Read Murder in Murray Hill (Gaslight Mystery) for Free Online

this young woman, I don’t think marriage was involved.”
    “How awful for her.”
    “Her father is very worried, as you can imagine, and the longer she’s gone, the less likely it is that she’ll ever come home.”
    “Wouldn’t the newspaper be able to tell you who placed the ads?”
    “They know who he is, but they don’t know his real name or where he lives. He goes to the newspaper office to pay for the ads and to pick up his mail. They assign each advertiser a box number and either forward the mail or hold it until the advertiser comes in to get it.”
    “Couldn’t you have someone wait at the newspaper office until he comes in?”
    “He doesn’t come in on a regular schedule, so we can’t predict when he might show up, and the city of New York isn’t going to pay an officer to just sit there for days, waiting.”
    “But if a young woman’s life is in danger . . .”
    “We don’t know that for sure. She might really have eloped. Besides, she’s just one girl in a city full of thousands of them.”
    “Sounds like you already asked.”
    “I did. So my next idea is to write to this fellow and try to set up a meeting with him.”
    “And you need my help for that?”
    “Of course I do. I don’t have any idea what a lonely spinster would say to a potential husband.”
    “And you think I do?”
    Apparently, he knew better than to answer that. “And it needs to be in a woman’s handwriting.”
    “I can do that part, at least.”
    “I don’t think it makes much difference what you write, in any case. Tell him you’re lonely and not much to look at. I think that’s what Miss Livingston said, and that seemed to do the trick for him.”
    “He’s easy to please.”
    “That’s what worries me. According to his replies to Miss Livingston’s letters, he says he doesn’t care about physical beauty. He just wants a woman who is beautiful inside.”
    “Oh my.”
    “That’s exactly what I thought. What man wants a homely woman?”
    Sarah gave him a disapproving glare that he didn’t seem to understand. “But every woman wants to be appreciated for who she is, not what she looks like. He’s obviously made a study of how to appeal to females.”
    “But why? I can understand if he just wants to seduce as many of them as he can, but what does he do with them when he’s finished?”
    “None of the possibilities are good, are they?”
    “No. Even if he just turns them loose, many of them would be too ashamed to go home again.”
    “We definitely need to find this man and stop him,” Sarah said.
    Catherine came running from the kitchen and skidded to a halt at Malloy’s knee. “Supper is ready,” she told him.
    “About time, too,” he replied, scooping her up as he rose to his feet.
    She giggled. “When are you going to come live with us and be my papa?”
    “Soon, I hope,” he replied, smiling at Sarah.
    Sarah hoped so, too.
    Supper was a preview of the life that lay ahead of them, Sarah thought as she watched Malloy teasing Catherine and Maeve and making them laugh. Someday their supper would be like this every evening.
    “Would you girls mind washing the dishes tonight?” Sarah asked as they were finishing their meal. “Mr. Malloy needs my help with something.”
    “Can I help, too?” Catherine asked.
    “Can you write a letter for me?” Malloy asked quite seriously.
    “I can make a C. That’s the letter my name starts with. Maeve teached me to do it.”
    “That’s very good,” Malloy said, still perfectly serious, “but I need someone who can write the kind of letters that come in the mail.”
    “Oh. I can’t do that.”
    “Then you can help me with the dishes,” Maeve said, “and your mama will help Mr. Malloy.”
    Plainly, Catherine found this less than satisfactory, but she conceded with good grace.
    Sarah and Malloy returned to her office, where she found some stationery in her desk and sat down to draft her letter. It was still unfinished, the page marked with