Sunday, early morning, March 12, 1882
O’Farrell Street Boardinghouse
Annie moved the lamp on the desk closer in order to better see the manuscript she was reading. The further back in time in Dr. Granger’s memoirs she went, the fainter the ink. As a result, she was finding it increasingly difficult to decipher the words. After getting home from the dispensary yesterday, she’d made a good deal of progress—when she wasn’t tending to Abigail or trying not to worry about Phoebe.
Annie had found the whole conversation between the young woman, her husband, and his aunt extremely revealing. On the surface, the interaction between everyone seemed fairly typical of a number of marriages she’d witnessed, including her first marriage to John. Two young people, blinded by romance, who rushed into marriage and, not surprisingly, found themselves disappointed by their spouses when they encountered real-life problems. Another familiar element was what happened when other people, in this case a maid, an aunt, and a homeopathic doctor, took sides in the inevitable conflicts that occurred. However, this was the first time she’d faced the possibility that someone in the mix might be trying to kill the young wife.
This thought gave her a slight chill, and she turned up the flame in the oil lamp, glad of the little bit of extra heat it generated. At least the rain storm that had blown through during the night seemed to have passed, although it was still a cloudy day with occasional gusts of wind that rattled the windows.
She was having difficulty concentrating this morning because she was tired. The lightning and thunder that accompanied the storm last night had woken up Abigail several times, her wails in the nursery loud enough to wake Annie in the next room. After the first episode, Annie brought her to sleep in the crib that was still in their room. At least then, Kathleen and everyone else in the boardinghouse could get a good night’s sleep.
Nate had taken turns with her in comforting and rocking their daughter back to sleep, pleased to wipe out the memory of the difficulty he’d had in soothing her on Friday afternoon. He also volunteered to oversee Abigail’s morning ritual so Annie could finish up reading the memoir before it was time to attend church.
Her strategy had been to read the memoir in ten-year chunks, starting with the most recent decade, assuming that any important clue would be in the more recent years. For the section set in the seventies, Granger mostly described his role in establishing and staffing the Medical College of the Pacific, particularly how dedicated he was in supporting female applicants. He also detailed his early contributions to the Pacific Dispensary as one of their first consulting physicians. None of this was new to Annie. And nothing suggested who might have had reason to kill him.
She did find it interesting that in the section where he discussed his work on the California Medical Society, he made it clear that Dr. Skerry wasn’t the only local physician who’d been rejected for membership and complained in the press. However, Granger seemed to have taken these complaints, even Skerry’s, as a sign that he and the other medical board members were doing a good job.
She had finished the volume covering the last half of the fifties and the sixties yesterday. Here, she read a detailed account of what Martin Mitchell had described to them two weeks ago. First, the famous Cole-Toland feud, then the rivalry between Toland’s medical school and the one set up by Dr. Samuel Elias Cooper, and finally the failure of that first rival to Toland’s school. Again, nothing new and nothing that suggested that any of the people involved might have held a grudge that would result in violence all these years later.
Throughout this section of the memoir, he also wrote about his growing medical practice and his family—showing obvious pride in his son’s medical career, bemusement over his youngest daughter’s success as an illustrator, and sadness when his wife’s health deteriorated and his older daughter no longer could act as his assistant in his medical practice. Again, nothing that she thought Thompson would find “relevant” to his investigation.
This didn’t mean that there weren’t people with possible motives. For example, those doctors who’d been denied board certification, colleagues at the medical school who disagreed with him over the decision to let in women, even a son who didn’t always agree with him over the correct medical treatment for certain patients. But the way Granger wrote about these conflicts made them seem innocuous. He even expressed pride in how his son was willing to stand up to him.
All in all, if Granger’s memoir were to be believed, he was an easy-going fellow, didn’t hold grudges, and generally got along well with both patients and other physicians.
Annie knew from experience that how people saw themselves wasn’t necessarily a good measure of how others saw them. However, for her purposes, the memoir wasn’t proving to hide any deep, dark secrets or motives for murder. On the other hand, this did suggest that if someone came to the doctor’s office, he probably wouldn’t have viewed them as a threat, especially his son. The son who supposedly didn’t hear the telegraph messenger ringing his office door bell…right around the time his father was being killed.
“I heard that sigh,” Nate said, coming into the office. “No luck with the memoir?”
“No. How did things go with Abigail? I didn’t hear any screams, so I gather she was in a sunnier mood this morning.”
“Absolutely. She found all my jokes hilarious, obediently opened up her mouth for me to insert the spoon, and only spit out about half of her porridge. I even got to towel Abigail off after Kathleen gave her a morning bath. All in all, a very successful morning. Kathleen took her down to the kitchen to bang on some pots.”
Annie smiled at her husband’s smug tone.
She said, “I’ve got just a few more pages in this last section of the memoir to read, then I’ll go down and see if she’s driven them to distraction yet. I’ve read about Granger’s youth and his experiences in medical school; now I’m reading about his very first cases as a young doctor in Pennsylvania. Really interesting reading, but I am having difficulty imagining someone coming out of that distant past to kill him, much less anyone who might also be interested in poisoning Phoebe Truscott.”
Nate said, “You really do think the two are related? I mean, seems to me that if someone was poisoning Phoebe Truscott, it must be either her husband, who was trying to kill her in order to get her money, or Dr. Skerry, who simply wanted to make her sick in order to further her own agenda. In addition, given your description of the aunt’s behavior yesterday morning, it’s possible the aunt was helping Dr. Skerry, either on purpose or unwittingly. As for the death of Dr. Granger, the suspects are much wider. The murderer could be Charlie McFadyn, a dissatisfied or addled patient, some drug-seeking thief, or even his son. However, as far as I can see, none of the three people who are suspects in the Truscott case have any reason to murder Dr. Granger.”
Annie shrugged and said, “I know. Try as I might, I can’t see Dr. Skerry being so deranged in her vendetta against Dr. Granger that she would want to kill him. Nor can I see Richard Truscott or his aunt killing Dr. Granger on Dr. Skerry’s behalf. But I can’t accept that there is no connection, that it was just coincidence that someone was poisoning Phoebe Truscott and, at the same time, someone else wanted Dr. Granger dead.”
“Well, I’ll leave you to it; I’ve got some work of my own.” Nate went and sat down at his desk and started shuffling papers.
Annie turned the page and started to read Granger’s explanation for why he’d made the decision early in his career not to include obstetrics as part of his practice. He sounded defensive, which wasn’t surprising given that most physicians, particularly in rural areas and small towns, were expected to deliver babies as part of their routine care. She was speculating over how much income this decision cost when, unexpectedly, a familiar name jumped out at her.
“Nate, listen to this. In 1854, the year before Granger came out west to San Francisco, a young woman under his care died in childbirth. The baby was breech, he failed to turn it, and he decided in a panic to use forceps. He was successful in delivering the baby, a boy, but the mother hemorrhaged, probably from his use of the forceps, and she died. He found the whole experience so traumatic that he came out west and started anew. And Nate, this couldn’t possibly be a coincidence, could it? The name of the woman who died was Garnet Truscott.”
Nate stood up hurriedly and came over to look at the section of the manuscript.
He said, “Well, well, that looks very much like you did find some connection between the two cases. But what are you thinking? That the baby who lost his mother is Richard Truscott? And Aunt Ruby is the dead woman’s sister?”
Annie said, “It fits in terms of timing, and it certainly provides a motive. Either Richard or his aunt could very well have been nursing a terrible hatred for the doctor who was responsible for Garnet Truscott’s death, a hatred which could have led them to kill Dr. Granger.”
“But why wait so long? And how does this fit with the possible poisoning of Phoebe?”
Annie said, “I don’t know. I mean, if someone was capable of poisoning Phoebe for their own ends…”
“Like her husband?”
“Yes, then it is not far-fetched that they would be willing to kill Granger as some sort of long-term grudge.”
Annie was cut off by the sound of the office door opening. Kathleen rushed in, saying, “Ma’am, sir, Sergeant Thompson is here to see you. Says it’s urgent.”
The sergeant swept into the room right behind her and said, “I’m glad I found you both at home, because I’m going to need help from both of you.”
Nate shook Thompson’s hand and offered to send Kathleen down to get him something to eat or drink.
“No time. First of all, Nate, your friend Mitchell and that Dr. Blair could use your advice this morning. The two of them and Tessa Wheeler and Charlie McFadyn were all taken into custody last night. The missing Brenda Halstrum was with them. McFadyn and Tessa Wheeler are accusing Dr. Blair of attempting to do an illegal abortion on this Brenda and also saying that both Mitchell and Dr. Blair should be charged with assault.”
While Annie tried to assimilate this news, Nate said, “Did this happen at the dispensary?”
“No, some boy came to the dispensary around nine last night and said a woman was in trouble, maybe a miscarriage. Dr. Blair foolishly agreed to go alone to see her. A couple of minutes later, when he heard what she’d done, your friend Dr. Mitchell set out to follow her. The boy brought Dr. Blair to some derelict building on Ninth Street and abandoned her. Dr. Blair said that McFadyn, Tessa, and the girl were already there when she arrived.”
“Then what happened?” Annie said.
“Dr. Blair says McFadyn pulled a knife on her and threatened to harm the girl Brenda if she didn’t get Hilda Putki’s son and bring the baby to him. She says when Dr. Mitchell arrived, he fought with McFadyn to get the knife away from him while she grappled with Tessa.”
“Are Dr. Blair and Martin Mitchell all right?”
“Yes, Mrs. Dawson. Thank goodness someone from the dispensary had the presence of mind to alert the local patrolman, Officer Blakely, who arrived on the scene before anyone was seriously hurt. Dr. Blair seems to have sustained a few scratches and Dr. Mitchell a couple of shallow defensive knife wounds on his hands. Since Dr. Mitchell was unarmed, that will do a good deal to support his and Dr. Blair’s claims. Tessa also has a few scratches. It appears that Dr. Blair is a bit of a scrappy fighter, not what I would expect. McFadyn might have a few bruises.”
Annie said, “You said Dr. Blair and Mitchell were taken into custody.”
“Yes. Officer Blakely felt he had to bring them all into the station to straighten everything out. McFadyn made a big deal about the doctor’s bag having instruments and some drug to induce an abortion, and Tessa swears up and down that she and McFadyn just happened to come in to see the girl. Says they were attempting to stop the doctor from ending the life of Brenda’s baby when Mitchell jumped them.”
Annie said, “That’s preposterous! What does the girl Brenda say?”
Thompson shrugged. “Not saying a word. It’s clear she’s scared to death of McFadyn, so I don’t know if she’ll tell the truth. Maybe she is pregnant, but if so, she’s not very far along.”
Nate, frowning, said, “You said I should go to the dispensary. Does that mean Mitchell and Dr. Blair weren’t charged?”
“Not yet, but neither were Tessa or Charlie. However, I can’t guarantee that the district attorney won’t press charges on all of them. The evidence that first McFadyn and then Tessa Wheeler attempted to get the girl Hilda out of the dispensary before her baby was born should help substantiate Dr. Blair’s claim that McFadyn was trying to get her to kidnap the baby. But McFadyn has some strong political backers and…”
“And, even if there aren’t any charges against Dr. Blair and Mitchell, this isn’t going to be good for the dispensary’s reputation if it gets to the point of an arraignment, much less a trial,” Nate concluded for him.
“That’s why I thought the sooner they got legal counsel the better.”
Annie found herself thinking about the board meeting on Wednesday and how Mrs. Branting could use this to further her attacks on the dispensary leadership. And poor Ella Blair, this could ruin her career.
She said, “There’s got to be something you can do, Sergeant, to get this figured out as quickly and quietly as possible.”
“I’ve instructed Officer Blakely to locate the boy, Bobby. If he does, and he and this Brenda support Dr. Blair’s version of events, that would help a lot. There’s some additional good news. That information Miss Hennessey got from Hilda about the restaurant with its underage girls and private back rooms was new to the police. Sounds like it was news to Boss Buckley, who doesn’t like his men setting up this sort of establishment on their own.”
Nate said, “Yes, it’s my understanding that one of the reasons for Buckley’s quick rise to power is the tight control he exercises over his lieutenants.”
Thompson nodded. “One of my informants also told me that Buckley was already upset about McFadyn making a nuisance of himself at the dispensary. Interferes with Buckley’s attempt to establish himself as a man of class and respectability. Needless to say, he was especially unhappy to hear that all the ruckus was because McFadyn wanted to foist one of his bastards off on his wife.”
Thompson ducked his head in embarrassment and said, “Excuse me, ma’am, didn’t mean to offend.”
Annie told him that she took no offense, but then she said, “Why would that upset Buckley? I mean, I can understand if he didn’t like the idea of getting on the wrong side of the wealthy women who support the dispensary. But why would he care about McFadyn’s domestic difficulties with his wife?”
Thompson laughed. “Turns out that McFadyn’s missus is one of Buckley’s favorite cousins, and she thought she had agreed to adopt some random orphan. I gather she was very upset.”
Nate nodded. “Ah, so maybe Buckley’s angry enough with McFadyn that he won’t be quite as willing to go out of his way to help him out of a jam. That would be good news. But I’d better head down to the dispensary, see what Mitchell and Dr. Blair can add to the story you’ve told us. Thanks so much for letting us know. Annie, do you want to come with me?”
Thompson held up his hand. “Before either of you take off, there’s something else you should know. Late last night, when I finally got around to checking my mail, I found the coroner’s report on his analysis of that mess of porridge you gave me. Turns out it contained a lethal dose of aconite. Seems you were right, Mrs. Dawson. Someone was trying to kill Phoebe Truscott.”