He’d considered taking the streetcar—he didn’t like the attention his car garnered in the poorest neighborhoods—but they had a few stops, and he didn’t want Dani walking in the parts of town where they were headed. They would just have to be quick.
“We’ll go to Scovill first,” he said. “Rose Wallace was missing for almost a year before her remains were found under Lorain-Carnegie Bridge, but her landlord wouldn’t have known she was dead, so maybe they’re still boxed up somewhere.
“She was last seen doing her laundry. A friend stopped by and told her someone was asking for her at the bar around the corner. She dropped everything and went. Maybe we’ll get lucky, and you can get your magic hands on that laundry.”
“What’s our story? Are we just going to ask for her things?” Dani asked as they pulled up in front of a grimy building that butted right up next to the street. If someone tried to take his car, he could reach out and smack them without taking a step.
“Nah. You’re a friend. You’re wondering if any of her things are still around. You’re looking for something you lent her.”
Rose Wallace’s landlord was not impressed with Dani’s story. Malone wouldn’t have believed her either if he were the woman. Dani was too sweet and prim. The residents of this rooming house were neither.
“You didn’t know Rose. You’re just trying to claim her things. That’s low down, if ya ask me,” the woman growled. She was missing three of her front teeth and two of her fingers, but she stared at Dani’s eyes like Dani was the odd one.
“We’d be glad to pay for them,” Malone chimed in. “It’s not an issue of money.”
“Oh yeah? How much?”
Malone handed her five dollars.
“Well, when you put it like that, I’m a little more willing to take a look. I think Mr. Morgan put her things in a box in the basement.” She put Malone’s fiver in the pocket of her skirt. “It’s down three flights of stairs, though. You’ll have to go with me. I’m not lugging it back up. If there’s something there, you can have it all. Nobody else wants it. Rose’s clothes are too small for me.”
Malone tossed a fleeting look at his car and considered making Dani wait for him there. He decided she was safer with him and took her hand before following the woman into the bowels of the building. He didn’t think they would get jumped. Swindled? Yes. But not jumped. And as Dani had so aptly put it, his holster was not empty.
The basement was littered with the detritus of years. No one dared get rid of anything anymore. Scarcity did that. A pile of junk felt like a pile of possessions, and possessions felt like safety.
The woman knew exactly what she had.
“Here ya go. That’s everything.” She pushed two boxes toward them, one large and one small, and both labeled Rose Wallace.
He opened them, unwilling to lug them up the stairs if there was nothing they could use. The woman snorted like he was challenging her integrity.
In one box was a frying pan, a teapot, and assorted dishes. That one wouldn’t do them any good. He shoved it aside and opened the next one. The second box was half-empty. It contained a lipstick and hair pins, a straw hat, and an empty perfume bottle. The only items of clothing, besides the hat, were a hair scarf, a single silk nylon, and a threadbare nightgown that was probably pink at one time but had been washed into beige. It was something, but not much. Malone closed the small box and hoisted it onto his shoulder.
“We’ll take this one,” he said. “Someone else might be able to use the dishes, seeing as Rose isn’t coming back.”
The woman pulled out the frying pan and tested its weight.
“Is there a chance we might see the room she occupied?” Dani chirped up. Malone knew she was angling to feel up the drapes.
The woman looked at Dani like she’d just asked if she could have a nap in her bed.
“No, you may not. I have a boarder in that room now. And why in the world would you need to go in her room? Are you one of those ghost hunters? Because I’ll have none of that.”
“Thank you very much for the box,” Malone interrupted. He handed the woman another dollar for her trouble. She made the sign of the cross and shot another dirty look at Dani and ushered them up the stairs with her new pan.
“We don’t need to do this right here,” Malone said when they were back in the car. “But we might as well see if these things were really hers at all.”
Malone handed Dani the nightgown, and she balled it up in her hands and stilled, the way he’d almost become accustomed to. A moment later, her cheeks grew flushed.
“What?” Malone grunted. “You’re blushing.”
“It’s hers.”
“How do you know?”
“She must have worn it near her last day. It hasn’t been laundered.” She paused. “She likes how Willie calls her Roses. Not Rose, but Roses, like she is a whole bouquet.”
“All right. That’s good.” But that didn’t explain Dani’s warm cheeks and glassy eyes.
Her voice dropped, almost like she was hearing Rose Wallace in her head. Even the cadence of her words sounded like someone else.
“He makes better love than any man she’s ever been with, and he only has one arm. He makes her feel good. If she could make love all the time, she would. It’s after the loving that Willie gets mean. Never during and never before.”
Malone took the nightgown from her hands and put it back in the box. Her eyes cleared slightly, and she frowned.
“What?” she asked him. “Isn’t this helpful?”
“Let’s go,” he said, terse, and closed the box. She would have to tell him more about the nightgown, but he didn’t think he could listen to her talk about “making love all the time” in that breathy voice without losing his mind. Dani would have to see what else remained in the fibers of the cloth later. Without him.