Read Online Murder on Mulberry Bend by Victoria Thompson - Free Book Online Page B

City Hall Park, and he’d been selected for the case because of his reputation for handling difficult situations with care. Nobody knew who the woman was, but she’d been well dressed. Nobody knew how she’d died, either, but if she’d been killed — in broad daylight on the doorstep of City Hall — nobody wanted a scandal. Unlike many of his colleagues, Frank could be counted upon not to offend the wrong people and not to let the press hear anything they shouldn’t.
    The Elevated Train ran right down to City Hall, so Frank got on at Bleeker Street. The morning rush was over, and he got a seat all to himself and a few minutes to collect his thoughts. Unfortunately, he didn’t particularly want to collect his thoughts, because every time he did, Sarah Brandt turned up in them.
    He hadn’t admitted to himself how badly he’d wanted her there when Brian got his cast off. She’d gone to so much trouble to make sure her friend operated on his son, but it was more than that. He’d needed her there. He’d needed to share the anxiety and the joy with her. She was the only one who could truly understand.
    Of course, he’d told her she didn’t have to come. He didn’t want her to feel any sense of obligation. Or pity. He and Brian were nothing to her, after all. Yet still he’d been hoping...
    And then she’d come. Breathless from hurrying, her cheeks rosy and her eyes shining, she’d looked like a goddess. Brian had thrown himself into her arms, and Frank had longed to do the same. Jealous of his own son, jealous of the doctor whose friendship entitled him to call her Sarah, and jealous of Richard Dennis, whose position in life gave him the right to court her, Frank had hardly dared look her in the eye for fear he would betray the feelings to which he had no right.
    As the train lurched to a stop at the next station and passengers began to come and go in the car, Frank rubbed his head. He hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. Every time he closed his eyes, he’d see her face and the hurt in her eyes just before he’d snatched Brian from her arms and fled.
    She’d never speak to him again, but that was as it should be. She never should have spoken to him in the first place. He never should have gotten to know her. He never should have allowed her to help him solve any murders. And he never should have let her help Brian.
    But he had. She’d done him a favor, her good deed for the year. She’d been repaying him for the cases he’d solved for her, because she was the only one who cared if they ever were or not. They were even. Or at least she needn’t feel she was in his debt.
    But each time his son took a step, he realized he would be in her debt forever.
    That probably also meant he’d remember her forever. It couldn’t be any harder than losing Kathleen, he reasoned. He’d thought the pain of losing his wife would kill him, and here he was, three years later, alive and well. Of course, Kathleen had died, so he didn’t have any choice about accepting that. He couldn’t see her again, and she wasn’t there somewhere in the city, living without him. He’d certainly never had to worry about meeting her accidentally and not knowing how he’d react if he did. He’d had no choice but to let Kathleen go.
    Sarah Brandt was another story, at least until one of them was dead. Maybe then he’d be able to stop thinking about her. And wondering if things might have been different if... if everything about them had been different.
    Finally, the train stopped at City Hall, and Frank rose wearily from his seat and made his way out of the station. Glad for the distraction from his own, painful thoughts, he let himself be caught up in the roar of the street. People of all descriptions milled and mingled in the shadow of the city’s government. Each day, hundreds of them took the train or walked across the bridge from Brooklyn. Dozens of street vendors waited, ready to sell them whatever they might need. The crowds