Uneasy Spirits: A Victorian San Francisco Mystery

by M. Louisa Locke

  Annie stopped banging, recognizing Pierce. Simon was gesturing upwards to the upper stories of the house. Annie saw Pierce shrug and Arabella drag Simon to the carriage. The door to the hackney hadn’t even had a chance to close behind them when the driver cracked the whip and the hackney moved smartly down the street. Annie looked over and saw Albert and his wife were now up on the seat of the wagon, which began to move more slowly forward.

  Surely the neighbors would have noticed the fire by now, she thought, but then with dismay she remembered that the house to the west was unoccupied and overgrown trees obscured the one to the east. The shops across the street were boarded up and empty, so they would be no help. Who knew how long it would take for any one further down the block to notice? Meanwhile the air was getting perceptibly smokier, and her cough worsened. Frantically, Annie looked around the attic, trying to see something she could use to break the glass. However, the easy chair and the trunk, the smallest objects she could see, were certainly too heavy for her to lift. Instead, she pulled off her coat to drape over her hands before beginning to pound on the window again.

  She stopped for a moment and saw that Pierce had moved across the street and was standing underneath the gas lamp. He paused, looked back up as if he could see her standing in the cupola and he tipped his hat before walking swiftly up Fifth to Market. She then noticed a flicker of flame coming from the flat roof under the window where she was standing.

  With Pierce no longer a threat, Annie moved towards the center of the room, hoping that he had unlocked the trap door before he left the house. She was finding it harder to breathe, so she started to reach into her coat for her handkerchief to put over her nose, until she remembered it was wrapped around the bloody knife. She was also having more difficulty seeing as her eyes began to sting and tear. The smoke in the room seemed to absorb the little light that came from outside.

  She went down on her knees and crawled, feeling for the trap door handle. A searing pain in her right hand caused her to rear back. She had touched one of the metal hinges, which was extremely hot. Again using her coat for protection, she felt around until she found the bump of the handle through the cloth of the coat, and she pulled hard. The door didn’t budge. She tried again, but stopped when her head began to throb with her effort.

  Probably just as well, with the hinges that hot, the floor below must be engulfed with flames, and the windows won’t help since the roof is on fire now.

  Completely blinded by the smoke, she started crawling to where she had left Evie May sitting under the partially opened window. Annie’s thought was that the access to some fresh air would help clear her head so she could think of what to do next. Her hand encountered something soft, which rolled, and she cried out, having run right into the body of Mrs. Nickerson.

  Scrabbling sideways away from the body, she thought, How could I have forgotten the murdered woman was there? Realizing she had become so disoriented that she wasn’t even sure anymore where Evie May was sitting, she sat up and wiped her eyes, trying to see something in the impenetrable haze. She could hear the fire now, too, an ominous, crackling, popping sound.

  Despair replaced the panic that had been pushing her forward. She wasn’t a fool, and, like any person who lived in a city, she’d seen how quickly fire could consume a house. Even if a neighbor had called the fire in, and the fire engines were on the way, if the origin of the fire was in the rooms directly below, the firemen would have no way to break through to the cupola.

  I should have told someone I was coming here. How could I have been so stupid? Oh, Nate, I promised I would keep myself safe, but I didn’t. And I never told you I loved you.

  Annie started to get back on all fours, when she became tangled up in her skirts and the coat she still held in her hands, tumbling flat, the floor banging painfully into her cheek. Then a flame hovered in front of her eyes. Annie screamed and struggled up, thinking that the cupola floor must have caught on fire. As she wiped her eyes, she saw a young boy now standing next to her, holding a candle aloft.

  Not just any young boy, but Eddie. Somehow, Evie May had replaced her dress with a jersey and pair of knickers. She was also wearing a pair of boy’s high-buttoned shoes and a large cap, into which she had pushed her hair.

  “Lady, we’ve got to get out of here. Take my hand. Mind the body. Shame that, but she was such a dunce about men. Thought that Simon was gonna marry her. So stupid, thinking she could use what she learned about that ugly bastard as leverage. Bastard killed her. Maybelle shouldn’t of had to see that, poor mite.”

  Annie stood up, feeling dizzy from the smoke, and said, “Eddie, the trap door’s locked, and while you might be able to slip through the crack in that window, I think the roof may be on fire. Besides, how would we get down off the roof?”

  Eddie pointed to a coil of rope he had looped over his shoulder and said, “I’ve got that covered. You bring that coat of yours, that might help protect our feet a bit.”

  He then pulled her gently around Mrs. Nickerson’s body to the back window. While she was estimating whether there was any way she would be able to crawl through the opening, given her voluminous skirts, Eddie pushed the window down, and shouted for her to step back, giving her a shove. Then he picked up what looked like an iron bar and swung it at the window, which shattered, glass falling outwards.

  A rush of hot wind went past her face and the sound of the fire seemed to increase. Eddie then swept the bar around the window frame, knocking the remaining jagged pieces out.

  “Here, hand over the coat,” he said, reaching for it and laying it over the edge of window frame. “I’ll go out first, see if it’s safe for you,” he said, disappearing into the night.

  Annie moved over to the window and gulped a lung-full of fresh air, causing her to cough again. Eddie had been gone what felt like an interminable amount of time when he reappeared and said, “Gotta move now, use my shoulder, and mind the frame at the top.”

  As instructed, she put one hand on his shoulder to steady herself. Then, picking up her skirts with the other, she put her right foot up on the window edge and went up and over, keeping her back curled as she went through. She would have stumbled to her knees if she hadn’t been holding onto his shoulder. He then pulled the coat off the windowsill and put it on the roof, instructing her to stand on it. She realized her feet had already begun to feel the heat because there was immediate relief when she stepped on the coat.

  The boy said, “I had a hook I used to tie the rope to when I scaled down the side of the house, but the roof on that side’s already burnt through, looks like going down the back is the only chance. If you can get to the edge of the roof, I’ll brace up against the gutter and lower you down. I think I can jump down behind you.”

  Annie nodded and, grabbing the coat, ran beside him, sending out a prayer that the roof wouldn’t collapse under them. When she got to the edge, she threw down the coat, and the two of them hopped onto it. Eddie handed the looped end of the rope to her and sat down on the coat at her feet, putting his legs up against the foot high wood cornice. She stared down at him for a moment, then her mind suddenly cleared, and she thought, Eddie may think he’s strong enough to lower me down, but after all, the body he’s inhabiting is that of thirteen year old Evie May, and there’s no way she’s strong enough to handle my weight.

  “Eddie, this isn’t going to work. I’ll hold on to the rope. When you get down to the overhang over the first floor, maybe you can get to the woodpile and jump down. If you make it to the ground, run to the front, which is where the fire engines will show up, and get them to bring a ladder back here. Now, do as I say.”

  Annie pulled him up, handed him the looped end of the rope, took the coil from him, sat down on the coat, and braced her feet. He nodded to her once and then climbed over the cornice, and she felt a strong tug on the rope that she tried to counter by pulling sharply backwards. In an instant the tension of the rope evaporated, and she gasped, going to her knees to look over th
e edge. He stood firmly on the two-foot overhang, waving cheekily, so she let go of the rope, which slid down to his feet. He moved sideways and was soon out of her sight.

  Annie cocked her head, finally hearing the clanging of bells she’d been waiting for. Thank goodness help is on the way. Standing there, listening to the bells come closer, she looked out at the old carriage house at the back of the yard and felt a moment of hope, until she realized that she was able to see that structure so clearly because it was illuminated by the fire at her back. She turned and saw through the open window the cupola up in flames. Oh god, Mrs. Nickerson’s body!

  The sound of an explosion filled the air, and the roof under her feet shuddered. Looking down, she saw that smoke was rising from the coat beneath her feet and a red line of flames were spreading along the cornices to the left and right of her. Mesmerized, she saw the flames turn the two corners of the roof and begin to move at a steady pace toward where she was standing. She closed her eyes and pictured the two lines meeting and her life being snuffed out. If only she were Flora Hunt and could believe that this would simply be a step into another existence. She would even like to believe in protective angels who would sweep her up to safety. But the only protective angel she knew was Eddie, and he was gone.

  An odd-sounding thump caused Annie’s eyes to fly open and she looked down at her feet and saw the ends of a ladder reaching above the cornice, followed instantly by the battered face of Nate Dawson, who broke into a grin and said, “Well, a young boy who said he was Eddie told me I’d find you here. I don’t suppose you would mind being rescued for a second time in two days, would you?”

  Annie grinned back and said graciously, “Why, Mr. Dawson, what a surprise to meet you here. Now if we could have a little less talk, I do believe my shoes are about to burst into flame,” and she reached down to be taken in his arms.

  Epilogue

  Sunday, November 16, 1879

  As if the city wished to offer up one last glorious warm day before the winter storms began to sweep across the peninsula, the sun was out, there wasn’t a hint of clouds in the sky, and even to the west the usual line of fog had evaporated. Annie only needed her shawl to keep warm sitting in the closed chaise, which was opportune, since the Moffets hadn’t yet finished making her new wool coat, her old one having been entirely consumed by the fire two weeks earlier. She was thankful that she’d had on one of her older black dresses that night, because she’d had to get rid of every stitch of clothing she’d been wearing, everything was so permeated by smoke. Even the soles of her shoes had cracked from the heat.

  Thank heavens she’d had a little emergency savings put by, because her investigation into the Framptons on behalf of Miss Pinehurst had been pretty hard on her finances. Between the cost of replacing the lost clothing, several canceled sessions for Madam Sibyl, the extra money to hire Tilly to cover for Kathleen, and the Halloween party, October had turned out to be a very expensive month. Miss Pinehurst insisted on reimbursing her for the cost of the séances themselves, which had been kind of her, but she hadn’t felt right in asking for anything more of her boarder. Annie had meant it when she said the satisfaction of knowing how well Sukie was doing was compensation enough, but she wished she felt as sanguine about the overall outcome of her investigations.

  “Was that a sigh?” asked Nate, who sat at her side, driving the team of horses. They were on their way to meet Flora Hunt, her husband, and Evie May at the Conservatory of Flowers, one of the first structures built from William Hall’s grand plan for Golden Gate Park. As usual for a sunny Sunday, the park roads were packed with vehicles of every sort, so their pace was quite slow.

  Annie glanced over at him, glad to see that the bruising on his face had finally faded. He was wearing gloves, but she didn’t think his left palm was bandaged anymore. When he had helped her into the carriage, he’d moved with ease. She hoped that this meant the wound on his side had healed as well. She’d been afraid that his daring rescue of her from the fire had torn the stitches because she had noticed blood soaking through his shirt when they made it back to her house, just short of dawn.

  Realizing by the puzzled look on his face that she’d not responded to his question, Annie said, “I find I have been doing a lot of that of late. Sighing. Every time I think about the events of this past month: the Framptons, Pierce, Evie May, the Hapgoods, Mrs. Nickerson’s death . . . it’s like I keep needing to take a deep breath to clear my mind.”

  “If you think you’re confused, imagine the police. Even when I left out the most bizarre details, like the fact that I made it to the burning building just in time because the famous Spiritualist Mrs. Flora Hunt had a vision that you were in danger, they have had a hard time understanding the ins and outs of this case. For example, they are understandably puzzled about who the little boy was who came running out of the fire and how he was related to Evie May, the daughter of the woman whose body they found in the ashes of the burned building.

  “Thank goodness Mrs. O’Rourke’s nephew Patrick showed up and took the initiative to use the police call box to summon Detective Jackson. Only the fact Jackson had worked with me on the Voss case made him willing to take my word on what had happened. Otherwise, the Framptons and Pierce might have slipped through the fingers of the police.”

  “Is Detective Jackson charging the Framptons with anything?” Annie asked.

  “Since they were seen fleeing a burning building in which a dead woman was found, he’s threatened to charge them as accessories to arson and murder. The coroner did find cuts on Mrs. Nickerson’s ribs, which supports your claim she had been stabbed. The cuts evidently matched the blade of the knife they found among the ashes. Jackson’s intention seemed to be to frighten the Framptons into turning against Pierce and confirming your story that it was Pierce who killed Mrs. Nickerson and tried to kill you. The strategy worked just fine, and both the Framptons and their servants are falling all over themselves to blame Pierce for everything.

  “Simon Frampton told the police that he’d overheard Mrs. Nickerson trying to blackmail Pierce the afternoon of the fire. He admitted that Pierce had an arrangement with them to funnel information about prospective clients, but he swore he didn’t know exactly what information Mrs. Nickerson had on Pierce. He said that when his butler discovered that Pierce had killed her, they had panicked. Simon insists, however, that they had no idea that you or Evie May were still in the building when they left.”

  “The first part of that statement was probably the truth,” Annie said. “And if their evidence will get me out of having to testify in a trial, I will even forgive the obvious untruth of the second statement.”

  Annie knew she wouldn’t be able to completely escape police scrutiny. Even Nate couldn’t hide her involvement since the entire fire engine company had witnessed her rescue from the roof of the burning building. She’d also known that if she kept silent about Pierce he might get away. As soon as Nate got her safely down from the roof, she told the fire captain and the local police constable about Mrs. Nickerson’s body, and that she and the dead woman’s child had been locked in the burning building by the local reporter, Anthony Pierce, who had murdered the woman.

  Annie would never forget the look on Nate’s face when she told her story to Jackson when he arrived, and Nate realized Pierce was the person who been trying to have her killed all along. If he had gotten his hands on the Chronicle reporter that night, she’d wasn’t so sure Pierce would have survived.

  Annie sighed again and then said, “I assume Jackson is still buying the story that I just happened to come to the Framptons’ house that evening because I wanted to take Mrs. Nickerson and her daughter out to dinner, having been so impressed with Evie May during the séances I had attended?”

  “Yes,” Nate replied, “He did mention to me that he was glad to have finally met the elusive Mrs. Fuller, who had played such a mysterious role in the Voss affair. However, the Framptons didn’t contradict your statement, and it helps that Mrs.
Hunt and Mrs. Gordon were willing to testify to your interest in Evie May, including your outing with her and her mother to Woodward’s Gardens.”

  “Well,” said Annie, “I’m certainly glad I took your advice not to bring up my theories about Mrs. Hapgood’s murder or the man who assaulted me.”

  “So far, Jackson hasn’t mentioned the Hapgoods to me, or questioned your story that you were just an innocent bystander.”

  “That’s good, because I’m not sure if Harold could hold up to questioning by the police at this point,” Annie said, going on to tell him about her visit last week to the Hapgoods. Hilda asked her to describe in detail to her husband what Annie thought Pierce had done to his mother, his partnership with the Framptons, as well as what had happened to Mrs. Nickerson.

  “Harold seemed very frail and quite bewildered by what I had to say, but Hilda was optimistic. She said that in time her husband would be able to accept that it hadn’t been the spirits of his relatives who had been speaking to him, and he would find some peace.”

  “I hope she appreciated why you didn’t tell your suspicions to the police,” Nate said.

  “Oh, yes, and she was also extremely grateful for your offer to give them legal advice if Pierce does decide to drag them into his troubles.”

  “At least if they end up needing a good defense attorney, it looks like I would have the expertise of a first-rate lawyer to help me, if I am to believe Uncle Frank.”

  Nate had already told Annie about his uncle springing on him the news that he was not only bringing an experienced trial lawyer into the firm, but that he was in negotiations with Mrs. Gordon and Mrs. Foltz to share office accommodations.