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rigid and straight at her sides. Annie found herself speculating whether or not this woman had a small paunch similar to Matthew's hidden under her tightly laced corset. But it was her eyes, grey and piercing, that most reminded Annie of Matthew, and it was her bruised-looking, unblinking eyes that revealed a woman in anguish.
    Who could she be ? For a moment, Annie simply stared. Then several fragments of conversations over the past two days came together, and she knew the answer. First, the newspaper article had mentioned that Matthew was survived by a sister. Then Kathleen talked about an "old lady" who had fetched Patrick off his beat, an "old lady" who had clamored that murder had been done. At the time, Annie had assumed that this referred to Matthew’s wife. Finally, Nate Dawson had said that a small percentage of the company shares would go to Matthew’s sister, who must be the woman standing there at graveside.
    Yet how odd. Another person, like Judith Langdon, that Matthew had never mentioned. She could understand him not mentioning his son’s fiancée, but a sister! Maybe she didn’t normally live with them. Had she been visiting by chance? Annie turned and made her way to Mrs. Stein, who had moved up the hill after shaking hands with Amelia Voss.
    "Oh, I do feel for the poor woman." Esther Stein sniffed into her handkerchief. "We have never really been that close. Amelia was always more part of the younger set, but I can't help but think how frightening it would be if Herman was gone."
    Annie gave the kind-hearted woman a quick hug and said, "Now Mrs. Stein, your husband is not going anywhere––you are much too good to him. Besides, you have six children who would line up to take care of you. Your only problem would be that they might start fighting with each other over the privilege."
    Mrs. Stein chuckled at this and replied, "Oh my Lord, what a thought. I just know they would plague me to death, giving me advice and help I didn't need. I'd better tell Herman he must promise to out-live me. I couldn't stand the aggravation!"
    Annie then turned Mrs. Stein gently to the side and nodded at the woman who was still staring into the now flower covered grave. "Is that Mr. Voss's sister?"
    "Of course it is, poor soul. That's Miss Nancy Voss. She will be bereft. She followed Matthew out west after their parents died and has kept house for Matthew ever since. Over twenty-five years and in all that time she's never been apart from him. I wonder what she'll do now?"
    Annie was even more mystified. How could Matthew have lived most of his life with his sister and yet had never once mentioned her? And why did she look so angry?
    Almost as if to answer her question, Miss Voss tore her eyes from the grave and turned her baleful look on a little tableau that had formed to her right. There was Mrs. Voss, leaning her head against her son's chest as if she were faint, with Jeremy tenderly murmuring in her ear. At the same time, Malcolm Samuels hovered over her, ineffectually trying to drape a shawl around her bowed shoulders, while Miss Langdon knelt at her feet, offering to Mrs. Voss the black lace handkerchief she had dropped. Looking back at Matthew's sister, Annie saw her raise her upper lip in a sneer, then turn swiftly and walk off, alone.

Chapter Seven:
Tuesday afternoon, August 5, 1879
     
    Annie wove her way through the crowded sidewalk along Sansome, in the thick of the San Francisco business district, trying in vain to keep up with Nate Dawson, who was striding in front of her. He had insisted in accompanying her home from the law offices of Hobbes, Haranahan, and Dawson, where she had dutifully signed the necessary probate forms to ensure that Madam Sibyl would get her inheritance––if they ever found the missing mining stocks. But he had immediately set a pace that seemed intended to leave her behind. From the moment she had arrived at the scheduled meeting, she had been confused by Nate Dawson’s behavior.