Murder In Chelsea Part 30

Ozzie had finally bestirred himself, and he took his place by his wife's side. "Michael, I must ask you not to upset Gilda."

Hicks ignored him. "She seemed quite concerned about your progress in finding Miss Hardy's killer."

"I can't believe you'd lie about me. Ozzie, make him stop!"

Ozzie obviously had no idea how to go about such a thing. "Really, Michael," he said, gesturing helplessly.

Frank stared at Gilda Wilbanks, at her beautiful face and her perfect hair and her expensive clothes, and wondered if it was even possible.

"It had to be a woman," Sarah said, struggling to stand. Her mother helped her, and Maeve hurried to her other side. "Remember? At the boardinghouse. We thought it was Emma."

They had. They'd thought Anne Murphy would only have invited a female to her room at the boardinghouse, and that woman had to be Emma. But when a man killed Emma, they'd changed their minds. Could a woman have killed Anne and a man killed Emma?

"How did you manage to stab Anne Murphy without getting blood on you, Mrs. Wilbanks?" Frank asked.

Her eyes widened, then narrowed with loathing. "I'm the one who told you what was happening out there." She gestured to the window, where she'd been standing when Catherine had been taken.

Frank nodded slowly. "Yes, but too late for me to stop them. You waited until they'd gotten away before you said anything, didn't you?"

"Gilda," Lynne Hicks said, and the word held wonder and disgust.

"Ozzie, are you going to allow this lout to speak to me like that?" Gilda asked.

Ozzie looked confused, but he said, "Mr. Malloy, your behavior is appalling. You can't speak to a lady like that."

"I'm not speaking to a lady, and we know she had help, Wilbanks. A man killed Emma Hardy, and it wasn't Emma's lover."

"But you said it was," Ozzie said, even more confused. "You said her lover had killed her."

"Oh, Ozzie!" Gilda cried, clutching her hands against her heart the way the heroine in a play would do. "You shouldn't have! I know you hated her, but murder?"

Ozzie looked at her as if she'd lost her mind, then glanced at the rest of them, probably searching for a friend. He found none.

"Was Emma happy to see you, Mr. Wilbanks?" Frank asked, willing to play his part in Gilda's little drama. "Maybe not at first, but I'll bet you offered her money to go away and not bother your father anymore. She didn't really want to marry him anyway."

"I didn't . . . I never saw her," he said.

"What did you put in the whiskey? Laudanum, maybe, or something else. A druggist will come forward to tell us what you bought when he reads about you in the newspapers. He'll want to see his name mentioned, too. It will be good for business."

Ozzie's eyes were wild. "I never bought any drugs. I'd never do that. Lynne, tell them."

"I guess you were disappointed when Emma wouldn't drink the whiskey, though," Frank said, taking a step toward him and watching him recoil in terror. "It would've been so much easier if she was unconscious, but you still had to kill her, didn't you? Gilda told you that you did, and you didn't dare leave her alive. How else were you going to make sure she didn't marry your father?"

Ozzie shook his head frantically. "No, I didn't do any of that!"

"Yes, you did, because you'd do anything for your wife, and that's what she wanted. She didn't want to share your father's money with Emma and her child, and neither did you."

"No, I didn't. I mean, I didn't want him to marry her, but I didn't kill her. I couldn't do that to anyone. Lynne, tell him!"

"He's right," Lynne Hicks said.

Frank looked at her, expecting outrage and seeing only disappointment.

She sighed. "I know you think I'm just defending him because he's my brother, but that's not true. I'm telling you he didn't kill that woman because he's too much of a coward to kill anyone. I told you that before, and you didn't believe me, but now you can see for yourself. He's not the one she sent to kill Emma Hardy."

"No, he's not," Sarah said. "She sent Terrance Udall."

Hicks and his wife gasped, and Gilda pretended to.

"Terrance knows nothing about this," Gilda said.

"He knows everything about this," Mrs. Decker said helpfully. "Don't you remember? He was here when we visited with you."

Gilda sent her a murderous glare, which lasted only until Frank grabbed her arm in a bruising grip. "Where is he? Where has he taken her?"

Most women of her cla.s.s would have been terrified of him, but she simply lifted her chin and glared. "Take your hands off me!"

"Let her go!" Ozzie shrieked.

Frank shook her instead, shocking the arrogance out of her. "Tell me or I'll beat it out of you."

"I'll help you," Sarah said.

That made Gilda smile. "Go ahead and try. I'll tell you nothing."

Lynne Hicks made an impatient sound. "As much as I'd like to see you beat her, I know where he lives. I always wondered why he'd moved out of his parents' home and taken a flat, and now I understand. It's so you'd have a place to meet him, isn't it, Gilda?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Frank shoved her away from him, afraid he might snap her neck if he held on to her another moment. "Where does he live?"

Lynne gave him the address.

"He might not be there," Hicks said. "I'll go with you, and if he's not there, we can go to his family. They might know something."

Frank could only nod, grateful for his help. He went to Sarah. Her eyes were clear now, and in spite of her terror, he saw the hope she had in him. "I'll find her."

She could only nod. They both knew he might not find her alive.

"Mr. Malloy, I'll take Sarah back to our house to wait for you," Mrs. Decker said.

"And I'll wait here with Father," Lynne Hicks told her husband. "We don't want to leave him here unprotected," she added with a meaningful glance at Gilda, who simply turned her back.

Ozzie tried to comfort her, but she shook him off and stalked back to the window.

Fear and rage welled in Frank as he left the room with Hicks in his wake. He wanted nothing more than to run all the way to Udall's flat, but Hicks stopped him when they reached the front door.

"I didn't want to say anything in front of the ladies, but I don't think we'll find him at his flat."

"I know," Frank said. "But we've got to start somewhere."

"He couldn't have done this alone."

"No, he probably hired someone. That's easy enough to do if you know the right people. Do you have any idea who it could have been?"

"Yes, I do."

Frank gaped, but only for an instant. "Who?"

"He's a client of mine. He, well, as soon as Mrs. Brandt said Terrance's name, I remembered how friendly he'd been with Klink. And if I wanted to hire some kidnappers, I'd go to him myself."

Frank decided not to tell Hicks his opinion of attorneys who did business with people like this Klink. "Then take me to him."

Frank had kept a half-dozen officers with him in case he needed help. He sent two of them to Terrance Udall's flat, just in case. He and Hicks took two more and headed downtown to visit the mysterious Mr. Klink.

14.

"MRS. HICKS, WOULD YOU RING FOR THE MAID? I'D LIKE to see if our coachman is recovered enough to take us home," Sarah's mother asked.

Sarah couldn't seem to tear her gaze from Gilda Wilbanks. She stood ramrod straight with her back to them, feigning interest in something out in the street. She'd been standing like that the whole time Wilbanks had been visiting with Catherine. Had she somehow signaled the kidnappers? Of course she had. She'd planned everything.

"Shouldn't someone tell Mr. Decker about this Udall character?" Maeve asked.

"Yes," Sarah said, tearing her attention away from Gilda. "The newspapers need to say we're searching for him as well."

"That's ridiculous!" Gilda said. "You'll ruin him with your innuendos!"

"Good," Lynne Hicks said. "Should I send one of the servants?"

"I'll go," Maeve said. "I need to do something, and a servant might not be able to get to him."

"Oh, Maeve." Sarah reached out and embraced her, hugging her fiercely. "Be careful."

"We'll find her, Mrs. Brandt," she said, but it sounded more like a prayer than a promise.

IT'S EARLY, BUT I THINK WE'RE MOST LIKELY TO FIND Klink at his saloon," Hicks said as they hurried down Avenue B in the heart of the German neighborhood known as Kleindeutschland. "As far as I know officially, you understand, Klink is a respectable businessman, but one hears rumors."

"I don't come to this part of the city much," Frank said, "which means there's not a lot of violence here."

"That's because men like Klink keep it out."

Even though the winter sun hadn't set yet, the bar was already crowded with workingmen enjoying a beer after their half day of work. They wouldn't be drunk enough to be rowdy for a while, though, and they showed only the usual interest in the well-dressed attorney and his companion that strangers would elicit in any neighborhood bar. Frank had left the two uniformed patrolmen out in the street. No sense alarming anyone unnecessarily.

Hicks went straight to the bartender and asked for Klink. The bartender, a portly man in a stained ap.r.o.n, looked Frank over with a disapproving frown, then disappeared into the back. When he returned, he led them down a short hallway and into a cramped office, where a wily German fellow sat behind a cluttered desk. He didn't stand up.

"Hicks, what are you doing here, and why have you brought a cop to my saloon?"

Hicks glanced at Frank in surprise. "How did you-"

"They always know," Frank said. "I'm not here to cause you any trouble, Klink. We need your help."

"I don't help the police."

"Not the police," Hicks said. "My family. My . . . niece has been kidnapped."

"She's four years old," Frank said.

This seemed to disturb Klink, but he said, "I don't know anything about this."

"Terrance Udall came to you for help," Hicks said. "I don't know what fairy tale he told you, but it was a lie."

Klink smiled grimly. "If you don't know what he told me, how do you know it was a lie?"

"Did he tell you he was going to murder the child?" Frank asked, glad to see Klink's shock. "Because he is. She's all that stands between him and inheriting a fortune." It wasn't quite true, but near enough, and it had the desired effect.

"Hicks, is this true?"

"He plans to kill her, yes," Hicks said. "He already killed her mother."

"What do you know about it and where can we find Udall?" Frank asked.

Klink rose and pushed past them to open the door. He hollered for w.i.l.l.y, and the bartender came running. Klink whispered something to him, and the man hurried off. Klink closed the door.

"He came to me," he said, going back to his seat behind the desk. "Udall. He said you had a client who needed help. A woman. Her husband had thrown her out and taken her child. He was going to help her get the girl back. No one would be hurt, he said. I don't kill children, Mr. Hicks. You did not need to bring the police."

"Mr. Malloy is here as a friend of the family and because he can call upon the resources of the police department to find Catherine."

They stared at each other for long moments, mistrustful and suspicious, waiting for whatever Klink was waiting for. Frank needed every ounce of his limited self-control to keep from diving across that desk and choking the information he needed out of Klink. The only thing stopping him was the certainty that Klink did not yet have that information.

Finally, someone tapped on the office door, and Klink said, "Come."

The door opened to reveal a nondescript little man with a ferret face wearing workingman's clothes. He hesitated when he saw the two strangers glaring at him.

"Come in, Erich, and close the door," Klink said.

He did, never taking his eyes off Frank.

"Tell them what you did today," Klink said.

"This one's a copper," he protested.