Murder On Fifth Avenue

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 someone and gotten himself stabbed.”

“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 you how she came to stab Chilton Devries in his naked back. She might not tell me, either, but at least I have a chance with her. Now go upstairs and tell Catherine you have to break your promise to visit with her while I change my clothes.”

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 you doing here? And who’s this you’ve brought with you?”

“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!”

“Then answer the questions,” Malloy said, earning another glare.

“Mrs. Higgins, we just need to know if, by any chance, you were out of the house last Tuesday afternoon.”

“On a Tuesday? Not likely. That’s the day I iron. I’m here and on my feet all day.”

“Then no one could have visited Mrs. Richmond that day without you knowing it,” Sarah said.

“No, they couldn’t, but even if they had, she wasn’t at home herself that afternoon.”

Sarah glanced at Malloy and saw her own surprise mirrored on his face. “She wasn’t? Do you know where she was?”

“She don’t consult with me, you understand, but I remember particular because she acted so funny.”

“What do you mean, funny?”

“I mean strange and upset and maybe a little scared, and in an all-fired hurry, too. It started when she got the telegram.”

“A telegram? Who was it from?”

“She didn’t say, but I guess she thought it was from her daughter. We ain’t on the telephone, so when her daughter wanted to send her a message, she’d send a telegram. Waste of money, if you ask me, but I seen how her daughter dressed, so I guess she don’t care about wasting money.”

“But you don’t think this telegram was from her daughter?”

“Not unless it was real bad news. She got all white and went running upstairs, and in a few minutes she came back down with her coat on and ran out.”

“What time was this?”

“How should I know? Early afternoon, I guess. I was ironing, not watching the clock.”

“After lunch?” Sarah prodded.

“Maybe, but not long after.”

“How long was she gone?”

“Most of the afternoon. She was back for supper, but she hadn’t been here long.” The woman gave Sarah a considering look. “Say, do you know where she went? Or what was in the telegram? I been wondering.”

“No, I don’t. Do you happen to know where Mrs. Richmond is now?”

“Went to see her daughter. She got a telegram, as a matter of fact, asking her to come. They had the funeral for that Devries fellow yesterday. She went to that, too. I guess she’s trying to worm her way in over there now. Who wouldn’t?”

“I don’t suppose you happened to see the telegram in the trash,” Malloy said. “The one she got last week, I mean.”

Mrs. Higgins looked at him in surprise, as if she’d forgotten he was there. “No, she burned it.”

Sarah chose not to remark on Mrs. Higgins’ very complete knowledge of the history of the mystery telegram. “Thank you so much for your help, Mrs. Higgins,” Sarah said. “We’re very grateful.”

“I don’t know what for,” Mrs. Higgins said, preening a little.

“I guess we’d better be going, Mrs. Brandt,” Malloy said, taking Sarah’s arm, but then he looked back at the landlady again. “I wonder if you ever noticed Mrs. Richmond having a knife.”

Her eyes widened. “How’d you know about that?”

Sarah’s heart lurched in her chest. “Did you see it?”

“Well, she didn’t exactly have it hid, did she? Of course I saw it, when I went in to clean the room. Such a pretty little thing, like something out of a museum.”

“A museum?” Sarah asked.

“Yeah, it looked like one of them swords the knights used to carry in the fairy-tale books. All fancy in a little case it slipped into, only it was real small.” She held out her two forefingers about six inches apart.

Sarah exchanged a glance with Malloy, and this time he thanked Mrs. Higgins for her help. She stood in her open doorway, heedless of the cold, and watched them go.

“Do we dare go back to the Devrieses’ house?” Malloy asked.

“I can go alone and just ask to see Mrs. Richmond. If she’s not there, I can leave without bothering anyone.”

“I don’t like the idea of you going alone with Mrs. Devries in the house.”

“I promise I won’t drink any whiskey while I’m there.”

Malloy ignored her jibe. “What do you think your father will want me to do about the old woman?”

“I don’t know. I’ve already instructed my mother she must tell all her friends what she did so they’ll drop her.”

“Are you sure about that? What about Paul and Garnet? Won’t they suffer just as much if people like your parents shun her?”

“Oh, dear, I hadn’t thought of that. Charging her with murder wouldn’t be much better, though. The scandal would taint the whole family forever.”

“And I can’t think of any other choices. I hope your father is wiser than I am about how to handle this.”

By mutual consent, they headed to the Third Avenue Elevated Train for the trip uptown to the Devrieses’ house. The unheated cars weren’t exactly comfortable, but at least they were out of the wind, and the duration of the trip was shortened considerably. They got off just a few blocks from the Devrieses’ house and walked over as quickly as the crowded sidewalks and clogged streets would allow.

The maid who answered the door recognized them, but she didn’t seem pleased to see them. She probably thought they’d already caused enough trouble.

“Is Mrs. Richmond here?” Sarah asked when the girl had ushered them inside.

“Mrs. Richmond?” she echoed in surprise.

“Yes, Mrs. Paul’s mother.”

“Yes, I know, but…”

“It’s a little strange to be calling on Mrs. Richmond here, I know, but we need to speak with her, and when we called at her house, they told us she was here. You don’t need to bother Mrs. Paul.”

“I wouldn’t. I mean, I thought maybe you was here to see her. She’s not feeling at all well. She went right to bed after you left this morning, Mrs. Brandt. Had us send for her mother right off.”

“Maybe I should see her after all. I’m a midwife, and-”

“Yes, ma’am, I remember. You brought her a remedy once before. Shall I tell her you’re here?”

“Yes, and tell her I’d be happy to see what I can do to ease her discomfort.”

The girl left them in the small receiving room, and the moment she was gone, Malloy was on his knees in front of the hearth.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to light the fire.” Within a few minutes, he’d struck a match to the kindling beneath the logs that had been laid at some past time but never used, and he coaxed the meager flames until they caught the wood.

Sarah hadn’t realized how chilled she was until she felt the warmth. By the time the maid returned, she was finally beginning to thaw. The girl glanced at the fire with disapproval, but she knew better than to chasten guests.

“Mrs. Paul said you can come up, Mrs. Brandt.” She glanced at Malloy, who certainly wouldn’t be welcome in Garnet’s bedroom.

“I’ll just wait here for Mrs. Brandt,” he said.

“Perhaps you could bring Mr. Malloy some coffee,” Sarah said.

The maid took Sarah upstairs and announced her. Garnet really was in her bed. Sarah hurried over to her. “What’s wrong?”

“I can’t seem to keep anything down, but that’s normal, isn’t it?”

“Not really. Morning sickness-which is what they call it, even though it can happen any time of the day or night-will happen once or twice, but after you’ve thrown up, you usually feel better. Oh, no!”

“What?” Garnet pushed herself up on one elbow.

“Could Mrs. Devries have poisoned you?” Sarah could think of many reasons why the old woman might want to get rid of Garnet. “Have you eaten or drunk anything she might have put something in?”

Garnet eased herself back down and smiled slightly. “There’s no fooling you, is there? I thought I could convince you this was normal.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I did take something, but not from the old woman.”

“Something to get rid of the baby?” Sarah asked.

Garnet turned her head away. “That’s what it was supposed to do. So far, it’s just made me sick.”

“When did you take it?”

“This morning. I didn’t know you and Mr. Malloy were going to turn our world upside down today.”

“I don’t know of anything you can drink that will really be effective, but most things they sell for that purpose can make you very sick. If you aren’t feeling better by tomorrow, you should probably see a doctor.”

Garnet sighed. “I can’t bear the thought of having his child. How could I ever love it or care for it? How could I even stand the sight of it?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know.”

“Of course you don’t. Nobody does.”

Sarah ached for her. At least she had her mother to help her through it. She looked around, half expecting to find Mrs. Richmond sitting in a corner, but she wasn’t there. “I thought your mother was visiting you.”

“I almost forgot the maid said you came to see Mother. She wasn’t very happy at the prospect of a visit with you, I’m sorry to say. She went downstairs to make me some tea to settle my stomach. She’ll be back in a moment. What did you want to see her about?”

“Nothing important.”

“You’re a terrible liar, Mrs. Brandt. You’d never last a day in this house. Obviously, it’s something very important or you wouldn’t have come back here so soon. But what could it be? My mother couldn’t be with child, so it can’t be a professional visit. Besides, Mr. Malloy wouldn’t have come with you to visit an expectant mother. No, she was especially distressed when she heard he was with you. How does my mother know him?”

“I believe he visited her.”

“Oh, yes, he was the one who told her about the child. But I don’t think I know why he went to see her in the first place.”

“Didn’t she tell you?”

“She doesn’t like to distress me,” Garnet said with a small smile. “But you’ve never seemed to mind, so tell me.”

In spite of what Garnet thought, Sarah didn’t want to distress her either. “I’d rather wait until she comes.”

“Ring for the maid to fetch her, then. She might stay downstairs until she thinks you’ve left. I told you she really did not want to see you.”

Sarah pulled the bell rope and in a few moments, the maid came in.

“Would you ask my mother to come back up?” Garnet asked.

“Mrs. Richmond left, ma’am.”

“What do you mean, she left?”

“She left the house.”

“When?”

“Right after she came downstairs.”

“How strange.” Garnet dismissed the maid and turned back to Sarah. “I didn’t want to tell you, but she actually seemed afraid when she heard you were here to see her. Why would she be afraid?”

Sarah still didn’t want to tell her, but Garnet would find out soon anyway. “We believe your mother is the one who stabbed Devries.”

“You can’t be serious!”

“I’m perfectly serious.”

“Why would she do a thing like that? And how? She hasn’t seen him in years!”

“We believe she saw him on the day he died, and she had a very good reason to stab him. He was trying to kill her.”

“Dear God!” Garnet clamped her eyes shut and covered her mouth with both hands.

Sarah grabbed a bowl sitting on the bedside table and held it ready in case Garnet was sick, but after a moment, she opened her eyes and lowered her hands. “Why on earth would he try to kill her?”

“We suspect he was afraid she would encourage you to leave Paul. He was desperate to keep Paul’s secret, which is why he arranged your marriage in the first place. If you left him, people would want to know why.”

“I didn’t want to leave Paul, you know. I just wanted to leave this house, to get away from him.”

“I know that now, and maybe that was another reason he wanted your mother out of the way. You couldn’t leave if you didn’t have a place to go.”

“Which explains why he wanted her dead, but it doesn’t explain how she could have stabbed him.”

“We don’t know for sure, but we believe that after Devries visited Angotti-”

“Who’s Angotti?”

“He’s an Italian gentleman who…uh…arranges things for people. Devries tried to hire him to murder your mother.”

“Dear God,” she murmured again.

“Mr. Angotti doesn’t do these things himself, you understand, but even so, he didn’t have much stomach for having a woman killed, so he went to see your mother. When he heard her story, he decided not to accept Devries’s offer, and he apparently gave your mother a small knife to use in case Devries decided to try to do the job himself.”

Garnet groaned. “Why didn’t she tell me?”

“I’m sure she didn’t want to distress you,” Sarah said without irony.

“You still haven’t told me how it happened.”

“As I said, we don’t know for sure, but on the day he died, Devries went to see Angotti, and Mr. Angotti told him he wouldn’t accept his offer. Devries was angry and he went someplace for a few hours before eventually turning up at his club, where he died.”

“What makes you think he saw my mother?”

“The fact that Mr. Angotti probably gave your mother a knife that could have killed him, and the fact that she received a telegram shortly after Devries left Angotti.”

“I send her telegrams all the time.”

“Did you send her one that day?”

Garnet had no reply.

“This telegram upset her very much, and she went out and didn’t come back for a long time. We think Devries arranged to meet her someplace, intending to kill her himself perhaps.”

“Or force himself on her.”

Sarah blinked in surprise. “Do you really think…?”

“Of course I think he’d do something like that! He’d done it to me, and that morning…Well, he didn’t expect me to fight back, but I just couldn’t let him use me again, so I screamed. I’d never done that before, and of course Paul came rushing in, and…Well, he left without getting what he’d come for. He was angry, and if he did want to kill Mother, he’d want to humiliate her first. Oh, no, do you think he raped her? I couldn’t stand the thought of that! Poor Mother!”

Garnet started to weep.

“She stabbed him, Garnet. I’m sure she stabbed him to prevent him from hurting her.”

“Do you really think so?” she asked brokenly.

“Yes, I do. I’m sure of it.”

Garnet dashed the tears from her eyes. “And now Mr. Malloy has come to arrest her.”

“He just wants to find out what happened. If Devries was going to harm her, it was self-defense. She won’t be arrested for that.”

Garnet stared back at her for a long moment, absorbing the truth of Sarah’s words, but then her eyes widened. “Dear heaven, she’s going to kill herself!”

“What?”

“Kill herself! That’s what she meant! When the maid came and told us you wanted to see her, she got very maudlin, and she started talking about my father and how she’d missed him so much and how much she loved me, but she had to do the right thing and not cause me any scandal and I was hardly listening because I felt so sick, and then she kissed me. She kissed me! She was only going down to the kitchen, but she kissed me good-bye! Oh, Mrs. Brandt, that must be why she left. You have to stop her!”

“Of course I will. We’ll go right back to her boardinghouse-”

“No, that’s not where she’ll go. She was talking about Father and how much she missed him. She’ll go to the bridge like he did. He jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge. Did I tell you that? They never found his body. She’ll just disappear like he did, so there won’t be a scandal over a suicide and no one will ever know what became of her. Please, you must stop her!”

Garnet was frantic now, nearly hysterical, and Sarah rang for the maid.

“Go!” Garnet said. “Find her! Stop her!”

Sarah ran out into the hall. The maid was coming, and Sarah shouted at her to look after Garnet before racing down the stairs. When she reached the bottom of the first flight, Paul Devries and Hugh Zeller had come out of the parlor to see what the commotion was about.

“Mrs. Brandt, what’s going on?” Paul asked.

“I don’t have time to explain it all, but we think Mrs. Richmond has gone to the Brooklyn Bridge to kill herself.” Sarah didn’t stop. She was running down the second flight of stairs, now with Paul and Hugh in her wake.

“Why would she do a thing like that?” Paul asked.

“She’s the one who stabbed your father, and she thinks Malloy is here to arrest her for it.”

“Dear God,” Paul said. “Did she know what he’d done to Garnet? Is that why?”

Sarah didn’t have time to explain. Malloy had met her at the bottom of the stairs.

“Did you hear?” she asked him.

“Yes, but why the bridge?”

“That’s where her husband killed himself.”

“We’ll go with you,” Paul said.

Malloy was pulling their coats from the rack by the front door.

“Someone should probably go to her boardinghouse, just in case,” Sarah said. “And ask Garnet if there’s someplace else she might go, too. We need to find her and let her know she won’t go to prison.”

“I won’t let her be punished for it,” Malloy told them. “Tell her that, if you find her.”

Malloy pulled on his coat while Paul helped Sarah with hers.

“I will,” Paul promised. “Do you need the carriage?”

Zeller pulled open the front door for them.

“No, the El will be faster,” Malloy said.

“Tell Garnet we’ll bring her back here if we find her,” Sarah said.

Then they were outside, fairly running down the walk in the direction of the Third Avenue Elevated Train.

They didn’t waste breath on conversation until they’d reached the train platform two stories above the street. They had to wait for what seemed an eternity for the next train. Sarah wanted to run back down the stairs and keep running, but she forced herself to stay there. They had a long way to go, and the train would get them there faster than any other mode of transportation.

“You’re sure about this?” Malloy asked as she paced in a circle.

“Garnet is sure. Mrs. Richmond was talking about her husband and how she didn’t want to cause a scandal. She even kissed Garnet good-bye.”

“But to kill herself…”

“She’s a proud woman. Remember what she said about doing what she must for those she loved? All she wanted was for Garnet to be happy. With Devries dead, she would have a chance at that, but not if her mother was tried and convicted for his murder.”

“I should’ve refused when your father asked me to find out what happened to Devries,” he said.

“You couldn’t know. What if he’d been a saintly man whose greedy heir had decided he wanted his inheritance sooner?”

“But he wasn’t, and your father must have known that.”

“Well, we’ll take that up with Father at a later time.”

“We?” he asked with interest.

Sarah smiled at him. “You can’t think I’d let you have all the fun.”

The slight vibration in the floor told them the train was coming. They hurried to the edge of the platform, craning and watching and willing it to hurry. They could hardly wait for the doors to be opened once it finally stopped.

At last the train was moving again, carrying them down and down to almost the very tip of Manhattan Island to where the majestic bridge stretched out across the water to Brooklyn.

“What if we’re too late?” Sarah said.

“What if this is a wild-goose chase, and Mrs. Richmond is just on a train back to Virginia?”

“Oh, Malloy, do you really think that?”

“No, and I don’t think Paul’s going to find her at the boardinghouse, either. I wish I did, but I keep thinking how Mrs. Richmond looked that first time I met her, sitting there in that shabby parlor. Devries had taken almost everything from her, but she still had her pride. She’d killed him to keep it, and she’ll never let him take it now that he’s dead.”

“What a horrible man. I wish he was still alive. I’d like to kill him myself.”

Malloy widened his eyes at her but she refused to relent.

They rode on in silence for a while, Sarah staring unseeing at the windows they passed where ordinary people lived their lives in full view of the passengers who rode the trains that ran down several of the main streets of the city. Finally, she said, “I can’t figure out how she could jump from the bridge when the walkway is in the middle.”

Unlike most bridges, where pedestrians walked along the sides, the Brooklyn Bridge had been built with an elevated walkway down the center. A jump from there would only land a person on the tracks of the train that ran along the inside traffic lanes on either side.

“You said her husband managed to jump off of it. She must know how he did it.”

“I guess that’s possible.”

“Even if she tries, she might not be able to go through with it. Lots of people think they want to jump until they get up there and see how high it is and how cold the water looks. They’re happy when the authorities come and get them down.”

Sarah remembered Mrs. Richmond’s pride and prayed they’d get there in time.

When they reached the stop closest to the bridge, they hurried off and clattered down the station stairs to the street.

“Don’t wait for me,” Sarah said, knowing Malloy could move faster than she, hampered as she was by her long skirts. “I’ll catch up.”

Grim-faced, he pushed his way through the pedestrians clogging the sidewalk and disappeared. Sarah followed as best she could, pushing and shoving as necessary and paying no heed to the shouted curses she left in her wake.

The wind on the bridge nearly took her breath as she finally made her way out onto the walkway. Below her, one of the elevated trains rumbled along, returning to Manhattan. She scanned both sides of the bridge, looking for anyone who might be Terry Richmond. How would she find her? How would she get to her? And how would she stop her from jumping?

Sarah took heart at the way the people around her were calmly going about their business. She was the only one who seemed upset or harried. Surely, if someone had jumped from the bridge, someone would have seen, and the horror of it would have caused the hundreds of people nearby to react. But nothing seemed out of the ordinary, at least not yet.

Sarah walked slowly, hugging the rail and straining to see a place down below, along the side of the bridge, where a person might get to the edge and climb up over the rails and cables and…

“Sarah!”

She turned and saw Malloy. He was on the other side of the walkway. She darted and dodged among the other pedestrians to reach him.

“Do you see her?’ she asked.

“No, but I can see how you could get out there.” He pointed to a narrow strip of pavement at the edge of the outer traffic lane, which was probably for workmen to use. They could see for a long way down the length of the bridge and saw no sign of her.

“How far would she go?” Sarah asked.

“I doubt she’d walk out very far onto the bridge. Too much chance of someone seeing her and stopping her.”

“Where is she, then?” Sarah looked again in all directions. “I’ll go back to the other side and watch from there.”

Once again she was buffeted and bumped by the heedless individuals intent on getting where they were going. When she reached the rail, she saw the same narrow access area on this side as well. The only difference was that on this side, a solitary figure hunched against the wind was making her way gingerly along it.