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“What did I do on purpose?” Malloy asked. It was very dark in the cab, and she couldn’t see his expression.
“Hit Walcott,” she said. The opium was wearing off, or at least she thought it was. She just felt very relaxed, but that could be simple fatigue. She didn’t even want to know how late it was. Or rather how early. “You hit him on purpose so I would see you do it.”
“How much opium did you swallow?” he asked.
“Not very much. I’m right, aren’t I? You wanted me to despise you.”
“Mrs. Brandt,” he began in that reasonable tone she hated.
“Don’t waste your breath, Malloy,” she chided. “I know I’m right. What I don’t know is why. Why don’t you want me to like you, Malloy?”
“I thought opium made people sleepy,” he said. “Why don’t you fall asleep? I’ll wake you up when we get to your house.”
“I don’t want to go to sleep. I want to know why you don’t like me, Malloy. I like you, even if you do hit people.”
He sighed. “I never said I didn’t like you, Mrs. Brandt.”
Reasonable again. She wanted to smack him. “And why don’t you ever call me Sarah? You think I’m beautiful, but you never call me Sarah.”
He muttered something she didn’t understand.
“You do think I’m beautiful,” she insisted. “You said so!”
“Yes, I do,” he said grudgingly. “And I do like you, Sarah. Now let’s talk about something else, because you’re going to be very embarrassed if you remember any of this conversation tomorrow.”
“No, I won’t,” she informed him. She didn’t feel the least bit embarrassed! “And I still want to know why you hit that man in front of me. You wanted me to see it, didn’t you?”
“Why would I want you to see it?”
Sarah was getting very a
“You do, do you?” he said in a very odd tone.
“Yes, I do, and I’m not getting out of this cab until you tell me!”
“I don’t want to tell you.”
“Then what do you want?”
She knew he was looking at her, although she doubted he could see very much in the darkness. “I want to show you,” he said.
The next thing she knew, his hand was on the back of her head and his mouth was on hers. She felt a thousand sensations at once, the scratch of his beard, the taste of his lips, the scent of him engulfing her. The night exploded into shooting stars, and Sarah wanted to catch each one and hold them to her heart.
But before she could even react, he was pulling away and reaching up to bang on the roof of the cab.
“Pull over here, Henry!” he called out to the driver.
“What are you doing?” Sarah asked in confusion. Her world was still swirling, but the cab lurched to a stop.
Malloy said, “That can be part of your opium dream, Sarah,” and jumped out. “Take the lady home and make sure she gets inside safe and sound, Henry,” he called up to the driver.
“Malloy!” she called, but he was already disappearing into the darkness. She thought about going after him but couldn’t think of a good reason to. Because she wanted him to kiss her again? Of course she did, but a lady didn’t chase a man down for that! Besides, she mused with a smile as the cab rattled into motion again, she didn’t have to. He would be back. She was perfectly sure of that.
Malloy didn’t like a case with loose ends, and this one seemed to have a hundred of them. He’d spent the morning getting Mrs. Giddings released from jail and dealing with her and her son’s gratitude. Having escaped that, he had to go uptown to the bank where Nelson Ellsworth had worked to convince Mr. Richard De
Frank had a hunch that De
Either way, Frank had him. And since Frank enjoyed having wealthy men bend to his will, he was glad to see how quickly the guard at the bank ushered him back to the vice president, who ushered him to Mr. De
Frank settled in to wait, but after only a few minutes, the door to De
“I know you won’t regret this, Richard,” Sarah Brandt said. She was looking back at the man over her shoulder as he escorted her out, but Frank didn’t have to see her face to know she was smiling.
“How could I ever regret doing you a favor, Sarah?” De
“I’ll see you tomorrow evening then,” she said, giving him her hand.
He took it in both of his, and Frank found himself on his feet. Only in the nick of time did he stop himself from striding over there and ripping them apart.
“I’ll call for you at eight,” De
“I’ll look forward to it,” she said, sounding like she really meant it, and then she turned and saw him standing there. “Malloy,” she said in surprise. “What brings you here? I hope the bank hasn’t been robbed.”
She smiled at her own joke, giving Frank a moment to recover. He’d imagined how she would react the next time they met. He’d been hoping she wouldn’t remember that he’d taken advantage of her, or at least most of him had been hoping that. The other part had hoped she would and that she’d… Well, he hadn’t gotten past that in his imagining, because he wasn’t sure how she should feel about it if she did remember. It seemed, however, that she didn’t remember a thing, if he could judge by her expression.
“I came to see Mr. De
De
“I’ve already told him that you caught the killer,” she said, saving De
“What about the missing money?” Frank asked, addressing the question to De
“It seems that was just an accounting error,” De
Frank could have argued with him, but he knew when to be gracious in victory. Nelson had his job back, and no one was going to be prosecuted for embezzlement. Frank would make sure Mrs. Brandt understood exactly what De
“You’ll let me know if there’s any more trouble here, won’t you?” Frank said. “I’ve taken a personal interest in your establishment now, and I wouldn’t want to see you have more bad luck.”
He’d hoped De