Tell Me, Pretty Maiden (Molly Murphy Mysteries, #7)

Harry frowned, considering this. “I can only think that when he got here something gave him the idea. Perhaps he found the front door unlocked and let himself in. Perhaps an object caught his eye. A piece of silver maybe. He was short of cash. He thought why not? And then he decided to go the whole hog and raid our silver collection. He knew it to be a valuable one because my father had shown it to him.”


“Was it likely that Mr. Halsted would be short of money?” Daniel asked. “I understood that his family was most indulgent to him. I also understood that he did not possess any kind of firearm.”

Harry shook his head violently. “I don’t know. I just don’t know. I’ve been going out of my mind trying to make sense of the whole thing. Halsted was a good friend and I would have said a trusted friend. It simply wasn’t like him to behave in this despicable way. But then maybe he had taken something that altered his personality.”

“Taken something?” Daniel asked quickly. “Drugs, you mean? Halsted took drugs?”

“Not on a regular basis. Good God no. But he did like to experiment and try new things. I know he had tried cocaine and opium before now, because he told me. If there was some drug that can completely alter the personality, then maybe that is the answer.”

“I know of no such drug,” Daniel said. “I know of drugs that will give a person courage and maybe cause the lines between right and wrong to blur, but nothing that will change the true nature—in spite of what that writer Robert Stevenson would have us believe with his Jekyll and Hyde.”

“Then I don’t know what else to say,” Harry said. “We understand from the police that this has not been the only robbery around here. Just that very day an attempt had been made to rob a bank in New Haven and it has been suggested that the same person carried out all of these foul acts because a bank employee was shot and the bullet was identical.”

“And do you think that could have been your friend?”

Harry shrugged. “He loved excitement. You heard about the time he won a bet to walk across the library roof? He took great risks when he was riding and he drove and rode like the devil. So who is to say that he didn’t feed his craving with daring acts of robbery?”

“But violence? His aunt describes him as a gentle boy.”

Harry thought for a minute, then nodded. “I should not have believed it possible that he is a cold-blooded killer. But there seems no other logical explanation.”

“We hope to get to the truth, Mr. Silverton,” Daniel said. He put a hand on my shoulder.

“Mr. Silverton,” I said. “You said it was a dark night. Could you swear that the vehicle you saw driving away that night belonged to Mr. Halsted?”

“I didn’t see the driver but the automobile certainly looked exactly like the one Halsted had proudly shown me only a week or so earlier. And it’s not even in general production yet. I’d swear to that in court. And they found our silver mustard pot under the seat, remember. How the devil did that get there if he wasn’t to blame?”

We stared at each other for a while, then I sighed. “We are going to get to the bottom of this, I promise you. We’re going to find JJ Halsted and learn the truth.”

“Then I wish you luck,” he said. “Nothing would please me more than to find my friend not guilty of this awful crime, but I fear I am already convinced there is no other explanation.”

He led us toward the front door and watched as we went down the front steps. The cabby was waiting for us out in the street and it had started to snow.





TWENTY-FOUR

The snow held off until we had reached the station, but as the train pulled out on its journey back to New York it started to fall in earnest, the white flakes swirling around the train windows.

“I hope we’re not trapped in a blizzard,” I said, peering out into the grayness.

“We should be back before enough snow can pile up to stop trains from running,” Daniel said shortly.

He had hardly said a word all the way back from the Silver-ton house. I had decided he must be considering various possibilities in the case but now I looked up at him with concern.

“Daniel, is something upsetting you?” I asked. “Something I’ve said or done?”

He sighed then blurted out, “Molly, you must stop introducing me as Captain Sullivan. It’s not right and it’s deceptive.”

“But you are Captain Sullivan.”

“Not at the moment.”

“You know it’s only a matter of time before you are reinstated. You’ve done nothing wrong, for heaven’s sake.”

“I set up an illegal prize fight.”

“That half the police force attended.”

“Nevertheless, if anyone wanted to find an excuse to get rid of me, it was still illegal.”

“Why would anyone want to get rid of you? Your colleagues all think highly of you. It will all be sorted out soon.”

“I hope so,” he said. “And until I am reinstated, I am not Captain Sullivan.”