“He liked walnuts,” Miss English said. “He ate them all the time.”
“I don’t think I told you how Mr. Devries died.”
“Did he choke on a walnut?” Lizzie asked with a smirk.
Miss English started to giggle, then caught herself. “Oh, my, did he?”
“No, he didn’t. He was stabbed.”
“Oh, well, then.”
“Didn’t you say he died at his club?” Lizzie asked.
“That’s right.”
“Do you mean to say somebody there stabbed him?”
“No. It’s kind of funny how it happened. See, he got to his club and sat down to read the newspapers or something, and they thought he fell asleep in his chair, but it turns out he was dead.”
“Oh, dear!” Miss English said.
“They thought he had a heart attack, but when the undertaker comes for him, he finds out he’d been stabbed, but it happened before he got to the club.”
“How could that be?” Lizzie asked. “If he got himself stabbed, wouldn’t he go to a doctor or something?”
“That’s just it. The way it happened, he probably didn’t know, or at least he didn’t know how bad it was.”
Miss English stared at him with her big, brown eyes. “How did it happen?”
“We think somebody close to him got angry and accidentally stuck him with something.”
“Nobody gets accidentally stuck with a knife,” Lizzie said.
“I didn’t say it was a knife.”
“What was it then?”
“Something long and thin, like an ice pick.”
“You don’t get accidentally stabbed with no ice pick, neither,” Lizzie said.
“And wouldn’t it bleed?” Miss English asked.
“It was on his back, and it didn’t bleed much. His clothes soaked up most of it.”
“This don’t make sense. If it was just a little stick like you say, how could he die from it?”
“It was small, but it went deep. It hit his kidney.” Frank reached around his own back to indicate the spot. “It didn’t bleed much on the outside, but it did on the inside, and it killed him.”
“Didn’t it hurt?”
“Maybe, but I figure he thought whoever did it had punched him or something. Maybe he thought it was a bruise.”
“Even if somebody hit him, Devries wasn’t one to let it pass,” Lizzie said.
Frank nodded. “Unless it was a woman who did it.”
Miss English’s puzzled expression didn’t change, but Lizzie’s did. “What’re you saying?”
“I’m not saying anything. I’m asking. If it was an accident, and Devries didn’t report it—”
“He didn’t report it because it never happened!” Lizzie said.
“Why are you getting so mad, Lizzie?” Miss English asked.
“Because he thinks you stuck something in the old bugger, that’s why!”
Miss English gaped at him. “Do you?”
“I’m asking if you maybe got mad at him and picked up something that was laying around and—”
“Oh, no, I never! I’d never raise a hand to him. I’d be afraid to, you see.”
“She learned that pretty quick,” Lizzie said, outraged. “First time she tried to complain about something, he hit her good, with a closed fist. What kind of a man does that, I ask you?”
The kind of man who deserves to get stabbed in the back.
“I couldn’t chew anything for a week,” Miss English said, touching her jaw. “If I’d hit him or
“No doubt about it,” Lizzie said.
Just like with a servant, Frank thought. He wouldn’t have tolerated anything from anyone over whom he held power.
“Oh, I see now why you wanted his clothes,” Lizzie said. “You wanted to know did he get stuck while he was here.”
“How would his clothes tell him that?” Miss English asked.
“If there was a hole or some blood, I’d guess.”
“That’s right, but it’s possible he wasn’t wearing any clothes when he got stuck.”
“Oh! That’s why you thought it might be me,” Miss English said. Lizzie gave her a poke. “I’m sorry. Wasn’t that a proper thing to say?”
Frank wasn’t going to reply to that. “Devries’s son knows about you, Miss English. I don’t know how long it will be until he thinks about doing something about you living here, but you should know.”
“I don’t suppose he’d like Miss English for himself, would he?” Lizzie asked.
“No, he wouldn’t.” Frank suddenly recalled something Sarah had said. “There’s a settlement house on Mulberry Street that takes young women. It’s near Police Headquarters. They’d take you in.” He glanced at Lizzie. “They might even have a job for you there.”
“What’s a settlement house?” Miss English asked.
“It’s a place where they give you charity,” Lizzie said. “We’ll wait to hear from your uncle.”
“At least think about it.” He pushed himself up off the sofa, thinking he’d accomplished all he could here. He was just going to take his leave when he remembered a suspicion he’d had the first time he’d visited here. “You might also ask Mr. Angotti for help if your uncle doesn’t reply.”
“Oh, Lizzie, I never thought of him,” Miss English said. “He was so polite, too.”
Frank managed not to let her see how pleased he was to discover that she did know the mysterious Italian. “How did you meet him?”
Lizzie glared at him much as Mrs. Devries had when he’d accused her of murder, but Miss English was blissfully unaware of her disapproval. “He called on me one day, didn’t he, Lizzie?” When she looked up, she realized her error. “Oh, dear, I wasn’t supposed to talk about him, was I?”
“I’m sure Mr. Angotti told you not to mention his visit to Mr. Devries, but there’s no harm in telling me. What did he talk about when he visited you?”
Chastened now, Miss English looked to Lizzie in silent appeal. “He wanted to warn her,” Lizzie said. “He told her a wild tale of how Mr. Devries wanted to do away with some woman, and he didn’t know but what it might be Lizzie.”
“Was that what he meant?” Miss English asked, frowning prettily. “He talked so strange, never really saying anything outright. Seemed like he thought I should know what he meant without him really saying it. I thought he was just worried because I live here alone. You should’ve told me!”
“And scare you to death? Not likely. I didn’t trust him anyways. I never do trust foreigners.”
“What did he want you to do?” Frank asked.
“He said I should protect myself,” Miss English said.
“How were you supposed to do that?”
“He said I should carry a knife, of all things, but I told him I couldn’t do that. I’d be afraid I’d cut myself.”
“And she wouldn’t never use it on anybody anyway, no matter what they done to her,” Lizzie said.
“Oh, my, did you know he tried to give me a knife? Is that why you thought I stabbed Mr. Devries?” Miss English asked.
“No, I didn’t know.”
“But did you really mean I should ask him for help?” Miss English asked.
Frank thought about how perplexed Angotti would probably be by a plea from Norah English. “Yes, I did.”
SARAH HADN’T BEEN HOME LONG WHEN HER FRONT DOORbell rang. She’d been expecting a summons to a birth. One of her patients was very near her time, but she was surprised to find Malloy
