Murder on Amsterdam Avenue by Victoria Thompson Page B

member of the club, and we didn’t move in the same social circles.”
    â€œAnd we don’t like to speak ill of the dead,” Mrs. Decker added meaningfully.
    Frank took the hint and changed the subject. He could find out about Charles’s drinking habits from someone else. “Did anyone notice any of the mourners acting strangely?”
    â€œYou mean besides flirting with the widow?” Maeve asked, earning a scowl from Gino.
    â€œYes, besides that.”
    â€œIt wasn’t a mourner,” Sarah said, “but I did see one strange thing. When I happened to go by the parlor while everyone was in the dining room eating. One of the maids was leaning over the casket.”
    â€œPaying her respects maybe,” Frank said. “Mr. Oakes said all the servants have been with them for years.”
    â€œMy goodness, did he really say that?” Mrs. Decker said in amazement.
    â€œYes, why?”
    â€œBecause if Jenny Oakes has been able to keep all her servants for years, she’s a miracle worker. It seems like I’m hiring a new maid at least once a month.”
    â€œWell, that’s what he said, so maybe this was someone who’d known Charles a long time.”
    â€œIt seemed that way,” Sarah said. “She leaned over and touched him. I couldn’t see where, exactly, but it looked like she might have been stroking his face. Sort of the way a mother would her child.”
    â€œWas it one of the colored girls?” Frank asked.
    â€œAll Jenny’s maids are colored,” Mrs. Decker said. “Most of mine are, too. It’s getting almost impossible to find a white girl who’ll go into service.”
    â€œShe wasn’t a girl, though,” Sarah said. “If she had been,I might have suspected something romantic, but this woman was much older.”
    â€œMaybe she’d taken care of him when he was a child,” Mrs. Decker said.
    â€œThat’s possible, I suppose,” Sarah said. “As I said, the way she touched him did look maternal. It made me very sad to see her grief.”
    â€œWould you know her if you saw her again?” Frank asked.
    â€œI didn’t get a very good look at her, but I think so.”
    â€œThere can’t be too many servants that age in the house at any rate,” Mrs. Decker said. “You’ll probably find her easily when you question the servants.”
    They spent the next half hour discussing the other mourners. The Deckers knew almost all of them, and none had seemed to behave oddly except the men who had paid too much attention to Hannah Oakes.
    â€œWhat do we do now?” Gino asked Frank when they’d exhausted the subject of the mourners.
    â€œTomorrow you and I go back to the Oakes house and start questioning the family and the servants.”
    â€œWhat about the rest of us?” Maeve asked.
    Frank smiled at her. “I thought you were supposed to be taking care of Catherine.”
    â€œAnd I thought you were supposed to be overseeing the workmen at your house,” she countered pertly.
    â€œMrs. Brandt will be taking my place for a few days, so she’ll really need for you to watch Catherine,” he countered right back.
    â€œBut you might need us to help you talk to the women,” she tried. He’d let her help on several other cases, and now he realized she had enjoyed it way too much.
    â€œIf I do, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, I think we should be heading home. It’s been a long day.”
    Mr. Decker summoned his carriage for them, and Frank had to admit it was nice to sit back and relax in comfort while the driver negotiated the crowded streets. Finding a cab was always challenging, and it was never this comfortable. Maybe he’d get a carriage, too. Of course, that meant a driver and a groom and heaven only knew who else to take care of the horses. Was it really as hard to keep servants as Mrs. Decker had