Free Murder in Chelsea by Victoria Thompson Page B

here?”
    “What does that have to do with anything?”
    “Just answer my questions. The sooner you do, the sooner I’ll be gone.”
    She sighed unhappily. “A couple years, I guess.”
    “So she lived here at least part of the time when Emma Hardy’s protector rented a room for her here.”
    “I . . . I suppose so, yes.”
    “And yet she said she hardly knew Emma.”
    Mrs. Dugan stiffened. “Emma kept to herself.”
    “Or maybe Miss Cordova didn’t know her well because Emma didn’t really live here.”
    “She had a room here, I tell you. Mr. Wilbanks paid me every month. He wanted to know she had a safe place to stay when she was in a show, he said.”
    “I know she had a room here, but she didn’t really stay in it, did she?”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “Don’t you? I’m not going to tell Wilbanks, so you don’t have to worry about that. I just want to know where she did stay and who she stayed with.”
    The color bloomed in her cheeks. “What do you mean?”
    “You know what I mean. She had a lover, didn’t she? That’s where she stayed when she was in a show. Oh, she might’ve spent a night or two here sometimes, but most of the time she was with him. That’s right, isn’t it?”
    “What possible difference does that make now? She’s been gone for a year, and for all I know, she isn’t coming back.”
    “Oh, she’s coming back. That’s what she wrote to tell Anne Murphy, and she expects Anne to have her daughter.”
    “Anne? Anne never had the child.”
    “Yes, she did. Emma left her with Anne, but Anne hid her someplace she thought would be safe. Then someone killed Anne before she could get the girl back.”
    Mrs. Dugan reached out and grabbed the back of a nearby chair for support. “And you think it was him?”
    “Emma’s lover? I don’t know, but I’d like to find him and ask him. Do you know who he is?”
    Her eyes blazed. “He’s an actor. I warned her about him. I was married to an actor. Did I tell you?”
    He nodded.
    “A nasty lot, all of them. She wouldn’t listen, though. Oh, she left him a dozen times, but she always took him back. I thought when she took up with Wilbanks, that would be the end of it. I thought his pride would never stand for her to be with another man, but I should’ve known better. He liked Wilbanks’s money as much as she did. She half supported him with what Wilbanks gave her.”
    “And Wilbanks never suspected?”
    “Why should he? Emma was always there when he came to see her.”
    “Didn’t he come to see her here?”
    “I don’t allow men in the house. Emma would let him visit her at the theater and take her to dinner afterwards, but she couldn’t have him here, so he never knew she didn’t really live here.”
    “Where did she live?”
    “Different places. He wasn’t as good about paying the rent as Wilbanks was. Sometimes she’d come here for a while because they’d been thrown out of a place and she didn’t want to be on the street with him. Did that make her think, though? No, she never blamed him for anything.”
    “What is his name?”
    “Parnell Vaughn,” she said, as if saying it left a bad taste in her mouth.
    “Fancy name.”
    “Fancy name for a fancy man. And no, I don’t have no idea where he might be. I haven’t heard a peep about him since Emma left town. I expect he went with her. He’d been living off her for years, so he’s not likely to let her out of his sight now, is he?”
    “Do you know anything else about him besides that he’s an actor?”
    “Yes, he drinks.”
    Frank didn’t think that would help him much.
    “And you think he killed Annie?” she asked again.
    “Do you think he could have?”
    “I wouldn’t put anything past him, but killing somebody . . . Why would he do it?”
    “I’ll be sure and ask him when I find him. Mrs. Dugan, Emma might come here looking for Anne Murphy and her daughter. When she does, would you ask her to come and see