How had that meeting deteriorated so quickly? Mr. Armitage was being deliberately provocative and I couldn’t fathom why. We’d been getting along well, and I’d hoped we could become friends. Clearly he had no interest in doing so if he was going to sabotage our fledgling friendship like that.
I put Mr. Armitage from my mind and considered my next step in the investigation. I needed to narrow down my suspects. There were too many. Jealousy and hurt over a possible rejection were looking like strong motives for a number of my suspects, both former and current lovers, their wives and even Pearl’s understudy, Dotty Clare. Both Lord and Lady Wrexham and Mr. Culpepper had known Pearl for several years, and someone who might be able to give me abetter insight to those older relationships would be Pearl’s sister. She claimed she didn’t know Pearl all that well anymore, but she must have an opinion on the people from Pearl’s past.
I fished out the paper on which she’d written her address from my purse. I wasn’t sure of the area so I caught a hansom. Some fifteen minutes later, the driver deposited me at the entrance to a court surrounded on three sides by indistinguishable tenements. Small children played a chasing game and a woman hung out washing, although I couldn’t see how it would dry in this weather.
I nodded at her as I passed and felt her gaze on me as I approached Millie, sitting on a stoop. The little girl was humming to herself and staring straight ahead, her body rocking to the rhythm of her tune.
“Good morning, Millie,” I said.
She stopped humming and lifted her face, although she didn’t look directly at me.
“Do you remember me? I’m Miss Fox. I met you at your aunt’s home.”
She began humming again.
“Is your mother inside?”
“You won’t get no answers from her,” the woman said from the washing line. “She’s not deaf, she just don’t talk much. If it’s Mrs. Larsen you’re after, she’s inside.”
“Thank you.” I knocked and, as I waited, thought of a question for the neighbor. “Did you ever see Mrs. Larsen’s sister here?”
“The actress? Aye, I saw her at Christmas. She only ever came Christmastime.”
“How did she seem?”
The woman shrugged. “Fine to me, but I only caught a glimpse. She was real pretty, and so fancy looking with her fur coat and matching hat.”
The door opened and Mrs. Larsen smiled in greeting. “This is a surprise.”
“I want to ask you some questions about Pearl.”
“Come in.” She clicked her tongue at Millie, blocking the way. “Let Miss Fox past.”
Millie continued to hum anddidn’t move.
“Millicent! Move!” She rapped Millie’s shoulder with the back of her hand and Millie shifted to the side.
I squeezed past her.
“Forgive me, but I’ll have to receive you in the kitchen. We’re having some work done in the parlor.” She led me along the corridor, past closed doors and the staircase, until we reached the warm kitchen. A pie baking in the oven filled the entire house with its delicious smell. “You remember my husband from the funeral?”
Mr. Larsen stood. He nodded at me before gathering up the boot he’d been fixing along with his tools, and left.
“He’s a man of few words,” Mrs. Larsen said, somewhat self-consciously. “Tea?”
“Thank you, that’s very kind.”
I sat and watched her fill teacups from the teapot warming on the stove. The kitchen was a sizable one with a large central table that Mrs. Larsen had been using as a place to knead dough. A large pie had been set aside, ready to be baked in the oven when the other one finished. It was too much food for the family of three. Perhaps Mrs. Larsen baked them for neighbors or sold them.
On the wall above the table was a shelf full of neatly labeled jars and above them hung a wooden cross. A pink glass vase stood empty by the window, as if waiting for the first signs of spring to fill it with flowers. It was a very pretty vase and looked out of place in the drab kitchen. It was more to Pearl’s taste than her sister’s.
Mrs. Larsen must have taken it from the flat that day I’d met her there. I wondered what else she’d removed, and how much of it she’d already sold.
She handed me a cup and saucer. “I’m so sorry, but I don’t have cake today.”
“It’s very good of you to receive me. I do apologize for calling on you without notice.”
“How may I help you?”
