“When it suits her,” Katherine said. “So will you tell my father?”
“Your father is my client,” I said. “I shall have to write and tell him that I’ve found you, safe and sound. What you do after that is up to you, although I beg you to write to them yourself and ask for their forgiveness.”
“It sounds to me that the marriage wasn’t legal,” Jacob said. “And if you’re underage, they could demand that you come back to them.”
“Then I shall go somewhere where they can’t find me until I turn twenty-one. I shall be quite a rich woman then.”
“How will you manage until then?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I can’t think about that now. My concern at this moment is that Michael doesn’t find me. I know he’s been looking for me.”
“He still loves you then?” Gus asked.
“I doubt if he ever loved me. He wants me with him for his own protection. I am a bartering tool—not much more.”
“You should tell the police what you know about Michael,” Jacob said.
“Turn in my own husband, you mean?” She shook her head. “I can’t do that. However he has behaved toward me, I really loved him. I believed him when he said he loved me. I was carrying his child. I can’t betray him now.”
“Even if he wants to hurt you?” I demanded.
She shook her head. “I’m sure he doesn’t mean me harm. He’s just frightened at the moment. He doesn’t know where to go. He doesn’t know whether he can trust me or not.” She grabbed at my arm suddenly. “You won’t tell the police about him, promise me that. Not until I’ve decided what I must do next.”
“All right,” I said. “We will say nothing until you’ve made up your own mind. But he killed somebody, Katherine. He killed a good woman. You can’t expect us to sit by and do nothing. You know in your heart that you have to tell them.”
Katherine sighed. “I know. I’m so confused and so frightened—I don’t know what I feel anymore. But I did love him once.”
“But you are afraid for your life. You can’t go on living this way,” Jacob said angrily. “The man must be brought to justice.”
“The man is a brute. You were quite right to leave him,” Sid said.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be safe here. He’ll never be able to find you. Our lips are sealed,” Gus added.
“Thank heavens for that. Now we can all relax,” Jacob said.
It turned out he wasn’t one hundred percent right.
An hour or so later we were bathed, changed, and restored. Sid and Gus insisted on feeding us. After a large filling meal of roast beef, cabbage, and potatoes (the Moroccan phase having begun to wane), Jacob took his leave reluctantly.
“You’re sure you will be all right now?”
“You’ve said that a dozen times. How could I possibly not be all right? I am among friends and my own home is across the street, complete with large male bodyguard. Nobody would think of looking for Katherine here. We will sleep soundly tonight, believe me.”
He went then. I crossed the street to my own house and returned with pen and paper.
“I am writing to your father, Katherine,” I said. “I will limit my news to telling him that I have found you safe and sound if you will complete the letter yourself.”
She chewed on her lip. “But he’ll come after me as soon as he gets the letter.”
“Then tell him not to.”
“You don’t know my father. He was used to ordering men around in the army for most of his life. He expects everyone else to salute and obey—wife and daughter included.”
“Tell him that you have left Michael Kelly and it appears that your marriage might not be legal—that will make him happy. Then tell him that you are not ready to come home yet, but will keep in touch from now on. He can’t ask for more.”
Still she hesitated.
“Katherine, if it were your child and you were desperately worried about her, wouldn’t you want to get a message from her, saying that she was safe?”
She nodded and sat at the table. She blotted and folded the letter before I could read it and thrust it into an envelope.
“That’s done then,” she said.
She put her hand instinctively to her throat.
“You used to wear a locket,” I said.
She nodded. “My grandmother’s.”
“What happened to it? How did Mr. Mostel get his hands on it?”
“We needed money. Michael told me to pawn it. I asked Mr. Mostel if I could pawn it to him. He gave me twenty dollars for it. Not nearly enough but it kept us going. Michael drank most of the money away, of course. I wonder if it was still in Mostel’s office and it burned in the fire.”
“No, it’s safe,” I said, “and I may be able to get it back for you.”
Her face lit up. “Really?”
“I can’t promise anything, but I’ll try.”
She jumped up and hugged me. “Molly, you are a miracle worker.”