“Angotti? Whatever for?”
“To warn her that Devries wanted some woman killed.”
“Why would he do that when he knew Mrs. Richmond was the one he wanted killed?” Mrs. Decker asked.
“I’m not sure. I think maybe Devries didn’t tell him who the woman was at first. Angotti has a lot of people working for him, and he knows some of the men who work for Devries’s business, so maybe he found out Devries had a mistress and assumed she was the one. Whatever his reason, he warned Miss English.”
“What a curious man,” her mother said.
“He certainly is,” Sarah said. “He warned Mrs. Richmond, too.”
“He’s very gentlemanly,” Malloy agreed, only a little sarcastically.
“And how nice he didn’t actually kill her,” Sarah said.
“He’s even nicer than that. Not only did he tell Miss English that Devries might want her dead, he tried to give her a knife to protect herself with.”
Something stirred in Sarah’s memory. “What kind of knife?”
“I don’t know. She didn’t say.”
Her mother leaned forward. “Sarah, what are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that we originally thought Devries had been stabbed with a stiletto, the kind of knife Italians use.”
“Miss English didn’t accept the knife,” Malloy said. “And if she had, she probably would’ve stabbed herself by accident.”
“But also Angotti went to see Terry Richmond. What if he offered to give her a knife, too?”
14
“THE MEDICAL EXAMINER SAID A STILETTO WOULD’VE MADE a bigger wound,” Frank said.
“What if it was smaller than a stiletto?” Sarah said. “If you were giving a woman a knife to protect herself with, she’d need to carry it around. It would have to be pretty small.”
“And you think he gave a knife like that to Mrs. Richmond?” her mother said.
“I don’t know, but he could have. If he offered it to Miss English, he probably offered it to Mrs. Richmond, since by then he was sure she was the one Devries wanted killed.”
“And Mrs. Richmond certainly had good reason to hate Devries,” Malloy said.
“But when could she have done it?” Sarah asked. “I thought you’d accounted for everyone Devries saw that day.”
“Let’s figure it out. He got home from Miss English’s house around nine o’clock. He left there around eleven, went to see Angotti, and left there around noon. He got to his club in the middle of the afternoon. Nobody really noticed the exact time, but let’s say two thirty.”
“Was that enough time for him to visit Mrs. Richmond in between?”
“I don’t know, but it’s enough time for him to have visited
“You’re forgetting that Chilton was undressed when he was stabbed,” her mother said.
“That does complicate matters,” Sarah said. “I can’t imagine Mrs. Richmond being in a situation like that with Devries.”
“Especially because Mrs. Richmond lives in a boarding-house where gentleman callers are only allowed in the parlor under the watchful eye of the landlady,” Malloy said. “Besides, I asked the landlady if Devries had ever been there, and she said no.”
“Maybe the landlady was out when he called,” her mother said.
“Mrs. Richmond would have feared for her life, seeing Devries after what Angotti had told her,” Sarah said.
Malloy was thinking. “If she’d stabbed him when he was trying to kill her, he wasn’t likely to tell anybody about it, either.” Malloy rose.
“Where are you going?” Sarah asked.
“To talk to Mrs. Richmond.”
“Oh, my,” her mother said. “You aren’t going to arrest her, are you?”
“Not if she stabbed him in self-defense.”
“Then why even ask her?” Sarah said.
Malloy looked down at her, his expression as solemn as she’d ever seen him. “I have to find out who stabbed Devries and how, so I can tell your father what happened.”
Sarah would have protested, but her mother grabbed her arm as Malloy left the kitchen.
“He does have to tell your father,” she said. “He has to prove himself.”
“He doesn’t have to prove himself to me!”
“I told you this was some kind of a test,” her mother said fiercely. “I don’t pretend to understand what goes on in men’s minds. They’re so very different from us. They’re so very unreasonable and strange, and they always think the wrong things are important, but we aren’t going to change them. We just have to take them as they are, and Mr. Malloy believes he must prove something to your father. Perhaps you’d best go with him. Mrs. Richmond might not tell him the truth of what happened between her and Chilton, especially if Chilton was naked at the time.”
“But—”
“Hurry, before he leaves without you.”
Sarah needed only another moment to decide her mother was right. She jumped up and hurried out to find Malloy buttoning his coat.
“I’m going with you.”
“Why?”
She gave him a pitying look. “Terry Richmond isn’t going to tell
By the time Malloy came back downstairs, Sarah was ready. They set off into the afternoon chill. Walking was the fastest way to Mrs. Richmond’s boardinghouse, and they traveled most of the way in silence.
Sarah’s heart ached when she saw the house where Garnet’s mother had taken refuge. How humiliating it must have been for her to receive her daughter in so humble a place, and how infuriating to know Chilton Devries had put her there.
Malloy knocked on the door, and they waited for what seemed a long time for someone to answer. The slatternly woman who opened the door looked Sarah up and down with cautious approval before glancing at Malloy. She didn’t approve of him at all.
“What are
“Mrs. Brandt, I’d like to introduce the landlady, Mrs. Higgins,” Malloy said with a trace of irony.
“I’m very pleased to meet you, Mrs. Higgins,” Sarah said with her best smile.
Mrs. Higgins glared at them both. “She ain’t here.”
“Mrs. Richmond?” Sarah asked.
“If that’s who you’ve come to see.”
“Yes, it is, but perhaps you could help us. We just need a little information.”
“I ain’t in the business of giving out information.”
“I know, but it’s so important. We’re concerned that Mrs. Richmond might be in danger.”
“It’s nothing to me if she is.”
“It will be if the trouble comes to your house,” Sarah said with what she hoped was a convincingly worried frown.
“I don’t want no trouble!”
