“I want you to find out who spent time with Mrs. Van Orner yesterday, what they talked about, and what her state of mind was. I also want you to find out where her purse with the flask in it was while she was meeting with these people.”
“To find out if someone could have put the laudanum into it while she was busy doing something else.”
“Yes, but don’t ask anybody if they did it.”
The look she gave him would’ve curdled milk. “I’m not an idiot.”
“I know you’re not, but one of those women is a murderer, and I don’t want you to be next.”
“Don’t worry. I don’t even like crème de menthe.”
“They could put it in anything,” he said, exasperated.
“I won’t eat or drink anything in that house. Will that make you happy?”
“I wouldn’t say happy, but it’s a start.”
“Is there anything else you want me to find out?”
“If you think I should talk to any of them myself, see if you can get them to come out and meet with me.”
“I doubt any of them will be particularly interested in meeting with a police detective.”
“Then lie to them.”
She pursed her lips to hold back a smile, an expression he knew well. “Where will you be?”
“A coffee shop on the next block. We’ll pass by it on our way, so you’ll know where it is. I’ll wait for you there.”
“I just happened to think, I doubt Mrs. Spratt-Williams will be at the house today. Maybe you can see her at her own house.”
If this Spratt-Williams woman was as rich as Van Orner, he doubted she’d be particularly happy to see him. “Maybe.”
They crossed another busy street, and Frank went over some of the questions he wanted her to ask of the women in the house. Then he showed her the coffee shop where he’d be waiting, and accompanied her to her destination, standing out on the sidewalk to make sure they let her in. Then he walked back to the coffee shop, prepared for a long, boring afternoon.
LISA BIAFORE ANSWERED SARAH’S KNOCK. THE POOR girl looked frazzled, her dark hair straggling down out of its bun, her eyes red-rimmed and sad. “Oh, Mrs. Brandt, isn’t it? I almost didn’t recognize you. Have you heard about poor Mrs. Van Orner . . .” Her voice broke, and she pressed a hand to her lips to hold back a sob.
“Yes, I did,” Sarah said, taking this opportunity to step inside. “I’m so sorry. I came to see if there was anything I could do to help.”
“I don’t know of anything,” Lisa said, using the tail of her apron to wipe her eyes. “Unless you can tell us what’s going to happen to Mrs. Van Orner’s work now that she’s gone.”
“What do you mean?”
“This house and all of us. Will they shut it down? Where will we go? Nobody’s told us anything, and there’s not enough money here to keep us for more than a week. After that . . .”
Her concerns were legitimate, and Sarah couldn’t imagine Mr. Van Orner continuing to finance a houseful of former prostitutes. “Have you seen Mrs. Spratt-Williams?”
“No, not yet. Just Miss Yingling. She came by late last night to tell us about Mrs. Van Orner. She looked so different, I hardly recognized her. Acted different, too, like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. She didn’t seem sad at all about poor Mrs. Van Orner either.”
“I’m sure she was just trying to put on a brave front,” Sarah said. “Mrs. Van Orner wouldn’t have approved of any displays of grief.”
“You’re right about that, Mrs. Brandt. I never saw her even look angry until yesterday and then just for a minute, before she caught herself.”
“When was that?” Sarah asked, trying not to sound too interested.
“After she had a talk with that Amy. What a piece of work she is. I don’t know why Mrs. Van Orner didn’t throw her out into the street.”
“I can see this has been very hard on you, Lisa. Can I make you some tea?”
“Oh, Mrs. Brandt, I couldn’t let you do that!”
“Of course you could. That’s what friends are for. Come along and let me take care of you.”
The girl allowed Sarah to escort her back to the kitchen, but she insisted on helping prepare the tea things, since Sarah didn’t know where anything was. After a few minutes, they were seated at the kitchen table, waiting for the tea to steep.
“Can you tell me what happened here yesterday?”
“You mean about the fight Amy had with Mrs. Van Orner?”
“I mean everything, from the time Mrs. Van Orner arrived until she left.”
“I suppose,” the girl said doubtfully.
“I’ll help you remember,” Sarah said. “What was the first thing Mrs. Van Orner did when she arrived?”
Lisa screwed up her face with the effort of remembering. “What she always did. She went into her office with Miss Yingling, and they looked over the accounts.”
“She kept track of how much you spent here?”
“Oh, yes. Her husband didn’t give her any money for this house, you see. He didn’t like her doing this sort of work at all.”
“How did she pay for it then?”
“She had some money of her own, I think, and her friends helped. But we had to be very careful. Sometimes she had to bring us food from her own house so we’d have enough.”
“So she and Miss Yingling were in her office together. Was anyone with them?”
“They called me in and asked me some questions about some things I’d bought, but just for a minute. Then I told her Amy wanted to see her.”
“Why did Amy want to see her?”
“I don’t know, probably to complain. That’s all she ever did. She didn’t like the food, she didn’t like her room, she didn’t like the clothes we got for her. Nothing was ever good enough for her. You’d think she’d forgot she’d been a whore when she came here with nothing but the clothes on her back.”
“How is her baby doing?” Sarah had to ask.
“Oh, he’s doing fine. Fat little thing, cute as a button. Not that she cares. She complains about having to feed him, too. If it was up to her, he’d never have a clean diaper either. The other girls and me, we look after him.”
“That’s very nice of you.”
“It’s only natural, ain’t it? To want to take care of a baby, even if it’s not yours?”
“Yes, it is, or at least it should be.”
Sarah checked the tea and judged it to be ready. She poured each of them a cup, remembering too late her promise to Malloy not to eat or drink anything. Of course, she’d prepared this with her own hands, so she thought it was pretty safe. “Where are the rest of the girls?”
“There’s only two here now, and they’re in their rooms. I think they’re scared of what’s going to happen to them. We’ve all been real quiet today.”
“So Amy and Mrs. Van Orner had a talk. Was Miss Yingling with them?”
“Oh, no. Mrs. Van Orner sent her out. Amy wouldn’t have nothing to do with Miss Yingling, and Miss Yingling didn’t have much use for Amy neither.”
“Did you happen to overhear anything?”
“Do you mean were they shouting? Oh, no, Mrs. Van Orner was too well bred to shout. Not like my family was. They’d scream about every little thing. I had a hard time of it when I first come here. Mrs. Van Orner always says a lady doesn’t raise her voice. Took a long time for me to learn that.”
“I still have a difficult time with it,” Sarah confided. “So you didn’t hear anything they said. How did Amy act when she came out?”
“You mean was she mad or something?”
“Yes, that’s what I mean.”
“She wasn’t mad, that’s for sure.”
“Happy?”
“No, not that. I never seen Amy happy. Seems like nothing pleases her.”
“Sad? Disappointed?”