Murder on Washington Square by Victoria Thompson Page A

of his house, and he wasn’t going to be distracted from his purpose. She preceded him down the hallway.
    At least she had a little new information for Malloy. She only hoped it would help them find Anna Blake’s real killer.

5
     
     
     
    “ T HE MAID ONLY WORKS IN THE DAY, AND CATHERINE claims she was asleep when Anna left the house. She doesn’t have any idea what made her do it,” Sarah reported as she and Malloy walked back toward Washington Square. “Oh, and she must have left in a hurry because she didn’t take her purse with her. What did you learn from that fellow, what’s his name?”
    “Giddings.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card. “Gilbert Giddings.”
    “He’s an attorney?” she asked, shamelessly peering at the card.
    Malloy stuffed it back into his pocket and pretended to be annoyed. “So he says,” Malloy said.
    “And he was also one of Anna Blake’s gentlemen friends,” she said when he offered nothing else.
    “One of many, apparently,” Malloy allowed.
    “Was he giving her money, too?”
    “Yes.”
    Sarah gave him an impatient look. “Malloy, you are the most insufferable . . . Do I have to give you the third degree to get information out of you?”
    This ridiculous threat brought a small grin to Malloy’s face, but he said, “There’s nothing much to tell. Anna Blake told him some cock-and-bull story about how an uncle cheated her out of her inheritance—”
    “But her mother was destitute when she died,” Sarah protested.
    “Not according to Giddings.”
    “That’s a different story than the one she told Nelson.”
    “She needed a different story because she needed a different reason to go to an attorney than to a banker,” he pointed out. “Giddings took pity on her, gave her some money, and the next thing you know, she’s in a family way and needing more money than he can afford to give her.”
    “Didn’t he offer to marry her?”
    Malloy gave her a pitying look. “He’s already married.”
    “Oh,” Sarah said, then remembered something. “Catherine Porter thought Nelson was married. She seemed very surprised to find out he wasn’t. Wouldn’t you think if a man was calling on a woman, you’d expect him to be single, not the other way around?”
    “Unless you were planning to blackmail him.”
    “Blackmail?” Sarah echoed in amazement.
    “Yes, blackmail. That’s what Anna Blake was doing to Giddings, and what she was probably trying to do to Nelson, but it wasn’t going to work. Nelson wanted to marry her, not pay her off for her silence, the way Giddings was.”
    “If that’s what she wanted to do, then why did she choose a bachelor like Nelson?”
    Malloy shrugged. “Maybe she thought he was married. Catherine Porter apparently did.”
    Sarah tried to make sense of it. “I guess we can ask Nelson.”
    “We certainly can’t ask Anna Blake,” Malloy pointed out blandly.
    Sarah ignored this provocation. “What did Mr. Walcott have to contribute?”
    “Not much. He was out of town when Anna Blake was killed. Says he spends very little time at the house. He’s too busy spending his wife’s inheritance to bother with the comings and goings of her boarders.”
    This didn’t make sense either. “If she has an inheritance, why do they take in boarders?”
    “It wasn’t much, I gathered. Not enough to support them and pay for Walcott’s travels, at least. And he claims his wife likes cooking and cleaning for other people.”
    Sarah made a rude noise at such a preposterous notion. “I’ll be interested to hear her side of that story. Where was she today?”
    “Shopping, he said. I’ll go back another time and talk to her. What’s she like?”
    Sarah considered. “Well groomed and nosy.”
    Malloy raised his eyebrows at this assessment. “Your powers of observation amaze me, Mrs. Brandt. How would you describe Mr. Walcott?”
    “Vain and selfish.”
    “Why vain?” he asked curiously. Malloy had already given