Chapter Fourteen
Quinn walked into the small interview room with its brick walls and one gas lamp to find Belle sitting nervously in one of the two chairs on either side of the wooden table.
“Thank you for coming in to speak with me,” he told her, taking the seat across from her and putting his notepad on the table. “I just have a few questions for you.”
She frowned. “I already told Sergeant Ness I don’t know nothing about Polly’s murder.”
He tapped his pencil on his notebook. “I feel as though you weren’t completely honest with Sergeant Ness. I think you know more about Polly’s lovers than you’re letting on.”
“I don’t know nothing,” she said stubbornly, refusing to meet his gaze.
With a sigh, he pushed the notebook away. Something had spooked her, and he needed to find out what that was. “I can’t force you to tell me anything, Belle. But I want to find out who killed your friend, and I can’t do that if I don’t know who had a reason to want her dead.”
“I think that if Polly hadn’t been killed in Lady Allison’s fancy house, you wouldn’t give a damn about her,” Belle muttered. “Nobody cares about what happens to girls like us.”
“I do care,” he shot back. “Why do you think I do the job I do? It certainly isn’t for the money.”
She bit her lip and finally looked up. “I’m afraid that whoever killed Polly might come back to Mercy House. Plus, I just can’t bear to think about what happened to her. I can’t walk by her room without thinking of her being murdered in there while all the rest of us slept.” She shuddered, her throat moving as she obviously struggled to hold back tears.
“That’s understandable,” he told her, his entire demeanor gentling. He had to remind himself this girl was not a suspect. She’d lost someone dear to her, and she was rightly scared and hurting. “I know that it must have been terrifying for the rest of you, to have that happen in a place you thought was safe. But I want to make Mercy House safe for you again, and I can’t do that if you don’t tell me what you know.”
She blew out a breath and nodded abruptly. “All right. But I still don’t think I know nothing that will help you.”
He picked up his pencil again, opening his notebook. “What I’m most interested in is the men in Polly’s life. Now, I know that part of Mercy House’s rules are that you can’t have any gentlemen callers, and I’m not going to tell Lady Allison anything you say here today. But can you tell me if Polly was seeing anyone outside of Mercy House? Meeting with one of her old clients, perhaps?”
Belle shrugged. “There’s not much time between our work at the factory and when we had to be home. She could have been meeting someone Saturday afternoon or on Sunday, though. When we were off work.”
“Any idea who that might be? Did she ever mention that part of her life?” Without thinking, he began to doodle the insignia of the Viper Club in the margin of his notebook.
As it began to take shape, Belle leaned closer. “What’s that you’re drawing?”
His hand froze. He hadn’t meant to do it, but perhaps this could help. “The murderer left a snuffbox with this design in Polly’s room. We think it is the emblem of the Viper Club. Have you seen it before?”
Belle whitened and leaned back in her chair. “Yes,” she whispered. “I was taken to a party once. A dozen men took turns at me.” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “That emblem was on the floor.”
“Was Polly there with you?” he asked, trying not to let his pity for her plight show. Poor girl. The things women were forced to do to survive in this world horrified him.
“No. But she might have been to those types of parties herself. I never went again. Those men frightened me.” Her hands clenched the arms of her chair so tightly he feared it would break under the strain.
“What about them frightened you?” he asked softly.
“They were rich and powerful, and to them, girls like us are less than nothing. I felt like if one of them had killed me, they would have just kept laughing and drinking. They were brutal, violent. They wore masks. It was all a game to them.” She looked so haunted by it all that he regretted bringing it up.
“Do you remember any man in particular who frightened you?”
She laughed bitterly. “Sorry. I wish I could give you a name. But they didn’t tell us their names, and honestly, they all terrified me.”
He sighed, scratching his doodle out until it couldn’t be seen anymore. “Let’s get back to Polly. She never mentioned anyone who frightened her?”
“There was one man... She said he wanted to continue coming to see her after she moved into Mercy House, and he didn’t take it well when she told him no, but I don’t think she ever told me his name.” Belle suddenly sat up straight, as though she’d just remembered something. “Daisy knows. I heard the two of them arguing about the bloke one night. Seems they’d both had dealings with him, but he’d become fixated on Polly. Daisy wasn’t happy about it.”
A surge of excitement went through him. Finally! Maybe he was on to something here. “Where is Daisy? We haven’t been able to locate her for questioning. Lucy says she hasn’t been back to Mercy House since Polly’s murder.”
Belle shook her head. “I haven’t seen her. If it was this man, perhaps she’s afraid he’ll come for her next.” She shivered. “You might try to find her sister. I think she lives in Cheapside.”
“Do you know her name?” Quinn asked, jotting everything she’d said into his notebook.
“Annie Upton. But I don’t know much more than that. Daisy goes to visit her sometimes on Sundays. I don’t think she has any family other than that.”