“I did,” he admitted. “Half the people in the Five Points searched every nook and cranny for him. They quit after the police arrested Mick.”

“The reward is still available. Are you interested?”

He folded his arms across his chest as the pieces started to fit together. “What are you suggesting?”

“You have access to Mr. Malone. He trusts you, and in the process of preparing that memoir, perhaps you discovered something about how he pulled off the kidnapping. The law of double jeopardy means he can’t be prosecuted again for murder, and the statute of limitations on his other crimes expired long ago. Mick Malone could shout his guilt in the public square and the law couldn’t touch him, but I still want to know what happened to my brother. You can help. It won’t be double-crossing a client. It will be solving a mystery and bringing peace of mind to a family who still mourns.”

“And winning $100,000 dollars in the process.”

She nodded. “Precisely.”

Against his will, his heart started thudding. It was a figure so big he could scarcely get his mind around it. He and his ma could buy a proper house with four walls and a roof instead of sharing a tiny apartment. He could pay Father Doyle back for all those years of schooling he’d stiffed him on by not becoming a priest.

But he’d have to betray a client first.

Temptation was nothing new to Patrick. Girls had tempted him since he developed a healthy appreciation for anything in skirts when he was thirteen years old. He’d been tempted by a law firm in Boston that paid an actual salary instead of barter. He was tempted by rousing songs at the pub, freely flowing whiskey, and freshly baked blueberry scones. At the moment he was tempted by the alluring glint in Mrs. Kellerman’s eyes and the long, slender curve of her neck as she challenged him. Life was full of temptation, and he was used to battling it.

“No thank you, ma’am,” he said simply.

Then she hit him where it hurt.

“What if I gave the reward to your soup kitchen? I saw dozens of people get turned away. Most were mothers with hungry children. The reward money will keep this soup kitchen funded for years, and there’d be no more turning away hungry people who had the misfortune to be at the end of the line.”

What she said was true. The ladies who ran the soup kitchen liked him because he had the muscle to keep order during the occasional rumpus that happened when they ran out of food.

“Whatever you tell me will be confidential,” Mrs. Kellerman said. “All I want from you is the truth about Malone’s role in kidnapping my brother, and I think you know how he did it.”