Read Online A New York Christmas by Anne Perry - Free Book Online

not only knew that her mother was in New York, but also knew where she was.”
    “If that is true then Harley told her,” she said again desperately.
    “Yes, maybe …”
    “Are you sure you didn’t tell her, even unintentionally?” There was an urgency in his voice, as if the grief of this tragedy touched him too. “Perhaps she would be able to piece it together from other things you said. Could she have guessed? Might she have known what you were doing anyway? If you mentioned where you had been that afternoon, could she have worked it out that her mother was there?” Flannery looked as if he wanted any of those options to be true almost as much as she did.
    Jemima steadied herself with an effort. She must keep some control. Just at the moment it was her only chance to save herself.
    “Even if she had worked that out from something I said, that doesn’t explain how Harley knew that she knew.”
    “Perhaps he is trying to help you, Miss Pitt. It wouldbe in your interest if she did know. Then at least there is another person to suspect of having killed Maria Cardew.” He looked at her steadily, his eyes intensely blue.
    “Harley would never accuse Phinnie of such a thing. And Phinnie wouldn’t do that,” she said miserably. “And I’m not going to try to blame her. She can be selfish and a bit silly at times—she’s terribly young—but she wouldn’t stab anyone to death, let alone her own mother! She just wouldn’t. Apart from anything else, she hasn’t the courage or the emotional intensity.”
    He smiled a little ruefully.
    “Honest, if not flattering,” he said.
    “I don’t think I can afford to be anything but honest,” she confessed. And then she wondered, for a moment, if perhaps Phinnie wanted the marriage to Brent Albright enough to have elicited the information from Harley, and then crept out to try to persuade her mother herself. Could she have offered to keep her in comfort for the rest of her life, if she just let the marriage take place without upsetting anything? Once married to Brent, Phinnie would have the means. If the marriage did not go ahead, then she wouldn’t! If Maria Cardewwas as greedy and ruthless as Harley had said, she would understand that.
    Was that impossible?
    She said all this to Flannery, stumbling over the words, hating the sound of them in her own ears.
    He looked unhappy, but he did not argue.
    She knew the inevitable ending to her train of thought. She gave it words before he could: “Even if all that was true, Phinnie had no reason to kill Mrs. Cardew. Why would she? She would just pay her off until such time as the Albrights could deal with her more effectively.”
    “Maybe she didn’t want them to know?” he responded. Now he was arguing to defend Jemima!
    She shook her head. Phinnie would never manage to keep something like this from Brent.
    Officer Flannery pushed his hand through his hair in a gesture of exasperation. “I’m trying to help you!”
    “Thank you,” she said with a laugh that turned into a sob. “But are you sure you should be?”
    “I don’t think you killed her,” he replied. “I just don’t know who did.”
    “The door was open. Anyone could have gone in.”
    “Why would they? Nothing was taken. There wasn’t much to take. No one else was seen. We spoke to all the other residents. No one saw anybody else.”
    “I didn’t touch her,” Jemima said yet again. “She was dead when I got there.”
    “Have you had anyone tell your family you’re in trouble?” Flannery asked her.
    “Mr. Albright said he would, if we couldn’t sort it out quickly without their having to know. It would take my father a week or more to get here anyway. And what would he do?” That was a possibility she had not even thought about before, and in spite of her best effort she could feel the tears prickle behind her eyes, and the lump in her throat become almost too large to swallow.
    Flannery stood up. He looked stiff and awkward.
    “I’ll