The Address(54)

She shook her head. Had she taken it? If only she could sleep for a few hours, the answer would come to her, she was sure of that. It would all be cleared up, just as Mr. Douglas said it would.

“I’ll need my cloak and hat.” Sara managed to get out the words and addressed the smaller of the two policemen, who barely even had a beard, he seemed so young.

The man looked at his partner, who nodded.

Daisy was waiting at the top of the ramp. “Here you go, Mrs. Smythe.” As she handed the cloak and hat over, she gave Sara a reassuring touch of her fingers. “What can I do?”

“No speaking,” said the older policeman.

“At the very least can I tell her where I’m going?” asked Sara.

The man nodded. “To the police court on Sixty-Fifth.”

“Tell Mr. Camden that, ask for him. He’ll be able to help.”

“Of course he will. I’ll tell him right off.”

Sara had passed the police court a dozen or so times. It resembled a fortress, with thick gray stones and a chunky parapet across the roofline. The policemen escorted her there by foot but refused to answer any of her questions about what was going to happen to her. To them, she was a thief, and an addled one at that. She stumbled once or twice on the way and swore she heard the older man mumble “drunkard” under his breath.

Inside the courtroom, dozens of people milled about, some shouting, others slumped on benches. Sara was taken into a back room and placed on a wooden chair outside a door marked JUDGE’S CHAMBERS. After ten minutes of waiting, the door swung open and she was brought forth into a gloomy room filled with books and papers. The judge looked on her kindly over his spectacles. He shooed away the policemen.

“Now, tell me what’s happened, Mrs. Smythe.”

She was about to plead her case, to attempt to explain the preposterous circumstances she’d found herself in, but before she could get a word out, Mr. Douglas and a man carrying a medical bag entered. Her heart began to pound. How had they gotten a doctor here so quickly? If she was subjected to an exam, would he know that she was pregnant? She hadn’t even begun to show yet; her belly didn’t look much different than it had before.

“Judge Harrington, I’m Mr. Douglas, the agent for the Dakota.”

“I see. Next time, please do me the courtesy of knocking.” He leaned forward and looked at Sara. “Where are you from, my dear?”

“Fishbourne, England, sir. I arrived in the country last fall.”

“Fishbourne! I visited the village a number of times, summering in Portsmouth last year. Delightful place. You work at the Dakota Apartment House?”

“As resident managerette, yes.”

“How long have you worked there?”

“I began the day I arrived.” No. That wasn’t the right answer.

The judge frowned.

“Thank you, Mrs. Smythe.” He took off his spectacles and lowered the timbre of his voice. “Tell me what’s happened, Mr. Douglas. You must have a good reason to request a private appearance.”

Mr. Douglas cleared his throat. “Your Honor, Mrs. Smythe has been acting strangely the past few weeks. She’s been found wandering the hallways, seemingly confused. There have been complaints. Then today we found a valuable necklace belonging to a tenant in her desk drawer.”

“Mrs. Smythe, did you take the jewels?”

She shook her head. “No, sir.” Her voice caught in her throat, and tears burned her eyes. “I’ve had a difficult time of it lately. I’ve been ill. But I swear I didn’t take them. I assure you. Someone else did and placed them in my desk.”

“Why don’t you conduct your exam, Dr. Wilde.” The judge waved a hand in her direction. The evidence was against her; she’d lost her early momentum.

“Have you been drinking, Mrs. Smythe?” asked the doctor.

“No. I haven’t.”

“Have you been taking any laudanum or such drugs?”

“No. Of course not.”

“Yet Mr. Douglas says you passed out while being questioned at the Dakota, and that you appeared disoriented.”

“I was, but I think that’s just because I’ve been unwell.”

Mr. Douglas interrupted. “Look, Your Honor, it’s important that this not make the papers. The building just opened and we can’t have current or prospective tenants knowing that there was a thief in our midst. The Clark family and I request that this be taken care of swiftly and quietly.”

“What do you propose, Mr. Douglas? Being that you seem ready to take over my job for me.”

She saw her chance. “Ask Mr. Camden to vouch for me. He’ll say that I didn’t steal the jewels, that someone else did and made it look like it was me.”

“How would he know that?” The judge looked at her from under his bushy eyebrows.

“He knows I wouldn’t do such a thing. We are friends, you see.”

Mr. Douglas shook his head. “She’s deluded, clearly. Mr. Camden is a tenant of the Dakota. He lives there with his wife and family. As a matter of fact, it was the wife’s jewelry that went missing.”

She had no hope. No hope at all.

Mr. Douglas shot Sara a hard look. “Nothing the girl says explains who took the property, if she didn’t. But we don’t want to send her to jail.”