“Mr. Malloy.”

Frank turned back warily. “Yes?”

“When Peter Dudley is convicted of murder, you will receive a one-thousand-dollar reward from me.”

Frank almost winced. How easy it would be to make sure Dudley was convicted of the crime. Most detectives would gladly oblige for even a small portion of a reward like that. Unfortunately, Frank was no longer one of them. If Dudley turned out to be innocent, Sarah Brandt was going to have quite a bit to make up to him.

LETITIA BLACKWELL STARED at Sarah in astonishment, but only for a few heartbeats. Then she laid one small white hand on her bosom and said, “I believe I am going to faint. I must return to my rooms immediately.”

Instantly, Dudley was supporting her, making sympathetic noises and offering to assist her.

“If you faint, I’ll have to throw water in your face,” Sarah said brutally.

Letitia’s eyes grew wide. Apparently, no one had ever taken such a tone with her. Or failed to place her comfort above all other considerations. If she didn’t want to discuss anything unpleasant-and plainly she didn’st-she believed she should be excused from doing so. Sarah had no intention of letting her off that easily, however.

“Mrs. Brandt,” Dudley chided. “How can you say such a thing? Can’t you see how upset she is?”

“If you have so little concern for my health,” Letitia said haughtily, without the slightest trace of faintness, “then I’m afraid I’m going to have to dismiss you.”

“If you dismiss me, I won’t be able to care for your child, either,” Sarah reminded her. “But I’m sure you’ll be able to find another nurse who will be willing to keep your child’s illness a secret and treat it properly.”

“Illness?” Dudley echoed. “What’s wrong with him? He looked perfectly healthy to me. Letitia, what is it? If the child is ill, why didn’t you tell me?”

Letitia had gone scarlet with fury. So much for her fainting spell. “There’s nothing wrong with him at all. We’ll discuss that later,” she snapped at Dudley, then turned back to Sarah. “Say whatever you are so determined to say, and then leave us alone.”

“Calvin Brown has been murdered,” she said bluntly.

Their reactions were difficult to judge. Both looked surprised, and then they glanced at each other almost hesitantly, before turning back to her.

“Who-” Dudley began, but Letitia interrupted him.

“Who is Calvin Brown?” she demanded.

“Edmund Blackwell’s son,” Sarah said.

Neither of them looked particularly surprised, but perhaps they were simply confused.

“That’s ridiculous,” Letitia said after a moment. “Edmund didn’t have a son. He didn’t have any children at all.”

“Are you aware that Dr. Blackwell was married before?”

Sarah thought she’d catch her there, but Letitia said, “Of course, but that was a long time ago. His first wife died very young.”

A good story, and maybe even the one Blackwell had told her. “Did you know he had children by his first wife?” Sarah asked, playing along.

“I told you, he didn’t have any children. Of that I am quite certain.”

Sarah could have pointed out that even Letitia’s child wasn’t Blackwell’s, but she restrained herself. “Dr. Blackwell had three children by his first wife, and one of them was Calvin Brown.”

“Really, I won’t sit here and listen to this nonsense a moment longer,” Letitia insisted, rising to her feet.

“If you don’t care about yourself, surely you’re interested in protecting Mr. Dudley,” Sarah suggested, stopping her when she would have started for the door.

“Protecting him from what?” she asked, outraged or at least pretending to be.

“From being charged with murder.”

Dudley, who had risen along with Letitia, made a strangled noise in his throat and sank back down onto the sofa.

Letitia wasn’t quite so fragile. She merely glared at Sarah. “This is insane. Are you implying that Peter killed this… this Calvin person? Why should he? He had no reason to do such a thing. We don’t even know him!”

“I’m not implying anything. All I’m saying is that Mr. Dudley-and you, too, Mrs. Blackwell-both had a good reason for wanting to kill Dr. Blackwell. Anyone who sees your child will figure that out in an instant.”

Letitia gasped, and Dudley paled. His eyes were so wide Sarah could see the whites around the blue irises.

“But Peter and I were together when Edmund was killed,” Letitia reminded her. “We couldn’t possibly have done it.”

“The two illicit lovers swear they were together when the betrayed husband was murdered,” Sarah said, trying the theory aloud. “I can’t imagine a jury will believe you.”

“I told you,” Dudley said to Letitia. “That police detective said exactly the same thing,”.

She ignored him. “It doesn’t matter if they believe us or not. We didn’t kill Edmund, and we certainly didn’t kill this other fellow. Why should we?”

“Because he was going to cause a scandal,” Sarah told her.

“What kind of scandal?” she asked skeptically.

“Letitia,” Dudley tried, but she motioned him to silence.

“The scandal of bigamy,” Sarah said, trying to watch both of their faces at once. Dudley merely grimaced, but Letitia turned scarlet again.

“I haven’t committed bigamy,” Letitia insisted. “Peter and I only tried to elope. We were never actually married.”

“Edmund Blackwell was,” Sarah replied. “And his first wife, Calvin’s mother, is still very much alive. He didn’t bother with a divorce, either. He simply forgot about her and married you.”

If Letitia was shocked, she gave no sign of it. “That’s preposterous! No one would have believed a boy like that! No one would have even listened to him about such a thing. His name wasn’t even the same as Edmund’s!”

She seemed very sure of that for someone who had pretended not even to remember Calvin’s name.

“Are you saying you knew nothing about Calvin Brown and Dr. Blackwell’s other wife?” Sarah asked.

“I certainly am!” Letitia said with an air of triumph.

“That’s a pity,” Sarah said. “Because if you’d known, you would most certainly have been delighted to discover yourself a legally free woman. You and Mr. Dudley could have been married, and you would have been able to keep your child without fear of interference from Blackwell. Instead, you believed you were legally bound in a marriage with no escape unless your husband died.”

“Letitia, please, you must sit down,” Dudley said, hurrying to her and taking her arm solicitously. Indeed, she did look as if she really might faint this time. They both looked rather ill, in fact. She allowed him to lead her back to the sofa and seat her again.

“You have no right to upset her like this,” he said to Sarah. “You should be ashamed of yourself. A nurse should have more respect for her condition.”

“This gives me no pleasure, Mr. Dudley, I assure you. But the fact remains that someone killed Dr. Blackwell and his son. You and Mrs. Blackwell have more reason than anyone else to have wanted Dr. Blackwell dead.”

“But we had no reason at all to want his son dead,” Dudley reminded her.

Sarah bit her tongue. No one was to know that Calvin’s killer had tried to implicate him in Blackwell’s death. This was something only the real killer could know, and Malloy was using the information in hopes of tricking that person into betraying himself.

“I’m sorry our visit has been so uncomfortable to you,” Sarah said, “but I thought you might want to know this information. I’ll understand if you no longer want me treating the baby.”

Letitia Blackwell didn’t even look at her. She was staring off into space, her face creased into a frown of concentration. “Peter, do you know what this means?”

“No, my dear, I don’st,” he said, still worried. Perhaps he was afraid the shocks of the past few minutes had unhinged her mind.