“Then you and Officer Donatelli will accompany her. Take as many officers as you think you’ll need to protect her, too.
We must get this settled, Mr. Malloy. Every night that passes gives Tammany another opportunity to stir up more trouble.”
“I’ll go see her this morning, sir,” Frank said, giving Donatelli a dirty look he didn’t understand.
“Dee-lightful. Please give her my regards and my personal thanks for her efforts,” Roosevelt said.
Sarah was trying to decide if she should take Aggie and Maeve with her to visit the mission when someone rang her front doorbell. Her heart quickened when she saw Malloy’s silhouette through the door, and she smiled as she pulled it open.
“Malloy,” she said in greeting, but her smile faded when she saw his expression. “What’s wrong?” she asked in alarm.
“Let me in, and I’ll tell you,” he replied sourly.
Aggie and Maeve had heard the bell and now came running to greet him. He put on a good show for them, teasing and grinning, until Sarah sent them upstairs and took Malloy into the kitchen. She poured coffee without asking and set it in front of him.
“I saw the story about the riot in the newspaper. Did something happen to the Ruoccos? To the baby?”
“No, we managed to keep the rioters out of the restaurant until the police came.”
“You were there?” she asked in amazement.
“Donatelli and I were there questioning the family when it started.”
“How is Maria? And the baby? She must be terrified!”
“Everybody was fine, or at least nobody got hurt. They sent Maria and the baby and the daughter to a neighbor’s house.”
“Did you find out anything when you were questioning them? About who might have killed Nainsi?”
“Nobody confessed, if that’s what you mean,” he said grimly.
She could see the discouragement in his eyes. “I wish I could help. I’ve been trying to figure out if anything I learned when I was there was important.”
“What did you learn?” he asked, surprising her.
“Maria is determined to be a good mother to the baby. She doesn’t think she’ll ever have any of her own because . . .”
“Because what?” he prodded when she hesitated.
“Because Joe doesn’t do his husbandly duty anymore,”
she told him with just a touch of glee, knowing he’d be embarrassed. He didn’t like discussing such things with her.
He reached up and rubbed his eyes, probably to keep from having to look at her. “All right,” he said with more than a touch of discomfort. “So Maria is claiming the baby for herself because she can’t have one of her own.”
“I didn’t really expect the rest of the family would be too happy about it, but even Mrs. Ruocco has come around.”
“The old woman?” he asked in surprise.
“Yes, she’s very fond of Maria and wants her to be happy.
She must know that Joe isn’t much of a husband and Maria doesn’t have any other joy in her life. This is her one chance to have a child.”
“I can’t believe Joe went along with it.”
“I can’t either, but maybe he has a guilty conscience. He’ll let her have her way so she’s too busy to bother him anymore.”
“Valentina doesn’t seem very pleased to have the baby there,” Malloy remarked. “She wanted to give it to the mob last night so they’d go away and leave them alone.”
“Oh, my! I know she’s a spoiled brat, but I never would have thought her capable of such a thing. Do you think she was serious?”
“Yes, I do,” he confirmed gravely. “She hates that baby.
I wouldn’t leave her alone with it for a second.”
Sarah considered this information. “Do you think she could have hated Nainsi that much, too?”
“I thought you said she was the one who discovered the body.”
“She was, but . . . She was screaming like a banshee. I thought she was genuinely terrified.”
“Maybe she didn’t realize she’d killed Nainsi. Maybe she just put the pillow over her face to shut her up or something. Then she went in the next morning and found her dead. She’d be pretty upset.”
“It’s possible, I guess. I’d hate to think someone so young could do such a thing, though.”
“You’d be surprised what kids can do,” Malloy said.
“Sometimes they’re worse than adults because they aren’t smart enough yet to even think about the consequences of the things they do.”
Sarah shuddered at the thought.
“So we’ve got Mama Ruocco, Maria and Joe in favor of keeping the baby. Valentina is very much against it.”
“I don’t know how Antonio feels,” Sarah said. “I haven’t heard him say anything on the subject.”
“He wanted to give the baby to Mrs. O’Hara last night when the mob was trying to break down their front door.”
“That seems logical,” Sarah mused. “He wouldn’t feel any connection to the baby, and he wouldn’t be overly concerned about Maria’s happiness. Lorenzo was, though,”
she remembered.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that when Ugo wanted Maria to give up the baby, he stood up for her.”
“When did this happen?” he asked, unable to keep the anger out of his voice.
She sighed in resignation. “Yesterday. Ugo came to the restaurant in the afternoon. I’m sure he thought all he had to do was tell them to give the baby to Mrs. O’Hara and they’d obey. Maria refused him to his face, though.”
“And Lorenzo defended her?”
“Yes, he and Joe and Mrs. Ruocco, all of them. Lorenzo took the lead, though. He actually shamed Joe into joining him.”
Malloy took a long swig of the cooled coffee and set the cup down with a clunk. “If they didn’t listen to Ugo, they probably won’t listen to anybody else, either.”
“Listen to them about what?”
Malloy gave her a long, level look, as if judging her in some way.
“Malloy, what are you talking about?” she prodded, letting her annoyance show.
“I’m talking about getting them to give the baby to Mrs.
O’Hara to make peace.”
“Mrs. O’Hara can’t take care of an infant,” she protested.
“She couldn’t even support herself and Nainsi.”
“Tammany is going to give her a pension so she can,” he reported.
“Tammany Hall? What do they have to do with this?”
“It’s an Irish baby. They say it was kidnapped by Italians who killed its mother.”
“Nobody kidnapped him!”
“Somebody killed his mother, though.”
“Maria certainly didn’t!”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure!”
“Who did, then?”
“How should I know?”
Malloy scowled at her. “Then why are you so sure it wasn’t Maria? It could’ve been her just as easy as anyone else.”
Now Sarah rubbed her eyes. “This is crazy, Malloy. First Valentina and now Maria. Next you’ll be accusing the baby!”
“He didn’t have a motive,” Malloy pointed out dryly.
“Neither did anybody else,” she snapped back. “Not enough of one to kill her, at any rate. Antonio was the only one who had a reason to be angry enough. She’d made a fool of him and ruined his life.”
“He was too drunk,” Malloy said.
“How do you know that?”
“Don’t you remember how hungover he and Joe were that morning? Besides, I questioned them both.”
“Then tell me everything you found out. Let’s compare notes and see what we know about the night Nainsi was killed. Maybe we’re missing something.”
Frank glared at her, but after a few seconds, he gave in.
“We both know what happened up until you left that night.”
“That’s right. Maria was with Nainsi, helping her with the baby.”