Murder On Mulberry Bend

Epilogue

THANK HEAVEN FOR TELEPHONES, SARAH THOUGHT. What had they ever done without them? She never would have been able to take care of so many crises all at once without this marvelous invention. She was beginning to think she might even get one herself.

She made her first telephone call from the hospital to Opal Graves. Opal was shocked and saddened by Richard’s death and outraged by Mrs. Wells’s perfidy, but she also realized the urgency of seeing to the needs of the girls at the mission. She promised to contact some of the volunteers from the mission at their homes and recruit women to stay with the girls until decisions could be made about what to do.

Sarah’s second call was more difficult. While she was only calling her own parents, she had to ask them to notify Richard’s family of his death. News like that shouldn’t come over the telephone from someone they didn’t even know. Her parents were stunned by Richard’s death, but they agreed with her on the need to break the news gently to his family.

Then came the most difficult task of all: waiting. She simply couldn’t leave Richard’s body alone at the hospital until his loved ones had come to claim him. Besides, she knew they’d have questions about what had happened, questions only she could answer. She spent the hours until they came by preparing the story she would tell, the story that would make Richard a hero.

The hour was quite late by the time Richard’s father had taken him away, and Sarah was free to go. Her own father, who had accompanied Richard’s, insisted she go home to get some rest and took her there in his own carriage. Although she was exhausted and emotionally drained, she slept fitfully. By midmorning, she was up and dressed and hurrying back to the mission, where she might be desperately needed.

Mulberry Street was oddly quiet in these morning hours. People milled on the sidewalks, as always, but their conversation was muted and their expressions solemn. Word of what had happened would have spread like lightning through the community. Girls who had sought refuge at the mission had been brutally murdered by the woman who should have been their protector. A woman who claimed to have been called by God had been a spawn of Satan. Even among people who had known nothing but hardship their entire lives, this would be devastating news. And what would it do to their faith in the future?

When she passed Police Headquarters, Sarah thought about stopping in to look for Malloy. She wanted to see him, and she needed to talk to him, to help her make whatever sense could made out of this whole mess. But she knew he probably wouldn’t be there. He had taken Mrs. Wells to the city jail – The Tombs – and spent most of the night getting her confession. Then he would have gone home. He couldn’t possibly be back this early.

The mission still looked exactly the same, even though everything had changed. When Sarah knocked, a woman she didn’t recognize opened the door. Her clothes marked her as a resident of a much more prosperous part of the city. “I’m Sarah Brandt,” she said. “Opal Graves contacted you at my request.”

The woman’s suspicious frown vanished, and she admitted Sarah immediately. “I’m so glad you’ve come, Mrs. Brandt. Some of the girls have been very concerned for your welfare.”

“And I’m so glad you’ve come to help,” Sarah replied. “We couldn’t leave the girls here without an adult,”

“I was glad to do it when Opal told me what Mrs. Wells had done. I still can’t believe it!”

“Neither can I,” Sarah assured her.

Sarah heard a small cry and then the clatter of little feet on the stairs. She looked up to see Aggie barreling down from upstairs at an alarming rate of speed. Sarah hurried over to the stairs to catch her. The child threw herself into Sarah’s arms and clung to her neck as if she would never let her go.

Other girls came creeping out more cautiously, some from the parlor and others from upstairs. Most of them looked as if they’d been crying, and they all looked frightened.

Maeve was taking her role as “head girl” more seriously than ever. She stepped forward. “Is it true what they said, Mrs. Brandt? Did Mrs. Wells kill Emilia?”

“Yes,” she told them. She wouldn’t mention the others. Perhaps they’d never have to know the extent of Mrs. Wells’s evil. “But you don’t have to be afraid. She’s in jail now, and she won’t ever be free again.”

Maeve and the others looked far from reassured, however. “Then what’s going to happen to all of us?”

“Not a thing,” Opal Graves informed them as she emerged from the kitchen. She was wearing an apron and her plain face had been transformed by a beatific smile. “You will stay here just as you’ve been doing. It may take us a little while, but we’ll find someone to take Mrs. Wells’s place – someone good,” she added, just in case they were in doubt. “And meanwhile, my friends and I will take turns staying with you.”

Sarah shot her a grateful look. She would thank her more profusely when they were alone.

“Will you stay here, too, Mrs. Brandt?” Gina asked anxiously.

“I can’t stay all the time, but I’ll certainly help as much as I can,” she replied.

“Have you had anything to eat?” Opal asked her.

Sarah had been in a hurry to get here this morning. “No,” she admitted.

“Come into the kitchen, and we’ll fix you something,” Opal said. “And bring your friend, too,” she added with a nod at Aggie, who was still clinging fiercely to Sarah’s neck.

The girls followed Sarah and gathered around where she sat at the small kitchen table. Aggie consented to sit on a chair beside her, but only if she could hold on to her skirt. The other girls stood or sat around the room, watching her eat the bread and jam Opal set before her. When she was finished, they started asking her questions, and she answered them as honestly as she could. At some point, Aggie climbed up into her lap and settled in comfortably.

Finally, Opal sensed Sarah’s exhaustion and sent the girls off to do their lessons. When they protested, she explained that they needed something to occupy their minds. They all drifted out except Aggie, who refused to leave Sarah’s side.

“I heard you yelling at Mrs. Wells last night,” Sarah said to Aggie. Sarah looked up at Opal and said, “She yelled ‘no’ to stop her from coming after me with the hat pin.”

Opal’s eyes widened in surprise, but she wisely said nothing.

Sarah shared her wonder, but she didn’t want to make too much of a fuss over Aggie and scare her out of ever speaking again.

“You were such a brave girl to help me,” Sarah said, giving the child a hug. Aggie beamed with pride.

Finally, Opal and Sarah moved to the parlor. Aggie screamed when Opal tried to separate her from Sarah, and Sarah realized she needed someone warm to cuddle, so the child accompanied them, too. Sarah sat in the rocking chair and rocked Aggie until she fell asleep, still exhausted by the night’s terrors. Then she answered Opal’s questions about how Richard had died and why Mrs. Wells had murdered Emilia and other girls as well. Then she told her how Mrs. Wells had killed Hazel, too.

Sarah wept with her over her lost friend and listened while she vented her fury at the woman who had taken God’s power of life and death into her own hands.

After everything had been told and the storm of emotion had passed, Opal said, “The best thing we can do now is keep the mission operating and try to make up for the evil that woman did. We’ll have a difficult time of it, at least for a while. Three of the girls had already run off before I got here this morning.”

“Oh dear!”

“I’m sure they were frightened when Richard and that detective came in shouting. Now that things have settled down, they’ll probably come back. We can hope, at least.”

Sarah sighed and looked down at Aggie’s sweet face. “What should I do with Aggie?” she asked, wondering where the child normally slept so she could put her to bed.

“I think she should go to an orphanage,” Opal said, misunderstanding the question. “This certainly isn’t the right place for her, and a child that young deserves a chance to be adopted.”

Sarah gaped at her in surprise. “I… I didn’t mean that, but now that you say it… I realize you’re right. These girls have so many problems themselves, they shouldn’t be expected to look after a child. And neither should whomever you find to operate the mission.”

“Some of the girls might also be a bad influence on her,” Opal pointed out. “I’m sure Mrs. Wells kept her here out of selfishness, probably because she wanted a replacement for her daughter who died.”

“She might not be adopted from an orphanage, though,” Sarah said with a frown. “Many children aren’t, and a child who doesn’t speak isn’t very likely to be chosen. I hate the thought of her growing up in an institution.”

“If you feel that way, maybe you should keep her yourself,” Opal suggested with a small smile. “She’s very attached to you already. Come on, we’ll take her upstairs and tuck her in.”

But Sarah was looking down at the small face, so angelic in sleep. Opal had just been teasing, but Sarah didn’t find the suggestion humorous at all. In fact, she found it terrifyingly compelling.

She couldn’t raise a child, of course. She worked long hours and got called out in the middle of the night. Who would take care of Aggie when Sarah couldn’t be home? The whole idea was insane.

“Sarah, you didn’t fall asleep yourself, did you?” Opal called from the doorway.

“No, I’m coming,” she said, lifting Aggie’s delicate body in her arms. Yes, she would be crazy to take on the responsibility of a child. What had she been thinking?

For some reason, Frank hadn’t expected the mission to look exactly the same as it always had. By rights, he supposed, it should have changed color or something, now that it was free of the Devil Woman who had run it.

While he’d been taking Mrs. Wells out to the police wagon, the old priest had accused her again of killing other girls in the past. To Frank’s horror, she had admitted it, perversely proud that she had sent them to heaven while they were in what she called a state of grace – before they could backslide into evil once more. He still shuddered when he thought of the righteous expression on her face when she described robbing those young girls of their lives.

This morning, Frank only knew that he had to see Sarah Brandt and make sure she was truly all right. By the time he’d gotten Mrs. Wells legally incarcerated last night, it had been too late to seek her out. Now he was making his first stop at the mission, figuring she would have returned there at the first opportunity.

“Malloy,” Sarah Brandt said with a smile when she opened the door to him. That smile brightened an already beautiful day.

“How are you this morning?” he asked, pulling off his bowler hat as he stepped into the foyer.

“A little bruised, but nothing that won’t heal,” she said with a rueful smile. She led him into the parlor and offered him a seat.

He chose one of the sturdier-looking chairs. She picked the rocker, as if she needed comfort.

“I’m sorry about Dennis,” he said and watched her smile vanish.

“How did you know?”

“I checked with the hospital.”

“She must have somehow managed to get the pin into his heart,” she explained. Talking about it obviously pained her. “It had to have been an accident. I don’t think she had time to plan it, and even if she did, the chances that she could pierce his clothing and slip the pin in between his ribs are very small. To hit his heart after all of that – well, as I said, it had to have been an accident.”

“She might be the first woman to meet up with Old Sparky,” he said. “Nobody cared about the poor girls she killed, but she won’t get away with murdering Dennis and his wife.”

“That’s not much comfort,” she said. “Her execution won’t bring them back.”

“At least it’ll keep her from doing it again. The old priest was right – there were other girls before Emilia. God only knows how long she’s been sending girls to heaven.”

“How on earth did she decide that was her job?” she asked, outraged.

“I spent a lot of time with her last night. Seems like she decided when her husband was sick. She had a little girl who died years ago, and she kept telling herself the girl was better off in heaven. She nursed her husband for a long time, and then she started thinking he’d be better off in heaven, too.”

“She killed her husband?” Sarah asked, her blue eyes wide with horror.

“Yeah. She thought she did him a favor, too.”

“Did she kill him the same way she killed the girls?”

“Yeah, she said she’d learned it from her father, from killing animals.”

“Oh, yes,” Sarah remembered. “She said her father was a butcher.” Why hadn’t she realized the connection then?

“After she killed her husband,” Malloy continued, “she started killing girls. She chose the ones she thought might go back to their evil ways if she didn’t stop them.”

“Emilia had already left the mission once and returned to her lover,” she reminded him. “That’s probably why she was killed.”

“And she wanted to kill you because you weren’t going to stop until you found out who murdered Emilia. She couldn’t take the chance that you’d figure out she did it. She picked the church as an insult to the priest there because he’d been so critical of her mission.”

Just saying the words made Frank’s blood run cold, and she shuddered, too.

“I’m so tired of death,” she said, and a tear rolled down her cheek. The sight of it burned his soul like acid.

Frank thought of Tom Brandt and what he now knew about the good doctor’s murder. Once he’d hoped to solve that mystery and give her peace and a touch of justice. That hope was gone. Telling her the truth would shatter the world she had built for herself, and he could never do that to her. His effort to repay her for all she’d done for his son had ended in ruin.

“What’s going to happen to this place?” he asked to change the subject.

“Some of the women who’ve been supporting the mission are going to hire someone to run it. They think the work is too important to give up on it.”

Frank nodded, figuring they had to do at least as well as Mrs. Wells had done.

“Malloy, I wanted to tell you,” she said a little tentatively. “I told Richard’s family that he died saving my life and Aggie’s. I know you didn’t think much of him,” she added hastily, “but he was a good man.”

And he’d certainly cared very deeply for Sarah, Frank knew. He’d been as desperate as Frank to save her from that madwoman. Frank shouldn’t be surprised that she’d cared for Dennis in return. He had been everything Frank was not and would never be – a man who could earn Sarah’s love. “Yes,” he agreed, “he was a good man.”

She seemed relieved, perhaps even glad. He couldn’t tell.

“I need to get back to work,” he said, rising from his chair. If he didn’t leave, he might say something that would embarrass them both.

“Thank you for coming. I needed to talk about what happened,” she said.

When he turned to take his leave, he saw an expression on her face that he’d never seen before. Probably, she was thinking of Dennis.

“Will I see you soon?” she asked.

“Sure,” he lied. He knew he couldn’t ever see her again. He loved her too much, and knowing him was far too dangerous. Each time they met, she almost died, which meant she was only safe without him. It would take a miracle to bring them together again.

Or a murder.