Butterfly Palace (31 page)
His mouth dangled open several seconds before he shut it with a snap. “I find myself quite disbelieving of such a story. It makes a convenient excuse.”
Lily bit her lip but held his gaze. “It’s no excuse, sir. Jane is an honorable woman. All she wants is to be left in peace to work and raise her daughter. She asks for nothing beyond that.”
Belle put her hand on her uncle’s arm. “Please, Uncle Everett. See what you can do to get her out. Hannah has been quite fretful, and I know she misses her mother.”
“What are you going to do with that child? I suspect Miss White will either hang or go to prison for the rest of her life.”
“Not if you can intervene. Otherwise, I’ll raise her myself.”
He scowled. “That’s not a good idea. What do you know of raising children, especially the child of a murderer?”
“The baby had nothing to do with that woman’s death!” Belle took a sip of her tea. “You’re being very obstinate. You could help, but you refuse to because of a silly butterfly.”
“That butterfly is worth a great deal of money.” He rose and threw his napkin to the table. “I’m not going to discuss it anymore. And you need to make alternate arrangements for the child. She isn’t going to stay here for long.”
“The phone has already been ringing with people congratulating you on your largesse,” Belle said. “Caring for Hannah will win you votes. Interceding for her mother would win you even more votes as it will show your strong support of women.”
“I doubt that. Men will say I’m too soft to send a woman to the gallows. I have no choice in this, Belle. You don’t understand politics.”
She rose and faced him. “I understand it perfectly well. You are hardhearted and cruel.” She burst into tears and rushed from the room.
Lily followed Belle to her bedroom, where she found her staring out the window with Hannah in her arms. “I want to go see Jane. If your uncle won’t help, maybe the police would listen to you. Drew is bringing the car around at nine.”
“We can try, but I’m not hopeful.” Belle kissed the top of the baby’s head. “Let’s go now before I lose my courage. We’ll take Hannah. Maybe that will sway the police.”
They rode in silence with Drew and Nathan to the jail. After nearly half an hour of arguing, Lily and Nathan were finally let in to see Jane, but they refused to let them take the baby, so Belle stayed behind with Hannah. When they stepped into the cell block, Lily saw her sitting on a cot with her head down, the picture of despondency.
She rushed toward her. “Jane!”
Jane looked up and joy lit her features. She leaped to her feet and rushed to the bars. “You came to get me out? Where’s Hannah?” She was dressed in a shapeless gray gown the police had given her, and her hair hung out of its bun onto her shoulders. Though disheveled, she looked beautiful and vulnerable. Lily ached to make it right, to get her out of there. The injustice of it all nearly did her in.
“Stand back,” the gruff officer ordered. “Or I’ll escort your visitors out of here.”
“Visitors? Then I haven’t been released?” Jane began to cry, no sound but with large tears coursing down her cheeks. She backed away from the bars. “Where’s Hannah? How is my baby? She needs to be fed.”
“She’s fine. Miss Belle has her in the other room. She’s demanded to see the officer in charge and is trying to insist Hannah be allowed to see you.” The officer retreated a few feet, and Lily stepped as near to the bars as she could. “We fetched goat’s milk from the neighbors. You should have seen the faces she made at the bottle’s
nipple, but she drank it. Miss Belle has taken a great interest in her and even had her own crib brought down from the attic and set up for Hannah.”
Jane sniffled. “Hannah’s in the big house?”
Lily nodded, forcing herself to smile. “And Miss Belle bought her some new gowns and nappies. Hannah is being very well taken care of. And luckily she’s used to so many of us. She’s doing fine, Jane, really. We’ll get you out of here soon, but in the meantime, I wanted you to know you needn’t worry about Hannah. We’re all looking out for her.”
Nathan tried to smile but the effort was more like a grimace. “They feeding you okay in here, Janey?”
“I—I couldn’t eat. I’m sure it was fine though.” She stared at her brother. “They said I murdered her, Nathan. If I wanted to kill Mrs. Karr, I would have had plenty of opportunities. Lord knows I had reason, but I wouldn’t do anything like that.”
“I know you wouldn’t, and we’ll convince the police.”
“How?” Her voice was desolate. “They’re convinced.”
“Do you have any idea where that butterfly went?” Lily asked. “If we can just find that thing, we might be able to figure out what happened.”
Jane went still, and her blue eyes widened as she thought it over, then she shook her head. “I’ve thought and thought about every moment. I should have thrown her out of the house the minute she showed up. Why, oh why was I so stupid?” She began to cry again.
“Stay calm, Jane. We need you to help us.” The quiet strength in Nathan’s voice had a calming effect in the room. “Think about everything that happened, everything she said to you. Take us through every minute of the day. Can you do that? Only you can help us, Jane.”
Jane started to relax and she nodded, then exhaled. “All right, yes. I’ll try.”
Nathan nodded. “Good girl. Were there any other visitors before Mrs. Karr arrived? What other servants were around?”
“I started the pies around ten. I was planning on veal cutlets for dinner with herbed potatoes and vegetables. Emily helped me peel the potatoes, then she left to run some errands for Mrs. O’Reilly.”
“Where was Mrs. O’Reilly, and what was she doing?”
Lily stared hard at Nathan. “We want to exonerate Jane, but I don’t want to implicate Mrs. O’Reilly.”
“I’m just trying to get to the bottom of what happened yesterday.” Nathan looked back at Jane. “Where was Mrs. O’Reilly?”
“We were having weekend guests, so she was upstairs preparing the room for their arrival. She left me the keys so I could get into the wine cellar.”
Nathan frowned and glanced at Lily. “Did any guests arrive?”
Lily shook her head. “They canceled at the last minute.”
“Okay, so Mrs. O’Reilly told the truth. Then what happened?”
“I was pounding the veal to tenderize it. I heard a tap on the window of the back door, so I wiped my hands and went to answer it. I saw Mrs. Karr through the window and nearly turned back around and left her to cool her heels.”
“Why didn’t you?” Nathan burst out.
Jane’s lip trembled. “She was smiling, so I thought maybe she had finally come to apologize for what she did to me. Not that an apology could make it right, but she should at least realize how she ruined my life.”
“So you opened the door,” Drew prompted.
Jane nodded. “I opened it and asked her what she wanted. She said, ‘I want a favor, Jane. I want you to show me Mr. Marshall’s new butterfly.’ I laughed and started to close the door. She put her
foot in it and told me if I didn’t let her in, she was going to call on Mrs. Marshall. She would tell her I’d stolen silver and that she’d been appalled to find out I’d been hired at the Butterfly Palace.”
“Do you think Mr. Karr sent her?” Lily asked.
“I don’t doubt it. Mr. Karr was quite fond of his butterflies.”
Drew leaned forward. “So you let her in and showed her to the basement.”
Lily nodded. “I didn’t have any choice. I knew I’d be out on the street, and then what would happen to Hannah? She only wanted to look at it, not steal it. At least I didn’t think she would take it.”
“Yet you didn’t go down with her. I think that’s what confounds the police. If she was the evil person you claim, surely you would have gone down there with her, just to make sure.”
Jane bit her lip. “I had dinner to get ready and not a moment to spare. A-And I hated being in her presence. Every minute with her made me remember what he did to me.” Her voice wobbled. “I hated her.
Hated
her.”
“Enough to kill her?” Drew asked quietly.
“Yes.” Jane lowered her head. “I almost wish I’d done it because then being here almost might have been worth it.” She burst into noisy sobs.
D
rew hadn’t seen Vesters since Belle tossed out her bait, but that was about to end. He had been shown to the parlor and left cooling his heels while Vesters took his sweet time coming down. Drew had his story all planned out, but the question was whether or not Vesters would believe him.
When he heard heavy steps in the hall, he turned from his position by the window. “Ah, Stuart, there you are. Sorry to stop by unannounced, but I have some exciting news to share with you.”
The thunderous expression on the other man’s face smoothed. “Oh?”
“I know your partner didn’t want me to be involved, but I’ve hired someone to arrange the perfect distraction while I put a bullet in Marshall’s head.”
The other man’s jaw hardened. “You’ve cost me all manner of inconvenience, Hawkes. Blast you! Belle overheard you.”
Drew feigned shock. “Belle heard me? I never saw her.”
“She said she’d heard there was a plot to murder her uncle and asked me about it.”
Drew made himself take a step back, then he spread out his hands in an appeal. “That’s perfect, don’t you see? No one will ever suspect you. When he’s dead, Belle will tell the police what she
overheard, and they’ll come looking for me. I’ll have a perfect alibi arranged, and we’ll both escape suspicion.”
“How will you explain yourself to the police?”
“I’ll say I was investigating the rumor because Marshall and I were such great friends. They’ll believe it.”
Vesters stroked his whiskers and turned to pour a drink at the side table. “It might actually work. I’ll talk to my partner about it. I like the idea.” He tossed back the drink, then stared at Drew. “But I must say, it was very sloppy to allow yourself to be overheard. That concerns me, Hawkes. How do I know you won’t mess up the assassination?”
“I think you’ve seen me enough to take my measure. This is something I have the skills for.” He waited until Stuart’s massive head finally nodded. “You won’t be sorry.”
“I hope not.”
“How did you explain it to Belle?”
“I simply told her I’d look into it and that she had nothing to fear.” His smile held no mirth. “And of course, I’ll be there to comfort her when he’s dead.”
“Of course.” Drew held out his hand. “So can we agree to do this together?”
After a hesitation, Vesters shook his hand. “Let’s just say we’ll agree to talk more about it.”
Drew intended to be at the meeting on Thursday to find out more. It was clear Vesters was still being cagey.
Lily had decided to talk to Mr. Ballard at his knife factory office so there was no chance of Mrs. Ballard overhearing. The waiting room was painted a soothing green, and the furniture was new
and uncomfortable. She sprang to her feet when Ballard himself appeared in the doorway looking quite agitated.
“Lily, is something wrong?”
She smiled and held out her hand. “Not at all, Mr. Ballard. I took a notion to drop by. I hope it’s convenient.”
His frown smoothed. “Of course, my dear, I’m always happy to meet you. I just sent a customer on his way, and I’ve got a few minutes before my next meeting. I’ll have my secretary bring in tea.” He ushered her into his office.
“No need. I don’t want to be a bother in the middle of your workday.” She glanced around the spacious room reeking of money with its leather furniture and masculine rug. “So this is where you make all your money.”
He went around his desk to drop into the chair. “Mother hates coming down here. It’s too nouveau riche for her. She forgets she’d be living on the streets if all we had was her precious Bostonian name.”
Lily settled into the chair. “Something is troubling me, so the best way to deal with it is to ask outright.”
“Honesty is always best, my dear.”
“I have been poking into my father’s death and something unexpected has come to light.”
His expression grew wary. “And what is that?”
“A wallet was found in his hand. I’ve been told it belonged to a man named Ballard.”
His expression didn’t change, and he leaned back in his chair. “Do you think I had something to do with your father’s death?”