Murder In Chinatown Read Online Free PDF

daughter. She cherished the child. “It seemed like they treated her very well, in fact.”
    “Then why’d she leave?” Maeve seemed actually angry at this unknown girl.
    “Probably because her father wanted her to marry an older man,” Sarah said.
    “Why? Did he owe him money or something?”
    “Not that I know of, although he could have, I guess. Her mother seemed to think it was a good idea, though, and she loves the girl very much. The man makes a good living. She probably thought he’d be a good husband for her.”
    Maeve’s frown deepened as she continued to concentrate on scrubbing the last bits of dough off the table.
    What was she thinking? Sarah wondered. And why was she so angry?
    Maeve muttered something under her breath.
    “What was that?” Sarah asked.
    Maeve looked up in surprise. “What?”
    “You said something,” Sarah said, even though she knew Maeve hadn’t intended for her to hear. “I didn’t hear it.”
    “I just…I said she was stupid,” she admitted reluctantly.
    Sarah nodded. “Running away was a foolish thing to do. Dangerous, too.”
    “You said her family was looking for her,” Maeve said.
    “Yes, everyone was out, even the neighbors.”
    Maeve shook her head. “They didn’t want her to leave. It don’t make sense.”
    “Doesn’t,” Sarah corrected her.
    “Doesn’t make sense,” Maeve repeated obediently. “She’s got a family what loves her and wants her, and she runs away because she don’t…doesn’t want to get married to some rich man? That’s just crazy.”
    Sarah figured Maeve would have loved to find herself in a position like that. “I know. She isn’t the kind of girl who would know how to survive on her own, either. That’s why her parents are so frightened.”
    Now Maeve’s frown turned thoughtful. “A girl like that…”
    Sarah waited, but she didn’t go on. “What about a girl like that?” she prodded.
    “She ain’t likely to go off alone, is she? I mean, really run away. She’s used to somebody taking care of her. She’d be too scared to be on her own.”
    “That’s what her parents thought, too, but they checked with all her friends. She isn’t staying with any of them.”
    “ Girl friends,” Maeve said dismissively.
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean her girl friends are probably just like her. They’d be afraid to hide her. She’d never go to them.”
    Sarah was beginning to understand. “You’re right, her friends aren’t hiding her, and she’d be too scared to go off alone. You think she’s found someone else to take care of her, don’t you?”
    “A man,” Maeve said with certainty. “You’ll see. She’s with some man.”
    This was what Sarah had feared, of course, but perhaps it wasn’t quite as bad as she’d imagined. “Do you think it’s a man who cares about her?”
    Maeve shrugged. “They always say that, don’t they?”
    Sarah’s heart sank. Of course they did. Angel Lee might have run off with a man she loved, a man she thought loved her in return, but that didn’t mean he really did. He could still have sold her to a brothel or even to a rich man whose perversion ran to violating the innocent. Many young men in the city made a living doing just that. They were called “cadets.” “I wonder if her parents have considered the fact that she might have had an admirer.”
    “Maybe you should suggest it to them, Mrs. Brandt,” Mrs. Ellsworth said, looking up from her cooking.
    Catherine raised her head, turned Sarah’s face toward her own, and nodded vigorously.
    “Can you hurry with those eggs, Mrs. Ellsworth?” Sarah asked wryly. “I’ll be needing some coffee, too, since it looks like I’ll be heading back to Chinatown.”
     
    S ARAH HAD BEEN HOPING THAT A NGEL HAD RETURNED or been found, but she was disappointed. The neighbors were still clustered in the street outside, discussing the sad situation. Sarah made her way through them with a heavy heart.
    “Oh, Mrs. Brandt, did you