“Yes, ma’am.”
“Eve, was it?” Frank asked. He seemed a little baffled by Ava’s direction on this, too.
“Yes, sir.”
“Good to meet you, Eve,” Ava said. “How long have you been working for the Lincolns?”
The woman thought hard about it for a moment and even looked back to Anna before speaking. Anna gave her a nod and Eve finally said, “Maybe two years, ma’am.”
“Would you say you’ve been treated well?”
“Oh, for sure. They always pay me on time. Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln even gave me a nice coat for Christmas last year.”
“Are you married, Eve?”
Eve smiled and shook her head. “No, ma’am. Not me. Almost did one time when I was much younger but it didn’t work.”
“How old are you, Eve?”
With each question, Ava watched Marcus grow angrier and angrier. She prepared herself, knowing full well that the next question she was going to ask would likely set him off. She wished there was some way she could communicate with Frank before it got there—to tell him to be ready for anything.
“I’ll be thirty-eight in a few weeks,” Eve said.
So she wasn’t quite as old as Ava had thought. And though she was much older than Harriet, she did have a certain glow to her. In many ways, they looked a bit similar, she supposed, other than the slight age difference.
“In your time with the Lincolns,” Ava said, “did you ever experience a time when Mr. Lincoln was inappropriate with you?”
She got two reactions to this right away. One came from Eve, as she said: “Inappropriate?”
The other came from Marcus. He got to his feet and practically screamed: “What the hell are you getting at, woman?”
Ava ignored Marcus, especially as Frank also got to his feet in response. She kept her eyes on Eve and said, “Yes. Inappropriate. What I mean was if he ever touched you in a way that made you uncomfortable.”
“Oh,” Eve said. She looked at the floor right away and started shaking her head quickly.
At the same time, Anne Lincoln also stood up. She was looking to Ava has if the detective had broken her heart. “Why would you…why would you come in here and accuse my husband of such a thing?”
Ava ignored her as the room became a chess game of sorts. Samuel remained where he was by the entrance of the den while Marcus paced back and forth in front of the couch.
“Eve, did you ever participate in a sexual relationship with Monty Lincoln?”
“Ava…” Frank said, shocked at the blunt nature of the question.
With a tremor in her voice, Anne spoke as loudly as she could. “You need to get out of my house, Detective. Both of you.”
“And you’ll be hearing from us,” Marcus said through clenched teeth. “We’ll contact your captain and you’ll both lose your jobs. You can—”
Eve’s gentle yet firm voice interrupted him.
“Only twice. I didn’t want to, but he insisted. And I knew if I said anything to anyone, no one would believe me. He’s tried it with Esther, the other staff, too. They never had relations, but he’s grabbed her and fondled her. She…was only sixteen at the time.”
The very air seemed to be sucked out of the room. Anna looked to Eve as if the maid had just spoken a different language. Samuel hung his head and started rubbing at his temples. It made Ava wonder if he’d known—or, at the very least, had suspicions.
But Marcus took it to a whole different level. In the midst of his pacing, he lunged straight ahead while reaching in his pocket. Both Ava and Frank went for their guns, but it was too late. In the span of about two seconds, Marcus moved behind Eve and pulled a small pocketknife from his trouser pocket. He put the blade to Eve’s throat and glared at the detectives from behind her shoulder.
“Put your guns down right now, or I’ll cut this black bitch’s throat!” Marcus screamed.
Anna stumbled backwards and for a moment, Ava thought she might faint. Samuel remained where he was, aghast at the entire situation.
“Put them down, now!” Marcus said. “I’ll do it!”
Beside her, Frank did as Marcus asked. He slowly bent down and placed his gun on the floor. Then, with her eyes on the blade at Eve’s throat, Ava was helpless but to do the same.