Deadly Proof: A Victorian San Francisco Mystery (3 page)

Annie felt suddenly chilled, and she pulled up her shawl and walked over to Beatrice to ask her to make up two plates, one for her and the other for Nate.
Surely he will be joining us soon
.

*****

T
he picnic was a tremendous success, and several hours later, Annie stood and discreetly tugged at her corset to undo the front bottom hook, giving herself some breathing room. She really shouldn’t have eaten that second piece of apple pie.

“Annie love, I’ve put by some of the oatmeal cookies for Mr. Dawson,” said Beatrice. “Jamie and Ian tried to cram them all into their pockets. Little scamps. They said they would need a snack on the way home from the fireworks. Are you sure you don’t want to come back with us? It’s nearly seven. At this point, surely Mr. Dawson will stop by the boarding house before coming to the park?”

Annie shook her head and tried to summon a smile. “No, I am afraid I might miss him.”

“Well, if you are sure. I was thinking, though, that Mr. Chapman should stay with you.”

“That won’t be necessary. After Kitty’s coachman drops you, Mrs. Hewitt, and Mr. Chapman back at the boarding house, he will return here to wait until everyone else returns from the fireworks. I can always sit up on the carriage seat with him and learn his life story if I get bored. That would give me a lovely view of the fireworks as well. I will be fine.”

Beatrice shook her head and frowned. Then she said, “I put a jug of cider and the cookies in with the plates of food in this basket for Mr. Dawson, and we will leave three of the blankets. That shouldn’t be difficult to carry home.” Giving Annie one more pointed look, she then let David Chapman take her arm to help her across to the waiting carriage.

Next to the carriage stood Beatrice’s nephew Patrick McGee, who had come as promised to take Kathleen, Laura, Kitty, and the boys over to the vacant lot near Geary and Fillmore where the fireworks exhibition was to be held. The Western Addition was Patrick’s normal police patrol beat, so he said he knew the best vantage point for them to see everything.

Since he was on duty, he was wearing the dark-blue uniform with the ten bright brass buttons down the front and the large seven-pointed star that proclaimed his occupation. This, and his tall-crowned derby, gave him an air of authority, although his freckles and the good-natured grin below his copper-colored mustache undercut this image. However, Annie knew that under his long blue coat was a serviceable revolver that Patrick wasn’t afraid to use.

She also knew that the presence of Patrick was the only reason she’d been able to convince Barbara Hewitt not to accompany the group to see the fireworks. She assured her that her son would be in good hands with Kathleen and the girls and that Patrick would keep an eye on everyone.

Earlier, Jamie quietly asked Annie if she thought his mother would be all right with him going off without her, and Annie told him that his mother was probably a bit fatigued from the early start this morning and would appreciate not having to stand for another couple of hours. What she didn’t say to either of them was, as distressing as the events of last winter had been, it was time for Jamie to just be a boy again and not feel responsible for his mother’s well-being.

“Annie, are you sure you don’t want to accompany us? Serve my brother right to come and find everyone gone. How dare he be so late.” Laura came up and gave Annie a hug. “He’s going to have some excuse like he got working on some tricky legal precedent and forgot the time. You should threaten to give the ring back. You do really love it, don’t you?”

“Of course I do; it is exquisite. And look how beautifully it catches the sun.” Annie stuck her left hand out, and they both admired the way the sapphire glowed. “I should have known you were responsible for picking it out.”

“Oh, no. Nate asked me to come with him—but the choice was all his. He said he noticed that you were partial to blue. He was worried that you would have preferred a diamond as the main setting, but I assured him that you wouldn’t want anything that vulgar. I was right, wasn’t I?”

Annie returned her hug and said, “Absolutely right. This is unique, just like my relationship to your brother. I’m pleased your parents and brother and sister-in-law are going to make it to the wedding. It will give you a chance to see them.”

“Yes. Mother wasn’t too happy about my decision to stay in San Francisco this summer. Oh, look, they are waving to me. I must go. Jamie and Ian are afraid if they don’t get there at least an hour early they won’t get a good place to watch the fireworks. Now, you give that brother of mine a good scold when you see him. We should be back at the park shortly after nine.”

Laura ran up the slope to join the others, looking more like a young girl than a twenty-year-old woman. Annie watched with satisfaction as Nate’s sister put her arm around Kitty Blaine’s waist, and the two walked with their heads together, chattering away. Someone very close to Laura had died this year, and the friendship with Kitty was doing much to heal the pain of that tragic loss.

A few minutes later, as she watched the group disappear out of sight, she was startled by a voice behind her that said, “So, did you all leave anything for me to eat? Or is starvation to be my punishment for being so late?”

Annie whipped around to see Nate looking extremely penitent with his top hat held in one hand. Joyfully, she grabbed his other hand and squeezed. He clapped his hat back on his head and leaned over and kissed her fingers. They stood looking at each other for long seconds, rekindling the warm glow of last night. So stupid of her to worry; surely he deserved her trust by now.

She loved looking at his long, narrow, clean-shaven face, with the high cheekbones and hawk-like nose that hinted at his Shawnee ancestors. The harshness of these features was softened by his warm brown eyes and the smile that hid in the corners of his wide mobile mouth. A mouth that...Annie stopped, reminded that a public park was not the appropriate venue to follow such thoughts.

She stepped away and put her hands on her hips, saying in mock seriousness, “Well, Mr. Dawson, what
is
your excuse? I will give you sixty seconds to plead your case.”

“Oh, it is going to take longer than that. But I think you will judge my reasons for being late sufficient when you hear what happened,” he said. “But I really do need to eat something. I am hoping that the basket at your feet isn’t empty, because I haven’t had anything since a bite of burnt toast at breakfast. My landlady was determined to see the parade and decided that a carafe of her over-brewed coffee and a plate of cold toast should suffice for us all. And where is everyone?”

Annie explained to him that he’d just missed the rest of the party as she knelt to open up the basket of food that Beatrice had left. While Nate concentrated on eating his way through several pieces of fried chicken, a ham sandwich, grapes, a serving of potato salad, and a slice of cherry pie, she told him about how much Ian and Jamie enjoyed seeing the parade.

“One of the tableaus puzzled them because it just looked like a number of burned buildings. Laura and Kitty knew the real story. It was supposed represent the Battle of New Orleans, but someone threw a firecracker that ignited the cotton bale breastworks. Laura said it was really quite exciting to see the poor dray horses charging ahead with the mock soldiers jumping off the sides of the burning wagon.”

Nate put down his fork and said, “My word, I hope no one was hurt.” He shook his head and said, “I expect we will be able to read all about it in the papers tomorrow. Did Laura and Kitty like the literary exercises at the Grand Opera? Did they have good seats?”

“Yes, near the front of the first balcony. Laura seemed most taken by the Amphion Quartette, while Kitty professed to be impressed by the rendition of Frank Soule’s
Flag of Freedom
. Mostly, I think they were just having a good time looking at all the high-society women in their fancy outfits.”

Annie then told Nate she hoped he didn’t mind waiting for the fireworks to be over since the plan was for the two of them to escort Kathleen and the boys home, while Kitty would drop off Laura before heading home herself.

Nate took a swig of the cider, stoppered it, and put it back into the basket, sighing. “Once again, Mrs. O’Rourke outdid herself.” He unfastened the buttons of his frock coat and looked over the park where bonfires were springing up as the sky darkened. “A lot of people are staying put; do you think we will be able to see any of the fireworks from here?”

“I suppose so.” Annie pulled her shawl tighter.

Nate leaned over and placed one of the extra blankets over her lap and said, “Are you all right? Kitty’s coachman could take you home, and I could wait here for everyone. There is no reason for you to sit out in the cold.”

“You are not going to get out of telling me what delayed you that easily. But if you would sit closer and put the other blanket around both our shoulders, I will be fine.” Annie patted the ground next to her, invitingly.

Nate followed her instructions and took advantage of the cover of the blanket around her shoulders to keep his arm tight around her waist. He then said, “This morning, I got a note at my boarding house asking me to meet Mrs. Laura deForce Gordon at the law offices at one. Saying that she needed to consult with me about a possible case. There wasn’t time to let you know, and I thought I would still be able to make it here in time.”

“Mrs. Gordon, the female lawyer you met last fall? Didn’t your uncle talk about sharing office space with her at one time?”

“Yes, but she got caught up with Clara Foltz, fighting to get into Hastings Law school, so that plan fell through. Now that she’s been admitted to the California Bar, she has opened her own law office in the Montgomery Block.”

“Why did she want to see you?” Annie asked. “Did she want you to work with her on a case?”

“Not exactly. She said that the person who actually wanted to hire me was named Mrs. Emily Pitts Stevens.”

Annie sat up straighter. “Wait a minute. Mrs. Stevens was one of the founders of the Women’s Co-operative Printers Union, where Laura and I are both working. What an odd coincidence. When Mrs. Richmond, the current owner, hired me, she gave me this little booklet they’d printed on the early history of the press. Sometime in the early seventies, Mrs. Richmond took over because Pitts, now Mrs. Pitts Stevens, was away so much working on women’s suffrage.”

“Well, that makes some sense. I didn’t know about Mrs. Stevens’ background, but I did know that before Mrs. DeForce Gordon started studying law, she owned the
Oakland Daily Democrat.
They would have that press background and suffrage in common.”

Annie found herself distracted by Nate, who was playing with the ring on her finger as he spoke. She caught his hand and said, “The more I look at it; the more I love this ring.”

He smiled warmly. “Did anyone notice it? I really wanted to be here when they did––see how Mrs. O’Rourke responded. Seemed every time I ran into her at the boarding house she would give me such a look. I know she was getting impatient for us to set a date.”

“Oh, she was the first to notice, and she was ecstatic. Kathleen wanted to know if you got down on one knee! I am sorry you weren’t here as well.” Annie thought briefly about how important the support of Beatrice and Kathleen had been this past year in giving her the courage to let go her fear of remarrying.

She snuggled closer to Nate and said, “Get back to the story. I can certainly understand why Mrs. Pitts Stevens would reach out to Mrs. Gordon if she needed legal advice. But that doesn’t explain why they would need to bring you in on the case.”

“I really don’t know. Mrs. Gordon said Mrs. Pitts Stevens would explain when we meet tomorrow morning.  Before then, she wanted me to go to the city jail this afternoon because she had just learned that the person they want me to defend was officially charged with murder, and she wanted me to find out as much as I could about the charges before the meeting tomorrow.”

“Good heavens, a murder case.” Annie turned slightly to get a better view of Nate’s expression. “This could really help your career, couldn’t it? But what a responsibility. Who was killed, and who would you be representing?”

“I didn’t find out much. As you might imagine, with the parade just a few blocks away, the route from my office on Sansome to the Old City Hall on Kearney was a mess. And once I got to there, I discovered that all the police officers I knew, from Chief Jackson on down, were off participating in the parade or the literary event.”

“Yes, the
Chronicle
yesterday listed who was going to be in the parade or on the review stand, and I remember thinking that, if I had any unlawful tendencies, today would be the perfect time to commit a crime,” said Annie.

“Well, I don’t know that anyone committed any serious crimes, but the jail in the basement of Old City Hall was pandemonium. They were understaffed, because every able-bodied officer was out on patrol, and the cells and most of the hallways were filled with men, and not a few women, who were being dragged in on drunk and disorderly charges. When I finally got someone to stop and pay attention to me, they simply said I needed to come back tomorrow, with proof that I was the client’s lawyer. So that was why I was so late.”

Annie leaned back into Nate’s shoulder again and said, “Well, I guess I will forgive you.”

“I should hope so.” Nate leaned over and kissed the top of her head. “I will still stop by the jail in the morning before my meeting, and maybe I can at least see the paperwork on her arrest...”

“Her!” Annie sat bolt upright. “The murderer isn’t a woman is she? Oh my heavens.”

“The accused murderer,” Nate said. “Remember, if I take this case it will be my job to prove she didn’t do it.”

“But who is she and who is she supposed to have killed?”

“This is where I thought that you or Laura might be of help, because of your work with the Women’s Co-operative Printing Union. I can’t imagine the San Francisco printing world is all that large, and it turns out the woman who is accused of murder is a typesetter like Laura. Her name is Mrs. Florence Sullivan, and she is accused of killing her employer, Mr. Joshua Rashers.”