“Let’s wait here,” Katherine said. “I’ll stand out in the middle of the street, where I can be seen and where I can see him coming. You wait in a doorway where he can’t see you.”
I nodded and moved across the street to a darkened doorway. Katherine walked boldly out into the street. I drew my cape around me to stop myself from shivering. The fog had muffled the sounds of Delancey Street so that they came as a distant murmur. It was amazing how remote and deserted it felt here, only a block away from all that life and gaiety.
Katherine walked up and down, stamping her feet against the chill. Then she stopped, her head cocked to one side, listening.
I stepped out from my doorway and heard it too.
“Help me. Somebody help me, please.” The little voice floated out of the fog above our heads.
I came out of my hiding place and stood beside Katherine, who was staring upward.
“It’s Bridie,” I whispered. “Where can she be?”
“Up there, somewhere.” Katherine pointed. “It sounds like it’s coming from the tower.”
“But how—?” I ran around it, peering up at the scaffolding. How could he have taken a small child up there? Then I saw it—a crude staircase made of wood going up between the scaffolding and the tower. It had a gate across it to keep people out but the lock had been forced and the gate flapped open.
“I’ll go up,” Katherine said. “If Michael’s up there, he’s expecting me.”
“If he’s left the child up there, she won’t come to you,” I said. “We’ll go together. Come on.”
We held hands and shrank together, taking those makeshift steps side by side. After one flight there was no more light coming up from the street, only an eerie orange glow coming from the city streets beyond. We felt our way up. Eight steps in one direction then eight in the other, back and forth zigzagging up the side of the tower. My legs started to tremble at the exertion. Would these steps never end?
I sensed rather than saw that we had come to an opening. Cold air rushed into my face and I felt nothingness on one side of me. My hand gripped at the cold metal of the scaffolding as wind swirled around me.
Then the voice came again—a small whimper of a terrified child. “Somebody get me down, please.”
“She’s out there,” I whispered to Katherine. But how could she be? I had seen for myself in daylight that there were only cables strung across the river. Then the fog swirled and through the mist I saw that a narrow walkway of planks, about a foot wide, was strung out from the tower, running beside the bottom cable—a fine path for the workmen, I’ve no doubt, but then they were used to the height. I could only see a few feet in front of me but I could make out the shape of a small person, out there on that path in the fog.
I didn’t stop to think. “It’s all right, darling. Molly’s here. I’m coming for you,” I called. I turned back to Katherine. “You stay here and keep watch. Let me know if you hear him coming.”
Then I took a deep breath and stepped out onto the catwalk. It bucked and swayed under my feet like a live thing and I clung onto the thin cables that ran beside it, waist high—the only means of support. The wire seemed as frail and ethereal as gossamer. Cold damp air rushed up from the invisible river. I peered into the gloom, trying to make out the bigger shape of a man, but Bridie appeared to be quite alone. Had he lost his nerve and abandoned her then?
“Molly,” she whimpered. “I’m frightened. I can’t move. The man said he’d be back, but he hasn’t come.”
“It’s going to be just fine, my darling,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm and even. “I’ll get you down and we’ll go home.”
Inch by inch I moved closer to her. She was standing sideways, clinging onto that support cable with both hands. I reached her and let go with one hand to put my arm around her and give her a kiss. “See, it’s really me and you’re safe now,” I said. “Now all we have to do is move back slowly toward the tower then we can go home.”
“I can’t,” she whispered. “I can’t move.”
For a horrible moment I thought he might have tied her in some way, but then she added, “I’m scared I’ll fall.”
“You won’t fall. Look, we’ll take tiny steps, holding on, just like this. One foot. Two foot. Do it just like me.”
I started to move. I felt the walkway vibrate and sway again under my feet. I was so intent on watching her progress that I didn’t look up until Bridie screamed.
Michael Kelly was standing a few feet away between us and the tower. His arm was around Katherine’s neck and one big hand was over her mouth.
“There you are, Katherine,” he said pleasantly. “What did I tell you? They were as easy to trap as the rats on your father’s estate, weren’t they now?”
Katherine struggled as he shoved her forward. “I couldn’t believe that my own wife would turn traitor on me. What sort of wife is that? You promised to love, honor, and obey.”