“If you like,” I said cautiously, “I was thinking of going to New York myself tomorrow. I’d be happy to visit Brian Hannan’s office on your behalf—not officially, I realize. But I could ask some questions and see if Brian Hannan had confided in his secretary any concerns about his family.”
“Mrs. Sullivan, I couldn’t possibly…” he blustered, completely off guard. “I mean to say that kind of thing … if word got out…” He was grinning now. “I’m sorry, but I can’t ask a woman to do this kind of work. I’m sure it’s very good of you to want to help, but your place is looking after your husband.” He touched his cap to me. “I will return tomorrow then, and hope your husband will be well enough to speak with me. In the meantime please understand that it is not your place to interfere in a police investigation.”
I swallowed back what I wanted to say to him. He was happy to use my husband but not me. I found my gaze going up to the tower. Now I was even less inclined to spill the beans about Kathleen. The thought went through my mind that I might find myself in trouble for withholding evidence and keeping what I knew about Kathleen from the family and the police. I wondered if I was letting my impulses rule my head again for no valid reason other than my pride had been wounded. It wasn’t as if I was any nearer to solving this murder than Chief Prescott.
Gus and Sid moved closer to me as he walked away.
“I don’t think that man is likely to be solving anything in the near future, do you?” Sid said.
“But you heard what he told you, Molly. He warned you against going to New York and asking questions,” Gus muttered.
“When has that ever deterred Molly in the past?” Sid grinned. “My thoughts are that if you don’t get to the bottom of this, then no one will. You have to prove beyond a doubt that the girl is not responsible.”
“Easier said than done,” I said. “I really don’t know what to do. I don’t like to leave Daniel and I expect he’ll be furious when he finds out.”
“So you’re going to sit back and watch them drag off a child to a mental institution, are you?” Sid demanded.
“You’re right. Somebody needs to find out more and the only way of doing that is to speak to people who know the family. And it would also be helpful if Dr. Birnbaum took a look at Kathleen. So I’ll go. But what on earth can I tell Daniel so that he’s not suspicious?”
“We’ll think of something,” Sid said. She stared out across the lawns. “Ah, there is one of the suspects right now, skulking through the bushes—now she’s bending down. Probably burying some evidence. Go and find out, Molly. The suspense is killing me.”
I could see a dark shape among the bushes. As I got closer I was surprised to find that it was Eliza. She was on her hands and knees.
“Hello,” I said. “What are you doing?”
She jumped at the sound of my voice. “Goodness, you startled me, Mrs. Sullivan. If you want to know, I’m burying a dead bird. It flew into the window and died. The gardeners were about to throw it on a bonfire but I thought it deserved a proper burial.” She smiled up at me. “We always used to bury dead pets in this part of the grounds when we were children. Terrence was always killing things—” she paused when she saw my face. “Not on purpose, you understand, but he would have mice and rats and things as pets and then he’d lose them or hug them too hard and there would be another funeral And I have to confess that the funerals were as much fun as the pets had been.”
She straightened up and brushed earth from her skirts. “Such a disturbing time, isn’t it? It suddenly made sense to revert to childhood.” She looked up at me. “I don’t suppose you’ve heard but they say it was the prussic acid sitting on the shelf in our shed that was used. That could only mean one of us, couldn’t it? I can’t bear to think about it.”
I nodded. “It is horrible, isn’t it? You don’t have any suspicions yourself, do you?”
“None at all. My father and Uncle Brian didn’t always get along, but poison wouldn’t be my father’s modus operandi. If he wanted to get rid of his brother, he’d hire a gangster to do it on a New York street. Besides, for all their disagreements I think my father realized how much he needed Uncle Brian. Brian was the levelheaded, practical one.”
“My husband says you always have to ask the question, ‘Who benefits?’”
“And the answer to that would be nobody, I’d say—unless he’s left all his money to one person, which I’m sure wasn’t the case. Uncle Brian was extremely generous to all of us—especially to Irene and Archie of course. But he was trying to groom Terrence to take over the firm, he hired young Sam in the hopes of making something of him. He was even generous to my mother’s charities.”