Victoria Thompson: Murder On Astor Place

“Don’t open the door!” Mina shouted behind her. “Stop her, Alfred!”

The ancient butler had just entered the hallway, but he wasn’t quick enough. Sarah pushed past him, nearly knocking him over. She’d just turned the lock when Mina collided with her, determined to bar the way, but whoever was on the other side of the door wasn’t going to be denied. The door burst open, slamming the two women against the wall behind the heavy oaken door.

The storm washed in on wind-driven waves, carrying their visitor with it. He was drenched and buffeted, but in the split-second of the next lightning flash, Sarah saw his face.

“Malloy!” she cried, unable to remember being so happy to see anyone in her life.

Behind her, Mina swore a colorful oath, shocking Sarah, but only for a moment. Galvanized, she instinctively tried to shut the door against the storm again, pushing with all her weight. Suddenly, someone was with her, and between the two of them, they got the door closed again. Glancing up, she saw it was Alfred who had rushed to assist her. Everyone else remained where they had been as if frozen.

When Sarah turned, Malloy saw her for the first time.

“What are you doing here?” he snapped as water ran from his clothes, pooling on the polished floor at his feet, and she heard Mina’s cry of triumph at the evidence of Sarah’s lie. Not that it mattered now.

“I found out something about them,” she told him with a triumph of her own. She wasn’t going to let him know that just moments ago she’d feared for her life and especially not that he had probably rescued her.

Malloy removed his bowler hat and shook the water from it. “Do you know who Alicia’s lover was?” he asked with mild curiosity, eliciting another cry from Mina, this time of protest.

Sarah felt her blood quicken. Malloy knew. He knew who the killer was.

“It was Mattingly, wasn’t it?” she guessed, almost forgetting about the others in her desperation to know the truth at last.

But Malloy only shook his head and turned to face VanDamm. “I found Alicia’s diary,” he told him.

VanDamm’s face lost every ounce of color, although he managed to hold himself perfectly erect. But Mina gave him no chance to reply.

“He’s lying! Her diary was lost! Even Mattingly’s man couldn’t find it when he searched her room! Don’t believe him, Father!”

“Believe me, VanDamm. I know who seduced Alicia and got her with child. I know everything.”

VanDamm reached out a hand and braced it against the wall, as if he no longer trusted his legs to hold him steady.

“Father, don’t!” Mina cried, rushing to him. “No one will believe him!” She tried to take his arm, but he shook her off.

“They’ll believe Alicia,” Malloy said, placing his hat carefully back on his head. “I told you, I’ve got her diary.”

Sarah had lost patience. “I don’t understand. Who was Alicia’s lover if it wasn’t Mattingly?”

“It was that groom,” Mina insisted. “He was with her every day. I told Father it wasn’t right, but he wouldn’t listen to me. Harvey was an adventurer who thought he’d make his fortune if he-”

“Stop it, Mina!” her father snapped.

“It’s true, I tell you!” she continued, ignoring him. “He’s at Greentree. He killed her, too, when he found out he wasn’t going to get any of our money!”

“And then he killed himself out of remorse, I guess,” Malloy said mildly.

“What?” Sarah asked.

“Harvey is dead,” Malloy said, still addressing the VanDamms. “Looks like he hanged himself.”

“Good heavens!” Sarah murmured, but no one paid her any attention.

“You see,” Mina said. “That’s it. He killed her, and out of guilt, he hanged himself.”

“Except he didn’t hang himself,” Malloy said, confusing Sarah even more. “And he didn’t seduce Alicia. But you already knew that, didn’t you, VanDamm?”

VanDamm shook his head. His mouth worked but no sound emerged.

“Then who was it?” Sarah asked, at the end of her patience. “Who fathered Alicia’s child and killed her and Harvey? There’s nobody left!”

Malloy’s face twisted with distaste. “Her father is left. Her own father.”

“No!” Mina wailed as VanDamm seemed to shrink right before Sarah’s eyes. “No one will believe them, Father! No one will take their word over yours!”

“The diary,” VanDamm croaked, as Sarah tried to grasp what Malloy was saying. It couldn’t be true. It was too horrible.

“Where is it?” Mina turned on Malloy like a tigress, as if she intended to take it by force from his person.

“I put it in a safe place,” he said. “You didn’t think I’d bring it here, did you?”

VanDamm seemed to be having trouble breathing. “If it’s money you want…”

“We’ll pay you,” Mina finished for him. “We’ll make you a wealthy man. Just give us the diary.”

“And let him get away with incest and murder?” Frank scoffed.

“I never killed anyone,” VanDamm insisted. He was gasping for breath.

“You’re wasting your time,” Frank told him. “A witness saw you coming out of the house after Alicia was killed.”

“No, that’s impossible!” he insisted weakly.

“Who is this witness?” Mina asked disdainfully.

“Someone very reliable,” Malloy said.

“It must be a cat, if he was able to see in the dark and identify my father,” Mina said. “No one will believe him.”

“What about this abortionist that you say was there?” VanDamm asked, rallying a bit as he grasped at this straw. “Couldn’t she have killed Alicia?”

“If she did, then why did someone kill her?” Malloy countered. “No, I think she went there with the man who killed Alicia, and then he killed her to keep her quiet. Mr. VanDamm, you’ve been very busy.”

“I didn’t… I wasn’t… I was at my club that night,” he finally managed, his hand pressed to his heart as if he was in pain. “Playing whist with Sarah’s father.”

He looked at Sarah as if for confirmation, but she could only stare back at him, seeing him now for the very first time as what he truly was.

“A dozen men saw me there,” he added when he received no help from Sarah. “They’ll tell you. I didn’t even know where Alicia was until the next morning.”

Malloy glanced at Sarah. “Would your father lie to protect him?”

“No.” Her father had many faults, but he valued his reputation as a man of his word, and he certainly wouldn’t protect a killer.

“Then that’s a foolish lie, VanDamm,” Malloy tried, but VanDamm didn’t blink.

“It’s the God’s truth, I swear it. I’d never hurt Alicia.”

“You’d never hurt Alicia!” Sarah echoed horrified. “You raped her and got her with child! Your own daughter!”

“It wasn’t rape!” he cried in anguish. “Alicia was willing. She loved me, and I loved her. She was everything to me.” His voice broke, and he covered his face with one hand, still supporting himself with the other.

“Father, don’t!” Mina pleaded, wrapping her arms around him. “You still have me!”

He tried to push her away, his discomfort obvious. “Mina, please,” he tried, but she clung to him fiercely.

“I love you, too!” she insisted. “I’ve always loved you! We still have each other, and now it can be just like it was before she came!”

Sarah watched in horrified fascination as the father and daughter each struggled to prevail, but before the battle could be decided, a voice said, “Can’t you see he doesn’t want you?”

They all looked up in surprise to see Mrs. VanDamm on the stairs. She wore a frilly dressing gown which she clutched to her throat with one of her clawlike hands. With the other, she held onto the banister, as if afraid she might pitch headlong down the stairs if she let go.