“Go ahead, eat it,” Frank said, taking the chair opposite him.

The boy hesitated another second, then grabbed it up and tore into it like a starving dog. Frank let him finish it, waiting patiently. He noticed the boy had a few new bruises on his face since yesterday. Probably, he’d gotten them fighting to keep his ration of food from the other prisoners. That happened a lot. Judging from the way he ate the bread, he’d lost those fights, too.

When he’d swallowed the last of the bread, the boy looked up at Frank again. His expression was cocky – probably out of habit – but his eyes held the haunted fear of despair.

“Just tell me what I want to know, and I’ll let you go,” Frank said reasonably.

“He’ll kill me,” the boy argued, but Frank could see he now feared Frank as much as the other man.

“Maybe he would and maybe he wouldn’t, but I can kill you for sure,” Frank said with a smile. “All I have to do is put you back down in that hole and forget you’re there. You saw your friend Billy, and he’d only been down there a couple days.”

“Oh, God,” he moaned, covering his face with his hands.

Frank waited, giving him time to decide.

At last the boy looked up. “I don’t know much,” he said, his voice a pleading whine. “Not enough to be any help.”

“Let me be the judge of that,” Frank said. “And don’t annoy me. It’s been a long day and I’m tired. If I have to start slapping you around, I’m going to get very angry.”

The boy swallowed. “He was a swell.”

“Yeah, I know, a rich man. You told me that before,” Frank reminded him sternly.

“He didn’t tell me his name. He just said he wanted me to fetch this doctor. Tell him somebody was sick and needed him right away.”

“Where were you supposed to take him?”

“Down by the river. I can show you the place,” he added hopefully.

“Maybe later,” Frank said. “Then what were you supposed to do?”

“I was supposed to leave him there and run.”

“But you didn’t, did you, Danny? A bright boy like you, you would’ve stayed around to listen. Never miss a trick, do you? Maybe you’ll hear something useful, something that’ll get you more money out of the rich swell.”

Danny was shaking his head frantically, but Frank could see from his eyes that he was right.

“What did you hear, Danny?” he asked in the tone that usually got him the correct answer.

“Nothing that made any sense,” he insisted.

“Tell me anyway,” Frank suggested.

The boy swallowed again, his fear palpable. “I took him down this alley. It was dark, so he didn’t see the swell at first. The swell just says, ‘Hello, Tom,’ and the doc stops and says, ‘What’re you doing here?’ Then the swell tells me to go, so I do.”

“But you don’t go far, do you? You wait to see what’s going to happen.”

“I knew about the doc,” he said in an effort to justify himself. “He never turned anybody away, even if they couldn’t pay. I thought maybe he’d need help or something, so I waited, just in case.”

Frank wasn’t fooled, but he let Danny get away with the lie. “What did you hear?”

“Not much at first, until they started shouting. The swell, he says something about what the doc did to his daughter. The doc says he saved her or something like that. Then I hears a noise, like somebody getting hit. After a bit, the swell comes out of the alley. I’m sure he’s gonna see me, but he’s going too fast, and I’m in a doorway, hiding, and it’s dark. I wait, but the doc don’t come out, so I goes in to see, and he’s just laying there, his head all smashed in. The swell, he had this cane with a big silver knob. I figure he hit the doc with it.”

“Why didn’t you call for help?”

Danny looked at him like he was crazy. “They’d think I done it! Besides, the doc is dead. Anybody can see that. Nothing’s gonna help him now. So I run.”

“You didn’t tell me everything, Danny,” Frank prodded.

“Yes, I did. I swear to God!” His voice was shrill with the terror of being thrown back into the cellar.

“The swell called the doc by name. What did the doc call him?”

“Nothing, I swear! He just called him ‘you.’ ”

“I need a name, Danny,” Frank said. “You must’ve heard Dr. Brandt say a name.”

“Just one, when they was shouting. That’s all.”

“And what was the name?”

Danny’s face blanched. “Decker.”

Sarah heard the city clocks chiming two the next afternoon as she hurried down Mulberry Street toward the mission. She’d spent her morning dealing with the twins she’d delivered several days ago. She’d been summoned early that morning because the mother was ill, and she’d died only a few hours later. The babies were literally starving, and the father had thrust them on her, begging her to take them away. He couldn’t even begin to care for the five children he already had, and he didn’t want to watch the babies die.

Sarah couldn’t help thinking of the midwife who had taken the baby who grew up to be Emilia Donato. She must have believed she had done a good deed and ensured the child would have a good life with a loving family. As Sarah had arranged for these two babies to be placed in an orphanage, she only hoped they would fare better than Emilia had.

When Sarah finally reached the mission, she was already exhausted, and she still had the costume party tonight. The city would be alive with ghosts and goblins as soon as the sun set. Sarah hoped she’d have time for a short nap before Richard called to pick her up. At least her mother had been able to supply her with a costume, so she hadn’t had to worry about that.

Sarah’s knock was answered by Maeve, who didn’t look pleased to see her. “Mrs. Wells is busy,” she informed Sarah.

“I’ll wait then,” Sarah said, undaunted. Whatever Maeve may think, Sarah knew that no matter how busy Mrs. Wells might be, she wouldn’t refuse to see someone who had provided so much financial support for the mission. “I have something very important to discuss with her. Would you please tell her I’m here?” she added, managing to insinuate herself into the house without actually knocking Maeve over in the process.

Sarah heard a giggle and looked over to see Aggie sitting on the stairs, watching with amusement.

“What are you laughing at, you little brat?” Maeve asked her.

Aggie didn’t even flinch. She knew she had nothing to fear from Maeve.

“I’ll wait in the parlor,” Sarah informed the girl, who should have already invited her to do so.

Maeve went off in a huff. Watching her go, Sarah had a horrible thought. What if Maeve was the killer? She’d admitted she was glad Emilia was dead, and she had no love for anyone at the mission except Mrs. Wells. And if she wasn’t the killer, someone else here undoubtedly was.

Suddenly, annoying Maeve didn’t seem like a wise move. Sarah would certainly have to be careful from now on.

The sound of another giggle distracted her, and she saw Aggie still sitting on the stairs, watching her. “Would you like to keep me company while I wait for Mrs. Wells?” she asked the girl.

Aggie nodded and followed Sarah into the parlor. The girl wore a shabby dress that was too big for her, but it was perfectly clean and neatly patched. Her brown hair had been carefully braided, and her face scrubbed until it fairly glowed.

Sarah set down her medical bag and took a seat on the sofa, inviting Aggie to sit beside her. Instead, the girl crawled into her lap, which suited Sarah just fine.

“You look very nice today, Aggie,” Sarah said, settling the child more comfortably. “Who fixed your hair?”

The little girl smiled, showing her tiny teeth, but didn’t answer, of course.

“Did Maeve fix your hair?”

The smile vanished and the little head shook no.

“Did Mrs. Wells?”

She nodded.

They proceeded like this for a while in a strange, one-sided conversation. Sarah learned that Aggie liked Emilia and missed her, but she didn’t like Maeve at all. She enjoyed playing in the yard with the other children from the neighborhood, and she liked living at the mission. Sarah also discovered that whoever had left Aggie at the mission wasn’t her mother or her father. When Sarah asked her what had become of her parents, her answer was a shrug and no indication of any emotion. She didn’t know where they were and apparently had no memory of them.