As we were coming downstairs there was a loud knock at my front door, then I heard it opening and Daniel’s voice calling from the hallway, “Molly? Where are you?”
“Upstairs,” I shouted back. “I’ll be down right away.”
I hadn’t thought about how strange it must look to see me coming downstairs with Dr. Birnbaum at my heels, but I read it instantly in Daniel’s surprised face.
“Hello, Daniel,” I said brightly. “Dr. Birnbaum has been visiting my patient upstairs.”
“Your patient?”
“The girl from the snowdrift. I brought her here in the hopes that Dr. Birnbaum can restore her speech and her sanity.”
“You brought her here?” Daniel’s impressive eyebrows rose. “As if you don’t have enough on your plate right now without looking after invalids.”
“I realize that,” I said, “but I had little alternative. I had to stop them from carting her off to the lunatic asylum.”
Daniel shook his head. “Molly, sometimes I despair of you. The word sensible just isn’t part of your vocabulary. What were you thinking? We know nothing about this girl and you are certainly not in any way equipped to take care of someone who may very well prove to be insane.”
“With all respect, Captain Sullivan, I don’t believe so,” Dr. Birnbaum said. “I have just tried hypnosis on the young woman and I think I can verify that she led a normal life until some recent and grave trauma, the shock of which was so terrible that she has retreated from the present, blocked all memories, and is protecting herself by existing in a safe cocoon of not knowing. With patient and gentle care I think we may well be able to bring her back.”
“And in the meantime who is to pay for her food and her care?”
“I shall not charge for my services,” Dr. Birnbaum said frostily.
“And I don’t mind feeding her.”
“But who looks after her when you are rushing around doing the thousand and one other tasks to which you have committed yourself?” Daniel demanded.
“That is a wee bit of a problem,” I agreed, “but let us hope it won’t be for long. Dr. Birnbaum has placed advertisements in the newspapers. We are hopeful that someone will be looking for her and glad to have her safely home.”
“And if not?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” I said firmly. “I have taken on this responsibility, Daniel, not you. It’s up to me to handle it.”
I saw him frown, but he said nothing.
“And I should bid you farewell, Miss Murphy,” Dr. Birnbaum said. “If I hurry I will be in time for the next mass at St. Joseph’s and still be able to make a luncheon appointment with friends.” He gave his funny little bow.
“Thank you so much, Doctor. I know you’re going to be able to help her.”
“We shall have to see,” he said cautiously. “Until tomorrow, then.”
And he went.
Daniel was still frowning.
“Molly, what am I going to do with you?”
“Nobody is asking you to do anything with me,” I said, “except cherish me, perhaps. Love me.”
“You know I do,” he said. “But I can’t help wanting to keep you from all these difficult situations you get yourself into. It’s human nature, Molly. The man wants to protect the woman.”
“I don’t need protecting, Daniel,” I said. “At least not most of the time.” Then I grinned, the frown left his face, and he wrapped me in his arms.
“You really are the most infuriating woman, do you know that?”
“Possibly,” I said. “but I’m glad you’ve come. You got my note about Miss Van Woekem?”
“I’ve already been to see that lady prior to coming to you,” Daniel said. “I understand that you volunteered my services—as your employee, I gather.”
“I didn’t put it like that,” I said, “and anyway it was Miss Van Woekem who suggested that you might have time and expert knowledge to help her.”
“As it was she left me little chance to refuse,” he said. “I thought that today, being Sunday, we might take a trip to New Haven together. It is a day on which one usually finds people at home.”
“I would love to,” I said, “but—”
“But now you have a young woman upstairs who needs constant care. If you must have her here, Molly, then you’d better hire a nurse.”
“I suppose so,” I said, “but I can’t locate a good nurse on a Sunday, can I?”
“Your friends across the street, maybe?”
“And I can’t keep asking them to do me favors. They lead very social lives.”
He sighed. “I would have preferred not to go to New Haven alone. And I had hoped that, being Sunday, it would be the one night when you would not have commitments at that blasted theater.”
“Your language in my presence is becoming remarkably coarse,” I said primly. “You sound like Blanche Lovejoy.”
“She swears, does she?” He was looking amused now.
“Like a trooper.”
“And have you come face-to-face with the ghost yet? I saw the headlines in the newspapers. The press is lapping it up, making it sound as if the whole theater is under a curse.”
“It’s not funny, Daniel. As a matter of fact I did witness the ghost yesterday. A jug of lemonade leaped off the table, all over Miss Lovejoy, and I’m dashed if I can explain how it was done.”
“Nobody within reach to accidentally nudge the jug?”
“Only two actors on the stage and neither of them touching the table.”
“A piece of black twine, maybe? A quick jerk?”
“I examined the jug and the table for something like that. There was nothing.”
“I don’t believe in ghosts, spirits, phantoms, or anything of that nature,” Daniel said. “Keep looking. There will be a logical explanation.”
“In the meantime Miss Lovejoy left in hysterics and has threatened to close the show before it opens on Tuesday. She’s furious with me because I haven’t managed to apprehend the ghost yet.”
“Then you sound as if you need a day out. Could the girl be left, if you put out food for her?”
“I’d rather not,” I said. “I’m not sure how steady she is on her feet. What if she wandered off again, or fell down the stairs.”
“Blast it,” Daniel said, slapping a fist into his palm. “Isn’t there anybody you could call upon?”
“Do you think your landlady would keep an eye on her?”
“I suppose she might,” Daniel agreed.
“We could take her in a cab, I suppose,” I said, “but I hate to disturb her again when she is finally lying peacefully. I have to go to the dispensary and have a prescription filled for a sedative for her. Dr. Birnbaum thinks that sleep is the best medicine at the moment.”
“That’s it. Then she’ll sleep all day,” Daniel said.
“Daniel, I can’t leave her, even if she’s asleep,” I said.
“Then how do you plan to go to the theater every night?”
“As you say, I’ll have to find somebody. Maybe the woman who comes in to do Sid and Gus’s ironing may know of someone. I’ll ask them.”
As if on cue there was a light tap at the front door. My face lit up. “That will be them now.” I ran to open it, but no Sid and Gus stood there, instead an austere figure in navy blue.
“Mrs. Goodwin,” I exclaimed. “How good of you to call. Come in, please.” I ushered her inside. “Look who is here, Daniel. You know Mrs. Goodwin, don’t you?”
“Captain Sullivan,” she said evenly.
“Mrs. Goodwin. How are you?”
I noticed the difference in the responses instantly. Daniel’s was hearty, cordial, hers was restrained. Perhaps she still was not completely convinced that Daniel had had no part in the death of her husband at the hands of a gang. Or perhaps she was merely being deferential to a superior officer.
“I am well, thank you, Captain Sullivan,” she said. “A little tired after several shifts on night duty.”
“I know how that can be,” Daniel said. “In truth I long to be back with such inconveniences, rather than idling my hours away.”
“Has your situation not resolved itself yet?”
“And won’t be as long as John Partridge is police commissioner. I’m afraid that men like him do not want to lose face by admitting that they made a mistake. At the moment I am still on suspension, pending an inquiry which will probably never happen.”
“That is too bad,” she said. “Your fellow officers often speak of you and wish you were back among them.”
“Fortunately, Partridge may only be commissioner a few more weeks,” Daniel said, “and one hopes his replacement will look upon my case more favorably.”
“Would you both like some tea?” I asked. “I haven’t yet acquired the skill to make coffee.”
“Tea would be most welcome, thank you.” Mrs. Goodwin smiled at me. “I’ve come straight from night duty, but I thought you’d probably want to know the results of my investigation for you.”
“Investigation?” Daniel looked at me inquiringly.
“To see if any missing girls matched the description of our patient.”
“Oh, of course. Good idea,” he said. “And have you come up with anything?”
“I don’t believe so. Not based on the description that Molly gave me.” She took out a notebook and started reading off names.
“Frieda Hupfer. German. Ran off with unsuitable young man. Believed heading for New York. Described as blond, five foot one, well padded.”
“That’s not our girl,” I said. “She is sleeping upstairs. Come and see for yourself.”
“You have her here now?”
“Molly agreed to look after her for a few days, since she could no longer stay in hospital,” Daniel said quickly before I could reply.
“That was most generous of you,” Mrs. Goodwin said.
“I felt responsible for her, since I was the one who discovered her,” I said.
We tiptoed up and looked at the sleeping girl. As we came down again Mrs. Goodwin shook her head. “Then I’d say that none of the young women on this list is she.”
“We’ve placed an advertisement in the newspapers.” I poured boiling water into the teapot and set out cups and saucers. “And tomorrow we can revise it with a name. She has lost the power of speech but in her moaning we are fairly sure that she said the name “Annie.”
Mrs. Goodwin scanned her list again. “I have no lost girl called Annie on this list,” she said, “but as I explained before, New York is a magnet. Girls from all over the country run away to the big city. This Annie could have started out in South Carolina or even California.”
“It seems rather hopeless to me,” Daniel said.
“I disagree,” I said. “Think of how she was dressed. She was dressed for an evening out. Silk dress, dainty shoes. That is not the mark of a runaway, nor a destitute girl. And she must have started out with some kind of outer garment, given the cold. She couldn’t have come too far wearing those shoes or they would have been completely ruined. As I see it, she was expecting a pleasant evening, something terrible happened, and she ran away. I still think that someone in New York is looking for her. I’m confident we’ll locate her loved ones.”
“I’ll naturally keep my ear to the ground for any more reports of missing persons,” Mrs. Goodwin said, tucking her notebook back into her cape pocket. “You’ve undertaken quite a task here, I should think, Molly.”
I placed cups of tea in front of them. “I’m going to have to hire a nurse,” I said. “I don’t want to leave her alone and I can’t be in the house all day. I don’t suppose you know where I might find a suitable woman?”
“We could always ask my neighbor, Mrs. Tucker,” she said. “You met her when I was in that accident. She’s an awfully fussy woman. She’ll drive you crazy, but at least she is responsible and she likes to be useful.”
“I remember her,” I said. “I’d be most grateful.”
“If she accepts, it will only take you a couple of days before you’ll stop thanking me.” She chuckled. “But at least she’s honest. And she will take care of the poor girl. As soon as I finish my tea, we could go and ask her.”