The Cutthroat (Isaac Bell 10)

“I would be very upset . . .”

“What do you mean murdered? What happened? Who’s the man?”

“We don’t know, yet. If you can manage to answer my questions, you can help us find him.”

“But why? That doesn’t make sense. She’s a really nice girl. She wouldn’t hurt anyone.” Still in her coat and shaking her head, Lucy sat on the bed. “She read for my part. If she’d gotten it instead of me, she wouldn’t have been killed.”

“Did she have a boyfriend?”

“No.”

“Would she have told you if she did?”

Lucy said, “I would have known it. All she cared about was getting a role. That’s all she wanted. That’s why she left home, and it didn’t sound to me like her home was bad. I think she had a wonderful home.”

“Did she have a man who was hoping to be her boyfriend?”

“No one I saw.”

“Was there any man she might have gone with to an apartment?”

“I doubt that,” said Lucy. “She was Miss Innocent. I’d be amazed if she ever kissed a boy.”

Helen said, “But for some reason she went to an apartment with a man.”

“Alone?”

“Apparently.”

“Well, that’s a surprise, I must say. A huge surprise— Oh . . .”

“What?”

“No, it couldn’t be. He was too old.”

“Who was too old?” asked Helen.

“Some old man, a Broadway producer, was coaching her to read for a role.”

“Can you describe him?”

“No, I never saw him. She just told me about him.”

“How old?”

“She just said ‘old.’ He limped. I think he used a cane. And he was married. Or, at least he wore a wedding ring. She really thought he was going to help her get a role.”

“Did she read for the role?”

“I don’t know. She said he knew someone important in the show. She was sure she would get the job.”

“Did she say in what play?”

“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The spring tour. Barrett & Buchanan are taking it on the road.”

Isaac Bell was expecting her to wire a report. Instead, Helen Mills went straight to the Broad Street Station and took the train to New York City. Racing uptown from Pennsylvania Station, she stopped at the Almeida Theatre, where Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde had been playing before it went on tour, then hurried to the Van Dorn field office at the Knickerbocker.

Bell was issuing orders in the bull pen and detectives were rushing out. Ordinarily, they would welcome her with big greetings, but tonight all she got were grim nods. Bell sent Harry Warren on his way and conferred quietly with Archie Abbott, who had been his best friend since they boxed in college. An actor before his socially prominent mother demanded he quit the stage, Archie