Sarah could just imagine how excited the girl must have been, setting out in her “new” outfit to start a new life. What had taken her to the park this morning, instead, and who had killed her?

“Do you know where she was going?”

“She was going to look for a job in one of the factories nearby, making clothes. She had developed into a fine seamstress.”

“Why would she have been down by City Hall?”

“I… I can’t imagine,” she said. “I don’t want to believe she lied about where she was going.” Plainly, the thought pained her.

“Could she have gone to meet someone?” Sarah asked.

Mrs. Wells winced slightly. “Your friend, Mr. Malloy, asked me the same thing,” she said. “I told him I didn’t know. I’m sure if Emilia was meeting a lover, she wouldn’t have let anyone here know it.”

That did seem reasonable. “I guess you couldn’t blame her if she wanted someone she knew to see her all dressed up,” Sarah said.

Mrs. Wells lowered her gaze, studying her folded hands for a long moment. “She did say…” she began, then caught herself.

“What did she say?” Sarah asked. “It might be a clue to who killed her.”

Plainly, Mrs. Wells did not want to tell her. “One of the girls told me… You must understand, I’m sure Emilia was just talking when she said it.”

Sarah nodded encouragingly.

“She said she wished Ugo could see her. That is the man who beat her.”

Sarah tried not to let her excitement show. This could be a clue as to who killed Emilia, but she didn’t want to alarm Mrs. Wells or frighten her. “It would be perfectly natural for her to want him see how beautiful she is and to regret losing her,” she said.

“ ‘Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain,’ ” she quoted with a hint of despair in her voice. “In Emilia’s case, I’m afraid it may also have killed her.”

“Do you think that’s what she did? Meet her lover to let him see what he’d lost or even to make him want to take her back?”