“All right, Miss Edna. My mistake.”
He was gone before she could change her mind.
53
AT LAST MINNIE was transported back to the Hackensack jail for her court proceedings. She felt freer behind those steel bars than she ever had at the reformatory. Here was her chance.
Constance did what she could to tidy Minnie’s hair. The girl had nothing to wear but the plain jail uniform issued to all the inmates, but Constance had smuggled in a fresh shirtwaist and tried to make sure Minnie looked scrubbed and wholesome.
“Just be respectful,” Constance whispered. “Take a minute to think before you answer whatever questions they put to you. And don’t try to talk to Tony. Don’t even look over at him.”
Minnie nodded, wanting very much to seem agreeable to anything Constance asked of her.
“Your landlord won’t be testifying against you. As far as I know, they haven’t a single witness who can claim to have seen men going in and out of the place. But, Minnie, if you lie . . . it puts me in a terrible position if you lie. You understand that, don’t you?”
Minnie saw her opportunity, and took it. “All of this puts you in a terrible position, doesn’t it, Miss Kopp?”
Constance sat back and stared at her. “What do you mean by that?”
Minnie swallowed hard. She’d practiced these lines. “Only that . . . well, surely you didn’t become a lady deputy just to see girls like me put away. I’m not a criminal, am I?”
Constance leaned over and looked through the bars of Minnie’s cell to make sure no one was within earshot. “You have to admit that you put yourself into this situation,” she whispered. “And I’m not the judge. But you know I’d do more for you if I could.”
Minnie took Constance’s hands. “Oh, but, Miss Kopp, you can! Just put me with one of the other girls you’ve helped. Someone who’s in a better situation than me, and might look out for me. And then someday I could do the same for some other unfortunate girl. Don’t you see? At the reformatory they told me about a lady officer who did something like that out West. Couldn’t you try it here?”
Minnie’s hands were so cold that Constance wrapped hers around them instinctively. “I don’t know who told you that,” Constance said, “but I don’t have an army of girls out there waiting to take someone in.”
The gate to the fifth floor opened and a guard’s footsteps approached. “But you don’t need an army!” Minnie whispered. “Just one.”
“Sheriff wants the inmate over at the courthouse,” the guard called out. Constance gave her one more worried look and led her out of her cell.
THEY FOUND SHERIFF HEATH waiting for them outside the courtroom. He was a man who worked very hard not to let his expression betray him, but Constance could tell that something had gone wrong.
He looked over at Minnie. He hated to say anything in front of an inmate, but there was no choice. “They’ve released Mr. Leo.”
“Released him!” Minnie squealed. “Then he’s free, and so am I.”
“I’m afraid not,” the sheriff said. “The prosecutor dropped the charges against Mr. Leo for lack of evidence. The baker refused to testify.”
At least Constance had done something right. “What about the false marriage license?” she asked.
“That’s only a fine, and his parents paid it.” Sheriff Heath looked a little pained. “Detective Courter had enough doubts about Mr. Leo that he thought it best to drop those charges and focus his efforts on . . . on Miss Davis.”
Minnie watched the two of them, puzzled. “But—if there’s no evidence, they’re going to let me go, too.”
“Miss Davis, the prosecutor has recommended that you be sentenced to the reformatory until you’re twenty-one.” The sheriff would never tell an inmate that he was sorry about a sentence imposed, but his voice was full of regret.
“Where were we when all this happened?” Constance demanded.
“Apparently Mr. Courter met privately with the judge about dropping the charges.”
The door to the courtroom opened and a bailiff looked out at them. “It’s our turn,” Sheriff Heath said.
Constance marched in furiously, dragging Minnie behind her. She practically shoved the girl into a chair. Detective Courter was already there, with another man from the prosecutor’s office, and the judge was seated.
She was too impatient to sit through any preliminaries. “Your Honor, it has come to my attention?—”
“Miss Kopp!” said the judge, obviously pleased to see her. “I have on my desk your report about Miss Edna Heustis. I could not be more pleased to see that she has continued to lead an upright life as you assured me she would. I’d like to see more cases like that. I even took the report home to show Mrs. Seufert, who thought it a fine piece of writing and an instructive tale. She’s going to read it to the ladies at her club—without the names, of course, but only to show what can be done along these lines if we put some effort into it—and she’d like to have you over for dinner. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you about the wonders Mrs. Seufert can work upon a roast duck, but you’re to find out for yourself, at your earliest convenience.”
Constance’s anger was considerably deflated by the prospect of Mrs. Seufert’s roast duck. Surely if the judge was feeling this friendly toward her, he might be willing to make a favorable ruling for Minnie Davis.
“Thank you, Your Honor. I’d be delighted.” She risked a glance over at Detective Courter, who, she assumed, had never been invited to one of Mrs. Seufert’s dinners. “Miss Heustis is as respectable and hard-working a young lady as you might hope to meet. We’ve done right by her.”
“I do admire that girl,” the judge said, a little fondly, as if speaking about a favorite granddaughter.
“If we can get to the business at hand,” Detective Courter said.
“Yes.” The judge shuffled the papers on his desk. Constance turned around to look at Minnie, who was pale and frightened and fidgeting with the lace at her wrist. It was a moment for desperate ideas, and Constance groped for one.
“Now, didn’t I send this girl to the state home already?” the judge asked.
“That was only a transfer of custody until the trial,” Detective Courter said. “Your Honor, Minnie Davis was found in a furnished room with Mr. Anthony Leo, posing as his wife although the two had no intention of marrying. Other men were seen coming in and out of the place. Although she is only sixteen, Miss Davis is already morally compromised and would be best served by a sentence of five years at the girls’ reformatory.” He passed a paper to the judge and put a folder under his arm as if the matter was concluded.
“Sit back down, John,” the judge said. “I’d like to hear what Miss Kopp has to say, and I want to hear from the girl herself.”
“But isn’t it customary for the sheriff’s office to be removed from matters such as?—”