Murder on Fifth Avenue: A Gaslight Mystery by Victoria Thompson Read Free Book Online Page A

daughter-in-law actually laughed when she heard the news?”
    “That could have been shock,” Sarah said.
    “You didn’t see her. I wanted to ask her some questions, but I knew the family would never allow it.”
    “Just tell me what to ask.”
    Malloy frowned and sipped his coffee. “I’m not sure you’ll get much out of her if the widow and the son are there.”
    “I may have to make a return visit, then. I’m sure Mrs. Devries will want to receive my mother herself tomorrow, and if the daughter-in-law has something unflattering to say about the dead man, Mrs. Devries will never leave us alone with her.”
    Maeve leaned forward in her chair. “Do you have any idea what might be going on? Didn’t you find out anything at all from the servants?”
    “I found out the dead man’s valet is loyal to him, even though he didn’t particularly care for the man. The rest of the servants don’t want to be accused of gossiping about the master of the house, so they weren’t very helpful. I got the feeling they could have told me a lot if they’d dared, though.”
    “About what?”
    “I’m not sure. I do know that Mr. and Mrs. Devries barely spoke to each other, and Mr. Devries has a mistress that he keeps in a house on Mercer Street.”
    Sarah should have been shocked, but she knew many rich men kept mistresses. “That’s interesting.”
    “Even more interesting, he spent the night there last night and came home around nine o’clock this morning.”
    “Why is that interesting?” Maeve asked.
    “You mean except for the scandalous excitement such news might cause?” Sarah asked with a grin.
    “The medical examiner told me that Devries might’ve been stabbed hours before he died. I don’t know how many hours exactly, but it’s possible he got into an argument with his mistress, and she stuck a hat pin in his back.”
    Sarah knew how lethal a well-placed hat pin could be. She’d seen for herself how the six-inch shaft could pierce a heart with a lucky thrust. “Father said Mr. Devries was stabbed in the back.”
    “The medical examiner thinks the blade went into his kidney, and he slowly bled to death.”
    Maeve curled her lip. “That’s a lot of blood. Wouldn’t somebody have noticed he was bleeding? Wouldn’t
he
have noticed?”
    “The bleeding was inside his body. The little that he bled outside mostly got soaked up by his undershirt.”
    “I can’t understand why he allowed someone to injure him so badly and then never even mentioned it to anyone.”
    “He probably didn’t know how badly he was hurt. He might’ve thought somebody just punched him or hit him. If it was somebody in his family—”
    “Or his mistress,” Maeve added.
    “Or his mistress,” Malloy continued, “he probably wouldn’t imagine they were trying to kill him. He argued with his wife and son that morning. If one of them hit him, he wouldn’t call for help or raise any kind of alarm.”
    Maeve straightened in her chair. “Why ever not?”
    Malloy deferred to Sarah with a nod, picking up his cup again. “He wouldn’t want the servants to know his wife or his son had struck him. Rich people like to pretend they’re better than other people.”
    Maeve nodded. “I should’ve figured that out myself.”
    “Yes, you should,” Malloy said.
    “He must’ve been pretty mean to his daughter-in-law, then,” Maeve said.
    “Why do you say that?” Sarah asked.
    “I can’t imagine laughing when I heard somebody died unless I really hated him.”
    “His wife and son didn’t act like they even cared,” Malloy said.
    “Father said Mrs. Devries seemed to be
put out
by the news.”
    “I guess that’s pretty close to how she reacted,” Malloy said. “She sure wasn’t happy about having to wear black now that she’s a widow.”
    “Some women just don’t look good in black,” Sarah said, earning a scowl for her sarcasm.
    “Have you met the mistress yet?” Maeve asked.
    “No. It was too late to call on her