cage with filthy, gnarled hands and bared his teeth again.
“You said he’s been here for several months,” I said. “Have you had other madmen here in the last three years or so?”
Hathaway faced me squarely. “What, do they all owe you money?” he sneered. “What’s the real reason you’ve barged in?”
“Let’s go up and talk,” I said. As we climbed the ladder, leaving Fanning to his cage, I decided I had no choice but to reveal my interest directly. Once I reached the room above, I took several deep breaths, trying to expel the fetid air of the pit from my lungs.
“You had a brother and sister residing in your house until a few months ago named Lilly and Jesse Walker. What can you tell me about them?”
A quick look of surprise flashed through Hathaway’s eyes, where it was replaced immediately by one of calculation. “Perhaps I did, perhaps I didn’t,” he said.
I felt out two silver half-dollars from my pocket and dropped them into his waiting palm, trying my best to avoid making contact with his skin.
“They were here,” he said. “Insufferable, both of them. Trouble-makers. The girl most especially. Then it turned out they had some rich relation all along, and one day she shows up and pays off their debts. Good riddance, I said.”
“They’ve both been murdered in the last month.”
Hathaway looked taken aback but only for an instant. Then he said: “I’ve got enough of my own problems. Twenty-five paupers to feed and house, and the state allots me almost nothing for all my efforts. You can’t expect me to give two bits about what happens to people once they leave my charge.”
“Can you think of anyone they might have come into contact with here who bore them ill?”
“Are you accusing me?” Hathaway said, clenching his fists, although he still took care to remain out of range of my right hand. “Just because you wear a fancy coat don’t give you the right to come into my house and spout libel against me.”
“I’m hoping to identify the scoundrel who’s done mortal harm to two innocent persons,” I said, struggling to control my distaste for the man. “I would have thought you’d share that interest. Another madman you housed, perhaps, or someone who quarreled with them during their residency.”
“I haven’t the first idea,” he said. “We haven’t had another madman in Fanning’s man-cage in years. As for the men who live upstairs, each of them is unbalanced, one way or the other. If they could govern their own affairs, they wouldn’t have ended up here.”
He paused, then added: “Can’t say I’m surprised in the least that wench Lilly met her fate.”
“Why do you say that?”
“She could be a hellcat. Made trouble with a few of the married men. Not that she ever did what I asked of her, mind you.”
“That makes her an even braver and more sensible girl than I’d realized.”
“Get out!” he shouted.
“Gladly.” I went through the door to the infirmary where I found Martha kneeling and in earnest conversation with a young woman who was lying on the floor, wrapped in a thin shawl. I took my sister by the arm. As we hurried from the room, I had the vague impression of brightly colored clothing and blankets that hadn’t been present earlier. Both of us breathed deeply when we finally burst through the front door, grateful to be out of the squalid house at last.
“I’m afraid we didn’t learn much of use,” I said after we were both seated on our chaise and I prodded Hickory to head back toward Springfield. I relayed what Hathaway had told me.
“Maybe you didn’t,” Martha returned, a pleased smile on her face, “but I discovered a great deal.”
“You? What could you have learned?”
“There’s more than one way to gather information, Joshua. It doesn’t have to be all battery or bribery. Sometimes kindness goes a long way.”
“I suppose.”
“There was a girl in the sickroom about my own age. Her name’s Abigail. I had a long, interesting talk with her. She came down with fever and ague in the spring, and even though she’s all better now, the master won’t let her back into her family’s apartment upstairs. Abigail told me she knew Lilly and Jesse well. She and Lilly were the only two young women who resided in the house, so naturally they became friends. She was devastated when I told her both of them were gone.”
“I don’t doubt it,” I said. “Did she have anything useful to