Oh Danny Boy (8 page)

On the long walk back into town I tried to think charitably about Miss Norton. I knew how I would have reacted if I’d found that my fiancé was keeping company with another woman. And she was a proud person. She could not have enjoyed having to admit that her engagement had ended in failure or having to endure the whispers and pitying glances. A strong motive for wanting to punish Daniel; and yet I had to think that her reaction when I gave her the news was genuine. I had startled her, I was sure. After a life of raising four young brothers, I had become good at knowing when someone was covering up the truth.

But of course that didn’t mean that no member of her family was involved in orchestrating Daniel’s downfall. Perhaps a doting parent or uncle had taken the law into his own hands to teach Daniel a lesson. I couldn’t think how I was going to find that out.

All that way for nothing. By the time I stumbled back into White Plains in the full heat of the afternoon, I was so hot and exhausted that I was almost in tears. After I had for
tified myself with a glass of iced tea and a ham roll I felt a little better and made my way to the station to catch the train back to the city. The carriage was full. I sat in one of the few remaining seats and we lurched out of the station. It was fiendishly hot and the air that blew in through the half-open window was like a blast from an oven. No sooner had we left the station than the man opposite me took out a large cigar and lit it, sending noxious smoke in my direction.

I began to feel queasy and closed my eyes as the carriage swayed to and fro. I had never been sick on a train before. I had even crossed the Atlantic in a gale and not succumbed to seasickness. But today the train seemed to be running on square wheels. We were tossed violently from side to side. At last I could stand it no longer. I fought my way down the carriage and out onto the little platform at the back. There I was horribly sick.

As I stood there, feeling clammy all over, a wave of fear passed through me. Had the typhoid epidemic caught up with me after all? Or was it just something I had eaten? I had been poisoned once this summer and had no wish to repeat that experience in a hurry. In the fresh air I began to recover. I wondered if the effects of arsenic poisoning ever lingered. It would be almost a month since—

The world stood still. Almost a month since I had returned from Adare, and during that time I had not been visited by the normal female curse. I wasn’t the most worldly or experienced of young women, but even on the remote West Coast of Ireland, I had heard enough whispered tales to know what that meant. The sickness and weakness and emotional state were all explained in horrible clarity. I stood staring out as the countryside rushed past me. I was, to use the vernacular, in the family way.

I managed to make it home somehow although my mind was in such a state of turmoil that I found it hard to walk or even breathe. I had only felt this way once in my life before, and that was when I had seen Justin Hartley lying dead at my feet and knew that I had to flee from Ireland or be hanged. That terrible feeling of suffocation, of doom, of no way out. Above all I was mortified by my own weakness and seething with anger that fate had dealt me such a cruel blow. One night, one reckless, imprudent occasion, when Daniel and I had been trapped together in a storm and now this—a life in ruins. For that was what it would surely be. Oh, to be sure, Sid and Gus would rally round and maybe even find me a place to hide out during a pregnancy, but in the end I’d be a woman with an illegitimate child that I had no way of supporting.

Daniel would have to marry me. The words came into my head, making me almost laugh at the bitter irony. Daniel was in no position to marry anybody at the moment. I didn’t even know that I wanted to marry him, if he were free. There was a big difference between wanting to marry and being forced to marry. And yet society had no tolerance for fallen women. Some of those prostitutes I had met during my night in a jail cell had probably started off as good girls whose lives went wrong in this way.

As I turned the key and opened my front door, the first thing I saw was a letter in Daniel’s bold, black script lying
on my doormat. The afternoon post had brought the answer to the note I had sent him yesterday. I tore it open.

I stood there with the letter in my hands, just staring at it. No hope. That pretty much summed it up. “Holy Mother of God,” I muttered, half exclamation and half prayer. My own mother had told me on numerous occasions that I’d come to a bad end. Well, it seemed now that she may have been right. I could just picture her sitting on that heavenly cloud, rubbing her hands and saying, “I told you so.” My father, too. He called me “fast and loose” once for walking home from a dance with a boy. My hand strayed down to my stomach. It was hard to believe that a baby might be growing in there.

A new and disturbing thought crept into my head: get rid of it. I had heard rumors of women who knew how to work that miracle, but also of girls who had died in the process. Did I want to take that chance? Sid and Gus were more worldly than I, and they had a large and varied acquaintanceship. They might know whom to ask. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I couldn’t tell Sid and Gus, at least not yet. Not until I had become used to the idea myself. And what about Daniel? I thought and felt myself flushing with embarrassment at the thought of facing him. Shouldn’t he know? Didn’t he have a right to know? In any case, I certainly couldn’t tell him at this moment. He already had enough worries on his plate.

So the plain truth was that I couldn’t tell anyone. It had to remain my secret.

Well, there was no point in standing here, drowning in self-pity. Daniel Sullivan would certainly be no use to me locked in a jail cell. The most sensible course of action right now would be to do what I had been asked and put my own worries on hold until it was done. Hopefully Jack Brady would have returned and read my note. He might even have positive news. I didn’t feel like going out again, but I had to do it. Better than being here alone and brooding, in any case.

I made myself a cup of tea and a piece of bread and jam, before setting off for Chelsea. Mrs. O’Shea was home, cooking her husband’s dinner. Smells of stew coming from the kitchen nearly had a disastrous effect on my stomach.

She hadn’t seen the gentleman all day, she said. And she’d been home most of the day. She had been making her sister a nourishing soup with calves’ feet and veal bones. The poor dear was fair worn-out, up all night with the new infant and then taking care of all those lively youngsters all day. She was planning to sleep over there tonight so that her sister could get some rest.

I took the key and fled up the stairs before the smell of that stewing meat made me lose the bread and jam I had just eaten. The apartment was untouched from this morning. Jack had not been back. I sat at Daniel’s table and tried to digest this fact. My one ally had gone. He might just be hiding out at a new address and would return to Daniel’s as soon as he was able. On the other hand, he might have gone for good. In any case, I couldn’t count on his help any longer. I sank my head into my arms and just sat there for a while. Jack Brady might not have been overly endowed with brains, but he had been willing and kind and large enough to be my protector if necessary. Now I had nobody. I had no idea what I was going to do next.

I stared hopelessly at the polished mahogany of Daniel’s desk while I tried to calm my racing thoughts. I was strong. I had always been strong. I could get through this somehow. Obviously the first thing to do was to find out what had hap
pened to Jack Brady. But that would mean going to the Eastmans, and I didn’t know whether I was brave enough to do that. If Jack had met a bad end by visiting Monk Eastman, then I’d be walking into a lion’s den. I needed all the details that Daniel could give me before I blundered into gangland. I took a piece of paper from his desk and wrote to him. “I need details if I’m to help you, Daniel,” I wrote. “Where and when this passing of the bribe took place. The name of the gang member who handed you the letter. Exactly how the scene transpired. Who was with the commissioner when you were arrested? Did he say anything that gave you any hint he had been summoned to witness your meeting with a gang member?”

Then I added, “Are there no fellow officers who were your friends and can still be trusted? I can’t believe that everyone on the force wishes this fate on you. I can’t do this on my own, Daniel.”

Then I put the letter in an envelope and sealed it. It was a strange sensation writing his name on the outside, and I felt those dratted tears well up in my eyes again.

I wrote another note for Jack, giving him my address and telling him how to find it. “Come and see me as soon as you read this,” I wrote. “I am most concerned about your safety.”

Then I propped it on the table where he couldn’t miss it. But I found that I couldn’t leave. He’ll be back later, I told myself. He’s waiting until it’s dark so that he’s not so conspicuous. I went into the kitchen and noted that Mrs. O’Shea had brought eggs, as well as a bowl of that broth she had made for her sister. I could stay and make Jack an omelet when he returned. Looking at the food made me feel peckish myself so I had some of that broth, plus a boiled egg and some bread cut into soldiers to go with it. It was strangely comforting to be sitting at the table, dipping fingers of bread into egg yolk, as if I was a small child again.

But I finished the egg, washed up, and still he didn’t come. Daylight started to fade, and reluctantly I decided that I would have to leave. Chelsea was one of the safer parts of
the city and Twenty-third was a major street, but no woman was out alone after dark by choice.

A shrill ringing made my heart almost leap out of my mouth. It was coming from the wall in the corner. For a moment I thought it was an electric doorbell, then I saw the telephone hanging there. I had forgotten until now that Daniel owned a telephone, not being used to such a contraption myself. I stood there staring at it while it continued to ring. Should I answer it? What if it was Gentleman Jack, attempting to make contact? I took a deep breath and lifted the receiver with a shaky hand.

“Hello?” I said.

“Have I been given the wrong number?” a brisk woman’s voice demanded. I detected a trace of an Irish accent. “It’s Captain Sullivan’s residence I’m wanting.”

“I’m afraid Captain Sullivan isn’t here at the moment,” I said. “Who is this, please?”

“His mother, of course. More to the point, who are you?”

“I’m—just the maid, cleaning his apartment,” I said hastily.

“He lets his maids take important telephone calls, does he?” she said. “You want to watch out that you don’t get yourself into trouble, young woman. Please pass on a message to Captain Sullivan that he should call his mother.”

“It’s not bad news about his father, is it?” I blurted out before I realized this wasn’t probably wise.

“Oh, I see that he keeps you informed of his private life, too,” she said, and I could detect the disapproval.

“Only that he’s been concerned about his father, ma’am. He keeps his landlady informed, and she passes it along to me.”

“His father seems to be on the mend, thank the Lord,” she said. “No, this is another matter altogether.”

“I could take a message for him,” I said hopefully.

“That won’t be necessary. Just tell him that his mother is expecting his call,” she said. That was clearly all I was going to get out of her. It probably wasn’t really important, I decided, just a mother wanting to stay in touch with her only son.

“I’ll write him a note that you called, Mrs. Sullivan,” I said. “He’s been working all hours on a case.”

“They work him too hard,” she said. “Thank you then, Miss—?”

She wanted my name, of course. “You’re most welcome,” I said, and hung up the phone. I wondered if she had heard about me when Daniel broke off his engagement, whether she actually suspected who I was and was voicing her disapproval. I didn’t seem to have too many people on my side at the moment!

As I walked down the stairs I cursed myself for being so stupid—of course I should have remembered he had a phone. He’d given me the number before. But I still wasn’t used to such modern conveniences, and it hadn’t entered my head to call his address. I could have saved myself another long and hot trip, except that Jack probably wouldn’t have answered it, even if he had been there. I wondered where he was, whether he was in hiding or in danger or both.

It had been a long, emotionally draining day and I was never more glad to get home. I had scarcely let myself in and collapsed in my one tattered armchair when there came a loud rapping at the door.

Let it be Jack come to find me. Please, no more bad news, I prayed. I had received enough for a lifetime’s supply in the last two days. I opened the door and was relieved to find Sid standing there.

“Thank heavens, you’re home,” she said, coming in without being invited. “Gus was worried about you, Molly. She knocked on your door several times today to thank you for the dinner last night, but you were never home. She was convinced that you had gone against your word and met a terrible fate with the East Side Ripper.”

I managed a bright smile and light tone as I replied, “Nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve had a pleasant jaunt in the countryside. I took the train to Westchester County.”

“To see Bridie?” Her face lit up. “Wonderful. How is she faring?”

“Not to see Bridie, I’m afraid. Her camp is somewhere in the wilds of Connecticut. No, I decided to pay a visit to Miss Norton.”

“Molly! What on earth for? That was either brave or foolhardy of you.” She looked more amused than horrified. “I’m amazed you’ve returned unscathed. I should have thought she was the last person on earth you’d want to confront at this moment.”

“That’s true. It wasn’t the most pleasant of encounters. But I needed to know if she or her family had anything to do with Daniel’s arrest.”

Sid frowned, then nodded. “Oh yes, I see. You suspected that she may have wanted to bring about his downfall out of spite. From what you’ve told us, she definitely had that in her character. And what did you discover?”

“Not much. I am fairly sure that she herself had nothing to do with getting Daniel arrested. She looked quite shaken when I told her about it. But of course, her father or a relative could have taken the matter into his own hands, unbeknownst to her, and set out to teach Daniel a lesson.”

“How would you find that out?”

I shrugged. “I have no idea. The truth is, Sid, that I’m very much an amateur when it comes to detective work. I seem to stumble upon things more by luck than by skill. If only Paddy Riley hadn’t been killed, I might have learned true detective skills; but as it is, I just have to muddle through.”

“So what will you do now?” she asked.

I had to take a deep breath before I said, “I don’t know. I just don’t know. But I can’t give up for Daniel’s sake. I’ve just written to him again, asking for all the details he can give me. Then I’ll proceed from there.”

“He can’t be much of a gentleman if he gives you details of gangland transactions and expects you to investigate them,” Sid snapped. “You’re well rid of him, Molly. It was pure infatuation on your part. Put it behind you.”

“I gave him my word, Sid,” I managed to say, sounding miraculously calm. “I’m going to do what I can.”

“All this rushing around in the heat isn’t good for you,” she said, frowning as she examined me. “You look quite flushed. I hope you haven’t yet dined. We were waiting for you to dine with us tonight and you can be the first to hear our big news.”

“Big news?” My heart leaped alarmingly.

Her face lit up. “Well, I suppose I shouldn’t keep you in suspense. That’s not fair, is it? You know that Gus and I have been experimenting with various Eastern lifestyles—”

They’re moving to China or Japan, I thought in panic.

“—Well, we’ve finally made up our minds. We are going to take up Buddhism. From now on every living creature will be sacred to us, and we shall eat no more fish, fowl, or flesh. So Gus has prepared our first vegetarian meal tonight, and we want you to partake of it with us.”

I was so relieved I could have wept. “I’d be delighted,” I said.

As soon as she had gone, I leaned against the cool wood of the front door, limp with relief. I hadn’t realized until now how much I had come to rely on them. They were my only friends in the world. Without them I’d have nobody.