Murder on St. Mark's Place Read Online Free PDF

are just as good as you are and some are not quite as good and some are completely worthless.”
    “What does that have to do with—?”
    “Doctors are the same way. Some are very good at what they do and some are not quite as good, and some are completely worthless.”
    “He was a doctor !” Malloy insisted.
    “Malloy, where do you think the expression ‘quack doctor’ came from? Some doctors don’t know any more about medicine than you do! Well, perhaps a bit more, but not much. It’s entirely possible that the doctor who saw Brian didn’t know much about clubfoot, and that this surgeon I know might be able to help Brian walk. I can’t make any promises, but I can at least arrange for you to—”
    “Mrs. Brandt, I don’t need for you to arrange anything for me,” he told her, gritting his teeth again. “And I don’t need your help. I can take care of my son myself.”
    Sarah caught herself just short of issuing another lecture. Malloy wouldn’t appreciate it, and she might very well alienate him completely. Besides, he was right. He could take care of his son himself. “Of course you can,” she agreed reasonably. “All I’m suggesting is that you go home and test my theory. See if Brian can hear. And if he can’t, well, there are schools for the deaf in the city. I’m sure they would be happy to help you learn how to communicate with him.”
    He pushed his plate away. He couldn’t push it very far because the table was so small, but the gesture told her he was finished with her and this conversation. Too bad she wasn’t finished with him.
    “Think about it, Malloy,” she tried. “If Brian is only deaf, he won’t need someone to take care of him for the rest of his life. He can earn his own living, and he might even marry and have a family of his own and—”
    “No woman would marry a deaf cripple.”
    “Don’t be so sure.” She could see she’d given him enough to think about without planning Brian’s future, so she let it drop.
    “I’ve got to go,” he said, rising from his chair.
    “Of course you do,” she agreed, standing also.
    “Thanks for the...” He waved toward his plate, and Sarah nodded in acknowledgment.
    He looked ready to bolt, but before he did, she had one last request. He didn’t realize it yet, but she had done him a good turn with Brian, and he would soon feel the need to repay her.
    “Malloy, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, could you at least find out if there are any suspects in Gerda Reinhard’s death? It would mean a lot to her sister.”
    He was still shaking his head in wonder as he disappeared through her garden gate.
     
    S ARAH SAT DOWN at the back of the United German Lutheran Church on Sixth Street. The crowd at Gerda Reinhard’s funeral looked pitifully small in the cavernous interior. Gerda’s sister Agnes was still in bed, on Sarah’s orders, and the rest of her family was still in Germany and probably didn’t even yet know of her death. A few of Agnes’s friends and neighbors had come, and a small group of young women who must have known Gerda were sitting on the other side of the church. At the very last moment, just before the minister took his place in the pulpit, a young man Sarah recognized as Lars Otto, Agnes’s husband, came in. He wore an ill-fitting black suit, probably borrowed for the occasion, and his sandy-brown hair had been slicked down with an abundance of hair tonic. He walked stiffly down the aisle, his lanky frame all knees and elbows, carrying his hat clutched tightly in both hands. He seated himself with obvious reluctance at the front of the church, took out a handkerchief, and mopped the sweat from his face. The weather had cooled considerably today, but Mr. Otto was under a lot of strain.
    Sarah could sympathize with him. Burying his sister-in-law would be an ordeal under the best of circumstances. Gerda, however, had not simply died an untimely death. She had been murdered under scandalous circumstances. The