Victoria Thompson: Murder On Astor Place

“No!” VanDamm roared as thunder shook the house. “You killed my beautiful girl! Get out! Get out of my sight!”

“Father, please!” she begged, but he tore her hands away from his coat and shoved her from him.

“I’ll be glad to take her out of your sight,” Malloy said. “Would the women’s lockup be far enough?”

The look Mina turned on him was pure venom, and Sarah took a step backward just from instinct. “Malloy, I wouldn’t try to-” she began, but Mina interrupted her.

“You’ll never arrest a VanDamm,” she told him acidly. “Tell him, Father. You’d never allow it, would you? No matter what I’ve done or haven’t done.”

Everyone looked at VanDamm, and for a moment, Sarah believed he would forbid Malloy to take her. As much as he might despise her for killing Alicia, he would have to risk losing everything he prized in life in order to see his daughter arrested and tried for murder. But to her surprise, his expression hardened. His dark mustache stood out boldly against his pale skin, and sweat dampened his forehead, but he held his head high as he said, “You killed Alicia. How can you think I would care what happened to you?”

The sound she made was so anguished, it chilled Sarah’s blood, and for a moment she thought Mina might attack her own father out of sheer rage. But the balled fists struck his chest in frustration, not fury, and when he grabbed her wrists to hold her, she wrenched free, and with one last shriek, she picked up her skirts and ran.

Malloy would have stopped her if she’d headed for the front door, but she went for the stairs instead, charging up them as if all the devils of hell pursued her, and she surely put Malloy into that category.

She slammed past her mother, and for a second it looked as if Mrs. VanDamm might go toppling over the banister, but before anyone could think to catch her, she’d grabbed hold and clung as Mina ran by her up the stairs.

“Can she get out that way?” Malloy asked Alfred.

“Not unless she jumps out a window,” the old butler replied.

“Mr. VanDamm,” Sarah asked in alarm. “Are you really going to let Malloy arrest her?”

“Of course not,” Mrs. VanDamm said unsteadily as she sank down onto one of the steps. “He was only trying to frighten her. They’d throw him out of his club if his daughter was hanged.”

“Shut up, Francisca,” VanDamm said wearily. He was still rubbing his chest absently, as if the pain had vanished but he wanted to be ready in case it returned. Sarah could literally see him gathering the remnants of his pride and self-confidence around him again as he struggled to regain his dignity.

Why this should be so important to him when she and Malloy now knew the filthiest secrets about him, she had no idea, but it was, as evidenced by the power he still seemed to believe he possessed.

“You’ve done your job, Detective Sergeant,” he told Malloy. “You found Alicia’s murderer, and now you may go.”

“I have to arrest her,” Malloy said, stubborn to the last. “She killed three people. No one who knows that is safe now, not even you.”

Whether VanDamm believed him or not, they never learned, because the sound of running feet upstairs distracted them.

“Mr. VanDamm!” a voice cried from abovestairs, and in another moment, a maid appeared on the landing. “Mr. VanDamm! Miss Mina went up on the roof! I tried to stop her. The storm’s that bad, I told her, but she wouldn’t listen. She just opened the door and…”

By then Malloy was halfway up the stairs, taking them two at a time in determined leaps. Sarah started after him, but VanDamm almost knocked her over as he rushed past, pushing her out of the way. Outside, a flash of lightning lit the room as bright as day, illuminating Mrs. VanDamm’s fragile features. Sarah knew she would never forget the expression on that face.

She would have expected fear or shock, or even horror and disbelief. Instead she saw pure, naked triumph as she raced up the stairs behind the men.

SARAH WAS CURSING THE TIGHTNESS OF HER CORSETS by the time she reached the dark, narrow stairway to the roof. Gasping for breath, she stared up at the gaping doorway above her. For an instant, another flash of lightning revealed the raging storm through the opening. The driving rain had washed halfway down the stairs, and the cold, damp air swept past her to invade the rest of the house.

Thunder cracked, making her jump. Only a fool would go out into this.

Then she heard a shrieked, “No!” and she was galvanized.

Gathering her skirts in both hands, she clattered upward, sliding and nearly losing her balance on the wet steps but finally launching herself out onto the roof. The storm attacked her, lashing at her hair and her face and her clothes, trying to tear her apart, and for a second she was blind. The darkness and rain and wind obscured everything, but then, in another flash of lightning, she saw them.

They were standing at the edge of the roof. Mina was on the low ledge that encircled it, holding on to some pole for balance while her father pleaded with her. “This is crazy, Mina! Get down from there! You can’t believe I’d let them take you to jail!”

“You’re just worried that I’ll embarrass you if I jump!” she accused, clinging tightly to the pole but perilously close to being swept over the ledge by the force of the wind. “If I kill myself, you won’t be able to explain it to your friends!”

“Is that what you want? To become an ugly piece of gossip that women whisper about over afternoon tea?” he shouted.

“I won’t care what happens when I’m dead!” she cried, throwing back her head as if daring the storm to take her. The rain had drenched her, turning her hair into a sodden mass and molding her dress to her body.

It drenched Sarah as well, drowning and stinging and chilling her, but still she inched forward, compelled to get closer. Perhaps if she could sneak up unnoticed, she could grab Mina and…

“Don’t come any closer!” Mina screamed, halting Sarah in her tracks, but she wasn’t even looking at Sarah. In fact, she probably hadn’t even noticed Sarah, who was still in the shadows. Malloy was the object of her warning. He’d been edging around, working his way up behind Mina, but now he stopped, too. They all stood like statues, frozen in the darkness for that awful moment in time.

“Mina, give me your hand!” her father commanded. “Let’s go inside where we can talk this over like civilized people!”

A lightning flash illuminated them, bleaching all the color from their faces but starkly revealing the expressions on those faces. Mina still clung to the pole as the rain and wind tore at her. VanDamm stood tall and straight, looking powerful enough to force her down using his will alone. He reached out confidently, as if he could not imagine her refusing his order.

“Come here, Mina,” he said. “You’re making a fool of yourself.”

That was when Sarah realized Malloy had moved. He was closer now. Mina hadn’t noticed because she was watching her father, but Sarah saw he was going to be close enough to grab her in another few steps. Forgotten, Sarah stole through the shadows, ready to help him when he made his move. He’d need that help. If Mina decided to jump, Malloy wouldn’t be able to hold her alone.

Her sodden dress weighed her down as she tried to hurry, but at last she was close enough to smell the wet wool of Malloy’s suit and to hear Mina’s frightened animal sounds above the roar of the storm. She must have finally realized her peril. If she let go of the pole, the wind might sweep her off the wall and over the side of the house where she would be dashed to her death on the cobbles below.