Murder on Amsterdam Avenue by Victoria Thompson

watched them go until they were out of sight, then turned back to Sarah.
    â€œThank you for supper.”
    â€œThank you for coming. Now tell me why you haven’t rejoined the police department.”
    â€œI . . . I, uh, just got back to the city yesterday. I wanted to spend some time with my family first.”
    â€œAnd yet here you are, not with your family, and you’ve already agreed to work with Malloy on a case. So obviously, you aren’t reluctant to go back to work. You’re just reluctant to go back to police work.”
    Gino gave her a little grin. “I kept thinking about the last case I worked on with Mr. Malloy. Those women . . .The police didn’t seem to care, and what would’ve happened to them if Mr. Malloy hadn’t gone looking for them?”
    Sarah didn’t want to know the answer to that question. “So you’ve decided to help him again.”
    â€œWhen he told me what happened to your friend, well, I could see why the family didn’t want to get the police involved. But I could also see why Mr. Oakes wants to find out for sure what happened to his son.”
    â€œMalloy is only doing this because Mr. Oakes is a friend of my father’s, you know. What will you do after this is over?”
    Gino gave her an odd look, but before she could figure it out, it vanished. “I don’t know, but maybe by then, I’ll have figured it out. Mr. Malloy wanted you to know that the coroner—his name is Titus Wesley—was able to get Charles Oakes’s organs . . .” He stopped, mortified. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Brandt. I just realized that’s not a fit topic for you to hear about.”
    Sarah smiled at his chagrin. “Don’t be silly. I’m a nurse and a midwife. I know more about organs than you ever will. Just forget I’m a lady for the time being.”
    â€œAll right,” he said, although he didn’t look happy about it. “Wesley got Oakes’s organs from the undertaker. He was able to test what he . . . what he found in Oakes’s stomach and what was in the cat’s stomach, too. It was arsenic.”
    â€œHe’s absolutely sure?”
    â€œHe said he did the Marsh test, whatever that is, and he’s sure. He said it would be accepted in court, too.”
    â€œThen I guess he’s sure. This is terrible news, of course. It means someone poisoned poor Charles, probably on purpose.”
    â€œWas he a good friend of yours, Mrs. Brandt?”
    â€œNot really a friend. An acquaintance, I guess. We kneweach other because our parents were friends. He’s a few years older than I, so our paths didn’t cross much growing up, and of course, I haven’t been in society for years.”
    â€œI guess you and Mr. Malloy will be now that he’s a millionaire.”
    Sarah sighed. “My mother would like nothing better, but I can’t imagine Mr. Malloy being interested in that, can you?”
    â€œNo,” he said with a grin, “but don’t you want to?”
    â€œNot really. I haven’t missed it at all, if you want the truth.”
    â€œThen what will you do if you’re not a midwife and you’re not doing whatever it is rich ladies do all day?”
    â€œThat, my dear Gino, is an excellent question, and like you, I hope to figure it out very soon. So what is Malloy doing right now that he had to send you here in his place?”
    â€œOh, he went over to see Mr. Oakes and give him the news about the arsenic. He said to tell you he’ll come see you later.”
    â€œHe’d better.”
    â€œSo what do you know about the Oakes family that might help us figure out who killed this Charles?”
    Sarah told him what she knew about his mother and his wife and her impressions of them.
    â€œDid the family ever accept Mrs. Oakes? The mother, I mean,” Gino asked.
    â€œThey didn’t really have a