Murder on Sisters' Row

“Oh, my, anyone could have gotten hold of that, too.”

“We found an empty bottle of it at the rescue house,” Sarah said.

Malloy shook his head. “That doesn’t prove anything. Every house in the city probably has a bottle that’s at least half-empty.”

“Including the Van Orners,” Sarah said. “Oh, the coffee’s boiling over.”

Maeve jumped up before Mrs. Ellsworth could.

“Could her husband have poisoned her?” Mrs. Ellsworth asked as Maeve started to fill the cups the older woman had set out.

“He’s the one who told me to find her killer,” Malloy said. “I doubt he would’ve done that if he was the killer.”

“Her servants, then?” Mrs. Ellsworth suggested. “Or somebody else who lives at her house?”

“Miss Yingling lives there,” Sarah recalled.

“Why would she want to kill Mrs. Van Orner, though? She’d lose her job,” Maeve said, setting cups in front of Malloy and Mrs. Ellsworth.

Sarah tried to think of a reason. “Maybe Mrs. Van Orner had learned something bad about her and was going to let her go. Maybe she was even going to make a scandal and ruin her reputation.”

“Yes,” Mrs. Ellsworth agreed eagerly as Maeve set down cups for Sarah and herself. “Oh, wait, that one was for Mrs.—” She seemed to catch herself and set about vigorously stirring her own coffee.

Maeve gave her an odd look, then sat down and picked up the spoon from her own saucer. “Oh, look,” she said in feigned surprise. “I have two spoons. Doesn’t that mean I’m going to get married soon, Mrs. Ellsworth?”

Mrs. Ellsworth also feigned surprise, but since she’d set out the cups and spoons, nobody imagined for a moment that she was. She’d obviously meant the two spoons to go to Sarah. This wouldn’t be the first time she’d tried to “arrange” a superstition for her. “Well, yes, it can mean that. It can also mean you’re going to marry twice, so I hope you don’t feel you must hurry to find a beau.”

Sarah covered her mouth to hide a smile while Malloy looked on, completely bewildered by the exchange. She wasn’t about to explain it to him. “So where were we? Oh, yes, we decided that Mrs. Van Orner was going to ruin Miss Yingling and she was desperate to save herself. She was afraid she might end up in a brothel like those other girls, so she had to kill Mrs. Van Orner.”

“I see,” said Maeve. “And if she killed Mrs. Van Orner before she told anyone about Miss Yingling, someone else would give her a job after Mrs. Van Orner died.”

Malloy sighed in exasperation. “That’s fine except for one thing.”

“What’s that?” Sarah asked.

“Miss Yingling was a prostitute herself.”

“What!” all three women cried in unison.

“Who told you that?” Sarah asked in amazement.

“Mr. Porter. She was the first prostitute Mrs. Van Orner rescued. That’s what I came here to tell you.”

10

SARAH SHOOK HER HEAD, TRYING TO UNDERSTAND. “DID the other people at Rahab’s Daughters know Miss Yingling had been a prostitute? Oh, wait, of course they did. Now it all makes sense.”

“What makes sense?” Malloy asked.

“The way they treated her, that day we had the meeting in Mrs. Van Orner’s office to plan how we were going to rescue Amy from the brothel. Mrs. Spratt-Williams and the two gentlemen, they acted like she wasn’t even there. I don’t think they even looked at her unless they had to. I thought they were just too proud to speak to a lowly secretary, but that wasn’t it at all.”

“How did Mrs. Van Orner treat her?” Maeve asked. Sarah tried to recall. “She treated her like she was a servant, but that didn’t seem strange, because in a sense, she was.”

“Except she lived in the Van Orners’ house,” Malloy reminded her.

“So do their other servants,” Sarah said. “What I can’t understand is why Mr. Van Orner allowed it.”

“You’re forgetting the rumors about Mr. Van Orner,” Malloy said. “They say he likes prostitutes.”

“But would he like one living under his own roof?” Mrs. Ellsworth scoffed. “He’d be a laughingstock.”

Malloy refused to give in. “Maybe his friends didn’t know. Maybe he didn’t even know. I can’t imagine his wife telling him.”

Sarah shook her head. “And I can’t believe Miss Yingling was a prostitute. She’s one of the most prim and proper young women I’ve ever met.”

“That’s what she’d want Mrs. Van Orner and everybody else to think,” Malloy argued back. “You didn’t see her last night, though.”

“What do you mean?”

Mrs. Ellsworth and Maeve leaned forward eagerly.

“I mean when I asked if Mr. Van Orner would let me investigate his wife’s murder, she said she would ask him, but it would take a long time. I didn’t know what she meant at first. I thought she needed time to convince him, but when she came back an hour later, I realized that she needed the time to get herself fixed up. I didn’t even recognize her. She’d changed completely.”

“Changed how?” Maeve asked.

“She was beautiful, with her hair all curled and a nice dress on, one that showed off her figure instead of hanging on her. I don’t know what she said to convince Van Orner, but she made sure she looked pretty to do it.”

“Oh, my,” Mrs. Ellsworth said. “That gives her a good reason to kill Mrs. Van Orner.”

Sarah frowned, not following at all. “What does?”

“Why, she must be in love with Mr. Van Orner and wanted to get his wife out of the way so he could have him for herself.”

Sarah frowned. “Mrs. Van Orner had saved her and given her a job and kept her in her own house. She had a lot of reasons to be grateful to Mrs. Van Orner. She also couldn’t possibly think Mr. Van Orner would ever want to marry her, no matter how much he might like prostitutes.”

“And we’re forgetting all about Amy,” Maeve said.

“What about her?” Mrs. Ellsworth asked.

“You’re right, Maeve. Amy wasn’t grateful to Mrs. Van Orner at all, and she’d been hinting for weeks that Mr. Van Orner was the father of her baby,” Sarah said. “We might be sure Mr. Van Orner wouldn’t believe her and that he would certainly never marry her even if he did, but she might not have known any of that. As you said, Malloy, young girls get silly ideas.”

“She was at the rescue house yesterday, and she had the opportunity to put the poison in Mrs. Van Orner’s flask, too,” Maeve reminded them.

“Except for one thing,” Mrs. Ellsworth said. “How could she know about Mrs. Van Orner’s drinking problem in the first place?”

MALLOY DIDN’T LIKE HER PLAN, BUT SARAH THOUGHT IT was brilliant. She didn’t even need to convince her mother, who was only too happy to assist. Mrs. Decker agreed instantly when Sarah showed up at her house the next morning to ask her.

“A condolence visit to Gregory Van Orner,” she repeated when Sarah suggested it. “I’m ashamed I hadn’t thought of it myself.”

Sarah filled her in on everything she knew while her mother got herself properly dressed for a visit.

“I’m not complaining, mind you,” her mother said while her maid pinned up her hair, “but why didn’t Mr. Malloy just go to the house himself?” They were in Mrs. Decker’s lavishly furnished bedroom.

“Because they might just refuse to see him, and even if they did let him in, Mr. Van Orner and Miss Yingling might get angry and refuse to answer his questions. I could go alone, but Mr. Van Orner doesn’t know me, and Miss