SARAH ARRIVED HOME TO FIND MRS. ELLSWORTH HELPING the girls with supper. They were full of questions about her day spent helping Mr. Malloy, but she couldn’t answer them fully until they’d tucked Catherine into bed for the night.
Sarah took the opportunity to read Catherine a bedtime story. When she came back downstairs, Mrs. Ellsworth and Maeve were sitting around the kitchen table, chatting while they awaited her return.
“I already told Mrs. Ellsworth all about how Mr. Malloy came to get you this afternoon,” Maeve said as Sarah took a seat at the table with them.
“He must have been desperate indeed,” Mrs. Ellsworth said. “I know how much he hates having you involved in his cases.”
“He wasn’t happy about it this time either, but he needed to question the women who live in the rescue house, and they don’t allow men inside.”
“Is that the place where they take the fallen women after they’ve gotten them out of the brothel?” Mrs. Ellsworth asked.
“Yes, they let the women stay there for a period of time. I’m not sure how long, but until they can find a job, I suppose.”
“That must be difficult. I mean, if they could find honest work, they wouldn’t have had to sell themselves in the first place.”
“If only everyone understood that,” Sarah said, feeling grateful that she had a friend who was as open- minded as Mrs. Ellsworth. “So many people think these women are immoral or wicked when they’re really just desperate.”
“So did you get in to interview the women?” Maeve asked.
“Yes, but I don’t think I was much help. I did speak with Miss Biafore, the young woman who manages the house, and two of the rescued girls, but the one I really wanted to speak with was Amy, and she’s gone.”
“Gone! Where did she go?” Maeve asked.
“Nobody knows. She just packed up her baby and left.”
“Is this the girl whose baby you delivered?” Mrs. Ellsworth asked.
“Yes, and I’m very worried about her. I don’t know how she can take care of herself and a child, too.”
“Do you think she’s the one who poisoned Mrs. Van Orner?” Maeve asked. “That would explain why she ran away.”
Sarah had been struggling with the same question all afternoon. “We don’t have any reason to think she did, at least not yet. We do know she and Mrs. Van Orner had some sort of discussion yesterday, and Mrs. Van Orner was upset afterwards, but nobody else knows what they talked about.”
“And a few hours later, Mrs. Van Orner was dead, and Amy has disappeared,” Mrs. Ellsworth mused.
“Exactly. As Maeve pointed out, it doesn’t look good for her.”
The front doorbell rang, and Sarah sighed. She should be happy at the prospect of a delivery. She had a family to support, after all. But she was even happier to see Malloy standing on her front stoop.
“I thought you were coming tomorrow,” she said as he stepped inside.
“I found out something very interesting, and I thought you should know it right away. Hello, Mrs. Ellsworth. Maeve.”
Maeve and her neighbor had come out to see who’d arrived.
Mrs. Ellsworth was equally happy to see Malloy. “It’s always nice to see you, Mr. Malloy. Are you hungry? We can heat up something from supper for you.”
“No, thanks, I already ate. I could use some coffee, though.”
Mrs. Ellsworth insisted on preparing the coffee, and the rest of them sat around the table.
“What did you learn?” Sarah asked as soon as they were settled.
“Before I tell you, did you find out anything interesting from Mrs. Spratt-Williams?”
“Who’s that?” Mrs. Ellsworth asked over her shoulder as she put the coffee on to boil.
“She’s one of Mrs. Van Orner’s helpers. I went to see her this afternoon, too.” Sarah turned back to Malloy. “She told me that she and Mrs. Van Orner were talking about Amy just before Mrs. Van Orner left the house. She said she told Mrs. Van Orner she should be more patient with Amy and not put her out just because she was difficult. Mrs. Van Orner refused to discuss it.”
“That’s all they talked about?”
“That’s what she said, but I had a feeling she wasn’t being entirely truthful with me. I did ask her who knew about Mrs. Van Orner’s drinking habits.”
“Oh, my, this is getting very interesting,” Mrs. Ellsworth said, taking her seat at the table while she waited for the coffee to boil. “Don’t stop to explain, though. Just keep going.”
Sarah thought Malloy wanted to roll his eyes, but he just smiled politely and said, “Who did she say knew?”
“Just herself, Mr. Van Orner, and Miss Yingling.”
“Who is Miss Yingling?” Mrs. Ellsworth whispered to Maeve.
“Mrs. Van Orner’s secretary,” Maeve whispered back.
“More people than that knew about her drinking,” Malloy said, resolutely ignoring Mrs. Ellsworth.
Sarah managed not to smile. “I know. Even Mrs. Spratt-Williams realized it when I challenged her. She allowed that the Van Orners’ servants probably knew, at least her maid.”
“Oh, yes, maids know everything,” Mrs. Ellsworth agreed.
“Mr. Porter knew, too,” Malloy said.
“Who’s Mr. Porter?” Mrs. Ellsworth whispered to Maeve again.
“Another one of Mrs. Van Orner’s helpers,” Malloy answered impatiently, without waiting for Maeve. “He said everybody who worked with her knew about the flask she carried. They never let on, but they all knew.”
“So any one of them could have poisoned her,” Maeve said.
“No, they had to have an opportunity to put the poison in the flask yesterday, too,” Sarah reminded them.
“Why did it have to be yesterday?” Maeve asked.
Everyone looked at her in surprise.
The color bloomed in her fair cheeks at the sudden attention, but she didn’t hesitate. “Just because she drank it yesterday doesn’t mean the killer put it in yesterday. They could have put it in anytime before that, and she just happened to drink it when she did.”
“Maeve is right,” Sarah said. “I guess we’ve been assuming that she drank from the flask every day.”
“Do you know how often she did drink from it?” Mrs. Ellsworth asked.
Sarah looked at Malloy, who shrugged. “Miss Yingling said she took a drink when she got upset, to calm her down.”
“She smelled of mint the two times I met with her in her office,” Sarah remembered. “She carried peppermints, and she even offered me one. I think she must have used them to cover the smell of the liquor on her breath.”
“It takes more than a peppermint to do that,” Maeve said with authority.
No one asked how she knew this.
“The stuff she carried in her flask was a liqueur that smelled like mint,” Malloy told her.
“It’s called creme de menthe,” Sarah added. “It’s very sweet.”
“I’ve tasted that. It’s delicious,” Mrs. Ellsworth said. “I can’t imagine gulping it down from a flask, though.”
Sarah smiled. “I’m sure you’d get used to it if you drank it all the time.”
“So you need to find out if she drank every day,” Maeve said. “And who could’ve put the poison in her flask.”
“According to everyone I talked to, anyone at the rescue house could have done it, since she usually left her purse lying on the hallway table. And now,” Sarah added with growing dismay, “it looks like anyone at her home could have done it and maybe other people as well. We don’t know where she might have been in the days before she died.”
“What kind of poison was it?” Mrs. Ellsworth asked.
“Laudanum,” Malloy said.
