Victoria Thompson - Murder On Waverly Place

“But now that Nicola is dead, she knows I’m going to stop investigating,” Malloy concluded.

“We could just ask her,” Sarah said.

“She’d lie,” Malloy said. “She wants to have her séance.”

“And what if she has it, and we still don’t figure out who killed Mrs. Gittings?” Mrs. Decker asked.

“Then there’s nothing else I can do, and I’ll be finished with this whole thing,” Malloy said with more than a trace of happy anticipation.

“You’d just give up?” Mrs. Decker asked in amazement.

“Mother, Malloy can’t badger people like Mr. Sharpe and Mrs. Burke, especially when he doesn’t have any reason to think they’re guilty. He’d lose his job,” Sarah said.

Mrs. Decker sighed. “I just wish there was something else I could do. Serafina is all alone in the world now, except for that Professor fellow, and I don’t trust him one bit.”

Malloy turned to Sarah. “Have you had a chance to ask Maeve what she thinks of Serafina?”

“No,” Sarah said, remembering that Malloy had suggested this the day he’d given her custody of the girl. “She seems awfully anxious to help her, though.”

“Or maybe she just wants to go to a séance,” Malloy countered.

“I don’t like the idea of her playing Mrs. Gittings’s part,” Sarah said with a frown.

“You can’t think someone would try to harm her,” Mrs. Decker said. “No one there even knows her.”

“I know, but still… I just feel uneasy about it.”

“Maeve can take care of herself,” Malloy reminded her.

Sarah remembered exactly how Maeve had taken care of herself just a few short weeks ago and shivered involuntarily. “I just wish we could be in the room during the séance, in case something happens.”

“We can be on the other side of the cabinet,” Malloy said reasonably. “We’ll hear everything that happens, and we can be in the room in a minute if we’re needed.”

“But what if the killer decides to…” Sarah stopped, trying to think of possible scenarios.

“What if he decides to do what?” Malloy prodded her. “Kill Madame Serafina? I think the killer was trying to help her by killing Mrs. Gittings, so why would he want to kill Serafina now? Nobody even knows Maeve, so she’s safe, and what reason does anybody have to kill any of the others? Also, nobody knows who the killer is, so nobody else is in danger of betraying him.”

“I know you’re right,” Sarah admitted.

“Of course I am,” he said without a trace of humility.

She glared at him. “I just hate the thought of her sitting there in the dark, helpless.”

Malloy considered this a moment. “I think I have something to make her a little less helpless.”

“Not a weapon,” Sarah protested.

“No, something better.”

Before she could question him, Maeve and Serafina returned to the kitchen. Maeve handed an envelope to Malloy. “This is for the Professor.”

“Is it going to make him run?” Malloy asked with a doubtful glance at the envelope.

“No, it should make him want to stay,” Serafina said. “I tell him I am going to keep doing the séances because I have no other way to support myself, and he is the only one who can help me.”

Malloy nodded his approval and tucked the envelope into his coat pocket.

Maeve handed Mrs. Decker a second envelope. “This is for Mrs. Burke.”

“I hope you haven’t frightened her too much,” Mrs. Decker said, accepting the envelope cautiously, with just two fingers, as if afraid it might explode.

“No, only a little,” Serafina assured her. “Just enough so she will come. I also told her I would not charge her for the sitting.”

“She’d be a fool to miss that opportunity,” Mrs. Decker said.

“Serafina, we were just discussing what Mr. Malloy and I should do during the séance,” Sarah said.

“You must do nothing. The others should also not know you are there. They will suspect something.”

“We thought we could go into that room behind the cabinet and listen to what’s happening.”

“No, no,” Serafina said. “If you open the false door during the séance, they might hear you. There is a better place to listen, in the kitchen. I will show you tomorrow.”

“What do you want me to do?” Maeve asked.

“Just be sure you are holding Mrs. Burke and Mr. Sharpe by the hand and do not let go. Mrs. Decker and I will be holding their other hands. Mrs. Decker and I will also be holding Mr. Cunningham’s hands.”

“You also must make sure no one lets go or keeps one hand free,” Sarah warned them.

“And what are you going to do?” Malloy asked Serafina.

She turned her amazing eyes on him for a long moment, then let her gaze drift until she’d touched everyone at the table with her silent power. “I am going to contact the spirits and ask them who the killer is.”

They could not get her to say more or to make any more plans. Serafina insisted she would not know what to do until she heard what the spirits told her.

Frustrated and weary with all of it, Malloy finally took his leave. “I need to go see the Professor before it gets too late. Maeve, will you see me to the door?” he asked.

The girl eagerly complied, leaving Sarah feeling unreasonably slighted. Maeve returned a few minutes later, looking oddly pleased, and Sarah wondered what he had needed to see her alone about. She would have to wait until much later to ask her.

THE PROFESSOR MUST HAVE BEEN WATCHING FOR VISITORS because he opened the door almost the instant Frank knocked.

“Have you found him?” the Professor demanded.

“Aren’t you even going to invite me in?”

The Professor stood back and waved him inside with ill-concealed impatience. “Have you found him?” he asked again as soon as he’d closed the front door behind them.

“Are you talking about DiLoreto?”

“Of course I am.”

“Not yet,” Frank lied. He saw no reason to go against Serafina’s wishes.

“Then why are you here?”

With a sigh of annoyance, Frank pulled Serafina’s note out of his pocket and handed it to him.

“What’s this?” he demanded, accepting it with suspicion.

“Read it and find out.” Frank turned away and wandered into the parlor in spite of not having been invited to make himself welcome. This time he paid closer attention to the furnishings, and this time he could see that everything looked slightly shabby and thrown together, as if the items had come from an auction of mixed lots, bought cheap and with an eye to filling space rather than comfort or style.

“She’s coming back tomorrow?” the Professor asked from the parlor doorway. He still held the note in his hand.

“That’s right. She’s invited everybody who was at the séance where Mrs. Gittings was killed to come back for another one. She wants you to have everything ready.”

“Does this mean she’s free?”

“She’s always been free.”

“I thought you were… holding her,” he said with a frown.

“I told you before, she wasn’t arrested. She was just staying with Mrs. Brandt for a while, but now she wants to start doing the séances again. She probably needs the money.”

“The boy didn’t contact her then,” he said with some satisfaction. “I didn’t think he would. Once he got the money, he didn’t need her anymore. He didn’t need any of us anymore.”

“But you still need Serafina, don’t you?” Frank asked.

“What do you mean?” he asked, suddenly wary.

“I mean the boy stole all the money you had. Without Serafina, how else can you make a living?”

“I would manage,” the Professor said, drawing himself up to his full height and gathering his dignity around him.