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

“How was your beau last night?” I asked.

She looked at me as if I were a worm that dared to address her. “It’s none of your business,” she said. “But let’s just say that he wasn’t my cup of tea, and when it came down to it, he was downright stingy with the money he put out.” She turned to Connie. “And he had some funny ideas,” she muttered, thinking I wouldn’t overhear. “Lucky for me I got a whiff of what he wanted to do before we left the restaurant. So I played the distressed virgin. Great tears trickling down my cheeks. Imploring the saints. That always works. He took me home.”

“What did he want to do?” Connie asked.

Lily whispered something into her ear. Connie went bright red. “He never did?” she demanded. “The louse.”

I came out of the theater into the throng in the alleyway. Mr. Roth was there again. I wondered if, in the interests of good investigation, I should go with him myself tonight, but I reasoned that I didn’t have Lily’s skills in making a getaway at the right moment.





THIRTY-ONE

I opened my eyes to the smell of freshly brewing coffee again, lay contentedly for a moment, then wondered why I had such butterflies in my stomach. I had already made it through my first two nights onstage. It wasn’t Christmas. But something big was about to happen. Then I remembered and sat upright. This morning I was to meet Annie’s betrothed, and by tonight she could be safely among those who could take care of her.

I came down to a breakfast laid on the kitchen table, and a tray ready for our girl upstairs. It struck me that having Mrs. Tucker to stay overnight again had not been such a bad idea.

“Well, here we are then,” she said. “Maybe the last meal I shall make for the poor, dear soul.”

“I am very grateful, Mrs. Tucker,” I said. “I believe you’ve made all the difference to her.”

“I’ve done my best,” she said, looking pleased. “I think I was born to be a nurse, you know. If I hadn’t married Mr. Tucker, I’d have maybe gone into nursing. And how was I to know that the louse would go and die at forty, when it was too late for me to take up a useful profession?”

She picked up the tray. “I’ll just take this up to her. The doctor should be here soon. Between you and me I don’t think he’s doing a darned thing to help the young thing. Just makes her cry most days and then tells us he’s making progress.”

Up the stairs she went like a ship in full sail. I sat down and helped myself to the oatmeal and toast she had prepared. I had just finished when Dr. Birnbaum arrived.

“A momentous day, wouldn’t you say, Miss Murphy? I just wish I could be here to see the young lady handed into the care of her loved ones.”

“You can’t stay?”

“Unfortunately, I am to address the New York medical society at a luncheon today. I have to be there by eleven thirty and I must go over my speech before that. It is a very important occasion for me. There are many doctors who still resist the thought that the mind is something that can be treated by scientific methods, that dreams are mirrors into the world of the subconscious.”

“Then I wish you luck,” I said, “although I also wish you could be here to help me decide.”

“Decide what?”

“Whether to let the girl go with this Laslo person.”

“My dear, if he brings proof that he is her family, then you have no choice but to release her to him. It’s not up to you to judge.”

“I suppose not.” I sighed. “I’ve come to feel so responsible for her.”

“I’m sure it will all turn out magnificently. Maybe one sight of the young man who is her betrothed and her memory will return instantly. I’ve seen that happen before, you know—patients coming out of comas at the sound of a beloved voice.”

“At least being Hungarian explains one thing—why she doesn’t understand us. Hungarian is a strange and difficult language, not related to any other. She must have thought we were beings from another world, jabbering at her. No wonder she was so afraid and unwilling to trust us.”

I nodded. “That certainly does explain things.”

“And now I must hurry up and see my patient. Would you please leave the gentleman my card and tell him that I will be happy to continue working with the girl if they wish, at her new address.”

“You’re very kind.”

“On the contrary. She presents me with my biggest challenge to date. I would love to return home to Dr. Freud with such a case documented.”