“Suppose what?” Malloy asked with interest.
“That young man, he could have waited for her or seen her leaving. He could have followed her and started quarreling with her again,” she said, shaking her head. “I never should have let her leave the house that night.” With a graceful gesture, she pulled a lace-trimmed handkerchief from her sleeve and dabbed at her eyes, even though Sarah saw no visible tears.
Malloy ushered Sarah out of Anna’s room, and Mrs. Walcott closed the door behind them.
“Is there any other way I can assist you?” Mrs. Walcott asked as they made their way down the stairs.
Malloy waited until they had reached the front hallway before replying. “I can’t think of anything… Oh, wait, there was something. One of your neighbors said she heard your cellar door opening late that night. Could you explain that?”
Mrs. Walcott blinked in surprise and looked a bit nonplussed. “Yes, I can, although it’s a bit embarrassing. And it can’t have anything at all to do with Anna’s death. You see, my maid has been complaining about an odor in the cellar. She thought some small animal had died down there, although we couldn’t find anything. I opened the cellar door in an attempt to air it out.”
“In the middle of the night?” Malloy asked skeptically.
“It wasn’t the middle of the night,” she said, waving such a thought away with her handkerchief. “I did wait until full dark, though. Leaving one’s cellar door open in the daylight is simply inviting someone to sneak in and steal something. I didn’t think anyone would see that it was open in the dark, though.”
Malloy nodded. “Did the odor go away?”
“No, but I asked my husband to spread some lime, and that helped. I’m afraid the poor dead creature is in one of the walls. We’re just going to have to wait for nature to take its course, I suppose.”
Sarah and Malloy took their leave, although Sarah was loath to go out. The sky looked even more threatening than before, and the wind was picking up. She hoped she could get home before the storm broke. And how would she get to her parents’ house tonight without getting soaked? She didn’t want to look like a drowned rat when she was trying to convince Mr. Dennis not to dismiss Nelson Ellsworth from the bank. But of course, she had no choice about going out. Mrs. Walcott certainly wasn’t going to invite her to stay.
As soon as they were safely away from the house, Sarah let Malloy know how displeased she was. “How long were you questioning her before I arrived?”
He gave her a measuring look, although she could see the amused glimmer in his dark eyes. “I’d only just gotten there myself. Do you think I’d presume to do my job without your assistance, Mrs. Brandt?”
She decided not to press the issue, since they both knew she had no right to assist him at all. “Did you see that case of face paint in Anna’s room?”
“Yes. What would she have done with something like that?”
“Painted her face, obviously,” Sarah said, “although she wasn’t painted when I saw her, at least not noticeably. I doubt someone who was would have appealed to Nelson, in any case. Anna’s allure was her apparent youthful innocence and helplessness. Only a prostitute would need that kind of paint for her face.”
“Do you think she was a prostitute before she met Nelson?”
Sarah considered. “If she was, she must have been a high-class one. She had a gentility about her that you don’t see in street walkers.”
“High-class whores don’t paint their faces like the street walkers do, either,” Malloy informed her, “for the same reason Anna Blake didn’t.”
“I bow to your more extensive experience in such matters,” Sarah couldn’t resist saying. “But then why would she need so much paint? It had obviously been used a lot, so she must have needed it at some time in her life.”
“What other kind of women paint their faces?” Malloy asked, thinking aloud.
The answer was so obvious, Sarah felt foolish. “Actresses!”
“Stage actresses,” Malloy agreed. “Could she have been an actress?”
“Of course, it makes perfect sense!” Sarah cried in triumph. “And I’d forgotten, Catherine Porter was an actress, too. The maid mentioned it, and she admitted it. Anna-and probably Catherine, too-was pretending to be an innocent girl, telling Nelson and Giddings outrageous lies but making them believe her stories. She was so convincing, they never doubted her for a moment, either!”
“To the point where Giddings was willing to jeopardize everything he had to take care of her.”
“Exactly! That’s how she could be so convincing. In fact, I remember thinking the first time I met her that Nelson had gotten himself into a melodrama.”
“Actresses aren’t generally known for their strict moral standards, either,” Malloy remarked.
“So they wouldn’t mind the necessary seduction,” Sarah said, deciding she’d better get hold of her hat before it blew right off her head.
“Or the lying,” Malloy said, holding on to his own hat. “And in Nelson’s case, at least, I don’t think the seduction even happened.”
“What?”
Malloy gave her a sideways glance. “There was only one… uh, incident. Nelson was overcome by drink at the time, and he doesn’t actually remember what happened.”
“If he was overcome with drink, nothing could have happened,” Sarah pointed out indignantly.
Malloy frowned in disapproval. She supposed he didn’t think she should know such an obviously masculine secret. “Our Mr. Ellsworth doesn’t seem to be aware of that.”
“If he doesn’t remember, then what makes him think he did anything?” Sarah demanded.
“Miss Blake told him all about it. Tearfully.”
Sarah groaned. “How could he be so stupid?”
“I’m afraid that’s a mystery I don’t have any hope of solving, so I’m going to content myself with just trying to figure out who killed her.”
“If she was an actress, at least we can find out some more about her. Someone will know her at the theaters. We could ask around.”
“Why?” Malloy asked with another frown.
“She might have had enemies before she ever met Nelson,” Sarah suggested hopefully. “There might be dozens of people she knew before who wanted her dead.”
Malloy gave her a pitying look.
“But it’s not very likely, is it?” Sarah admitted.
Malloy shrugged. “There’s always a chance. But I think Giddings is a better chance. He had very good reason to want Anna Blake dead.”
“Except he didn’t act like a killer that day he came to the house looking for her. He was genuinely distraught when he found out she was dead.”
“Or maybe he’s as good an actor as Anna Blake. He wasn’t home when I went to his house, so I didn’t get a chance to question him any more. I’ll try again tomorrow, and if he’s not home, I’ll find him this time.”
Sarah remembered something else. “Who do you think the young man was who visited Anna that night?”
“I think it was Giddings’s son, Harold. He knew about Anna, and he wasn’t happy about her. His family lost everything because of her. When Giddings got caught stealing from his law firm, he had to sell everything he owned to repay the debt, including their furniture.”
Sarah winced. “How humiliating. His wife must be devastated.”
“She’s hiding it pretty well, trying to keep up a good front for the boy, I guess. But she’s got to hate Anna Blake, too.”
“Oh, my, do you think Mrs. Giddings could be the killer?” Sarah asked with genuine interest.
“Women commit murder, too,” he reminded her.
She knew that only too well. “Did Mrs. Giddings strike you as a murderess?”
“Not really, but you can never tell about that kind of woman. They’re good at hiding their real feelings.”