Love for Sale

was stealing from or a woman who was brave enough to complain about being fondled against her will. Not much help, I’m afraid. But I have a little time on my hands. Let me see if I can find anything more about him up here. If so, I’ll call you back.”
    Walker wasn’t surprised about Pottinger’s background and found himself thinking about the address book of Brother Goodheart’s with so many secretaries’ names crossed out. Maybe his murder had to do with money being stolen, but the women were a possibility as well. Howard couldn’t imagine that Goodheart was very appealing to women, except the handpicked converts to his religious fervor whom he’d paraded as beneficiaries of his generosity at public meetings.
    The next old friend he contacted confirmed that Goodheart’s attorney, Jackson Kinsey, had been disbarred in Vermont, as Edward Price had indicated.
    “What for?“ Walker asked.
    “Bigamy, as I recall. And something else I’ve forgotten. Oh, yes. Something about stealing money from a trust he was handling and the grown children took him to court and won a big settlement. I knew I’d think of it.”
    This only served to confirm that Edward Price was indeed a reliable source of information. Regarding Kinsey, at least. Walker wondered what else Price knew that he had withheld. Perhaps about himself.
    Chief Walker drove back to the asylum and found out first that the director there was thinking of holding Nobby Hazard longer and considering keeping him. He was proving to be quite a loud and offensive customer, and they were looking into his history to see if he had a criminal record.
    Walker hoped they’d find some reason to lock Nobby up for a good long time. He asked to see Edward Price out on the grounds for privacy’s sake.
    Price had suffered from his incarceration. “I want out of this place! I’m not a loony or a criminal!“ he exclaimed, close to tears of frustration. “You have no idea what goes on here. People screaming all night. I’ve had about five hours of sleep since I arrived here. The stench is unbelievable. And they’ve sent me out to the gardens to muck around in the dirt. I’m not an outdoor person, and I don’t even have a warm coat.”
    Walker listened and somewhat sympathized, but wasn’t about to release Price until he had to. He showed him Goodheart’s address book. “Why are so many women’s names crossed out?“
    “Because he was a lecherous man. Isn’t it obvious?“
    “Do you know where any of these women have gone?“
    “How would I know? I had very little to do with any of them except to give them things to type up. And I don’t think all of them were secretaries anyway. They might have been the teachers at the orphanage.“
    “Orphanage? There was an orphanage at the Institute? Nobody’s mentioned this before.”
    Price ran his hand through his dirty hair. “A working orphanage. The kids lived in a little place that was a former barn. Not even heated, except for a woodstove Mrs. Rennie contributed.“
    “Big Jimmy’s wife?“
    “She’s a nice woman. The real point of the thing was slave labor. The children were assigned to make the collection baskets that were later sold after the money was collected. Poor little things. But Mrs. Rennie stepped in again and made Goodheart hire two women to teach them basic skills. Reading and writing and arithmetic. Just enough to possibly get them jobs when they grew up. Every now and then they had a bath and brush-up and were allowed to wear nice clothes to be shown off at preaching meetings.”
    Price sat silent for a long moment. “I know it’ll make you suspect me when you shouldn’t, but I can’t help saying that Goodheart was a real bastard.”

Chapter 13

    While he still had Big Jimmy Rennie confined, Chief Walker decided to have a talk with Rennie’s wife.
    He found the address to be a large, well-kept house on the west side of the Hudson, with a nice view of the river. It wasn’t as close to the Institute as he’d supposed it would be. Apparently Rennie kept a decent space between his work and his home. A maid answered his knock.
    “I’m Chief of Police Howard Walker. I need to speak to Mrs. Rennie.”
    The maid looked shocked.
    “She has nothing to fear from me. I just need a bit of information,“ he said.
    Mrs. Rennie appeared moments later. She was a lovely though frail looking woman of about sixty in a very nice black-and-white polka-dot dress. She moved as if it were painful to do