Read Online Murder In Chinatown by Victoria Thompson - Free Book Online Page B

the police, but my mother says they’ll come anyway, because Angel was murdered, so we might as well try to get somebody who can help.”
    “Tell me what happened,” Sarah said.
    He drew a deep breath, as if he had to calm himself a bit before he spoke of his sister. “We found Angel a few days ago. She was alive then, and with that man, O’Neal.” Sarah tried to judge why he was so angry, but everything he said just seemed to make him angrier instead of distracting him, as it should have.
    “The one who had eloped with her,” Sarah clarified.
    “Yeah, they got married.”
    “Oh, my!” Sarah exclaimed in surprise. “I never thought…”
    “Neither did my parents,” he said bitterly. “We couldn’t believe she was really married, but they had a license and went to a priest and everything.”
    That must have been such a relief to Minnie, to know her daughter was safe, at least. And now she was dead! “What happened? When did she die?”
    “Today. I mean, they think it was today. They found her in the alley behind the tenement where she lives…lived with O’Neal. Somebody ran to tell my mother right away. When she saw what had happened, she said to get you because you’d know what to do.”
    Sarah knew exactly what to do. “Maeve, I have to go out,” she called. By the time Maeve and Catherine had emerged from the kitchen, she had on her cloak. She kissed a worried-looking Catherine good-bye and reassured her that everything would be fine. Then she gave Maeve instructions for the evening. Mrs. Ellsworth would undoubtedly check on them, too. She nearly always came by after supper.
    When she and Harry were out on the sidewalk, she asked, “Where did your sister live?”
    He gave her an address on the Lower East Side. It was only a few blocks from Chinatown, but it might as well have been in another country for as much as the people in the two neighborhoods would have mixed. The whole city was like that, each neighborhood like a country unto itself. “Let’s start there.”
    “Aren’t you going to get that policeman?” he asked doubtfully.
    “Let’s worry about that when we get there, shall we?” she suggested and hurried off, leaving him to keep up as best he could. Sarah knew she was unlikely to catch Malloy at Police Headquarters. Her best bet was to have the officers who had been called to Angel’s murder send for Malloy directly. Even if another detective had already been assigned to the case, she could appeal to him to send for Malloy, too.
    As they hurried down Bank Street, Sarah mentally went over the various routes they might take to the Lower East Side. She quickly determined that the Sixth Avenue Elevated Train would be the best choice. The trains that ran on rails two stories above the hopeless traffic of the city streets would carry them swiftly down to that portion of Manhattan Island. They’d have to walk across town from there, but the train would probably cut an hour from their trip.
    Harry Lee preceded Sarah up the stairs on Sixth Avenue that led up to the waiting area. She couldn’t help but notice the way people stared at him as they passed. He did look very different, with his dome-shaped hat, his brightly colored silk shirt, and the long pigtail hanging down his back.
    Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait long for a train, and Sarah paid the fare for both of them. The train lurched into motion before they were seated, and Sarah half fell into a seat. With apparent reluctance, Harry sat down beside her. This elicited some disapproving looks from the other passengers, but Sarah ignored them.
    Grateful for a chance to ask him a few questions, she said, “How long ago did you find out where your sister was?”
    She saw the muscles in his jaw working in the moments that passed before he replied. “Three days, I think. About that.”
    “Did you see her?”
    His gaze cut sharply to Sarah for an instant before he looked away again. Sarah noticed that his eyes were light brown,