Murder on Mulberry Bend (5 page)

“Yes, it is.” Sarah managed not to smile. “The area farther down, where the street curves, is known as Mulberry Bend,” she added. “It contains the worst slums in the city.”

“There are worse slums than this?” he asked in amazement, looking around.

“Indeed, although they aren’t as bad as they used to be. Just a few years ago, the police would only go in there in large groups,” Sarah said. “The Italians have settled there now. So many of them live here, they call it Little Italy.”

“The real Italy is nothing like this,” he informed her, making no effort to conceal his dismay. Sarah could imagine the inhabitants of Little Italy would agree with him.

The Prodigal Son Mission was located in the next block. Sarah had never paid much attention to it before. Missions and settlement houses had started appearing in various locations in the Lower East Side as society developed a social conscience.

This mission was in an old Dutch-style house that had once been a large and comfortable home to a well-to-do family. That family had long since moved farther north, leaving the house to be divided into flats for the flood of poor immigrants currently invading the city. Now the house had changed character again. Someone had hung a large cross over the front door, and a sign identified the mission to anyone in the neighborhood who could read English.

When she glanced at Dennis, he was frowning.

“Isn’t it what you were expecting?” she asked.

“I’m not sure what I was expecting,” he said. “I was just trying to imagine Hazel coming here, walking down these streets and seeing these people.” He turned to her. “She wasn’t like you, Sarah. She wasn’t brave or strong.”

Sarah didn’t consider herself particularly brave or strong, either. “Perhaps you misjudged her.”

He wasn’t prepared to admit such a thing.

They’d reached the front stoop, and Sarah walked up the steps and knocked on the door while Dennis waited on the sidewalk, still holding Sarah’s bundle. In a few moments the door opened. A young woman stood there, and she smiled uncertainly at Sarah.

“You want something, yes?” she asked with a lilting accent. She was an ordinary-looking girl, but her smile brightened her face and her light brown eyes, making her almost pretty.

“We’d like to see Mrs. Wells, if she’s available,” Dennis informed her from his place at the bottom of the steps.

The girl looked down in surprise, and her smile vanished. Richard Dennis was used to intimidating those he considered his inferior, and he’d certainly intimidated this girl.
“Sì, Signore,
I mean, yes. Please to come in,
Signora.”

She stood back hastily to allow them to enter. Sarah recognized her accent as Italian, but unlike most of the Italian immigrants, she had light hair and a fair complexion. Sarah knew from her dealings in the neighborhood that this meant she was probably from Northern Italy, although Northern Italian immigrants were much rarer than Southern ones.

“You will wait here, please,” the girl asked, still wary of Dennis, since he hadn’t done anything to reassure her. In fact, he was practically glaring at her in apparent disapproval. Sarah couldn’t imagine why he would disapprove of the girl.

She wanted to chide him, but she didn’t know exactly how to make him see how rude he was being. Instead, she looked around while they waited for the girl to return. The entrance hall was remarkably clean and virtually bare of furniture and decoration except for a cheap picture of Jesus on one wall. The floors had been painted brown and scrubbed until they were spotless. From another room, Sarah could hear young voices uncertainly singing a hymn.

The girl had disappeared into that room farther down the hallway, and after a moment, the singing stopped and a woman came out. The girl made as if to follow her, but the woman said, “Thank you, Emilia. Please stay with the girls and have them continue with their Bible lesson,” and came down the hall alone to meet them.

“Mrs. Wells?” Sarah asked as she approached. She was a small woman of middle age. The years had thickened her figure and put silver streaks into her dark hair, but her face was remarkably unlined. Her dark brown eyes glowed with the confidence and serenity of someone very confident of her place in the world.

“Yes, I’m Mrs. Wells,” she replied. “Welcome to the mission. Have you visited us before?”

“No, we haven’t,” Sarah said. “I’m Sarah Brandt, and this is Mr. Richard Dennis. His wife used to — ”

“Mr. Dennis, of course,” Mrs. Wells said, her intense gaze instantly on him. Sarah saw a flicker of emotion cross her smooth face. She must have been amazed that Richard had suddenly turned up on her doorstep after five years. “I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you. We met when I visited your wife during her last illness.”

“Oh, yes, I’d forgotten,” Dennis said apologetically. “That was a difficult time. I’m afraid much of what happened then is a little unclear to me, even today.”

She nodded with understanding. “No need to explain. It has been a long time. Your wife was a remarkable woman, so dedicated to the work we do here. You must feel her loss deeply. I know we still do.”

“Thank you,” Richard murmured uncomfortably. Sarah knew he didn’t want to discuss his wife’s death, particularly when they were standing in a corridor.

Mrs. Wells obviously realized it, too. “Now tell me,” she continued briskly, as if as eager as Richard to move on from the unpleasant thoughts of Hazel’s death. “What brings you here after all this time?”

Sarah came to Richard’s rescue. “Mr. Dennis and I were wondering if you would mind telling us a little about the work you do. He’s interested in finding out why his wife was so devoted to your ministry.”

She seemed to be considering Sarah’s answer, almost as if she were trying to judge the truthfulness of it. But perhaps Sarah was only being fanciful. The woman probably had to be careful her visitors were sincere and not just curiosity seekers wanting to have an experience they could tell their wealthy friends about later. “Well, it is the Sabbath,” Mrs. Wells reminded them, “and usually I’m leading the young ladies in a Bible class at this hour.” Sarah wasn’t sure if this was meant as a reprimand or not. “But they can get along without me, I’m sure,” she added kindly, taking away the sting. “It’s much more important for you to find the peace you’re seeking, Mr. Dennis.”

Her eyes were filled with sympathy, as if she understood completely the pain Richard had felt and his need to assuage it. Sarah could easily see why she had been successful with this ministry. Such kindness would draw the children of these streets like a magnet.

“Please, step into the parlor,” Mrs. Wells said, “and give me a moment to instruct Emilia.”

The parlor was almost as austere as the hallway. The mismatched furniture had to be the result of donations or rescues of salvageable pieces from the trash, and the decor was uncluttered with the assortment of knickknacks and doilies most people felt was fashionable. Sarah took a seat on an ugly sofa. She was glad for the layers of her petticoats, because they cushioned her against the protruding horsehair stuffing which would make sitting on it feel like sitting on a hairbrush. Dennis chose a chair that seemed reasonably sturdy, if a little the worse for wear. He set Sarah’s bundle self-consciously on the floor beside him.

After a few moments, Mrs. Wells returned, closing the parlor doors carefully behind her and taking a seat on the sofa beside Sarah. She moved with an unconscious grace that drew the eye while at the same time giving the overwhelming impression of modesty and humility. She was dressed in black bombazine unrelieved by any adornment. Even her pierced earlobes were bare. Sarah judged that she was in mourning.

“Now, what can I tell you about Mrs. Dennis?” she asked when she was settled on the sofa beside Sarah, her back perfectly straight and her hands folded properly in her lap.

Sarah looked to Richard, but he sent her a silent plea to begin.

“As I said, Mr. Dennis is interested in finding out more about your work here because of his late wife’s involvement,” she began. “Perhaps you could begin by telling us how the mission got started.”

Once again Mrs. Wells studied Sarah for a moment before replying. Sarah had the impression that Mrs. Wells was once again weighing her words to see if they were truthful. “I would be happy to,” Mrs. Wells said, her smooth face settling into a small, sweet smile, making Sarah think perhaps she had only imagined Mrs. Wells questioned her sincerity. “My dear husband started the mission more than seven years ago. It was his dream and his calling. He’d worked in this part of the city for a long time, preaching on street comers and ministering to the poor wherever he could find a place, before he was finally able to purchase this house.” She turned her gaze to Dennis. “He was only able to do so because of the generosity of a wealthy benefactor.”

“How ... how fortunate,” Dennis managed, somewhat nonplussed at what might have been a very broad hint that his generosity would also be appreciated.

“Fortune had nothing to do with it, Mr. Dennis. The Lord provided,” she corrected him gently.

“Of course,” Dennis murmured, properly rebuked.

“Is your husband busy?” Sarah asked to save him from more embarrassment. “I would love to meet him.”

“I’m afraid that won’t be possible, not in this world, at least,” she said with another of her gentle smiles. “My husband passed away less than a year after we opened the mission.”

“I’m sorry,” Sarah said, responding as good manners dictated she should, even though she hadn’t known the man.

“No need to be sorry,” Mrs. Wells informed her. “Although I miss him dreadfully, he’s in a much better place now. If the Lord took him, He must have thought his work here was done, and that we would be able to continue without him.”

“So you took over the work here after he passed away?” Sarah asked, amazed that so unassuming a woman would have been able to make a success of a ministry in one of the worst neighborhoods in the city.

“I did what I could,” Mrs. Wells clarified. “My talents are very different from his, of course. He was a gifted and dynamic preacher. I am merely God’s handmaiden, and I can only do what a woman can do.”

“And what is that?” Sarah asked, genuinely curious now.

“Here we offer young girls a safe place to stay, if they need one. Many of them had been living on the streets or worse. Others lived with their families, but they still need to learn the skills that will make them productive wives and mothers, things like cooking and sewing and simple hygiene. You would be amazed at the squalor in which they live.”

Sarah thought of the tenements where a single outside spigot or pump served a dozen families and no one had a bathtub. She thought of streets clogged with garbage and horse droppings because the city workers didn’t want to go into that neighborhood to pick it up. If cleanliness was next to Godliness, for some it was nothing short of a miracle. “I’m a midwife, Mrs. Wells,” Sarah explained. “I know it only too well. For most of them, it’s not a choice, however. It’s a matter of not having any means of keeping clean.”

“You’re right, of course,” Mrs. Wells said. “But things will never change unless people know that they should. We simply try to educate the young women who come to us about what kind of change is necessary — and how to accomplish it.”

Certainly a worthy goal, Sarah thought, admiring the woman even more. “I know many of the settlement houses teach young women the skills you mentioned, in addition to helping them learn to read and write,” she offered. The ones she’d seen in New York had been modeled after Hull House in Chicago, founded by Jane Addams.

“The settlement houses do emphasize education. You would expect nothing less, since they are run by college women.” Mrs. Wells said the phrase “college women” with just a hint of disdain.

“Don’t you approve of the settlement houses?” Sarah asked in amazement.

“I’m sure they mean well, Mrs. Brandt,” Mrs. Wells allowed, “but they emphasize the physical and ignore the spiritual. Saving someone’s body is useless unless you save the soul as well.”

Sarah certainly believed many of the souls in the Lower East Side — and in all parts of the city, for that matter — needed saving, but she knew that wasn’t nearly enough. “Don’t you teach your girls to read?”

“Of course we do.” Mrs. Wells seemed surprised at the question. “They read the Bible and other uplifting literature. While we prepare them for heaven, we also teach them how to have a better life here on earth.”

“My wife never ...” Dennis began, then stopped when the women looked at him in surprise. Sarah had almost forgotten he was there, and Mrs. Wells seemed to have, also.

“Yes, Mr. Dennis?” Mrs. Wells prodded gently.

“I never knew my wife to be interested in ... in religious things. I mean, she attended church regularly, of course. One does, but she never seemed overly concerned about ...” He gestured vaguely, unable to find the correct word.

“I gathered as much,” Mrs. Wells said. “When she first came here, she was a seeker. That’s what I call them. People who have an emptiness inside and are looking for a way to fill it. As I remember, Mrs. Dennis seemed very unhappy when we first met.”

Sarah could have groaned. This wasn’t what Richard needed to hear. He already felt guilty enough over his wife’s death. “I believe Mrs. Dennis was looking for something meaningful to do with her time,” Sarah tried in Hazel Dennis’s defense. “Women in her position in life sometimes grow bored with society.”

“She was also unhappy because she didn’t have a child,” Richard offered.

“I don’t have a child either, Mr. Dennis,” Mrs. Wells said, her tone still gentle and reasonable. “My daughter was taken from me when she was only three. At first I was angry and grief-stricken, but eventually, I came to understand and accept. God needed me for other work, so He freed me of the responsibility of my child. She’s in heaven, with her father, and I’m not selfish enough to wish her back here in this veil of tears. She’s happier there than she could ever be here, and I, in turn, found fulfillment in the work God gave me. Your wife did, too.”