“Actually, I’m not sure we do have a plan. Mr. Malloy might be able to come up with some ideas, but… I’m afraid that photographer was right. Unless I can find a picture of this fellow, or someone who knows what he looks like, we might never find him.”
He was still upset, but he asked no other questions. He just started walking, and Sarah went with him.
By unspoken consent, they strolled over to the entrance to the Vista Room, which was actually the head of the elephant. Long windows on either side, that were actually the slits that formed the elephant’s eyes, allowed a panoramic view of the ocean, the beaches, and the Island itself. Other visitors were clustered in front of them, so Sarah and Dirk stood back, waiting for an opening.
“Perhaps one of the dead girl’s friends would know this Will,” he suggested. “Have you asked them?”
She almost said that of course she had asked them, but then she caught herself. She’d asked them to give her the names of the men Gerda had been seeing. They hadn’t mentioned a Will, so naturally, she hadn’t asked if they knew a man named Will. “No! No, I didn’t!” she exclaimed.
Dirk smiled. It was a funny, crooked thing, but a smile nonetheless. He was trying so hard to pretend he was as unaffected as she by the subject of murder and murderers. “Then you must speak to them again. Why, for all you know, one of them might be able to lead you straight to this man. Who do you think would be the most likely to help you?”
Now he was even trying to help solve the case. She could hardly fault him for that, though, not when she was trying to do the same thing. “Gerda had three friends she worked with. They knew everything about her, so it seems strange she didn’t tell them this fellow’s name.”
“Maybe not so strange. Maybe she wanted to keep him to herself,” he suggested. “Girls like that are very jealous, especially when they find a generous companion.”
He should know. She considered his theory. “Or maybe it was just the opposite. Maybe the other girls knew him, and she didn’t want them to know she was seeing him.”
“Because she’d stolen him from one of them.”
“Exactly!”
“Now all you need to do is decide which of them was most likely to have been his first choice,” Dirk said.
“Oh, that’s easy enough. Lisle would be any man’s first choice,” Sarah said, thinking aloud.
“Lisle?” he echoed, arching his eyebrow at her. “Another German girl, obviously. From the same neighborhood?”
“Yes.”
“This fellow doesn’t go far afield, does he? He should be easy to find.”
Sarah only hoped he was right.
THE NEXT MORNING, Mrs. Elsworth was on Sarah’s doorstep bright and early, her wrinkled face pale and drawn and her graying hair done up so hastily, the knot sat crooked on her head. “Oh, Mrs. Brandt, I had to see that you were all right. I had the most terrible dream last night, and then this morning…” She clutched at her chest, gasping for breath, and Sarah quickly took her arm and led her inside.
“Sit down right here and let me listen to your heart,” she said, putting her in the chair beside her desk in the examining room. “Are you having any pain?”
“Goodness, no,” she exclaimed breathlessly. “I’m just… I can’t seem to get my breath. I was so frightened when I saw it.”
“The dream, you mean?” Sarah asked, reaching into her medical bag and pulling out the stethoscope.
“No, the cricket!”
Sarah was just about to put the stethoscope in her ears, but she stopped at this. “You were frightened by a cricket?”
“Not just any cricket! Everyone knows that a cricket in the house is good luck. Unless it’s a white cricket, of course. And this one was. Pure white, and you know what that means!”
“No, I don’t,” Sarah admitted.
Mrs. Elsworth closed her eyes and laid her hand over her heart again. Sarah reached out, fully expecting her to keel over and ready to break the fall, but she didn’t move. She only said, “Death.”
“Death?” Sarah echoed stupidly.
Mrs. Elsworth opened her eyes and looked straight at her. “The white cricket means a death is coming to someone close.”
“Oh, I’m sure that-”
“And then there was my dream. You were in it, Mrs. Brandt. You were running and running, trying to catch someone, but you couldn’t, and then I saw her. I couldn’t see her face, but she was dead, and I was so afraid… Well, I had to make sure you were all right, didn’t I?”
“And as you can see. I’m perfectly fine. I’d be better if you’d allow me to listen to your heart, though. Just to make sure you’re fine. too,” she added with a small smile.
“It’s really not necessary, but if it will make you happy,” she conceded.
Sarah was relieved to hear the older woman’s heart beating rapidly but strongly.
“Didn’t I tell you?” Mrs. Elsworth said as Sarah put the stethoscope away.
“I’d be a poor neighbor if I were less concerned about you than you are about me,” Sarah pointed out.
Mrs. Elsworth sighed. “At least I’m not going out at all hours of the day and night looking for a killer.”
“Neither am I,” Sarah said.
“You were out yesterday, weren’t you? All day. I think that’s what brought on my dream, worrying about you. I knew it wasn’t a delivery. I saw the man who called for you yesterday morning.”
Of course she had. No one came onto the street that Mrs. Elsworth didn’t see.
“If you saw the man who called for me, you should have known there was nothing to worry about.”
Mrs. Elsworth sniffed. “I hope you won’t think I’m meddling, but I don’t believe that fellow is a proper companion for you, Mrs. Brandt.”
“Dirk?” Sarah asked in surprise. He had called for her in a hansom cab, which had seemed excessive to Sarah, since they were taking the trolley to Coney Island. She would have thought that would have impressed Mrs. Elsworth, however. “Why do you think he’s not proper?”
“I know that look,” she said. “He’s a man who’s seen too much of the world. He’ll always be restless and angry. No woman will ever satisfy him for long.”
Sarah was awed that her neighbor could make such an accurate assessment of Dirk Schyler just by catching a quick glimpse of him. “You don’t need to worry about me, Mrs. Elsworth. I won’t be seeing him again.”
“That is a relief,” she admitted, managing a strained smile. She still looked shaken, though. Sarah might consider her superstitions ridiculous, but Mrs. Elsworth took them very seriously indeed, and this one had truly frightened her. Not badly enough that she forgot important things, however. “And how is that nice Mr. Malloy?” she asked. “I haven’t seen him around for a white.”
Sarah managed not to choke at the description of Malloy as “nice.” “I haven’t seen him around in a while either,” she said, “so I have no idea how he is.”
“Now, you should know Mr. Malloy would be a much better match for you than that fellow from yesterday, Mrs. Brandt,” Mrs. Elsworth said.
This time Sarah did choke. “Are you serious?” she asked when she could talk again.
“Perfectly. Oh, I know he’s Irish and a Catholic, but I don’t imagine that would stop either of you if you decided you wanted to be together.”
“I must say, you have an odd idea of what’s proper and what isn‘t,” Sarah said, thinking her mother’s-and Malloy’s mother’s and everyone else’s-was exactly the opposite.
“Not odd,” Mrs. Elsworth said. “Just practical. You’ll understand when you’re older, or at least I hope you will. Well, now that I’ve satisfied myself that you’re all right, I’ll let you be about your business. Just promise that you’ll be careful, won’t you? Dreams are sometimes omens, and the cricket definitely was. You mark my words.”
“I’m always careful,” Sarah assured her, not quite accurately. She would be until Gerda’s killer was caught, though. And with any luck, that wouldn’t be long.