“Dead.” Mrs. O’Malley’s voice became tremulous. “You tell Miss LaMotte that the verra same day, after the police came and went, that baldheaded man come lookin’ for her. Diamond, Frankie Diamond—she’ll know the one. He’s another friend of the Blade’s. He was mad as a stuck bull, he was, and he’s mean and dang’rous. Said when he caught sight of either of ’em, he’d shoot ’em.” She made a shivery sound. “Just the thought of it gives me the cold chills. I’m glad Miss LaMotte knows how to use that Remington—and that she took it with her. You tell her what I said, now. Don’t forget.”

“I sure will,” Verna said. So the baldheaded Mr. Gold was really Mr. Diamond, Frankie Diamond—and he was out to kill! It was all the confirmation she needed, and time to wind up the conversation. She looked down at the notes she had made after Liz’s call. “It’s good for them that they have you to look after the house until it’s sold.”

“I do my best,” Mrs. O’Malley said, with a note of quiet pride. “If I do say it myself, I’m a good manager, I am. When this house is sold and after Miss LaMotte’s aunt is dead and gone, she’s asked me to come and live down there, which I will cert’nly be pleased to do, and the sooner the better. Dinna know that I’ll like small-town livin’, but these northern winters are hard on my old bones. And I just hate all this gangster stuff. Why, a body canna walk safe on the streets these days!”

Verna knitted her brows together. “Dead and gone? Her aunt?”

“Oh, aye.” Mrs. O’Malley’s voice became mournful again. “Miss Hamer’s not expected to live much longer, poor old thing. The Lord could take her any day now, I reckon. The house is a nice big one, Miss LaMotte said—at least, that’s what she heard from the neighbor across the street, when she talked to her on the phone. Big enough for all three of us.” She paused and added curiously, “What did you say your name was again, dear?”

Verna shivered. Not expected to live much longer. It sounded ominous. Was Miss LaMotte expecting Miss Hamer’s speedy demise? She suddenly thought of the prescription for Veronal that Miss LaMotte had tried to get Mr. Lima to fill at the drugstore. Mr. Lima had said that it was a dangerous barbiturate. Had Miss LaMotte planned to use it to kill Miss Hamer? What Verna had learned about Miss LaMotte’s shooting of Sal Raggio made this seem altogether too plausible. A woman who had killed once could kill again. And maybe Raggio wasn’t her first victim.