Victoria Thompson: Murder On GramercyPark

Granger seemed to grow taller right before their eyes. “Dr. Blackwell was quite unpleasant and threatened Mrs. Blackwell several times. She was very upset, but I assure you, he was still very much alive when she left the house. She couldn’t possibly have killed him.”

“How can you be so sure?” Malloy challenged him. “She may have known you were still there and pretended to leave so you’d say just that. How do you know she didn’t come right back once you were gone and shoot him later?”

The blood seemed to drain from his face. “Because,” Granger said, all his dignity still firmly in place, “I killed Dr. Blackwell.”

SARAH FOUND MALLOY sitting alone on one of the benches in the hospital waiting area. Brian was being operated on today. He was surprised to see her.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, rising to his feet. He looked worried and like he hadn’t slept well last night.

“Did you think I’d forget Brian’s operation was today?” she scolded him, taking a seat on the bench beside him so he’d sit down again. “I would’ve been here sooner, but I had a delivery last night and wasn’t able to get away until just now. Have you heard anything?”

“Nothing yet. He hasn’t been in there long.” He nodded in the direction of the operating room.

Sarah glanced around the sterile room with its worn benches and faded walls. “Isn’t your mother here?”

Malloy gave her a pitying look. “She said if I wanted to butcher my son, she didn’t have to go along to watch.”

“Butcher?” Sarah echoed incredulously.

“She says she doesn’t believe the operation will help him.”

“Maybe she’s afraid it will, and he won’t need her so much anymore,” Sarah suggested gently.

“He’ll still be deaf,” Frank reminded her.

There was no argument for that, so Sarah made none. “At least you can be sure Brian won’t be butchered. I know Dr. Newton can help him. I wouldn’t have told you about him if I wasn’t sure of that.”

Malloy nodded, plainly unwilling to speak about such a sensitive topic at the moment. He stared at the far wall for a moment, and then he said, “Have you seen Letitia Blackwell lately?”

“I visited her yesterday,” she said, remembering with a smile. “I was afraid I might not be welcome after what happened, but she was actually happy to see me. Apparently, she’s still very amused that you and I thought her a murderess.”

“I’m glad she thought it was funny. Her father didn’t.”

“At least he wasn’t angry,” Sarah reminded him.

“Thanks to you,” Malloy reminded her right back. “If you hadn’t convinced him the whole thing was just a trick to make Granger confess, God knows what he might’ve done.”

“I guess we’re both lucky I thought of that,” Sarah said. “So you’re really convinced that Granger was the killer, then.”

“He knew every detail of what happened. He’d asked Blackwell if he could take the pistol out and clean it, so Blackwell hadn’t made any move to stop him. He just kept on writing his letter until Granger shot him. Then he carefully took the pen from Blackwell’s fingers and set it back in its stand, laid the gun down, and left the house. Oh, and he took the money Blackwell was going to use to bribe Calvin with, too. Seems he’s been using it to run the household since Blackwell died, because there wasn’t any other money available in the household accounts. The only thing he regretted was that he hadn’t gotten back to the house in time to discover the body himself.”

“I suppose it was guilt over the murder that was making his stomach hurt instead of guilt over Letitia finding the body,” she said.

“I don’t know about that,” Malloy said. “I don’t think Granger feels guilty about the murder at all, and if he does, it’s only because it caused Mrs. Blackwell an inconvenience.”

Sarah sighed. “It’s hard to believe that two men were willing to commit murder to protect Letitia Blackwell,” Sarah mused.

“Are you jealous?” Malloy asked archly.

“Of what? That no man ever committed murder for me?” she asked in surprise. “Not likely.”

Malloy looked like he didn’t believe her, but she ignored the provocation. “What did Amos Potter say when you told him Granger had confessed to Blackwell’s murder?” she asked instead.

“He was annoyed, I think. It seems we were wrong about why he killed Calvin, too.”

“Wrong? How could we have been wrong?”

“Because Potter didn’t kill Calvin to cover up Blackwell’s murder. Well, at least that wasn’t the main reason.”

“What was the main reason?” Sarah asked, mystified.

“To keep me from questioning Blackwell’s patients.”

“Clients,” Sarah corrected automatically. “Why on earth would he care about that?”

“Because he wanted to continue Blackwell’s business. If I offended the clients by accusing them of murder, they wouldn’t be likely to seek out Amos Potter’s services.”

“They wouldn’t have been likely to do that anyway,” Sarah reasoned, but Malloy just smiled sadly.

“Amos Potter didn’t know that. He also didn’t know who had killed Blackwell, but he wanted the case settled quietly and with no unpleasantness that would harm his future business.”

“But surely he was also trying to protect Letitia,” she argued.

“That’s another thing we were wrong about,” Malloy told her.

“Don’t tell me he’s not in love with Letitia!” she exclaimed.

“Oh, yes, very much so, but he wasn’t concerned about a scandal ruining her. He lied about that. In fact, he was the one who sent Calvin’s mother the poster of Blackwell’s lecture and the train ticket so Calvin could come to New York and find his father. Potter was hoping for a scandal that would ruin Blackwell and drive his clients away and ruin Letitia’s reputation. It seems he was more realistic than either of us realized. Potter knew she’d never be interested in him if she had any other choice, and he also knew Blackwell’s patients would never come to him unless Blackwell was discredited. He hoped the bigamy scandal would bring him both things at once.”

Sarah stared at him in amazement. “It does sound logical in a strange way,” she admitted. “But then you were going to offend the clients with your investigation, so he had to put a quick end to it by killing Calvin. How awful.”

“I’ll never forgive myself for not sending him home when I had the chance.”

“You couldn’t have known,” Sarah reminded him. “And you didn’t hurt him, Potter did.”

He didn’t look convinced. Sarah knew the guilt of having needlessly caused another’s death, so she didn’t press him on the subject. “How’s Dudley doing?” she asked instead to change the subject.

“Still alive, last I heard. You might want to stop in and see him while you’re here. I doubt his lady love bothers to visit him in a place like this.”

“I still can’t believe they sent him to the hospital,” Sarah said in disgust.

“Did you expect Letitia to take him into her house?” Malloy asked with a grin.

“No, but she could have made arrangements for a private nurse in a better lodging house or something. Anything would be better than lying in a charity ward.”

“I figured Symington put him in the hospital hoping he’d die. You saw how disappointed he was when I told him Dudley was still alive.”

“Letitia wasn’t exactly happy, either,” Sarah said. “Apparently, her father had convinced her that protecting her reputation after Blackwell’s murder was the most important thing she could do, and a dead Dudley could never embarrass her. Do you think she’ll ever marry him now?”