling again. “I didn’t touch her, not ever. They went into her room, and I left. Mattingly told me to get out when they came, so I did. When I heard she was dead… I mean, that’s why you’re here, ain’t it? Because they said I killed her? They’re trying to pin it on me, ain’t they?”
It would’ve been a good idea, Frank thought. In fact, he could have done so himself, just to get the case solved. A boy like this would be an easy target, with no friends to help him. Mattingly certainly wouldn’t, not if he’d framed the boy for the murder. But Frank had a witness who’d seen Fisher leaving the house before Alicia was killed. Or at least when her mysterious visitors were still with her.
“Well?” Fisher asked, his voice reedy with terror.
“I just wanted some information,” he told the boy, releasing him at last.
His legs threatened to buckle, but pride kept him on his feet. Clutching the wall for support, he glared at Frank, or tried to. It was more of a cringe. “You ain’t taking me down to the station house?” he asked, afraid to trust his good fortune.
“I know you didn’t kill the girl, so you can quit running. The police aren’t looking for you. But is somebody else?”
Fear flickered across the boy’s face again. “I couldn’t say.”
“But if you could, you’d say that you think Mattingly and maybe the fellow you let into the house that night are trying to find you so they can say you killed her.”
“Even a fool could see that’s the best thing to do,” he admitted. “Nobody’d believe me over them, not for a minute.”
“I think you can forget about it, then. It only took me a few days to find you, and I wasn’t trying very hard. Mattingly knows how to find somebody in this town. If he wanted to frame you, you’d be in the Tombs by now,” he
