Murder On GramercyPark

“I’ve already told Mr. Malloy about your visits to the opium den,” Sarah said, gently so Malloy wouldn’t glare at her again.

“If that’s where you were, no one else need find out,” Malloy assured her. “No one even needs to know except me.”

But she still wasn’t willing to confide her darkest secret. “What possible difference could it make where I was that afternoon, so long as I wasn’t here? Do you think I killed my husband?”

“Certainly not,” Sarah said quickly, earning a black look from Malloy, “but perhaps you could vouch for someone else, someone who might have had a good reason for wanting Dr. Blackwell out of the way.”

Now Malloy was looking as if he wanted to strangle her, but she pretended not to notice as she watched the understanding dawn on Letitia’s fragile face. As Sarah had known, she was no fool.

“I was with Peter that afternoon,” she said almost eagerly. “We met every afternoon at Mr. Fong’s establishment. Peter works in the morning and the evening, but he’s free in the afternoon, so we…” Finally, she had the grace to blush, dropping her gaze to where her hands were folded in her lap.

“By Peter, do you mean Peter Dudley?” Malloy asked.

Letitia nodded, not looking up.

“I understand that the two of you were lovers,” Malloy ventured. Sarah was gratified that he was finally getting to the point.

Letitia drew a deep breath and met Malloy’s gaze bravely. “I’m not proud of what I’ve done, Mr. Malloy, but I can’t allow you to believe that Peter could have been involved with Edmund’s death. His only sin was in loving me.”

“I’m afraid that gives him a very good reason for wanting your husband out of the way,” Malloy pointed out.

“We both did, but we never would have done anything about it!” she exclaimed. “How could you even think such a thing?”

“Men have been killed for much less, Mrs. Blackwell. But if you were at this Mr. Fong’s place, he’ll vouch for both of you. Can you give me the address?”

Now she really was frightened. “I can’t send the police to Mr. Fong’s!”

“Why not?” Malloy asked, his voice still gentle and kindly, as if he were speaking to a simple child. Sarah wanted to smack him.

“Because… I don’t want to get him into trouble!”

“He won’t be in any trouble. What he’s doing isn’t against the law, Mrs. Blackwell. Morphine and opium are sold openly in every drugstore in the city. The police would have no interest in this business.”

“Because he probably pays his protection money regularly, too,” Sarah murmured for Malloy’s ears alone.

He pretended he didn’t hear her. “If you give me the address, that’s all I’ll need. You can go back upstairs then and forget I was ever here.”

Letitia still wasn’t sure. She looked at Sarah beseechingly. “It’s all right,” Sarah heard herself say. “If you have nothing to hide, you don’t have anything to be afraid of. And if Mr. Fong says you were both there, Mr. Dudley will no longer be a suspect either.”

With obvious reluctance, Letitia gave him the address. Sarah saw his surprise. It mirrored her own. Mr. Fong must attract a very elite clientele, indeed.

“I’ll need to speak to Mr. Dudley, too, to verify what you’ve told me,” he said. “Where can I find him?”

Letitia made a small sound of distress. “I… I don’t know where he lives. I can tell you where he works, but you mustn’t call for him there. If the police come looking for him, he’ll lose his job!”

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t lose his job,” Malloy promised magnanimously.

Wiping a tear from her cheek, she gave him the name of the bank where Dudley was employed.

“Now, I need to ask you something even more difficult,” Malloy said, his voice even kinder. Sarah was seeing a whole new side of him, and she was quite impressed, if a little disgusted.

Letitia lifted her chin and braced herself, as if for a blow.

“Can you tell me exactly what happened when you came home that day and found Dr. Blackwell?”

This time the color drained naturally from her face, and she shuddered slightly. “I came home, as usual,” she said.

“How did you arrive?”

“I took a hansom cab,” she said. “I always do.”

“Who opened the front door for you?”

“No one. The servants were out. I opened it myself.”

“Was it locked?”

“I…” She tried to remember. “I’m sure it was, but I can’t remember. I have a key, so I probably used it.”

“Go on,” he urged.

“I came in, and the house was very quiet. I… I took off my gloves and my hat. Then I saw that… the study door was closed. It was only closed when Edmund was inside. I almost didn’t…”

“You almost didn’t what?” he prompted when she hesitated.

“I almost didn’t open the door. He didn’t really care where I was or when I came home, but I thought… I thought he should care, and so what if I interrupted him? He should pay attention to his wife. So I knocked on the door and called his name.”

“But he didn’t answer,” Malloy guessed. “What did you think?”

“I thought perhaps he wasn’t in there. Or that he hadn’t heard me. I don’t know what I thought. But I had the strangest feeling, as if something was wrong. At least I think I did. Maybe that was just afterward. But I opened the door. I was just going to tell him I was home and make him pay attention to me, just for that moment. And then I saw him-”

Her voice broke, and even Sarah wanted to spare her this gruesome memory, but Malloy pressed her.

“This is very important, Mrs. Blackwell,” he said. “Did you see or hear anyone else in the house? Did someone run out or did you hear a door open or close? Anything like that, any noise at all?”

“I… I don’t remember. I just remember I started screaming, and I ran outside and I saw the beat officer, and… and that’s all I know.” A lone tear slipped down her cheek, and she made no effort to wipe it away, silently reminding Malloy of her pain.

“Thank you, Mrs. Blackwell. That’s all I’ll need for now,” he said. “I hope this hasn’t caused you too much distress.”

“Oh, no, not at all,” Letitia said, pulling herself together bravely. “You’ve been very kind. I’m sorry I couldn’t help you more, but I’m happy for the opportunity to remove any suspicion from Mr. Dudley.”

Sarah couldn’t help thinking that she would also be removing suspicion from herself if Fong gave them both an alibi, but she merely smiled and helped Letitia to the door, where her maid was waiting to escort her upstairs. As soon as she’d closed the parlor doors behind them, she turned to Malloy.

“Did you have to be so hard on her, Malloy?”

He didn’t appreciate her sarcasm. “If she’d started bawling, we never would’ve gotten the address of the opium den,” he said reasonably. “But did you have to tell her to give Dudley an alibi, too?”

“If they weren’t together, this Mr. Fong will tell you,” she pointed out just as reasonably. “And I don’t think she would’ve given you Fong’s address just to protect herself. She’s too afraid of him. And as she said, everyone knows she wasn’t here when Blackwell was killed, so it doesn’t really matter where she really was.”

“Actually, everyone doesn’t know she wasn’t here. They know she went out, and they know she discovered the body, but the servants weren’t here during the murder, so how does anyone know she didn’t come home earlier than she said?”

He had a point, but Sarah didn’t think it would hold. “Can you really imagine her brazenly blowing her husband’s brains out and then arranging everything very neatly to make it look like suicide?”

“Stranger things have happened,” was all he’d say. “Now I have to go see this Mr. Fong.”

“I’ve never been in an opium den,” Sarah said hopefully.

“You’re not going in one today, either,” Malloy said.