Murder on Lexington Avenue (33 page)

“Oh, Mr. Malloy, I can’t allow this. My brother . . . This was what he wanted to avoid at all costs. Electra was never to marry a deaf man, and certainly not a man who stole her away against the wishes of her family! How do we know he even cares for her at all? Surely, if he did, he’d treat her with more respect than to ask her to sneak out and run away!”

“You’re right, Mrs. Parmer,” Malloy said. “We can’t let him do this. How long has she been gone?”

“She came down for luncheon,” Mrs. Parmer remembered. She glanced at the clock on the mantle. “Less than two hours, even if she left immediately after that.”

“Then we might catch her. At least we should be able to find out where they were going. Somebody would’ve noticed a young couple like that, especially if they’re deaf and talking with their hands.”

“I should go with you,” Mrs. Parmer said, rising from her seat.

“No,” Sarah said. “If you were to go to the train station asking about her, that might cause talk. You should stay here in case she comes home. And we’ll send you word the instant we know anything, I promise.”

“Oh, Mrs. Brandt, you’re right, of course, but I can’t ask you to do this.”

“You aren’t asking me. I’m offering. I know Mr. Malloy will go after them, but he’ll need a chaperone for Electra. She knows me, and she’ll trust me, I’m sure.”

“You are too kind. How can I ever thank you?”

“Don’t thank me yet,” Sarah said. “Thank me when we bring Electra home.”

Malloy took the letter from Mrs. Parmer and tucked it into his pocket.

“I should get the carriage for you,” Mrs. Parmer said. She was near tears.

“We can go faster without it,” Malloy said. “We should get started, Mrs. Brandt.”

“Try not to worry,” Sarah told her. “We’ll do everything we can.”

“God bless you,” Mrs. Parmer said as they hurried out.

Once again, they decided to take the El. They had to wait only a few minutes for a train, and were able to get seats a little removed from the rest of the passengers so they could talk.

“Did you find the notebook?” Sarah asked.

“No, and the reason I didn’t let Mrs. Parmer read the letter herself is that he asks Electra to bring it with her.”

“Maybe he just wanted it back,” she suggested, trying to come up with an innocent explanation, although neither of them really believed it.

“Maybe,” Malloy allowed. “We won’t know for sure until we see what’s in it.”

Sarah shivered with a sudden chill. “But why would he have killed Leander?” she asked. “Or Mr. Wooten, for that matter?”

“We don’t know that he did, of course, but the most obvious reason would be that he wanted to marry Electra, and they would never have allowed it.”

“Then he must really love her,” Sarah said.

Malloy shrugged. “Who knows? He could have other reasons for wanting to marry her.”

“You mean he just wanted her but didn’t love her?”

“Or something not romantic at all,” he said with a grin at her determination to make this about desire. “Oldham was a smart young man. He had a college education, and he was good looking and charming. If he hadn’t been deaf, he could’ve been very successful in life.”

“But he
was
successful. He had a good job at the school,” Sarah said.

“Teachers don’t make a lot of money, not compared to people like the Wootens, and the deaf teachers get paid less than the ones who can hear,” Malloy said.

“What?” Sarah said in outrage. “That’s terrible!”

“I’m sure Oldham would agree with you. He must’ve been frustrated and angry. Then Rossiter—that’s the teacher Leander first approached about teaching Electra to sign—he realized that if he put Oldham and Electra together, they’d probably fall in love. Rossiter knew Mr. Wooten was trying to convince the school board to stop teaching deaf children to sign at all, and he wanted . . . Well, I’m not sure exactly what Rossiter really wanted. He said he wanted Electra and Oldham to marry and have children who weren’t deaf, to prove Alexander Graham Bell’s theories were wrong, but that all seems kind of . . . I don’t know, far-fetched, I guess.”

“Yes, it does, and it would take so very long,” Sarah said.

“Yeah, I think that’s what was bothering me,” Frank said. “Not many people would be willing to wait years to get revenge or whatever it was Rossiter was hoping for.”

“Yes, and his plan sounds almost high-minded, until you think about how many people could be made unhappy. If Electra and Oldham married, her family would have been unhappy. If her family disowned her, Electra would be unhappy, and if her family managed to keep them apart, the lovers would be unhappy.”

“And even if they did marry, there’s no guarantee
they
would be happy together, especially if Oldham just married her for her family’s money.”

Sarah signed. “This is horrible.”

“The only good thing is that we have a chance of catching them before he gets her away.”

“Do you think he really plans to elope with her?”

“No, do you?”

“No. I didn’t want to say anything in front of Mrs. Parmer, but he probably just plans to be away with her someplace overnight. With Mr. Wooten and Leander no longer around to protest, Mrs. Wooten would almost certainly agree to a hasty marriage to prevent a scandal. She doesn’t seem likely to care what her husband might have thought about it either.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t get to know Mrs. Wooten better,” Malloy said with a sly grin. “She must be an interesting woman.”

They’d reach their stop, and they hurried off the train and down the stairs to the street. The walk to Grand Central Station left no time or breath for conversation. Malloy set a brisk pace, and Sarah didn’t protest. She was as anxious as he to get there.

The station was relatively quiet in the midafternoon, but still many people sat on the benches in the enormous arched waiting area, where the autumn sun shone downward through the skylights above. Some of the people would be waiting for their trains to be called. Others were waiting for someone to arrive. Still others had no place else to go and found the station to be a cool, comfortable place to spend the day.

After quickly scanning the people in the room and seeing no sign of Oldham or Electra, Malloy approached the ticket windows, leaving Sarah to keep watch in case the couple appeared. Sarah heard some shouted protests as Malloy pushed in front of those waiting in line, but the protests ceased when he informed them he was with the police and was trying to catch a kidnapper.

He described the couple to the ticket agent. Sarah saw the man shake his head and then call over the other agents. They consulted and one of them explained something to Malloy. Malloy reached into his pocket and purchased a ticket.

Sarah felt her stomach drop. They were too late. Oldham had gotten her away.

Malloy came over to where she was waiting. “The ticket agent remembered them. He thought it was funny that the girl did the talking, and he noticed her voice sounded strange, too. They bought tickets to White Plains.”

“White Plains! I should have remembered. The Wootens have a summer cottage there. They’d just been there for the month of August, I believe.” Many wealthy families went to that area to escape the city’s unbearable summer heat.

“That makes sense. Oldham probably knew about it, and Electra knows the area, and they’d have a place to stay that wouldn’t cost them anything. Oldham doesn’t have a lot of money for hotels, and he might attract attention taking such a young girl to one. Desk clerks at decent places ask questions.”

“You bought yourself a ticket,” she said.

“I got us
both
a ticket,” he corrected her. “If you’ll agree to accompany me, Mrs. Brandt,” he added with a teasing glint.

“Are you trying to get me to elope with you, Malloy?” she teased back.

“If I was, I’d plan it a little better,” he replied. “Chasing after a spoiled rich girl and her fortune hunter abductor doesn’t seem like the best way to start an elopement of your own.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Sarah replied. “And I have to say, I’m impressed that you understand that.”

The look he gave her was meant to imply he understood a lot of other things as well, and Sarah felt the heat that had started elsewhere in her body rising in her face. “How long until our train leaves?” she asked to turn the conversation in a safer direction.

“Half an hour,” he said, not fooled at all. “We have time to get a drink at the lemonade stand.”

As they sipped their drinks, grateful for the refreshment after their hasty trip downtown, Malloy said, “The ticket agent said Electra seemed very happy. He didn’t believe she was being kidnapped.”

“I’m sure no one else will either. We need to make up a better story.”

“In White Plains, they probably know her, too, so we have to be careful of gossip. What do you suggest?”

Sarah considered. “I doubt they’d believe we’re relatives, not the way we’re dressed. We could be teachers from her school. I doubt they’d ask us to sign for them.”

“They don’t use signs at Electra’s school, remember?” Malloy reminded her with some amusement.

“Well, then, that’s what we’ll say. I forgot to ask, how much of a head start did they have on us?”

“Over an hour, but they don’t know they’re being followed, so they won’t be in a rush. I’m just worried about how long it’ll take us to find the Wootens’ cottage once we get there.”

“I’m sure the people at the station will know where it is. It’s a small town, and they probably depend on business from the rich families who have homes there. I just hope . . .”

“What?” Malloy prodded when she hesitated.

“I hope Oldham hasn’t already seduced her. If he really is the killer, she may never get over it.”

The trip to White Plains wasn’t particularly long but the miles seemed to crawl by. Sarah and Malloy could find nothing to talk about that would distract them from their mission, although they tried several times. By the time the train pulled into the White Plains station, they’d been sitting in silence for a long time.

The stationmaster knew exactly where the Wootens’ cottage was.

“Miss Electra and her young man already arrived,” he told them. “She didn’t say nothing about expecting more guests, though. We would’ve had a cart waiting.”

“You know how careless young people are,” Sarah said, the lies coming easily now. “The rest of the party won’t arrive until tomorrow. We came early to help get things ready.”

“Can you get someone to drive us out?” Malloy asked, a little more anxious than a true guest should have been. Luckily, the stationmaster didn’t appear to notice.

“I’ll have somebody here in no time. Just sit yourselves down.”

Sarah hoped he wouldn’t notice that they had no luggage. Or that Malloy was pacing impatiently. And that they weren’t in a very festive mood.

By the time a young fellow arrived with a dog cart to take them, they were the only people left in the station. Even the stationmaster had gone home for his supper.

“Nobody said there was people coming,” the boy informed them defensively when they were on their way. “I always take people out to the Wootens’ house when they tell me they’ve got guests coming.”

“Did you take Miss Electra out earlier today?” Sarah asked.

“Oh, yes. She and her young man. They was doing the strangest things with their hands that I ever saw. Miss Electra said he was deaf, too, only he can’t read people’s lips when they talk, so she talks to him with her hands. Making signs, she called it.”

“How did you know he was her young man?” Sarah asked.

“She told me. Said they was getting married real soon. I believed her, even though she’s pretty young, a year younger than me, in fact. I wouldn’t want to be getting married just yet. But she looked real happy about it. Girls do get excited about such things, I guess.”

The sun was beginning to set when the cart turned in between two brick pillars that marked the entrance to the driveway. Stately trees lined the half-mile-long approach to the imposing brick house.

“This is a
cottage
?” Malloy murmured for Sarah’s ears alone.

“Oh, yes,” she said. “A cottage is a house that can be operated with only three servants.”

“Miss Electra said the servants was coming up with her family, in the carriage,” the boy said. “I guess they ain’t here yet.” No lights shone in any of the windows, although a thin trail of smoke drifted from one of the four chimneys.

“Good thing we came ahead,” Sarah said. “We wouldn’t want Miss Electra to be here unchaperoned.” That, at least, would stop any gossip.

“Do you want me to wait?” the boy asked. “Just to make sure you can get in?”

Sarah had already gone to the front door, which fortunately, was unlocked. “We’ll be fine,” she called back, while Malloy gave the boy some money.

“Let’s wait until he’s out on the main road again, in case Electra causes a scene,” Sarah said to Frank. “We don’t want him coming to her rescue.” They stood on the front stoop until the cart was gone.

When they stepped inside, the house was strangely silent and dim, since all the drapes had been drawn when the family had left last month. In the fading light they could see that the furniture had been draped with dustcovers. The place smelled musty and unused.

They stood still, listening for some indication of where the missing couple might be. Sarah hoped they wouldn’t find them upstairs in bed.

“We don’t have to be quiet,” Malloy said in a normal voice, startling her. “I just realized they can’t hear us. Come on.”

Sarah followed as he led the way down the center hall toward the back of the house. They found them in the rear parlor, a cozy room. They’d started a fire to ward off the evening chill, and spread one of the dustcovers on the floor for an impromptu picnic. The remains of their supper had been gathered into a pile, dishes and cutlery and scraps of food, and Oldham, in his shirt sleeves, was lying on the floor with his head in Electra’s lap. They were making slow, lazy signs to each other, the visual version of billing and cooing, unaware that they were being observed.