“But there must be someone else they’d listen to,” Roosevelt argued. “Or at least someone who could reason with them. It could save their lives!”
Frank gritted his teeth. He wouldn’t say her name. He wouldn’t even think it, not even to save every last one of the Ruoccos. “Maybe Donatelli knows somebody,” he offered.
“Somebody Italian who could influence them.”
“Dee-lightful,” Roosevelt declared. “The boy is upstairs in the dormitory. The desk sergeant told me they didn’t get finished with the prisoners until early this morning, so he stayed here.” He hurried to the door and ordered Miss Kelly to send for him.
While they waited, Frank filled Roosevelt in on everything he’d learned so far in the case. Hearing how little it was discouraged even him. He’d said before that all the Ruoccos had to do was keep quiet, and they’d never find Nainsi’s killer. He’d gotten them to talk, at least a little, but he was still no closer to the truth.
Donatelli appeared a few minutes later, looking as if he’d only had a few hours of sleep—which he had. His uniform, Frank noticed, looked a little less crisp than usual, but not too bad under the circumstances. Roosevelt quickly explained why they’d summoned him.
“Oh, yes, sir,” Donatelli said, his voice still thick from sleep. “I know who could talk to them—Mrs. Brandt.”
Frank almost choked.
Roosevelt pulled off his spectacles again. “Mrs. Brandt?”
he echoed with an accusing glance at Frank that caught him mid-wince. “Mrs. Sarah Brandt?”
“I don’t know her given name, sir,” Donatelli said, “but she’s the midwife who delivered the baby.”
“You didn’t mention Mrs. Brandt was involved in this case, Mr. Malloy,” Roosevelt said, less than pleased.
“She isn’t involved,” Frank lied. “She just delivered the baby.”
“But she also—” Donatelli began but caught himself when Frank glared at him.
“What did she also do?” Roosevelt asked Frank in a tone that brooked no evasion.
“She helped the Ruocco woman take care of the baby after the mother died,” Frank admitted reluctantly.
“They’d trust her, then?”
Frank doubted it. “I don’t know,” he said instead. “And I’m not even sure Mrs. Brandt would be willing to ask them to give up the baby. The Ruocco woman is pretty fond of it, I understand.”
“But Sarah would see the wisdom of it,” Roosevelt argued, using her first name to remind Frank he’d known her all his life. “She’d understand that it’s to protect the family and for the good of the whole city.”
Frank suspected Sarah would choose the good of one baby over the good of a whole city any day of the week, but he refrained from saying so. “Mrs. O’Hara doesn’t really have the means to take care of a baby,” he argued.
“Tammany is going to give her some kind of a pension, I’m told. They want this badly, Malloy. They aren’t going to let the matter rest, and if they don’t, I imagine Ugo Ruocco will make sure they have a fight on their hands. We can’t have these two factions rioting in the streets every night.”
Frank thought Roosevelt was right about Ugo putting up a fight. He wouldn’t sit by and see his family attacked, but he certainly had no loyalty to the bastard child of a woman who had lied to his nephew. He’d help put pressure on the family.
“I’m not sure it’s really safe for Mrs. Brandt to go down to Little Italy,” Frank tried, grasping at his last straw.
“Then you and Officer Donatelli will accompany her. Take as many officers as you think you’ll need to protect her, too.
We must get this settled, Mr. Malloy. Every night that passes gives Tammany another opportunity to stir up more trouble.”
“I’ll go see her this morning, sir,” Frank said, giving Donatelli a dirty look he didn’t understand.
“Dee-lightful. Please give her my regards and my personal thanks for her efforts,” Roosevelt said.
Sarah was trying to decide if she should take Aggie and Maeve with her to visit the mission when someone rang her front doorbell. Her heart quickened when she saw Malloy’s silhouette through the door, and she smiled as she pulled it open.
“Malloy,” she said in greeting, but her smile faded when she saw his expression. “What’s wrong?” she asked in alarm.
“Let me in, and I’ll tell you,” he replied sourly.
Aggie and Maeve had heard the bell and now came running to greet him. He put on a good show for them, teasing and grinning, until Sarah sent them upstairs and took Malloy into the kitchen. She poured coffee without asking and set it in front of him.
“I saw the story about the riot in the newspaper. Did something happen to the Ruoccos? To the baby?”
“No, we managed to keep the rioters out of the restaurant until the police came.”
“You were there?” she asked in amazement.
“Donatelli and I were there questioning the family when it started.”
“How is Maria? And the baby? She must be terrified!”
“Everybody was fine, or at least nobody got hurt. They sent Maria and the baby and the daughter to a neighbor’s house.”
“Did you find out anything when you were questioning them? About who might have killed Nainsi?”
“Nobody confessed, if that’s what you mean,” he said grimly.
She could see the discouragement in his eyes. “I wish I could help. I’ve been trying to figure out if anything I learned when I was there was important.”
“What did you learn?” he asked, surprising her.
“Maria is determined to be a good mother to the baby. She doesn’t think she’ll ever have any of her own because . . .”
“Because what?” he prodded when she hesitated.
“Because Joe doesn’t do his husbandly duty anymore,”
she told him with just a touch of glee, knowing he’d be embarrassed. He didn’t like discussing such things with her.
He reached up and rubbed his eyes, probably to keep from having to look at her. “All right,” he said with more than a touch of discomfort. “So Maria is claiming the baby for herself because she can’t have one of her own.”
“I didn’t really expect the rest of the family would be too happy about it, but even Mrs. Ruocco has come around.”
“The old woman?” he asked in surprise.
“Yes, she’s very fond of Maria and wants her to be happy.
She must know that Joe isn’t much of a husband and Maria doesn’t have any other joy in her life. This is her one chance to have a child.”
“I can’t believe Joe went along with it.”
“I can’t either, but maybe he has a guilty conscience. He’ll let her have her way so she’s too busy to bother him anymore.”
“Valentina doesn’t seem very pleased to have the baby there,” Malloy remarked. “She wanted to give it to the mob last night so they’d go away and leave them alone.”
“Oh, my! I know she’s a spoiled brat, but I never would have thought her capable of such a thing. Do you think she was serious?”
“Yes, I do,” he confirmed gravely. “She hates that baby.
I wouldn’t leave her alone with it for a second.”
Sarah considered this information. “Do you think she could have hated Nainsi that much, too?”
“I thought you said she was the one who discovered the body.”
“She was, but . . . She was screaming like a banshee. I thought she was genuinely terrified.”
“Maybe she didn’t realize she’d killed Nainsi. Maybe she just put the pillow over her face to shut her up or
