Hetty still wasn’t convinced, but Bertha needed to unburden herself. “A lot of the girls do it, Mrs. Brandt. It’s the only way we can get pretty things.”
“I understand,” she assured them. “I like pretty things, too.”
“Lisle liked this fellow, and he treated her real good,” Hetty said, her tone daring Sarah to contradict her. “She never would’ve done it otherwise.”
“Of course not,” Sarah agreed.
“She went with him one night,” Bertha said. “Not to a room or anything. Just someplace private. She let him, you know, and after he was done, he slapped her. Called her a whore.”
“He had no call to do that! He knew she weren’t no whore,” Hetty said.
“She was scared, but she’s been beat by her stepfather, so she wasn’t going to take it from him,” Bertha said.
“He must’ve been surprised. Maybe he thought ’cause she’s so little, she wouldn’t put up a fight,” Hetty said.
“But she did,” Bertha reported. “Kicked him and bit him, and she got away before he could hit her again.”
“She was mad,” Hetty remembered. “Couldn’t hardly tell us about it without spitting and hissing. Wanted to scratch his eyes out, only he never came around again.”
Sarah was trying to put it all together, but the puzzle pieces didn’t quite fit yet. “Did Gerda know about this?”
“Sure she did,” Bertha confirmed. “Lisle told all of us right after it happened.”
“Do you think Gerda might’ve gone with him, even knowing he’d hit Lisle?”
The two girls exchanged another glance. Plainly, they weren’t sure about this.
“It’s not that Gerda was so brave,” Hetty began, feeling her way.
“She just didn’t worry about things,” Bertha clarified. “Maybe he hit Lisle, but she’d figure he’d never hit her. She always thought she was smarter than the rest of us and could get men to do things we couldn’t.”
“Sometimes she was right, too,” Hetty said, “and that only made her worse. She went with anybody who’d treat her. We tried to tell her that was stupid and maybe even dangerous, but she wouldn’t listen.”
Now it was beginning to make a sort of sense. “So if Gerda had met this Will and realized he was the same one Lisle had warned her about, then you think it’s possible she’d have gone with him anyway if he wanted to treat her?”
“Sure. She didn’t care.” Hetty still sounded angry.
“But she probably wouldn’t want the rest of you to know that she was seeing him,” Sarah guessed.
“Not unless she wanted us to give her what for,” Hetty said.
That explained how the killer had been able to get to Gerda, but not how he’d gotten to Lisle, who would have been more wary.
“I suspect Lisle wouldn’t have been likely to go with this Will willingly if he came up on her in the dark,” Sarah guessed.
“Not even in the daylight,” Hetty confirmed. “Not after the other girls got themselves killed.”
Sarah was thinking, trying to picture how it must have been. He’d been looking for Lisle. Maybe he’d been following her, waiting to catch her alone. Or maybe he saw her by chance and remembered that she’d escaped him once. He’d somehow dragged her into an alley without her managing to scream and attract attention. Then he’d beaten the life out of her, taking revenge for her earlier escape. One strategically placed blow to her stomach would have robbed her of breath and effectively silenced her. By the time she recovered from that, he could have beaten her senseless. Sarah only hoped oblivion had come quickly. She couldn’t stand the thought that Lisle had suffered for long.
“Did either of you ever see this man?” Sarah asked. “Do you know what he looks like?”
They considered, trying to remember.
“I saw him that first night,” Bertha said, “when he came to ask Lisle to dance. But I wasn’t paying much attention. He was just another fellow in the crowd. I didn’t know…” She shrugged helplessly.
“And you don’t remember much about him?” Sarah asked, her hopes dying.
“I doubt I’d know him again,” she confirmed.
Sarah thought of the storekeeper who had sold Gerda the red shoes. He’d been so busy looking at her ankles, he probably hadn’t even noticed the man who’d paid for the shoes. The only people who could have identified him for sure were dead. And nobody even knew his last name.
Sarah was starting to believe they would never find him.
LISLE’S FUNERAL THE next day was better attended than Gerda’s had been. Her family had more friends, it seemed. They filled the United German Lutheran Church, and many of them were weeping audibly. Sarah wondered if it was out of genuine grief over Lisle’s death or simply to show support for the family.
Lisle’s mother was a tired-looking woman who probably wasn’t nearly as old as she looked. Three young boys sat in the pew between her and the man who must have been Lisle’s stepfather. He looked like the kind of brute who would beat his stepdaughter. Or maybe he’d just wanted to keep her from going bad and used the only method he knew. Sarah couldn’t judge others. Her own shortcomings were too real.
Sitting near the back, she was surprised when Malloy walked in just as the service began. He slipped into the pew beside her, forcing her to move over to make room for him.
“Thought I’d find you here,” he said before the organ music drowned any attempt at conversation.
Sarah wasn’t sure if she was glad to see him or not, but the expression on his face warned her he did not have good news to share. In fact, he looked haggard, as if he hadn’t slept well. He wouldn’t meet her eye, either. Another bad sign.
She studied him as the service progressed. He needed a shave. And a haircut, too. His clothes were rumpled, but then, they always were. Probably, he cultivated his slovenliness so he wouldn’t stand out in the poorer neighborhoods where crimes usually occurred.
She tried to concentrate on the minister’s words of comfort, but Malloy’s presence was too disturbing. He’d come looking for her. What did he know?
Whatever it was, he didn’t seem to be in any hurry to share it. He could’ve pulled her out of the church. She would have willingly gone if he’d had something to tell her. Instead, he seemed intent on studying the crowd. What was he looking for?
Then she realized he was probably looking for someone who might have been Lisle’s killer. Was it possible? Would the killer be brazen enough to attend his victim’s funeral? Then she realized that a man who would beat young women to death within spitting distance of a public street would probably be brazen enough to do just about anything. But brass didn’t count in this instance. He’d have to be a fool to show his face where someone might recognize him or notice that he didn’t belong. Sarah doubted he was a fool, but Malloy was looking around anyway. Just in case.
The service seemed interminable, probably because Sarah was so aware of Malloy and so anxious to speak with him alone. No words of comfort would bring the dead back to life, nor could they make the pain of loss more bearable, as Sarah well knew. She didn’t want comfort, in any case. She wanted vengeance. While the others prayed for Lisle’s soul, Sarah prayed that Malloy had learned something about the killer. While the others sang of a life hereafter, walking the streets of heaven, Sarah’s heart thrummed with a desire to send one particular man to the fires of hell.
Finally, the service ended. The family filed out, following the casket, and Sarah and Malloy waited until the last of the guests had gone. In the quiet of the now empty church, Sarah clutched at his sleeve when he would have followed the others.
“You know something. What is it? Tell me!”