“I asked you how Mrs. Brandt came to identify Emilia’s body.”

“She was wearing Mrs. Brandt’s clothing. I thought she might know who the girl was, so I asked her to come to the morgue.”

Mrs. Wells was completely bewildered. “How did you know she was wearing Mrs. Brandt’s clothing?”

“Because Mrs. Brandt is a friend of mine, too,” he said with a small sense of satisfaction.

Fortunately, Elizabeth Decker had suggested Sarah telephone to make sure Richard would be in his office this afternoon. He’d planned to go out, but he changed his plans immediately when he learned Sarah needed to see him. After Sarah had luncheon with her mother, she’d been delivered to Richard’s bank in the Decker family carriage, complete with its charming footmen.

Now she was being escorted directly into his private office by an obsequious little man whose plump body had been stuffed into a suit that was too small for him. When she entered his office, Richard rose from behind his desk and came out to greet her, taking her hand in both of his.

“To what do I owe this pleasure?” he asked in his very charming way as he led her to one of the chairs in front of his desk. Instead of returning to his place behind it, he sat in the other chair beside her. She had his full attention.

“I’m afraid our visit to the mission on Sunday had a profound effect on me,” she began, debating whether to tell him about Emilia’s murder. No use in starting out on such a tragic topic. She’d wait and see if she could work it naturally into her explanation.

“What kind of an effect?” he asked, his brow furrowing with concern.

“I’ve had a… a reawakening, I suppose you’d call it. I suddenly feel as if my life doesn’t have much meaning, and that I’m not doing anything important.”

“What nonsense,” he said gallantly. “Your work must be very important.”

She chose not to notice that he really wasn’t certain it was. “You’re right, of course. I do save lives,” she added, in case he hadn’t realized it. “But Mrs. Wells changes lives. I don’t think I could do the kind of work she does, but I could help her. I’ve asked my mother if she’d give a party and ask her friends to make a donation to the mission… in Hazel’s memory.”