Victoria Thompson - Murder On Mulberry Bend

Sarah couldn’t take offense at that. Mrs. Wells was absolutely correct. “You’ll be happy to know that Mr. Malloy is unusually conscientious. He has also promised to do everything he can to find out who killed Emilia so brutally and bring her killer to justice.”

The blood seemed to drain from the other woman’s face, and she pressed a handkerchief to her lips. Sarah instantly regretted reminding her so coldly of Emilia’s death.

“Are you ill?” Sarah asked in concern, leaning forward and ready to catch her if she fainted.

“No, I’m fine,” she said, a little weakly. She drew a deep breath and forced herself to look up at Sarah as if to prove her assessment of her own condition. “That poor, dear girl. It’s just been very difficult…”

“I’m sure it has. The other girls must be terribly upset.”

“I’ve tried to set a good example, of course,” Mrs. Wells explained. “We must not grieve for those who have gone to be with the Lord. They are much happier than we can ever imagine.”

Sarah supposed this was a good way to deal with grief. She liked to think of Tom as living happily in the hereafter. It had never been enough to make her content to live without him, however. “I suppose Emilia had a very unhappy life before she came here,” she ventured, hoping to allow Mrs. Wells an opportunity to tell her about the girl in whom she had invested so much effort. As Sarah knew, talking about the deceased helped ease the pain of loss. Not to mention, she might reveal some useful information in the process.

“Her family was no worse than most, I suppose,” Mrs. Wells said, not looking at Sarah. She seemed to be speaking more to herself, lost in her own memories. “The Italians are of an emotional temperament, as I’m sure you know. Emilia was a sensitive girl. She suffered more than most under her parents’ inability to control themselves. I’m afraid that made her easy prey for the wrong kind of man.”

“You mentioned that she had been seduced by a man who wouldn’t marry her,” Sarah reminded her.

“Emilia wasn’t his first conquest, I’m afraid. He promised her marriage, but he had no intention of keeping that promise. Why should he when Emilia had already granted him every privilege of marriage without it?”

Sarah had heard this same story many times, innocent girls betrayed by faithless lovers.

“How did she come to the mission?” Sarah asked.

Mrs. Wells sighed. “The first time she was desperate. When her lover refused to marry her, she had enough self-respect left to leave him, but her parents refused to take her back. She’d disgraced them, they said. As if people like that had any honor to begin with.”

Her contempt was probably well deserved, Sarah thought. People who turned a child away were despicable. “So she came to the mission?” Sarah guessed.

“Not then,” Mrs. Wells said with a sigh. “She allowed herself to be deceived by yet another man who was even worse than the first one. This one forced her to… to sell herself in the streets.”

Sarah winced. Too many girls ended up in this situation, never to escape. “How did she manage to get away from him?”

“She became ill, and he threw her out. She wandered the streets and ended up on our doorstep.”

“She was fortunate.”

Mrs. Wells gave her a sad smile. “I only wish she had realized it. As soon as she was well, she left us.”

“She went back to her pimp?” Sarah asked in amazement.

“At least it wasn’t that bad,” Mrs. Wells said. “She returned to the man who had originally seduced her. She still loved him, and she was grateful he still wanted her after what she’d done.”

“Did he promise to marry her this time?”

Mrs. Wells shook her head. “She didn’t care. She just wanted someone to love her, she said. And someone who wouldn’t make her walk the streets again.”

Sarah’s heart ached for a girl so desperate for love that she would believe any lie and endure any humiliation. “What brought her back to the mission?”

“She found herself with child. She begged her lover to marry her, for the sake of the baby, but he refused. He said he couldn’t even be sure the child was his. Then he beat her until she lost the baby.”

Sarah couldn’t hold back a low moan. She could feel Emilia’s pain and the despair she must have endured after losing her baby. “So that brought her back here,” she guessed.

“I’m afraid so. God works in mysterious ways, Mrs. Brandt, and all things work together for good. We cannot question why evil things happen if they lead us to Him.”

Sarah had long since stopped trying to understand why evil things happened. “She seemed very happy when I saw her on Sunday.”

“She was very pleased when I gave her the clothing you brought. She said that now she would look like a lady.” Mrs. Wells smiled sadly at the memory. “She was going to find work today.”

Sarah could just imagine how excited the girl must have been, setting out in her “new” outfit to start a new life. What had taken her to the park this morning, instead, and who had killed her?

“Do you know where she was going?”

“She was going to look for a job in one of the factories nearby, making clothes. She had developed into a fine seamstress.”

“Why would she have been down by City Hall?”

“I… I can’t imagine,” she said. “I don’t want to believe she lied about where she was going.” Plainly, the thought pained her.

“Could she have gone to meet someone?” Sarah asked.

Mrs. Wells winced slightly. “Your friend, Mr. Malloy, asked me the same thing,” she said. “I told him I didn’t know. I’m sure if Emilia was meeting a lover, she wouldn’t have let anyone here know it.”

That did seem reasonable. “I guess you couldn’t blame her if she wanted someone she knew to see her all dressed up,” Sarah said.

Mrs. Wells lowered her gaze, studying her folded hands for a long moment. “She did say…” she began, then caught herself.

“What did she say?” Sarah asked. “It might be a clue to who killed her.”

Plainly, Mrs. Wells did not want to tell her. “One of the girls told me… You must understand, I’m sure Emilia was just talking when she said it.”

Sarah nodded encouragingly.

“She said she wished Ugo could see her. That is the man who beat her.”

Sarah tried not to let her excitement show. This could be a clue as to who killed Emilia, but she didn’t want to alarm Mrs. Wells or frighten her. “It would be perfectly natural for her to want him see how beautiful she is and to regret losing her,” she said.

“ ‘Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain,’ ” she quoted with a hint of despair in her voice. “In Emilia’s case, I’m afraid it may also have killed her.”

“Do you think that’s what she did? Meet her lover to let him see what he’d lost or even to make him want to take her back?”

“It’s possible. Heaven knows, I’ve seen girls do things even more foolish. And this Ugo is prone to violence, as he proved before.”

“Did you tell this to Mr. Malloy?” Sarah asked.

Mrs. Wells shook her head. “I’m afraid I didn’t think of it. He asked me the name of her family, of course. And I also told him her lover was named Ugo. I never heard his last name.”

“I’m sure her family will know it,” Sarah said. “Malloy should know that she might have gone to meet him this morning, though.”

“Would you have the opportunity to tell him?” Mrs. Wells asked. “I’m afraid I’d rather not discuss it any further. It’s rather painful, and I… Well, I’d really rather not deal with the police anymore.”

“Of course. I’ll be glad to tell him,” Sarah said. No one ever wanted to deal with the police.