Free Murder In Chinatown by Victoria Thompson Page B

boy.
    “Ma?” he asked uncertainly.
    “Yes, go get him,” Minnie agreed wearily. “No use putting it off anymore.”
    Harry took off again. Sarah patted Minnie on the shoulder and wondered what else she could do to offer comfort.
    “Can I have a word with you, Mrs. Brandt?” Malloy asked with exaggerated courtesy. She knew how furious he was with her, and she couldn’t really blame him. Hadn’t she promised him she wouldn’t get involved in any more murders?
    “Of course, Mr. Malloy,” she replied just as politely.
    He took her elbow in a grip that wasn’t as gentle as it probably looked to the bystanders and led her over to the end of the porch, where they could speak in private.
    “I guess this is your missing Chinese girl,” he said.
    “Yes, it is, unfortunately,” she said. “I’d told the mother that I knew a police detective who could help her locate her daughter.”
    “So when her mother starts talking about getting her friend Mrs. Brandt to help, the beat cop figures he should send for me.”
    Sarah smiled apologetically. “If I’d known they’d already sent for you, I wouldn’t have come down here,” she told him honestly. “I’m not going to get involved, Malloy. I only wanted to make sure you were assigned to the case.”
    “Good. You can go back home now.”
    “Can’t you at least tell me what happened to poor Angel before I go?”
    He sighed in resignation. “You know as much as I do. The girl ran off with this O’Neal fellow, and they got married. Her father, the Chinaman, he found out where she was living, but she wouldn’t go home with him. Wanted to stay with her husband, which isn’t too surprising. A little while ago, somebody finds her out here in the yard, dead. Looks like she was strangled, but the coroner will tell us for sure.”
    “Where did they find her?” Sarah asked, looking around. “If she was killed out here in broad daylight, someone surely saw something,” she added, looking up at all the windows that faced the yard.
    “I don’t know exactly where they found her because her husband carried her inside, or at least that’s what he claims,” he said, not bothering to hide his frustration. “She was inside the flat where the whole family lives, all covered up with a blanket, when the beat cop got here. They all claim they don’t know anything about it and didn’t hear or see anything at all.”
    Plainly, he didn’t believe this for an instant, but it would take some time and hard work to unravel the mystery. She knew that only too well from her past experiences working with him in murder investigations.
    “I could ask a few questions—”
    “No!” he snapped. “You aren’t going to ask anybody anything. You’re going to leave right now. You’re going to forget you ever heard of these people.”
    Sarah couldn’t possibly forget any of this, but she nodded obediently. “I can’t leave Mrs. Lee alone, though. I’ll just wait until her husband comes to take her home. Then I’ll go.”
    He wasn’t pleased, but he knew better than to insist. She’d just dig her heels in and refuse. “Don’t talk to anybody else, though. I don’t need your help with this case, Sarah, and I don’t want you involved in any more murders.”
    “All right,” she said as meekly as she could manage.
    He blinked in surprise and then leaned in to look at her more closely, his eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Do you really mean that?”
    “Of course I do!” she said indignantly.
    He didn’t look convinced, but he nodded. “Until the husband gets here, and then you leave,” he reminded her. “I’ve got to talk to these people in the yard before they get bored and disappear, see if they know anything useful.”
    “Go right ahead. Don’t worry about me, Malloy. I’ll be fine.”
    She thought she heard him grumbling something under his breath when he turned away, and she bit back a smile. She really was going to keep her word not to get involved. But of course,