Page 51 of Evil at the Essex House
He stopped inside the door and looked around. “Nothing?”
“Nothing worth mentioning. You?”
He shook his head, and his eyes landed on the small stack of letters on the bed.
“Letters from America,” I told him. “I haven’t read them yet. Not sure that I should, honestly. They’re private, and it’s not as if we’ll learn anything about Flossie’s disappearance from what her mother writes.”
“We might learn something about her mother, though.” He headed towards the bed with a glance at me out of the corner of his eye. “I know that it isn’t likely to be Mr. and Mrs. Schlomsky behind Flossie’s kidnapping, but I don’t think we ought to disregard them entirely, either. She was so close to the Savoy when Crispin set her down, and it’s so unlikely that anyone could have taken her against her will on the Strand between Charing Cross and the hotel, that I think we need to consider that she might have made it there.”
“Perhaps we should have inquired of the concierge this morning,” I said.
“That would have been rather a dead giveaway of our suspicions,” Christopher answered, picking the top letter off the stack with delicate fingertips, “but perhaps we ought to have done.”
“The Schlomskys have enough money to pay for silence, though.” I watched as he extracted the flimsy airmail paper from the equally flimsy airmail envelope.
He nodded. “Indeed they do. Cheap at twice the price, if she did arrive at the Savoy and they did something to her.”
He unfolded the letter and cleared his throat. “Dearest Florence. Thank you for your letter dated May 2nd…”
ChapterTwelve
I amglad you are enjoying London and making new friends. Ruth tells me that everything is more expensive there, so we have increased your monthly allowance by one hundred pounds, and are giving Ruth another hundred for household expenses, as well. Here in Toledo, everything is well. Your father…
Christopher’s voicetrailed off as he skimmed the rest of the letter before folding it and sliding it back into the envelope again. “Nothing else of interest there. Just how things are at home and how so-and-so sends their regards.”
I nodded. “It makes sense that London would be more expensive than Toledo, but two hundred extra pounds a month? What on earth did she do with it all?”
“Frocks?” Christopher suggested with a grimace. “I don’t know, Pippa. It’s a lot of money, even for someone with no self-control.”
It was. “How much do you suppose St George goes through a month? Just for comparison?”
“Less than that,” Christopher said, “but then he spends most of his time in the country. If he lived in Town, I suppose he might fritter away that much on frivolities, although for all his fun and games, he’s never been a spendthrift. But no matter. I’m more interested in the other hundred to Ruth for household expenses. Ruth is the maid, I assume? The one you said they sent over with Flossie?”
“That’s what Mrs. Schlomsky called her,” I nodded. I could still hear her voice in my head.Ruth, Hiram! Where is Ruth?“She was adamant that Ruth had to be around. And if they’ve been sending her money for household expenses, it makes sense that she would be.”
“But she’s not. I’ve never seen her.”
I hadn’t, either. “Perhaps she made it to England and then left Flossie’s employ?”
“If so, why would Sarah Schlomsky continue to send her money?”
She wouldn’t, of course. Not unless Flossie had kept Ruth’s defection silent. “Perhaps Flossie let her go, because she didn’t want Ruth to report on her to her parents, and the money is hush-money so Ruth won’t spill the beans.”
Christopher thought about it. “That makes more sense than a lot of other things.”
It did. Although it didn’t explain the kidnapping.
“No,” Christopher agreed when I said as much. “If it was a matter of fooling the elder Schlomskys, all Ruth would have to do was come back for a week while Hiram and Sarah are in London, and pretend to be working here, and then leave again once they’re gone.”
Yes, it would. They would have to clear out Flossie’s ‘closet’ and make it look like a proper bedroom for Ruth, but they had had enough time to do that, had they wanted to. So why hadn’t they?
“For the money Flossie’s paying her,” I said, “an extra hundred pounds per month, on top of how much to begin with, I wonder?—it would certainly have been worth it to her.”
Christopher nodded. “So why not simply do that? It would be in Ruth’s best interest to keep the charade up and the money coming.”
“And in Flossie’s best interest to convince her parents that everything was copacetic and Ruth was still on the job,” I agreed. “She left the Essex House just after the telegram arrived that night. You saw her leave. That might have been to contact Ruth and tell her what was going on.”
Christopher nodded. “Ruth never came back, though. And it’s hard to imagine why she wouldn’t.”
