Ghosts in the Gulch: An Evergreen Cemetery Mystery (Evergreen Cemetery Mysteries Book 1)
Page 63
Lydon, Sandy Chinese Gold Capitola,CA Capitola Book Company Twenty Year Anniversary Edition 2008
The Pacific Sentinel, Santa Cruz California, 1856-1865, UCSC microfilm archives The Pajaro Times, Watsonville, California, 1865, Watsonville Library microfilm collection
Pokriots, Marion Don Jose Antonio Bolcoff: Branciforte’s Russian Alcade. Santa Cruz County History Jornal Issue Number Three, Santa Cruz, CA Museum of Art and History Press, pg 97-107 1998
Reader, Phil Charole: The Life of Branciforte Dandido Faustino Lorenzana. Santa Cruz, CA Cliffside Publishing 1991
Reader, Phil It is Not My Intention to be Captured. Santa Cruz, CA Cliffside Publishing 2012
Richardson, Albert Filed, Dungeon, and Escape Hartford, CN 1865
The Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel, Santa Cruz, California 1862-1900 http://www.newspapers.com/title_1892/santa_cruz_weekly_sentinel/
Sommer, Robin Langely The History of the U.S. Marshals: The Proud History of America’s Legendary Lawmen, Philadelphia, PA Courage Books, 1993
Suino, Nicklaus The Art of Japanese Swordsmanship New York. NY Weatherhill Press, 1994
Two loves, Irish Folk tune, unknown
Preview:
Phantoms at the Fandango
Evergreen Cemetery Mysteries #2:
1864
Consulate Estate, Santa Cruz Mountains
Several times, on the occasion of my mother’s funeral, the lateness of the year, Sally’s murder, and the small epidemic of croop the town had suffered, Ian McKenna had come to the estate asking for me. Like a ghost, he stalked the lower gulch of Rodríguez, forever waiting for a moment to see Emma. I still had a job to do. It was imperative that we capture Rufus Ingram. The knowledge that I would cuff McKenna at the end of all this, was the only thing keeping me silent of Emma and my wedded state.
“I need to know of her, anything.” McKenna pleaded from the bushes like some hobo begging for scraps.
“The epidemic has fallen on the Estate,” I lied. “You forget that I am not permitted in the bed chambers of the Royals.” It was this statement that kept McKenna in the dark and satisfied that I would not betray him. “Her Royal Highness left for Hawai’i to avoid the sickness. She will return in the Spring.” McKenna visibly relaxed, content at this lie.
McKenna’s inquiries I kept from Emma, as she was beautiful in her pregnancy. My sense of protectiveness seemed to obsess me, as did fears of her dying on the childbed. I slept rarely, despite my sister Margaret’s words that Emma was not new to birth and that the second child is often easier to have. Emma was my world, and I found myself dreaming of Evergreen Cemetery, poking through the mud with a long metal rod, searching…searching…but never finding her.
I tripled the guard on the more isolated sections of the Estate, despite Virofsky’s insistence that we should “see what McKenna does.”Virofsky, thankfully did not take offense at my orders.
With deep misgivings I rung in the New Year out at the cemetery. The arrest of the Sheriff did not stop the dying. We were unearthing yet another prostitute with Shaw-Jones, but unable to connect it to John. Carbolic acid took this one, and Shaw-Jones suspected this was self inflicted, as it was, from what he could see of the contents of her stomach, mixed with food.
This time Angus McTierney helped us, or (as he insisted on being called) “Guillermo Pacheco.” Angus was learning the art of undertaking as a way to make extra income while his sheep were fattening and making wool. He was a new father as well and wanted to provide Conception with the comfort that Angus felt “she should become accustomed.” Angus related a difficult birth for Conception, but the midwife knew more than “any doc I’d seen.” And delivered a healthy boy and a living wife who could have “many more.” Besides, women know how their bodies do this stuff. What the heck would a man know about it? Even a doc, they just know how to kill people. They ain’t no different than us morticians, Angus commented in a whisper.
The bullet we took from the previous murder victim was too damaged to prove much of anything except that it came from a small calliber pistol. The Judge in town cautioned us against issuing a warrant to search John’s home, as he had “dirt on everyone and wouldn’t hesitate to spread it around.” The Judge also reminded us that John’s own sister’s untimely end was ruled as a suicide by an ‘official’ coroner’s jury. Fergus discovered that the jury was made up of a number of Sally’s, well, there was no other word for it, ‘beaus’. None of them wanted it known that she literally had them by the balls.
My sister Beth would not see me or Cynthia. Our old sibling fights seemed to reassert themselves with painful regularity. Beth hid away at times, but sent me notes, reassuring me that she was not showing “any signs of John’s temper. The death of his sister has taken quite a toll on him. He has become the best of husbands, the best of fathers.”
Then Elmer would come to me and say that he had to remove John from the house and that Beth was staying at Sophia’s because they had no room in their home. I knew it was different, as Elmer had a large farmhouse, but the Hotel was a public place and John dare not show his temper in public.
Cynthia braved her sister’s rebuffs, but wept, I knew, in Emma’s company.
Emma astounded me again with her fortitude. Burgeoning belly not withstanding, she spent time with Hiru, in the garden, teaching him about vegetables and fruits. She took up watercolor painting and showed a talent for sewing, something I did not know about her. We took long walks amoung the gardens of the Estate.
“How long has Ian been shadowing the walls?” Emma asked as I helped lower her down onto a stone bench near our fig tree. She smiled at my shock.
“Virofsky told you. Goddammit.”
“Josiah.” Emma patted my arm.
Here I took her hand in mine and squeezed. I missed our intimacy, but knew it would be over soon. We still shared our bed and enjoyed feeling the bumping and kicking of the little one inside of her against my resting hand.
“We shouldn’t be thinking about things like that.”
“On the contrary it is time for you to reel him in.”
“After the baby comes.” Here I brushed a strand of hair from her face. “Not to be crass, but how is it a babe did not come from my brother and Eliza’s illicit union.” I said this with a teasing grin. Emma giggled. I loved that sound. We needed to not have McKenna’s shadow between us.
“You do not want to know. It’s between women. Something we have been talking about. Especially Margaret.”
With that, our walk was interrupted by a gaggle of women who had come to visit with my wife. I was given a chance to hold my newest neice, who promptly wet my trousers, and to be rescued by Uriah, who sported a new suit, a new moustache, and a new six shooter.
Uriah returned to Santa Cruz with a new resolve. He was of a man with a purpose and in possession of an engagement ring for his beloved. Just before we rang in 1864, my brother proposed to Eliza on the beachhead out near Davenport. Shaw-Jones and I feigned chaperoning, but turned a blind eye to the young couple for an hour.
“Have you heard from Faustino?” I asked Shaw-Jones. He seemed offended at my question
“Why?” Shaw-Jones was taking notes on the swell. Both of us were eying the steamer that was making its way down to the wharves, but the second ship, a triple mast seemed to match its speed. Shaw-Jones held up his telescope and looked out at the ships.
“It would appear our notorious Captain Ingram has returned.” He announced, handing me the spyglass. “There is only one reason for such speed on a boat.”
I looked out, found the ship, and saw on deck, Rufus Ingram. Lowering the spyglass I knew it was time to close off this funnel. “She’s running empty.”
“Faustino is with McRee.”
“What?”
“He’s learning to shoot, learning all the cyphers, and most especially he is learning how to apply certain unique characteristics that he has in abundance.” Shaw-Jones would not meet my eye. “The instructor is quite remarkable. A Dr. Miles Lane.”
>
I started to lose my footing. Shaw-Jones caught me by the arm.
1 Evergreen Archives, Tours file, cabinet 2 Drawer 1, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, Santa Cruz, California
2 The Santa Cruz Surf 1: 2, 1895 July 25
3 Reader, Phil, Charole http://www.santacruzpl.org/history/articles/66
4 Evergreen docent manual Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History Santa Cruz, California 2002
5 Evergreen Cemetery Files, Sloan cabinet 1, drawer 4 Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, Santa Cruz California
6 The Santa Cruz Sentinel, 1:2 prg 3 1879 Nov 15
7 Record Group 21, Records of District Courts of the United States U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Case Papers, Oaths on Appointment, Correspondence, and Financial Records from the U.S. District and Circuit Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of California, 1850- ca 1930 Boxes 1-24, National Archives and Records Administraion-San Francisco
8 Wright, Thomas W, surveyor, Deeds Vol 7, page 254
9 Branciforte Affidavits, Appeals, Land Deeds Legal Seizure Collection, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History Archives
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.
12 Pacific Sentinel, 3: 1 1865 Feb 13
13 Pacific Sentinel, 2: 1 1865 Feb 16
14 The Santa Cruz Sentinel 2: 3 1865 April 15, p2:4 1865 Aug 19
15 Elliot, Isaac H, Adjutant –General State of Illinois, Record of Service of Illinois Soldiers Journal Company, Printers and Binders, 1902
16 United States Federal Census,Year: 1860; Census Place: Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California; Roll: M653_66; Page: 598; Image: 74; Family History Library Film: 803066 1860
17 Sacramento Daily Union 3: 1 1852 August 17