Turns out she did. She'd used some magic back at the station. Not mind-reading magic. Simply misdirection and a little sleight of hand.
While she spread her hands wide and made a big show of threatening O'Malley with bad press, what she was really up to was keeping him distracted. She'd taught herself at some point to read upside down as good as most people read normal and so she quickly took stock of all the notes scattered across his desk. When she got him to look away (which I swear wasn't even for a full second) she palmed the paper she needed and pretended to type the story of his ineptitude to cover for her hands on his desk.
"It was just luck it was still sitting out," Persephone said and removed the paper from where she'd tucked it in her sleeve. "Pure, colossal luck."
But trust me: it was never luck with her.
She’d wadded the paper into a ball and now unfolded it, shaking it hard twice to get the bigger wrinkles out. A series of names and addresses covered it. She recognized Don and Mary Ennis, Rose and Nephthys, and her own name with the address to the Gallow's Grove Arms beside it.
"I assumed this was the list of people they wanted to question today."
"Is it?" I asked.
"If it is, there's only one name I don't recognize."
"Who is that?"
We turned onto another street.
"Persephone? Who is it?"
"Hush now."
She marched us down a dirt road and up to the door of a small house. An old cart sat rusting in the yard next to a haphazard pile of equally rusted garden tools. The grass grew wild and almost came up to my knees.
Seph knocked on the door. After a moment, an older woman answered, her hair in a bun and a stained apron draped over her. Somewhere in the house, a baby wailed.
"Is Sheliah Prescott at home?"
"It's not a good time," the woman said. "I'm sure you know about the tragedy."
"I do," Persephone said, her voice suddenly filled with sympathy. "A horrible thing, really. That's why we're here."
The woman looked back over her shoulder. "She's not in good spirits."
"I understand." Persephone pulled a five-dollar bill from her purse. "But we'll only be a moment."
Without hesitating, the woman snatched it up. "Please. Come in."
We stepped into the house. Dimly lit, curtains drawn and no lamps going, it felt claustrophobic. Old newspapers and periodicals were stacked everywhere, some three feet high. The gray smell of mildew hung in the air alongside the scent of boiled cabbage.
The baby lay on a small rug wearing nothing but a diaper and screaming its head off. The old woman picked him up and rocked him. "Sheliah," she yelled. "Get your rump out here right this instant!"
There was a shuffling sound followed by a loud thump, like furniture had been knocked over.
"I told you I needed some time alone," a slurred voice answered. When she walked into the room, it was obvious she'd been drinking. Red nose and cheeks, wet eyes, that stupid expression drunks get like they're hoping if their mouths hang open long enough someone may slide some money into them. It was a shame, too. She couldn't have been older than sixteen.
The woman handed her the baby. "He's hungry,” she said and left the room.
Sheliah looked to us before sitting in a rocking chair. She lifted her shirt to reveal a large, pink breast. I turned my head away as she fed the baby.
"Who are you then?" she asked.
"Persephone Gale. I'm working on Caitlin's murder."
"You a copper? A woman copper?"
"Not quite."
She nodded as though the world made sense again. "Who's he?"
"My assistant."
"Assistant? I need an assistant." She laughed. The baby popped off her breast and made a mewling noise. She shushed him and moved him back into position. The way she looked down at him, you could tell she loved the kid. Made me wonder if the drinking was a regular thing or not.
"Sheliah, I just spoke with the Sheriff and he told me that you provided definitive evidence that Simon Carmichael killed Caitlin."
"I never said that."
"What did you say?"
"Look, Caitlin was never one to go with boys. Especially after what happened to me." She kissed the baby's head. "She thought all the boys in town were idiots and that the tourists were even idiot - stupider, I mean. The tourists were stupider."
Persephone stayed quiet, waiting for Caitlin to continue.
"We used to sneak out at night, you know. Me and her. Started right after Pop died."
"How did your father die?"
Sheliah narrowed her eyes and cocked her head to one side. "Thought everybody knew that. He hanged himself." She pointed across the room. "Right from that beam. I was the one found him."
"I'm sorry."
She shrugged. "You got a ciggy?"
Persephone reached into her purse and pulled out her cigarette case.
"Butt me," the girl said.
Seph lit one and passed it over.
The girl inhaled deeply, rolling it around in her mouth before letting it escape. "Thanks for that. Haven't been able to afford any since I lost my job at the factory in Larchmont."
"They let a lot of people go recently?"
"The baby," she said. "I went into labor in the middle of my shift so they canned me." She laughed. "Said I shoulda kept my gams closed in the first place."
"I'm sorry. People can be cruel. Especially men."
She pointed her cigarette at Seph and nodded agreement.
"Sheliah, how did Caitlin know the mayor?"
"We used to sneak out after Pop died."
"So you said. Where would you sneak to?"
"I don't know if I should tell you this."
"It's all right. No one even knows I'm here."
She took another puff. "The old library, over by town hall? It closed when they built the new one on Main Street. Wanted the tourists to have a place to read about psychic malarkey right in the middle of everything. Anyway, the old library, sometimes it's a gin mill."
"Really?" Persephone laughed. "I wish I'd known that."
"The mayor and his father set it up. Invitation only kind of place. Just a couple of times a month. Caitlin and me were out walking one night, smoking and carrying on, when we saw lights on and heard them all laughing in there. I think I was about three months pregnant, maybe? So this woulda been almost a year ago. Bunch of old men, really, smoking cigars and playing cards. But they let us in and gave us some kind of giggle water. It wasn't long until they had their hands all over us. Mr. Petree, the old man runs the five and dime, he had his hand up my skirt. Or that's what Caitlin told me later. I was so drunk I don't remember everything. Anyway, she told him to leave me alone and Mr. Petree just up and smacked her."
"What happened then?"
Sheliah shifted the baby to her other breast. "The mayor grabbed Mr. Petree by the collar and slammed him up against the wall, told him if he ever touched either of us again he'd be in a world of hurt."
"Sounds like Simon."
"He and Caitlin walked me home and helped me back through my bedroom window. I passed out and he walked Caitlin home."
"And did she talk about him after that?"
"Yeah. I mean, not by name. But she kept sneaking out at night. I'd see her sometimes when I got up for work. I had to be there at five, so it was always still dark, and Caitlin would slip through our yard. You hop five or six fences going back that way and you're right at her bedroom window."
"What was she doing?"
"I asked her once and she told me she was going to see him. The mayor. Said they was in love."
Persephone shifted in her seat and cleared her throat. "Are you certain?"
"Yeah."
"This is important now. You said she never mentioned him by name."
"No, she... Well. Yeah. I guess that's true. Not by name. She said he needed to keep things quiet, that he had a career in the public eye and couldn't let anybody know. Said he was an important man doing important work." She rocked back and forth in silence as she stared at her baby. "Who else could it be?"
"You tell me."
She thought for a moment before shaking her head. "No. It was him. We'd both been head over heels for him after he took us home that night. Caitlin said something about how his blue eyes pulled her right in."
Seph steepled her fingers as she tried that one on for size. It didn't fit and she crunched up her nose.
"Caitlin was my only friend, you know," Sheliah said. "Only one aside from Mama ever gave a damn about me. I know it was just because she felt sorry for me, but I don't care. I just want to do her right, you know?"
"You are."
Persephone stood. I took her cue and did the same.
"Thank you, Sheliah," she said. "You've been a lot of help." She opened her purse and removed a twenty-dollar bill. "Use this for food and only food, all right?"
The girl didn't take the cash at first, simply stared at it like it was some kind of joke. Once she was sure it wasn't, she reached out and snatched it away just as her mother had.
"This one's for gin and ciggies." Seph handed her another bill and then we moved toward the door. "If you don't mind me asking, where's the father?"
"The father?"
"Of your baby."
She looked confused. "I told you, Miss Gale. He hanged himself."