Murder on Amsterdam Avenue

by Victoria Thompson

  “But why would she have spent thirty years looking for Jenny if she didn’t think Jenny owed her something?” Gino asked.

  “Did she really spend thirty years looking for her?” Sarah asked.

  “Now that you mention it, I’m not sure she did,” Malloy said. “Jenny said Daisy ended up in North Carolina after the war was over. She got married and lived there until her husband died. Then she came to New York to find Jenny.”

  “So she was only looking for her for a few years. I wonder what took her so long after she got to the city.”

  “She said she didn’t expect it to be so hard to find her. She seemed to think that she could come to New York and ask around and someone would know where Jenny lived,” Gino said.

  “Oh my, she must have been shocked when she found out how many people live in the city.”

  “She was, and I gathered that she can’t read, so she wouldn’t’ve thought to look in the city directory or anything like that. She said her pastor saw a story in the newspaper about Charles being appointed to his job at the hospital, and he remembered that was the name of the family she’d been looking for.”

  “How lucky for her.”

  “And maybe unlucky for Charles,” Malloy said.

  “But Gino doesn’t think she did it, even though she was the only one in the room with him.”

  “Let’s not forget he wasn’t in that room alone with her or even in his house the first two times he got sick,” Gino said.

  The parlor door opened, and Maeve came in carrying a tray with four glasses on it. Sarah jumped up to help her. Between the two of them, they served the men and themselves. Sarah didn’t remark on the fact that Maeve had brought a glass for herself so she could stay with them.

  “Mrs. Malloy is watching the children,” she explained before anyone could ask her. “What did I miss?”

  Sarah brought her up to date.

  “What did you think about Mrs. Peabody’s gossip?” Maeve asked the men when Sarah was finished.

  “What gossip?” Malloy asked.

  “The gossip I was going to tell you when you told me I should start, but then you distracted me by telling me about Daisy.”

  “Well, tell us now.”

  Sarah told them what Prudence Oakes had told Mrs. Peabody about her daughter-in-law and her fears that Jenny had tricked Gerald into marriage and that Charles wasn’t even Gerald’s son.

  “What made her think Jenny had lied about her background?” Malloy asked.

  “Mrs. Peabody didn’t give us any details, but I gathered that Prudence thought Jenny lacked some of the social skills that a young woman with her background should have.”

  “But didn’t she grow up on a farm?” Gino asked.

  “A plantation,” Malloy said.

  “But that’s just a big farm, isn’t it? Maybe she didn’t go to school. Maybe they do things different in the South,” he argued.

  “That might be true, Gino,” Sarah said, “but families who have a lot of money hire tutors for their children if they can’t go to school, and I guess manners are the same no matter where you live. But maybe Prudence was so determined to hate Jenny that she exaggerated her faults or made them up entirely. Jenny was very young when she came here and probably terrified. If she was awkward and shy and made mistakes, I don’t think anyone could criticize her.”

  “Her mother-in-law did,” Maeve said.

  No one had an answer for that.

  “What about the story about Charles not being Gerald’s son?” Malloy said after a moment. “Do you think there could be any truth to it?”

  “Anything is possible, but if Gerald believed he was, that’s all that mattered,” Sarah said. “Unless you think Gerald poisoned Charles.”

  “Since Gerald is the one who hired me to find the killer, that doesn’t seem likely,” Malloy said. “So we’re back where we started.”

  “Oh, I almost forgot,” Sarah said. “Charles apparently spent a lot of time at his club, time when other people thought he was at the hospital working.”

  “Oh yes, we found that out, too,” Malloy said. “We went to the hospital this afternoon and talked to the superintendent there, a Dr. Dent. You remember the woman who fainted at the funeral? She was a patient there.”

  “At the Asylum?” Maeve asked. “I knew there was something funny about her.”

  “Something more than funny,” Malloy said. “It looks like that Adderly fellow, the one who took her away from the funeral, is the one who got Charles his job there. All he wanted in return was for Charles to get her released.”

  “Why did he want that?” Sarah asked.

  “So far, we don’t know. She’s related to him in some way, too, but I don’t know how.”

  “But if he wanted her released, couldn’t he just have asked for them to release her?” Sarah asked.

  “I don’t know,” Malloy said. “Can you do that?”

  “I think so. There’s probably some kind of legal proceeding, but I’m sure you can,” Sarah said. “So why would he go to all that trouble to have Charles do it?”

  “Going to court is a lot of trouble, too,” Malloy said. “And a lot more public. And wouldn’t he have to prove she was sane?”

  “I’m not sure, but I’m guessing he wouldn’t have been able to prove it.”

  “No, he wouldn’t have.”

  “All right, I’ll agree that Adderly might’ve had good reasons not to go to court, but how could he be sure Charles would do this favor for him? And how could he be sure he could even get Charles the job in the first place?”

  “I guess I’ll have to ask Mr. Adderly all those questions when I go to see him tomorrow,” Malloy said.

  “And what can I do to help?” Sarah asked.

  Malloy smiled. “You can visit this Daisy and find out what she’s hiding and if she’s still mad that Jenny left her behind.”

  • • •

  Since the next morning was Sunday, Sarah waited until midafternoon to visit the Oakes house again. The maid told her that the family wasn’t receiving, but Sarah explained she was there to see Daisy.

  “She’s not here, miss.”

  “What do you mean, she’s not here?” Servants were virtual prisoners in the houses where they worked, usually getting only one afternoon a month off in addition to being allowed to attend church on Sunday morning.

  “I mean she’s not back from her church yet.”

  “But you’re back,” Sarah pointed out.

  “Daisy goes to a different church than the rest of us, and she’s not come back yet.”

  “I see. When do you expect her?”

  The girl’s face wrinkled in dismay. “I don’t rightly know, miss. She’s usually back by now, though.”

  Sarah felt a niggle of unease. They’d suspected that Daisy knew more than she’d admitted about the night Charles had died, and now she’d left the house and hadn’t returned when expected. How convenient if she’d killed Charles and now had disappeared. “May I speak to Mr. Zeller, please?”

  The girl was only too happy to fetch Mr. Zeller to handle this difficult situation. She left Sarah in the small receiving room just off the foyer, where unexpected guests were asked to wait while the servants found out if they were to be received or turned away.

  Sarah was a bit surprised to see that Mr. Zeller was a white man. Not that it was unusual for servants to be white, but somehow she’d expected him to be a Negro after Gino told her he was sweet on Daisy.

  “I understand you wanted to speak with Daisy,” he said after greeting Sarah.

  “Yes, but the girl said she hasn’t returned from church yet.”

  “No, she hasn’t, and I confess, I’m a bit worried.” He did look worried, and Sarah had no trouble at all believing he cared about Daisy as more than just a fellow staff member. “Of course,
Daisy enjoys a bit more freedom than the other maids, because of her place in the household.”

  “What place is that?”

  Zeller shifted uncomfortably. “She’s Mrs. Gerald’s personal maid. Sometimes she has special permission to do things the other girls do not.”

  So Jenny allowed Daisy special privileges, Sarah thought. Was this because Daisy was all she had left of her former life or because Daisy had some hold on her? She would dearly love to ask Jenny what other privileges she allowed Daisy and why, but the maid had already told her the family wouldn’t see her. She was just about to thank Zeller and take her leave when the maid tapped on the door.

  “Excuse me, but Mrs. Gerald would like to see Mrs. Brandt, please,” she said.

  Zeller bowed slightly, and the girl escorted her upstairs to the front parlor. Jenny waited for her there, standing erect in her black mourning gown with her hands clutched tightly in front of her.

  “I didn’t mean to bother you, Mrs. Oakes,” Sarah said. “I asked to see Daisy, but they told me she isn’t here.”

  “I know. The girl told me why you’d come. I can’t imagine where Daisy has gotten to. I confess, I’m curious about why you’re here to see her, though.”

  “Mr. Malloy asked me to visit her. She was quite terrified by the young man who questioned her yesterday, and he thought she was afraid to tell him everything she knew.”

  “How odd that Mr. Malloy would involve you in the investigation.” Her frown of disapproval told Sarah that she found it far more than odd.

  “I’ve helped Mr. Malloy before. Sometimes a woman can find out things a man can’t.”

  “I see,” she said, although she plainly didn’t see at all. “Does Mr. Malloy think Daisy had something to do with Charles’s death?”

  “He thinks she might have some information that would help identify the killer, I believe.”

  “If she did, I’m sure she would have shared it. Daisy was devastated when Charles died.”

  “She may not know that what she saw was important. That’s why he wanted me to talk to her. Do you have any idea when she might return?”

  “I do not. Daisy very much enjoys Sundays with her friends. She had lived in the city for several years before she came to work here, and she was fortunate to have found some people who cared for her. Life can be difficult for Negroes in the city, especially if they don’t have any family here.”

  “You must have been surprised when Daisy reappeared after all those years.”

  “I see Mr. Malloy has told you I knew Daisy back in Georgia.” Jenny didn’t look pleased.

  “Yes. I can’t imagine you were happy to be reminded of that time,” Sarah said to see if she could get a reaction out of Jenny.

  “On the contrary, I have many happy memories of my old life before the war, and Daisy was part of that.”

  “But the war did come, didn’t it? I imagine Daisy was jealous of you when you married Mr. Oakes and left her behind.”

  “Again? I thought I’d settled this with Mr. Malloy. Daisy may have been a bit jealous, but she also had no desire to leave the only life she had ever known either. If I tell the truth, I wasn’t happy about it myself.”

  “But the life you had known was over, wasn’t it? Your family was gone and your plantation was destroyed.”

  “Now who is bringing back unhappy memories, Mrs. Brandt?”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be cruel, but we’re trying to figure out who might have poisoned your son. It’s just hard to believe that Daisy found you again after all those years and why she would have gone to so much trouble—”

  “—unless she wanted revenge on me for leaving her behind when I came North, do you mean? Really, Mrs. Brandt, you sound like something out of a dime novel. As I told Mr. Malloy when he suggested this, it’s absurd. No one bears a grudge for over thirty years. And if she did, why would she kill Charles instead of me?”

  Sarah didn’t bother to point out that killing Charles was a way to make Jenny suffer, because that sounded even more like something out of a dime novel. “Then why did Daisy come all the way to New York to seek you out?”

  “Because she was hoping I would look after her. She’s had a difficult life, and after her husband died, it got even more difficult. She remembered I had married a wealthy man, and she thought perhaps I would take care of her in her old age, the way the Honeywell family always took care of the people who worked on the plantation.”

  “She took quite a chance in coming all this way. You might have died in the meantime.”

  “Or I might not be living in the city anymore. Any number of things might have happened, but they didn’t. Daisy also had a difficult time locating me, but when she did, I was happy to offer her a place here.”

  “That was very kind of you.”

  “Perhaps I only did it out of guilt, because I did leave her behind when I came North, as you reminded me.”

  “So you don’t think Daisy harbored any ill will toward you?”

  “Who’s to say? And she would have to be a saint not to have at least been a bit jealous. But I’m certain she wouldn’t have taken out her anger on Charles. She was quite fond of him, and he of her.”

  “That’s unusual, isn’t it? To become so attached to a servant, especially one who had only been with you such a short time.”

  “She was a part of my past, and Charles had always been fascinated by the stories of life on the plantation. Daisy had a son who died young, too, so that might have been why she was so fond of Charles. In any case, she wouldn’t have poisoned him, no matter what you may think.”

  “I’m glad to hear it. I would still like to speak with her, though. If we have any hope of finding out who did, we have to figure out how the killer got the poison into Charles, and she was with him that last evening. As I said, she may have seen something and not realized what it meant.”

  “Very well. I’m sure Daisy will be glad to help if she can. I’d offer to let you wait until she comes home, but I have no idea how much longer she’ll be and I’m afraid I’ve exhausted my energy for hospitality. Perhaps you could return tomorrow when she’s sure to be here.”

  Left with no other choice, Sarah agreed.

  • • •

  Frank had found an address for Virgil Adderly fairly easily. He was listed in the City Directory, and Frank learned when he arrived at the address that he hadn’t moved. Gino had been happy to go along with him, pointing out that even still, Adderly and his two goons would outnumber them. Frank figured Adderly for a reasonable man, however, and he doubted they would come to blows. Still, he was glad to have Gino just in case he was wrong.

  Adderly lived in a comfortable house in Lenox Hill. A maid opened the door and left them standing in the foyer while she went to see if Mr. Adderly was in the mood for company. Frank wouldn’t have been surprised to be turned away—and he was only too aware that he had no authority to force Adderly to see him—but the maid returned in a few short minutes and escorted them to Adderly’s formal parlor.

  The room was slightly musty and a bit dark, and Frank guessed Adderly didn’t entertain much.

  “Mr. Malloy, what a surprise,” Adderly said, shaking his hand. His two goons were nowhere in sight. “And who is this with you?”

  Frank introduced Gino as his associate.

  “Didn’t I see you at Charles Oakes’s funeral?” Adderly asked.

  “Yes, you did.” Gino offered nothing else.

  “With a young lady, I think,” Adderly tried again.

  “Who is also one of my associates,” Frank said. “Do you have a few minutes? I’d like to ask you some questions.”

  Adderly’s polite smile never wavered. “Questions about what?”

  “About what you might know in regards to why someone would want to murder Charles Oakes.”

  “Murder?” he echoe
d as if he had never heard the word before. “Really, Mr. Malloy, that’s irresponsible of you to be making accusations like that. What makes you think Oakes was murdered?”

  “The arsenic that killed him, for one thing,” Frank said.

  Adderly stiffened in surprise, but whether that was because he hadn’t known Oakes had been poisoned or because he didn’t know anyone else had figured it out, Frank could only guess. “Maybe we should sit down,” Adderly said, indicating the grouping of chairs in the center of the well-furnished room. “Can I get you gentlemen a drink?”

  He didn’t wait for an answer but moved to the far side of the room where some crystal decanters sat on a sideboard. He returned with three glasses of whiskey. Frank and Gino accepted theirs, although neither of them took more than a sip. Adderly took a long swallow even before he sat down opposite Frank and Gino. Frank found that very interesting.

  “Now tell me what you want to know, Mr. Malloy.”

  “I was wondering why you decided to help Charles Oakes find a job.”

  “I don’t think I decided to do it. I heard through some business associates that Gerald Oakes had been asking if anyone knew of something suitable for his son. I found out that Charles was a promising young man from a good family, and after I had confirmed this myself by meeting him, I mentioned his name to some people who were in a position to assist him.”

  “That’s funny,” Frank said, although he didn’t really think it was funny at all. “The way I heard it, you knew about this position, and you wanted to fill it with the right person.” This was a lie, of course, but it seemed to hit home.

  Adderly’s smile had grown a bit strained. “And how would I have known Charles Oakes was the right person?”

  “Because he was someone who needed an income but who had no desire to exert himself. He was also someone willing to return the favor when you managed to find a position for him that perfectly suited his needs.”