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ELISE, SOAKING HER hand, was still angry enough to spit, but she was also deeply apprehensive. Bullies did not stand down so easily, especially not when they had been bested by a girl. Walking home from the New Amsterdam might not be the best idea. Not for herself or Anna. She wondered why Anna had not sent for the police, if there was something unspoken that stopped her.
After a while she dried her hand, flexing each finger and making a fist. No serious damage, but then punching Campbell’s middle had been like burying her fist in half-risen bread dough. She thought for a long moment, and then went to find pen and paper.
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JACK HAD COME to the conclusion that the one advantage to working the night shift was Mrs. Cabot’s determination to feed him to bursting when he got up in the early afternoon. Today he was served a spicy beef hash along with a wedge of onion pie, a dish of preserved green peas dressed with mint and cream, and a bowl of banana pudding.
When he protested she poured him more coffee and put another slice of onion pie on his plate. Then she went off to answer a knock at the door and came back with a note.
Dear Detective Sergeant Mezzanotte,
I write to say that this morning a man called Archer Campbell came to the hospital and spoke very rudely to Dr. Savard in the hall outside her office. Very rudely. Because I feared for her safety I stepped in and delivered a shovel hook as taught to me by my brothers. I intended this for his liver, but it landed on his diaphragm instead. He was not seriously hurt, but he may swear out a complaint against me. More disturbing, I fear he may also seek revenge toward Dr. Savard or me or both of us, and thus this note.
To be clear, I didn’t hear the conversation between them and I don’t know what it was he wanted, but he wanted it very badly.
Yours sincerely,
Elise Mercier
His first stop was the New Amsterdam, where he found Joshua Abernathy behind the porter’s desk.
“Dr. Savard didn’t want us to call in the police,” he told Jack. “I would have done it anyway, but I figured you’d be along.”
He didn’t have much to report beyond the fact that Campbell had snuck in while the porters’ shift was changing, at about six. “I didn’t see him come in, but I made sure to see him out.” The surly expression gave way to a wide smile. “He was still coughing and wheezing. I hear Nurse Mercier walloped him proper, right in the breadbasket.”
“She sent me a note, worried about Campbell hanging around looking for a chance to get his own back.”
“Same thought occurred to me,” said the porter. “If you hadn’t shown your face by four, I would have sent a note on my own.”
“Has he been hanging around?”
“Not that I could see. But there’s no shortage of dark corners to hide in, if he’s determined.”
And that was the question. Jack could imagine Campbell desperate and foolish enough to do about anything.
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FROM THE NEW Amsterdam he went straight to Oscar’s boardinghouse on Grove Street. It was a big, comfortable, and orderly house where troublemakers didn’t last a week, because Oscar saw to it. For his help the landlady gave him use of the parlor, where Jack found him with a newspaper and a cigar in a sea of smoke.
He sat down across from him and handed over Elise’s note.
“Oh ho.” Oscar put the paper down and read.
Jack said, “How close are you to sorting out the last of the bonds?”
Oscar had taken the bonds on as a project, converting them to cash at different banks, a few at a time, and sending the money to Little Compton by registered messenger. The scheme was both elaborate and fraught with pitfalls, but Oscar lived for that kind of challenge.
“Just three left,” he told Jack now. “Not too many or too few. Just right. I’m looking forward to this.”
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WHEN THEY SAT down to dinner at Aunt Quinlan’s table for the first time in almost a week, Anna was prepared to be asked a million questions about everything from Staten Island to Mrs. Cabot’s magical head-cold tea. Instead there was only one subject under discussion: the upcoming trip to Greenwood. The Mezzanotte family celebrated the twenty-fourth of June every year with a huge party, and the combined Quinlan and Savard households were invited to join them. Margaret had other plans she couldn’t change, but the other adults were almost as excited as the little girls to be getting out of the city.