by Paula Paul
“But I don’t see how—”
His grip on her arm tightened. “I’m sure Nancy hasn’t gone far, Nell. You know how devoted she is to Dr. Gladstone and to her patients. I’m sure she’s only seeing after one of them.” He led her with a firm hand, out of the building and closed the door. When he went back to his desk, he picked up the document he’d been reading when Nell interrupted him. It was a telegram from Dr. Mortimer.
“Have found information on unsolved murders in France that fit description of Newton murders STOP One Polly Cobbe believed to be monomaniac was suspect STOP Please advise Gladstone upon arrival on pm train.”
Chapter Fifteen
The train to Bradfordshire left London a few minutes before five a.m. and crept its way through the countryside at what seemed to Alexandra to be a painfully slow pace. Nicholas sat across from her, uncharacteristically quiet. She assumed it was a combination of the ungodly early hour the schedule forced on them and his concern for Nancy, and possibly other potential victims that made him untalkative.
Alexandra had not slept at all the night before. She had not, in fact, even bothered to go to bed. Instead, she’d spent the time pacing the floor and worrying about Nancy and the boys and wondering what could have happened to Polly that had twisted her mind into such a grotesque state. She thought of Polly’s careful and tender care of the Hastings’ baby. No one could have been more loving and careful. Neither could anyone have been more kind to Gweneth Pendennis, or, for that matter, to Nancy. Perhaps her worry for Nancy and blame of Polly were completely misplaced. Polly couldn’t possibly be a murderer, could she?
It could be the person you see every day in the most mundane and ordinary circumstances.
When Broomsfield had tapped on Alexandra’s door at four o’clock that morning, she was sitting on her trunks, waiting. In spite of her sleepless night, she didn’t feel tired then or even now that the journey was launched. But there was a persistent dull ache behind her dry, scratchy eyes.
“There is reason to hope that whoever the killer may be, he or she won’t break the pattern of killing only middle aged men, and Nancy and your stable boys will be safe.” Nicholas didn’t look at her as he spoke but stared ahead with a fixed gaze. It was unclear whether Nicholas’s statement was meant to comfort her or to comfort himself.
Alexandra glanced at him but found it impossible to reply. She turned her gaze out the window to hide her unease, and for one dreadful moment, it seemed to her that the train was moving backward. Lack of sleep was causing her to hallucinate. She glanced again at Nicholas, who had turned his full attention to her now.
“I’m quite convinced we have no reason to believe Nancy is in imminent danger. After all, she, as well as you, has been in Polly’s presence several times without harm. Even slept in the same house. And we still don’t know for certain she was responsible for all the killings, do we? Or even if she is, we don’t know for certain that Nancy suspects her and is therefore in danger.”
Alexandra closed her eyes and leaned her head against the back of her seat. “No, I suppose we don’t know anything for certain.” Too restless to keep her eyes closed, she stared at the ceiling. “But it’s such a frightening likelihood, and I can’t help thinking now, that I may have made a mistake by advising against notifying Constable Snow before we left. There might have been something he could do to protect Nancy.” She raised her head to look at Nicholas again. “I was wrong to worry about panic spreading because telegraph operators would talk or that it could result in someone being wrongly accused.”
“It does little good to talk about what might have been, Dr. Gladstone.” There was an edge to his voice that surprised Alexandra. Worry or lack of sleep seemed to have transformed completely the flirtatious Nicholas of the night before.
“Is that your way of saying, ‘I told you so’?”
“So you think of me as petty and vindictive.”
“Vindictive is the last thing I would think of you.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You were meant to deny both, you know.”
She laughed. He was making an effort to suppress his dark mood, and it surprised her that he could evoke laughter from her at a time such as this. It would be easy—too easy—to rely on his ability to console her, too easy to like him too much. He smiled at her laughter and held her gaze a moment until she turned away.
Alexandra was still too restless to feel tired when the train pulled into the station at Bradfordshire. When she stepped to the door to exit the train, she was surprised to see the tall, slender form of Constable Snow among those waiting in the small crowd on the platform. He moved toward her and hesitated only slightly when he saw Nicholas.
“Constable Snow, what a surprise.” Alexandra said as he advanced closer. “How did you know I’d be on this train?”
“I received a telegram from Dr. Mortimer that you were on your way. I’m afraid I have some bad news,” he said with only a cursory glance toward Nicholas.
Alexandra felt as if her blood had frozen. “It’s Nancy,” she said in a voice that was surprisingly calm, even to her own ears.
“What’s happened?” Nicholas asked at the same moment Snow said, “I’m afraid she’s disappeared.”
“Disappeared? But how is that possible?” Alexandra felt and heard a roaring in her head, as if all her blood were rushing there.
“The boys are gone as well,” Snow said. “There’s no one at your house. Not even your dog, I’m afraid.”
“But why…?”
“Good god, man, tell us what this is all about,” Nicholas said. “Why were you at Dr. Gladstone’s house in the first place?”
Snow turned his attention to Alexandra as if she had been the one who had asked the question. “One of your patients, Kate Hastings, told Nell Stillwell that Nancy had left in the company of Polly Cobbe under somewhat suspicious circumstances, and Nell came to me. When I went to your house to investigate, I found the boys gone as well…then when I spoke to Kate, she seemed to think they’d gone searching for Nancy.”
“Have you checked Miss Cobbe’s lodging?” Nicholas asked.
Snow turned his icy glare on Nicholas. “I have.”
“And…?”
There was another moment of silence, just enough to fill Alexandra with cold fear. Finally, he spoke. “I suggest you come with me to her room, Dr. Gladstone.”
A horrible vision flooded Alexandra’s senses—a vision of Nancy lying on the floor of Polly’s dingy room above the tavern, her heart crudely severed from her body. She didn’t remember agreeing to go with the constable or getting into his carriage for the ride back to Newton. She had only a vague memory of Nicholas sitting beside her and holding her hand as they made what seemed to be an interminable trip before they stopped in front of the constable’s office and walked across the street to the tavern.
Nicholas’s arm tightened around her shoulders as they stood in front of the door to what she presumed to be Polly’s room and Snow inserted a key. The door swung open, and she felt a draft of hot air at the same time a sour smell accosted her senses. She swept her gaze around the darkened room, and then again as her eyes adjusted to the dim light. There was no one there, no body lying on the floor.
“You have taken her away,” she said in a voice that was strangely calm.
“I have taken no one away, Dr. Gladstone,” the constable said. “There has been no one here for me to take away.”
“But I thought—”
“Nancy and Polly are still missing?” Nicholas asked for her.
“Yes,” Snow said. He pulled the telegram from his pocket and handed it to Alexandra. “Read this, Dr. Gladstone,” he said, “and Mr. Forsythe should have a look at it as well.”
Alexandra read Dr. Mortimer’s message confirming what she already suspected. Seeing the alienist’s validation only served to frighten her more. When she handed the telegram to Nicholas, he read it quickly then spoke to Snow.
“You’ve just handed me her defense.”
Snow nodded. “She will not likely hang for her crimes.”
“Criminal insanity will be her defense,” Nicholas said. “It is another matter to prove it.”
“And first I must build a case against her,” Snow said as he made his way to a window on the opposite side of the room. He pushed back a faded curtain to allow more light to enter then tuned toward a table that held several bottles, a rather expensive microscope, a few books, and some test tubes. “I’d like you to examine the contents of these containers, if you will, Dr. Gladstone.”
Alexandra walked to the table and looked at all that was on it. Just as Snow was about to pick up one of the jars, which contained a gel-like substance, Alexandra placed her hand on his arm to stop him. “I suggest you not touch anything, Constable.”
His eyes met hers briefly, and he moved his hand back. “Can you examine all of this here, or do you wish to take it to your own laboratory?” he asked.
She glanced at the table again and particularly at the microscope. “I shall be able to do quite well here. This equipment is superior to mine.”
“Then I shall leave you to your work,” he said.
“But what about Nancy and the boys? And Zack?” Alexandra called to his back as he started to walk away.
Snow turned around slowly. “The search will continue, of course.”
Alexandra took an anxious step toward him. “Where…how will you—?”
“Please try not to worry, Dr. Gladstone. I shall continue my inquiries, and I assure you I shall work diligently.” He turned away again, and Nicholas followed him to the door and closed it after he’d left.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Nicholas asked, when the constable was gone.
“I’m…I’m not sure,” she said, trying to compose herself. She looked around the room, hoping to convince herself that she could trust the constable to find Nancy and the others. “But, mind you, don’t touch anything,” she said, pulling on the soft kid gloves she used for traveling, knowing full well they would be no good to her after this.
“Don’t touch anything? You surely don’t believe the entire room is contaminated.”
“The point is, I don’t know what is contaminated. It’s possible even the very air we’re breathing could be poisoned. There is much we don’t know about contagions.”
A troubled look crossed Nicholas’s face. “Contagions?” His gaze moved around the room. “In here?”
Alexandra seated herself in front of the microscope and carefully placed a minute amount of the contents of one of the jars on a slide. “As I said, I don’t know. I just have to have a look at…” She turned her gaze to Nicholas. “Why don’t you put on your gloves and have a look around. Perhaps there’ll be something out of the ordinary.” Her thought was to keep him busy and get him out of the way so she could concentrate on what she was doing.
She returned her attention to the microscope and was only dimly aware of Nicholas moving away. She didn’t realize how long she’d been looking at the long, rod-like molecules of the minute specimen of gel she’d removed from a jar and placed on the glass until Nicholas moved behind her and put a hand on her shoulder.
“What have you found?” he asked.
“I don’t have my reference books here to compare what I see, but I’m almost certain this is anthrax.”
Nicholas nodded. “Just as we speculated.”
She turned her eye back to the scope. “It appears…”
“She came here planning this?” Nicholas said, sounding as if he couldn’t believe it himself.
Alexandra shook her head. “I don’t know that she planned anything, but it’s possible that when Polly stopped working in Pasteur’s laboratory and left Paris, she brought these specimens with her. She would have understood how to keep them under control until she needed them.”
“So she was responsible for the anthrax deaths.”
“I’m afraid so.”
“But why did she choose Newton?”
“I’m not certain she chose Newton,” Alexandra said. “It’s possible she just happened to come here and saw her opportunity after she arrived.”
“Opportunity?”
“Men,” Alexandra said. “Men of the right age who would be her victims. That is, if Dr. Mortimer’s theory is correct.”
“Good Lord!” Nicholas looked down at his gloved hands and held them out from him as if he feared contamination. He returned his gaze to Alexandra. “But if she used the contagion on her victims, why did it work one time and not another?”
Alexandra stood and carefully removed first one glove and then the other. “I can only guess, Mr. Forsythe. But extrapolating on the theory of vaccination and immunization, it is possible that some men in this agrarian area have a natural immunity, or at least some resistance to the anthrax germ. Perhaps others have not had the opportunity to develop the immunity. It’s possible a natural immunity kept Lucas from contracting it when he played with the pigs. I don’t know. There’s much we don’t know.”
“She must have brought the disease to the pigs as well,” Nicholas said. “Why?”
“Again, I don’t know. It may have been accidental. It may have been meant only for men.”
“Interesting. But how do you suppose Polly was able to contaminate her victims without contaminating herself? Had she developed an immunity herself?”
“It’s possible,” Alexandra said, “but I think it’s more likely she’d learned how to avoid contamination when she worked in the laboratory.”
“Still, it’s difficult to see how she could have caused her victims to come in contact with the germ.”
“I’m not quite sure how she did it, but she’s rather bright, you know. She could devise something cunning, I’m certain.” Alexandra stood and moved away from the table and the microscope. “I suggest we leave now, Mr. Forsythe. The sooner we’re out of here, the more likely we are to avoid contamination.”
“Don’t you think we should have another look around first?” Nicholas asked.
Alexandra was surprised at his reluctance to leave. “Of course not. Constable Snow asked me to examine those specimens, and, given what I found, that’s quite enough reason to leave.”
“But it’s not enough to charge her with murder,” Nicholas said, looking around as he moved away from her.
Impatience burned Alexandra. She felt an uncontrollable urge to do something to find Nancy, Zack, and the boys. “Mr. Forsythe, you may stay here if you like, but I’m not—”
“Just a moment,” Nicholas said, holding up a hand. “I just want to have a look at this shelf of books and then see what’s on the other side of that door over there, and I strongly suggest you don’t leave without me.”
“There is no reason why I should require your presence, Mr.…” She stopped speaking, realizing how foolish her statement was. Perhaps there was good reason not be alone, given the fact that Nancy and the others had disappeared. In spite of what Nicholas had said earlier, it was obvious to her that it was no longer only middle-aged men who were in danger. “Oh for heaven’s sake.” she said, as angry with herself as she was at Nicholas. She stormed to the door Nicholas had indicated and jerked it open. “I’ll have a look in here if it will satisfy you enough so we can…” No further sound would come from her throat. She could only stare in horror.
In front of her, placed in neat rows on shelves and supported by strings from the ceiling, were the skeletons of seven cats.
Chapter Sixteen
“Dr. Gladstone, is it?”
Alexandra recognized Polly’s voice and whirled around to face her. Their eyes met, and Alexandra felt as if she’d been swallowed whole by cold fear itself. Her heart refused to beat until she felt Nicholas beside her, and then it seemed that her heart pumped too wildly.
“I must say I’m surprised to see that you’re so rude and inconsiderate,” Polly said, moving closer to the two of them. “I certainly never entered your house uninvited, did I? Nor did I presume to r
ifle through your personal belongings.” She assumed a dour expression. “I’m not only surprised, I’m disappointed in you, as well.” She shook her head in false distress. “What did I do to deserve this? Didn’t I give you help when you needed it? Didn’t I take care of poor Nancy as long as I could?”
“Where is Nancy?”
Alexandra was surprised to hear that it was Nicholas’s voice asking that question and not her own.
Polly turned her attention to him. “Who are you? And what are you doing here?” There was a menacing note to her voice.
“We are here at the request of Constable Snow,” Nicholas said before Alexandra could speak.
“Indeed!” Polly turned her gaze again to Alexandra. “And did you find what you were looking for?”
“You must know, Polly, how dangerous it is to have these anthrax specimens in your possession,” Alexandra said.
“Anthrax?” For a moment it appeared as if she wanted to play innocent, but she seemed to change her mind. “I am well trained in how to keep it from contaminating me, and it comes in touch only with those I choose.” She laughed. “Well, perhaps those pigs weren’t intentional, but that wasn’t entirely my fault. I stole one of the old sows who was about to die anyway to test the potency of my specimen. I didn’t expect Lucas to find her and return her to the pens. That boy has a problem, you know. I may have to harvest him early. He saw me bury the first heart, I’m sure. And when he dug it up, that’s when the trouble started.”
Alexandra stared at her, astonished. “But the men…? How did you…?”
“Men can be so vain. All I had to do when they came into the apothecary was suggest a bit of gel to soothe roughness of their skin and then apply a little with a spatula. Even Harry fell for it.”
“And when Ben Milligan didn’t die of anthrax…what have you done with Nancy and the others?” Alexandra’s fear was suddenly multiplied.
“Nancy?” Without taking her eyes off Alexandra, Polly took another step toward the two of them. Alexandra saw a bit of light signaling from the folds of Polly’s skirt, and it was only then that she realized she was holding a scalpel. “There’s no need to worry about poor little Nancy anymore,” Polly continued. “You’ll be joining her soon enough.”