Murder on Pleasant Avenue (Gaslight Mystery #23) - Victoria Thompson Page 0,1

Mrs. Donatelli gave him an uncertain smile.

“And this is Miss Smith,” Gino said, still smiling slyly. “She’s learning to typewrite.”

Maeve glared at him, but his grin never wavered.

“And which brother are you married to, Mrs. Donatelli?” Mr. Malloy asked.

“Rinaldo,” she said proudly. “He is the oldest.”

Rinaldo? Of course. She was married to one of Gino’s brothers—he had about twenty-seven of them, if she remembered correctly—so of course she would be Mrs. Donatelli. What had she been thinking? “So nice to meet you, Mrs. Donatelli,” she said with complete sincerity.

“Teodora was just going to tell me why she’s here,” Gino said. “Something terrible, you said, but not something with our family.”

“No, not with our family, but terrible, yes.” Her uncertain smile vanished. “Miss Harding has been kidnapped.”

Maeve and Mr. Malloy looked to Gino for an explanation, but he was apparently just as puzzled as they were.

“Who is Miss Harding?” Gino asked.

“She is a worker at the settlement house. You know what that is?” she added to all of them.

They all nodded. Mr. Malloy’s wife, Sarah, had been involved with The Daughters of Hope Mission, which was where Maeve had found shelter when her grandfather’s death had left her alone in the world. Maeve had first met Mrs. Malloy there, and that had eventually led her here. Do-gooders of all types were opening settlement houses all over the city, so called because volunteers from more prosperous neighborhoods would “settle” there, living among the poor so they could more accurately discern their needs and therefore meet them. And of course Mrs. Malloy had recently opened a maternity clinic on the Lower East Side.

“What do you mean, she was kidnapped?” Maeve asked. “Has there been a ransom note or something?”

Teo shook her head. “Not that I heard, at least not yet, but she disappeared yesterday. She did not return to the house after she went to visit some neighbors, and she was gone all night. She would never be gone all night unless something happened to her. Some children said a man stopped her in the street, but after that, no one saw her again.”

“That does sound serious, but maybe there’s a simple explanation,” Mr. Malloy said. “She might’ve just gotten tired of the work and decided to go home.”

“She left all of her things behind, though,” Teo said, “and there is more.”

“What?” Gino asked.

“It is the Black Hand.” She crossed herself against mention of this evil secret organization.

“The Black Hand?” Gino echoed in alarm. “Surely not . . .”

“They kidnapped Mrs. Cassidi. They held her for a month, until Mr. Cassidi could pay them.”

“A month!” Maeve cried. “How horrible for her!”

“Isn’t Mr. Cassidi the man Rinaldo works for?” Gino asked in amazement.

“Yes, he is. I do not think Mrs. Cassidi will ever be herself again. She refuses to even see visitors who come to comfort her, and she won’t leave her house, not even to go to church. And there were others, too. Usually children of the Italian businessmen who have done well and have money, like Mr. Cassidi. I don’t want this to happen to Jane—Miss Harding—so I told Mr. McWilliam—he is the head resident at the settlement—that I would ask Gino and Mr. Malloy to help.”

“Why didn’t you ask the police to help?” Mr. Malloy asked.

She gave him a pitying look. “The police do not care about the Italians, Mr. Malloy.”

“But Miss Harding isn’t Italian, is she?” Maeve asked.

“No, but the police do not challenge the Black Hand, because they do not concern themselves with the Italians.”

“But what about Detective Sergeant Petrosino?” Gino asked.

“Yes,” Mr. Malloy said. “Back when he was police commissioner, Governor Roosevelt promoted Petrosino specifically to handle crime in the Italian neighborhoods.” Because the Italians were so suspicious of outsiders, Roosevelt had discovered he needed Italians on the police force to deal with crime in their neighborhoods. Gino had been one of them until he came to work for Mr. Malloy.

“Mr. Petrosino cannot be everywhere, Mr. Malloy,” Teo said. “He is