Murder on Fifth Avenue: A Gaslight Mystery (13 page)

Mrs. Decker sighed. “I should so love to help you with something, Mr. Malloy. Couldn’t you at least pretend you need it?”

For a second, Frank didn’t know what to say, and then he saw the twinkle in her eyes and burst out laughing. They were still laughing when Felix Decker walked in.

Frank sobered instantly, jumping to his feet and feeling oddly guilty, as if he’d been caught doing something unseemly with another man’s wife.

Decker had hesitated in the doorway, and he looked more disturbed now than he had when he’d been telling Frank about finding a dead man in his club.

Mrs. Decker gave him a dazzling smile. “Hello, my dear. I’ve been telling Mr. Malloy about our visit to Lucretia while we waited for you to arrive.”

“I had no idea your visit had been so hilarious,” Decker said with some asperity. “Mr. Malloy, you could have come to my office.”

“But he wouldn’t have been able to see
me
at your office,” Mrs. Decker said. “And he needed to hear my report, didn’t you, Mr. Malloy?”

Frank wasn’t sure what the proper response to that should be, but he said, “I also needed to consult with Mrs. Decker about another matter.”

“Yes,” she said. “He was hoping I knew the lady Chilton Devries wanted to have murdered so I could make an introduction.”

The usually unflappable Decker looked positively apoplectic. “Really, Mr. Malloy—”

“Oh, Felix, the expression on your face,” his wife said, enjoying it immensely. “You can’t really think for a moment that Mr. Malloy would do any such thing, but I couldn’t resist teasing you.”

Decker gave Frank an accusing glare.

“I did ask Mrs. Decker if she knew Mrs. Richmond, but I would never—”

“Richmond? Did you say Richmond?” Decker asked.

“Yes. Do
you
know her?”

“No, not a
Mrs
. Richmond, but…Did you say Chilton wanted to have this woman
murdered
?”

Frank was beginning to feel sorry for the man.

“Come and sit down, dear,” his wife said. “We’d better start at the beginning.”

“I think that would be an excellent idea,” Decker said. “By the way, Mr. Malloy, you haven’t inquired, but I thought you’d like to know that we have asked everyone who was at the club
the day Chilton died, and he didn’t speak with anyone except to exchange a greeting.”

Frank nodded his acknowledgment as they all took their seats. He’d held out little hope the club members would have any helpful information anyway.

Mrs. Decker graciously allowed Frank to tell Decker the story while she served her husband a cup of coffee, for which he seemed grateful, even though it was probably cold by now.

“You didn’t tell me you’d seen Angotti at his
club
,” Mrs. Decker said when he’d finished. “How funny to think a man like that has a club. Is it very much like the Knickerbocker?”

“Not in any way,” Frank said, deciding not to mention his observation that the Irish would not be welcome in either establishment.

She started to ask another question, but her husband stopped her with an impatient gesture. “Mr. Malloy, how can you possibly believe this Angotti was telling the truth?”

“I can’t, but I’m going to see Mrs. Richmond tomorrow and find out.”

Decker glanced at his wife.

“No, I won’t leave you two alone,” she said. “And you might as well let me stay. It will save you the trouble of telling me everything later.”

Decker sighed, and Frank had to bite his lip to keep from grinning. “Mr. Malloy, I can’t believe Chilton Devries would ever associate with a man like Angotti, much less that he would try to arrange for a woman—any woman—to be murdered.”

Frank could have predicted that Decker wouldn’t have the stomach for this kind of business. “Do you want me to stop investigating?”

“Heavens no,” Mrs. Decker said, earning a glare from her husband.

“This is not your decision, Elizabeth.”

“Forgive me,” she said with mock sincerity. “I forgot myself for a moment. But you can’t allow Mr. Malloy to quit now.”

“I most certainly can.”

“Mrs. Decker,” Frank said in an attempt to rescue Decker from his wife’s wrath, “considering what I’ve found out about Mr. Devries so far, I think we can guess that the rest of it will be even worse. I might find out things that will disgrace his family and still not be able to figure out who killed him. A lot of innocent people might suffer.”

“Apparently, a lot of innocent people have already suffered,” she said. “What about this Mrs. Richmond? What if Chilton hired someone else to kill her? Shouldn’t she at least be warned? Felix, I can’t believe you’d stand by and—”

“Elizabeth, enough!” Decker said. “Of course I won’t stand by and allow this woman to come to harm. Mr. Malloy will go see her tomorrow no matter what else we decide to do.”

“And do you agree that Mr. Malloy should stop his investigation to protect the family?” she asked.

Decker turned to Frank. “I think I’d like to find out what this Mrs. Richmond has to say before I make my decision.”

“If she’s still alive,” Frank said.

Mrs. Decker gasped.

“What do you mean?” Decker asked.

“I mean if Devries wanted her dead and Angotti wouldn’t do it, he might’ve done it himself.”

“I don’t believe it!” Decker said.

“Why not?” his wife asked. “Because you wouldn’t do it yourself? I don’t think you would’ve tried to hire someone to do it either, but Chilton apparently did.”

“We only have that Italian’s word for it.”

“Honestly, Felix, just because the man was a member of your club doesn’t mean he was a saint.”

“And if he killed Mrs. Richmond, or tried to, and she put up a fight, that could explain how he got stabbed,” Frank said.

“Oh, my goodness, you’re right,” Mrs. Decker said.

Decker frowned, but he said, “It would also explain why he didn’t tell anyone he’d been injured.”

Mrs. Decker smiled at her husband with apparent approval. “Of course. How
could
he have explained it?” To Frank, she said, “Shouldn’t you go right over to see this Mrs. Richmond instead of waiting until tomorrow?”

“I don’t think there’s any hurry. If she’s dead, I can’t help her, and if not, I don’t want to alarm her by calling on her after dark.

“But if Chilton hired someone else to kill her—”

“He didn’t find out Angotti wouldn’t do it until a few hours before he died, so I doubt he had time to arrange anything else. Finding someone to commit murder isn’t that easy, even in New York.”

“But you’ll let us know immediately what you find out, won’t you?” she asked.

“Elizabeth, Mr. Malloy will report to me in good time.”

She didn’t even acknowledge him. “You will, won’t you?”

“Of course.” Before Decker could object, he added, “Now tell me, was the English duke really a foot shorter than Miss Vanderbilt?”

“Oh, dear, did I say that?” she asked, her face lighting with delight. “Not a whole foot, surely, but at least half a foot. She’s quite tall, you see, and he is…a bit runty.”

“Elizabeth, really,” her husband said.

“Well, he is, even if he is a duke. He was rather penniless,
too, so he came out on the better side of the bargain. They had to honeymoon for a year while he used her dowry to refurbish his castle because it wasn’t fit for human habitation.”

Frank couldn’t wait to tell Sarah her mother thought she should have married her off to a duke. “Mr. Decker, I’ll report back to you as soon as I know anything important. Mrs. Decker, thank you for your hospitality.”

The Deckers murmured all the appropriate responses as Frank took his leave. Just as the maid showed him out, he heard Decker say to his wife, “Now tell me what Mr. Malloy said to you that was so funny.”

S
ARAH WAS JUST FINISHING THE ENORMOUS BREAKFAST
Maeve and Catherine had prepared for her after she arrived home from the delivery that morning when the doorbell rang. They all groaned, thinking she was being summoned to another birth, but the girls’ laughter when they answered the front door told Sarah their visitor was a friend. The rumble of a male voice prompted her to smooth her hair, but she had no time for any additional primping before the girls escorted Malloy into the kitchen.

Well, he’d seen her looking far worse than this. “Malloy,” she said, returning his smile of greeting.

“Good morning, Mrs. Brandt. I was hoping to catch you at home.”

Maeve poured him some coffee and gave him a few minutes to exchange some nonsense with Catherine before taking the child upstairs so he and Sarah could speak privately.

“I suppose you’re wondering what Mother and I found out from Mrs. Devries,” she said when the girls were gone.

“Oh, no. Your mother already told me all about it.”

Sarah’s jaw dropped open, and she closed it with a snap. “When did my mother tell you all about it?”

“Yesterday, when I went to see her. You weren’t home,” he added.

“Maeve didn’t tell me you’d stopped by.”

“I didn’t.”

Sarah managed not to gape at him again. “You mean you just went to my mother’s house without even checking with me first?”

“I needed to see your father, so I figured if I got there early enough, he wouldn’t be home yet, and I could talk to her in private.”

“She must have loved that.”

“She didn’t say, but she did seem happy to see me.”

Sarah could just imagine. “What did she tell you?”

“She told me the marriage between Paul and Garnet Devries was arranged, sort of like the one with Consuelo Vanderbilt and the duke.”

“She didn’t tell you any such thing.”

“I’m sure she did. You can ask her yourself. In fact, she also told me…Well, another time. Anyway, she said they aren’t happily married—Paul and Garnet, although I think Consuelo and the duke couldn’t be very happy either—and they don’t have any children, which proves it.”

“They were happy at least once, because Garnet is now with child.”

Sarah had the satisfaction of seeing Malloy choke on his coffee. “Your mother didn’t tell me that.”

“She doesn’t know. Garnet came by to visit me yesterday.”

“Oh, right. Your mother stopped by to see you yesterday after you left for the delivery, and Maeve told her Garnet had been here. So that’s why she was so interested in your work. Your mother did tell me that, at least.”

“Yes, Garnet asked me a lot of questions about being a midwife, and she asked some more when she was here yesterday. I had the oddest feeling she was really just interested in how she might earn her own living, though.”

“Ah.”

“What do you mean,
ah
?”

“Paul mentioned that Garnet wanted to divorce him.”

“Oh!”

Malloy frowned. “What do you mean,
oh
?”

“I mean that would explain why Garnet wasn’t very happy about having a baby. If she is really considering a divorce, a baby would complicate matters. When did you talk to Paul?”

“I met him when I went back to the house yesterday to look at Devries’s clothes.”

Sarah blinked. “I get the feeling you have a lot of things to tell me.”

“Let me start with what I’ve found out since I saw you last, and then you can do the same.”

“Sounds like a good plan, but don’t dawdle. I was up all night, and I might drift off at any moment.”

“I’ll do my best to keep you awake. I guess I should start by telling you about my visit with the mistress.”

Sarah no longer felt a bit sleepy. “I’d completely forgotten about her. What’s she like?”

“Not like I expected. She’s young and …”

“And what?”

“I feel silly saying
innocent
, considering what she is, but she
seems like a fresh-faced country girl who just got lost on her way to the market.”

“How sad. What’s going to become of her now?”

“I don’t know, but she’s got a maid who’ll look after her, I think.”

“A maid?”

“Well, she was got up as a maid, and she answered the door and fetched Miss English like a maid would, but when Miss English got hysterical, this woman slapped her right in the face.”

“The maid
slapped
her?”

“Yeah. Have you ever seen anything like that before?”

“I’ve heard about a very ill-mannered houseguest slapping a maid once, but never the other way around. She’d be turned out without a reference and would never get work in another house in the city.”

“Which is why I thought maybe she wasn’t really a maid.”

“Or maybe she was the girl’s nursemaid or something and just stayed with her when she fell on hard times or…I don’t know. Did you ask my mother what she thought about it?”

“Of course not. Do you think I was going to talk about Devries’s mistress with your mother?”

Sarah had to smile at the image. “No, but I assure you, she would have loved it.”

“Which is exactly why I didn’t do it. So this girl and her maid are living in this house, but I’m sure Paul Devries will turn them out as soon as he thinks about it, if he hasn’t done it already. That’s why the girl got hysterical, by the way. She didn’t seem too upset that Devries was dead until she realized what it meant to her. That’s when she started carrying on.”

“How interesting that no one seems particularly upset the man is dead.”

“Not really. A lot of people who end up murdered aren’t well liked.”

“I don’t suppose she happened to mention that she’d stabbed him in the back before he left her that morning.”

“No, but she did admit they had an argument.”

“What about?”

“The maid said Miss English wanted to go out to the theater or something, and Devries wouldn’t allow it. But that’s just what the maid said. They could’ve been fighting about anything.”

“Do you think the girl might have done it? Even by accident?”

“I don’t know. Maybe by accident, but I didn’t ask her outright. She would’ve just denied it, and I would’ve lost my chance to surprise her with it. I think the maid could’ve done it, but the thing is …” Malloy shifted, obviously uncomfortable.

Sarah straightened in her chair. “What?”

“I’m starting to think Devries was naked when he got stabbed.”