The Spider- Chapter 22-23

'Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.'

Chapter 1-4| Chapters 5-6| Chapters 7-8|Chapters 9-11| Chapter 12|Chapter 13|Chapter 14-15|Chapter 16-17|Chapter 18-19 | Chapter 20|Chapter 21 |Chaper 22-23|Chapter 24-25.|26-27|28-29|30/Epilogue.

22

Having failed to convince Mae that Paulie could help around her premises, Muldoon instead offered Paulie a bed in his dwelling. Mae agreed to bring down a mattress for him to sleep on, and as it was cold down there, she also provided an extra blanket. “Upstairs is no place for children, Daniel,” she insisted.

“There’s nowhere he can go where he won’t see anything?”

“It’s been a while since you’ve been to this kind of place, hasn’t it?” she said, rolling her heavy brown eyes. “I’ll not have children in here. I had a girl last week insisting she was old enough. Said it must have been easier than selling matches on the street. I sent her away. Said she could clean for me if she was desperate, but I won’t have it. Life’s short enough.” She made the sign of the cross and adjusted her shawl.

Muldoon held his hands up in surrender. “I hadn’t thought it through, Mae.”

She pulled a blanket from the store room cupboard. “You don’t say.” She handed it to him and assessed her dishevelled tenant. “Who’s the girl then?”

“Miss Jones? She’s part of the investigation.”

“Didn’t look like that to me.”

“It never does, Mae.” He turned to walk away.

“She’s rather helpful, coming all the way out here to speak to you.”

“That she is.” Muldoon opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. “Thank you, Mae.”