Oh Danny Boy (Molly Murphy Mysteries, #5)

“But you just said they caught you accepting a bribe.”


“I thought I was meeting a gang member to be given a list of names of underworld figures who might be interested in sponsoring this prizefight. But when the police opened the envelope, there were five twenty-dollar bills in it, as well as the names of known gangsters. So I can’t blame them for thinking it was a payoff.”

“You may be innocent of accepting a bribe, but you’ve just told me that you were setting up an illegal prizefight with the help of a gang. That doesn’t sound so innocent to me.”

“A prizefight, Molly—what’s wrong with that?”

“It’s illegal, apparently.”

“Good harmless fun. Every man in the world enjoys a boxing match. The city was shortsighted to ban them. If it takes place, I’ll wager half the aldermen and high-ranking police officers will be there in attendance, probably including Mr. Partridge.”

I digested this, then continued, “So what about the money in the envelope? You must have some idea who put it there. Was it supposed to be a bribe?”

Daniel shrugged. “I’ve no idea. I’ve had a lot of time for thought these past few days and I’ve come to the conclusion that the whole thing was set up. Why else would the police commissioner just happen to be in the right place, at the right time, to witness me accepting money from a gang member? Why else would they go immediately to search my rooms for more incriminating evidence? They haven’t shown me exactly what they found in my rooms, but that could have been planted, too.”

“Who would want to defame you?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Again, I’ve no idea, unless it’s Commissioner Partridge himself.”

“Why would he want to do that?”

Daniel shrugged. “Maybe he plans to get rid of Irish officers one by one, starting at the top. All I know is that my so-called friends have dropped me like a hot potato. They’re all scared they’ll be next, you see.”

“I still don’t know why you called on me, Daniel,” I said. “Don’t you have all kinds of friends in high places? Your father knows everybody, and they all respect him. And what about your fiancée’s family? They’re part of the famous Four Hundred, aren’t they?”

He looked away. “That’s the trouble. I can’t let my father know anything about this. The doctors have told him that he has a bad heart and the shock might kill him. I can’t take that risk. And as for Arabella—” He looked up suddenly. “Miss Norton and I broke off our engagement.”

“You did?” I tried not to sound too interested.

He nodded. “Right after you disappeared from the Flynn place.”

“But I heard you,” I said. “When she asked about me, you told her she was making a fuss over nothing. You said I was nothing to you.”

“I didn’t exactly say that,” he said quickly. “And if I did, I didn’t mean it. I had to appease her at that moment, Molly. Surely you realize that. I couldn’t have told her the truth in front of all those people. It would have mortified her.”

“And me? Did you think of how I felt?”

“Molly, the last thing you’d have wanted is for Arabella to make a scene. She’s used to having her own way, you know. And she’d never forgive me for humiliating her in public.”

“There you are!” I shouted suddenly, loudly enough that the words echoed back from those peeling brick walls and stone floor. “That’s it. If you’ve really broken off your engagement, you have your answer.”

“To what?”

“To what? The man’s as thick as a plank. You said the whole thing was set up to disgrace you. Well, there you’ve got it. Arabella didn’t like the idea of being made a fool of and being betrayed by you, so she’s paying you back.”

“Oh, come now. Surely not…”

“You told me once before that she’d ruin you if you ran out on her. Well, now she has.”

He shook his head violently. “I can’t believe that of her. She actually took my request to break off our understanding pretty well, considering. She said she’d suspected for some time that my heart wasn’t fully committed to her. Then she did go on to say that if my taste in women didn’t aspire any higher than you, then you and I were welcome to each other.” For a second I saw the flicker of the old Daniel in his impish grin.

“Then her family wants to punish you for upsetting their precious darling.”

He shook his head again. “I think they’d be relieved. They’d hoped for someone with more money and status than me. They are civilized people, Molly. If they’d wanted to pay me back, they could have brought a breach of promise suit against me and attempted to punish me through the courts. I simply cannot believe that they would go to all this trouble to get me thrown in jail. And how would they have contacts with the underworld?”