Fatal as a Fallen Woman (34 page)

"We came to Denver because we knew he'd been here, acting. It didn't take long to find out how he died, or that he'd been seen gambling in company with Charlie Duncan before he left for Leadville."

"Why didn't you use your own names? Did you suspect something all along?"

Jane shrugged. She seemed calmer now, but Diana wasn't sure that was a good thing. As long as Jane had the gun, she could use it.

"Lawrence said Evan wasn't the sort to die natural. He didn't want anyone making connections."

"So Charlie never knew who Alan Kent really was?"

"
Lawrence
scraped an acquaintance with Charlie because he had a connection to Evan. Then one night the two of them got drunk together, and Charlie ended up telling him a story about how he'd taken orders from his boss to a gunfighter and later an actor had ended up dead. That was enough to go on to figure out the rest."

"So your brother went to work for Torrence to get proof he'd hired a killer?"

"No, he went to work for him to rob him blind."

"And Miranda?"

"She was never part of the plan until after Torrence got himself killed. Then Lawrence decided marrying her would be an even better scheme. He didn't take it well when she turned him down. Still, he got away with a lot of her money."

"Yes, he did. He's probably be halfway across the continent by now. If he didn't stab my father," she said again, "then he had no reason to poison Charlie."

Jane blinked and looked confused.

"Little tart lied to me from the first," Elmira grumbled. "I should have known better than to trust her with my books."

"Hush, Mother!"

But Elmira's complaint jogged Diana's memory. She considered
all
the lies Jane had told and the pieces of the puzzle suddenly rearranged themselves in her mind.

"He didn't kill Charlie," she said. "Jane, think. Do you really believe your brother would be able to execute a murder as well as Charlie's death was managed? He made a hash of it when he attempted to kill Nellie."

"Not kill," Jane objected, confirming part of Diana's theory. "Just frighten."

"Because she knew when the two of you came in that night and it was going to play havoc with your alibi if she remembered."

Diana had her doubts about whether or not they'd meant to do Nellie serious harm, but she could easily picture Alan Kent planning to run her down in a dogcart and losing his nerve at the last second. Then he'd tried to shoot her and been too nervous to hit what he was aiming at. It had been
Jane's
effort to silence Nellie that had almost succeeded in killing her.

Diana regarded the gun. Whatever Jane had meant to do to Nellie, she could not have poisoned Charlie. She'd been with Ben and Diana when he'd died. And if she'd could bring herself to shoot them, surely she'd have done so by now.

Diana reached out and took the gun away from her.

With an exclamation of distaste, she flung it away from her, into the darkest corner of the room. She looked up to find Ben propped up against the doorframe. A trickle of blood ran down the side of his face but his injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.

"Did she knock you out?" Her voice cracked, just a little, on the question.

"Yes. And tied me up."

"How did you get loose?"

Ning appeared behind him, carrying a length of rope. "I follow you from laundry," he said.

"Did she kill your father?" Ben's gaze moved to Jane, who had collapsed in a heap and was sobbing piteously again.

"No. Jane! Stop that noise. I think I know what happened, but you need to help me by answering a few more questions."

Jane sniffled, but managed to get control of herself.

"Why are you so sure Alan Kent didn't kill my father?"

A bit of Jane's old spirit resurfaced. "
Lawrence
and I were together when we talked to him. When we left, he was expecting his mistress. I'd have thought she killed him, but when that glove turned up in Elmira's suite I realized she must have gone to his hotel room after we left." Jane glared at Elmira. "She
must
have killed him."

"She really believes it," Elmira said.

"Yes, but I think she's right that Alan—pardon me, Lawrence—is innocent. The real killer is impulsive but efficient . . . and not responsible for the actions of two clumsy, would-be murderers who never actually killed anyone, though they did apparently succeed in embezzling a great deal of money. Since we now know that Miranda was with Matt Hastings the night Father was murdered, that leaves only one suspect—Father's mysterious mistress."

"Pearl knows who she is," Ben said. "She said the woman left town, but if she's the one who murdered Charlie, it's obvious she didn't."

Diana turned to Jane, who was on her feet and listening in wide-eyed fascination. "Did you warn Pearl before you followed us here?"

Jane shook her head. "I knew you were up to something. I only went as far as the first bend in the stair and stayed there to listen to what you said to each other. Then I took the long way around to Hop Alley. I was just in time to catch sight of you leaving Gun Wa's shop. When I saw you go into the laundry, I guessed why. Elmira used to talk my ear off about the days when she took in washing."

* * * *

In less than a quarter of an hour, they were back in Pearl's basement. "Has one of Pearl's girls left in the last month?" Diana asked the gaping porter.

Surprised by her direct question into answering before he thought better of it, he replied in the negative.

"So Pearl lied about that." Diana exchanged a grim look with Ben. "I wonder what other stories she invented."

"There's only one way to find out," Ben said, and led the way up two flights of stairs to Pearl's boudoir.

Diana let the others go ahead, drawing Ning aside to whisper instructions in his ear. She had no need to tell him to hurry. He was off like a shot as soon as he understood the importance of his assignment.

She arrived in Pearl's doorway in time to catch the madam's reaction to seeing Elmira in her house. "Well," Pearl said, rising from behind a small, paper-littered desk. "This is a surprise."

"I imagine it is," Diana said. "You must have thought planting that bloodstained glove in my mother's room would guarantee her arrest."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, yes, you do. You lied about sending a girl to my father's suite that night. There was no girl, was there, Pearl?"

Pearl's eyes blazed with hatred, but still she did not speak.

"
You
were his mysterious mistress," Diana continued. "That's the only explanation that makes sense of everything. You kept your connection to my father a well-guarded secret. You only made one mistake. You decided to tell half truths to Ben. This is Ben Northcote, by the way, the man I'm planning to marry."

Pearl's face was a perfect mask now, still beautiful but as lifeless as and ice sculpture. When one of the poodles nuzzled her hand she ignored it.                    

"You took a risk," Diana continued, "by mentioning spies, and you lost your gamble. I suppose you were worried by then. Was I too persistent? Did you fear that framing my mother wouldn't be enough to keep me from finding out the truth and decide to lay a false trail? Who did you think we'd suspect? Alan Kent? Jane?"

Pearl was made of sterner stuff than most. Merely making accusations was not going to startle her into a confession. Still, Diana soldiered on. She could see everything with startling clarity now.

"When we left for Torrence, you must have seen it as the perfect opportunity to eliminate Charlie. Poor fool. He was the only person who could link you to my father's murder. I wonder if he would have? He wasn't really very clever."

"He might have confided something damaging in one of her girls," Ben said. "He had a special favorite."

Ben had taken possession of Jane's gun back in Hop Alley and now he moved swiftly to Pearl's night stand to confiscate the revolver she kept there. Relieved of the fear that she might end up looking down the barrel of a pistol for a second time in one afternoon, Diana forged ahead with renewed self-confidence.

"You should have thought it through, Pearl. If none of the young women working for you was my father's secret mistress, that only leaves you. That means you killed him. Did something happen that night to make you lose control? I remember what my father was like. I imagine he said something that made you angry. The letter opener was handy. You picked it up and stabbed him and kept on stabbing him until he was dead."

Pearl's face was livid with fury. She had no visible weapons, but Diana backed a prudent step away from her, just in case. When her shoulder brushed against Ben, who had returned to her side, she inhaled sharply and was soothed by the comforting trace of Ivory soap that always clung to him.

"You're just like him," Pearl hissed. "So sure of yourself. So smug!"

"I rather think she takes after me," Elmira murmured. For the first time in Diana's memory, there was pride in her mother's voice when she spoke about her daughter.

Pearl ignored her, focusing all her venom on Diana. "Think you're smart, don't you? Got it all figured out!"

"Most of it. Do you want to clarify anything? Perhaps you had a good reason for killing my father. Self-defense?" She doubted it, and she was dead certain Pearl had murdered poor, stupid Charlie with malice aforethought.

"What do you want? A confession?"

"It would be nice to have no loose ends left."

Pearl's face twisted into a derisive sneer. "Why not? Sure. I'll tell you everything. Did you know your father wanted to run for governor? Can you believe that? Said he didn't want me around anymore because the holier-than-thou element might not like it if they found out he had a mistress. Hah! As if I was the only secret he was keeping!"

"I can see why you'd be upset."

When Pearl began to pace, Diana and the others gave her a wide berth. "He offered to pay me off if I'd leave Colorado, but it was a pittance. When I refused, he threatened me. Me! Said he could get rid of me permanently if I'd prefer. Bring in the same gunslinger who killed your husband. He laughed, and went to fix himself a drink. Ignored me, like I was nothing. That's when I lost my temper."

"You stabbed him in the back, then finished the job," Diana said, "but as soon as he was dead, you started worrying. What if someone suspected you? I'm sure you went in veiled. No one was supposed to know who you were. But, still, better safe than sorry. Is that the way it was, Pearl? Did you decide it would be best if there was an obvious suspect, right from the start, so no one would even think to look for anyone else? It must have been spectacularly easy for you to plant that glove the next day when you paid your condolence visit to my mother."

"I
am
clever at working things out." Pearl had maneuvered herself across the room until she was close to the door.

Before any of them realized what Pearl meant to do, she'd bolted. The door slammed shut behind her and they heard the key turn in the lock.

"Damnation!" Ben threw himself against the wooden panels, but to no avail. The portal held. Rubbing his shoulder, he drew back to try a kick.

"She had an escape plan all worked out," Elmira said. "Good for her."

"She killed two men," Diana protested.

"No great loss, either of them."

A loud click distracted Diana before she could think of an adequate reply. Unlocked, the door slowly swung open. 

"I do good, Mrs. Diana," Ning said, stepping into the room. "I bring Pinkerton men like you say."

In the hallway behind him, muffled curses confirmed that Pearl had been taken into custody.

* * * *

"Do you think we could leave tracking down murderers to the authorities once we're married?" Ben asked.

Diana looked up from the news story she was writing for Horatio Foxe and smiled. After dealing with a bevy of police officers and lawyers, they were back at the Elmira Hotel. Pearl was under arrest. So was Julia Markham. Her brother appeared to have vanished.

Ben turned his attention to Elmira. "I don't suppose you have any influence over her?"

"Never did." She went back to replacing jewelry and cash in various hiding places in her sitting room. "Besides, it's no concern of mine. I've changed my mind about abandoning a good, profitable business. In spite of Jane's pilfering, I've done well here. And I'm thinking about getting married again."

Diana dropped her pen and gawked at her mother.

Elmira brayed a laugh. "You should see your face. What's the matter? Don't you fancy Ed Leeves as a stepfather?"

Diana decided it would be the better part of valor not to answer that question. The look she sent Ben's way, however, spoke volumes. When Elmira left the room, Diana joined him at the window. She tucked herself under his arm to look out at Holladay Street.

"Does it bother you that my mother runs a brothel?"

"Does it bother you that mine claims to be a witch?"

They exchanged a smile of perfect understanding.

He kissed her forehead. "What have you decided to do about Ning?"

She wasn't surprised that he asked. He knew her well. "I've already given him money for a nest egg, but I'd like to do more. He's an intelligent boy. With a good education, he could be anything he liked."

"We could take him back East with us."

She considered it for a moment, then shook her head. "He has family here and I don't want to take him away from them. But perhaps, when he's older, he might like to attend college in New England."

"Well, then, we have only one thing left to settle before we leave Denver."

"What's that?"

"A date for the wedding. It's May already. What do you say to sometime in June?"

"Wait another month?" she asked, fighting a grin. "Are you sure that's wise? Just look at all that happened during each of the last two."

About the Author

Kathy Lynn Emerson is the author of over forty works of fiction and nonfiction written under several names. More information can be found at KathyLynnEmerson.com.