Free Deadly Proof: A Victorian San Francisco Mystery by M. Louisa Locke

you keep any information about her role in this case secret.”
    “I know, Nate.” Laura stopped, not wanting to sound defensive. “When I talked to my forewoman, Iris Bailor, I didn’t say who hired you. But I think she was going to go and try to see Florence Sullivan at the jail this evening.”
    “Well, good luck to her,” he said. “I confess I didn’t have much success with her yesterday, and she refused to see me this afternoon when I visited to report on the results of the grand jury.”
    Nate told them about his visit the day before and his difficulty in extracting any useful information about what happened.
    “Every time I tried to bring the subject back to Rashers or the night he was killed, she got agitated. Kept saying there wasn’t anything I could do for her. Finally, when I asked if she wanted me to contact her husband, she threw me out of the cell. The fact she won’t let her husband in to see her is disconcerting, I must say.”
    “Do you think she’s guilty?” Laura interjected.
    “I don’t know,” Nate replied. “And it isn’t really relevant what I think. But I need to know the details. If she killed him in self-defense, then I could mount a case of justifiable homicide. Or if she was wants to plead guilty, then I might be able to get the district attorney to change the charge to voluntary manslaughter.”
    “What would be the difference between second degree murder and voluntary manslaughter?” Laura asked. This was really the first time she had ever gotten Nate to talk seriously with her about a case. Maybe he’d come to accept the idea that she wanted to follow him into the legal profession.
    “Well, if the case goes to trial and she is found guilty of second degree murder, her prison term will be at least ten years and could be much longer. But under California law the sentence for voluntary manslaughter is less than ten years. Then it would be my job to convince the judge to give her much shorter sentence than that. I think that Dart would support me if that were the case. He’d probably rather get a conviction, even for a lighter sentence, than risk losing because the person being prosecuted was a woman.”
    Annie broke in and said, “But what if she isn’t guilty!”
    “If she didn’t kill him, she needs to help me out,” Nate responded, sounding exasperated. “Her arraignment in front of Judge Ferrel is day after tomorrow. I need to know what she is going to plead.”
    Laura leaned forward and said, “Iris Bailor insisted that she can’t be guilty. That Mrs. Sullivan wouldn’t ever hurt anyone. However, she also said that she had reasons enough to kill him, but that she wouldn’t. I couldn’t help but wonder what those reasons were.”
    “I spent the afternoon going over the evidence that the district attorney submitted to the grand jury, and it looks to me like he is going to argue that Mrs. Sullivan was in love with Joshua Rashers. That she killed him in a fit of passion when she discovered that he was going to leave on a three-month trip with his wife, expecting her to have found a new job before he returned.”
    “Was this all based on Mrs. Rashers’ testimony?” Annie shifted in her seat and frowned. “Did she actually accuse her husband of having an affair with Mrs. Sullivan?”
    “Oh, no, her testimony to the police was that he was a completely faithful husband but that he was just too kind-hearted. She said he finally came to realize that Mrs. Sullivan would never leave him alone if they continued to work together.”
    “Well,” said Laura, “that is not the impression of him that Iris gave me. She intimated that he was a complete scoundrel. I’ll ask her if she knew if Rashers and Florence were having an affair.”
    “No, Laura, under no circumstances should you do so. I should have never even mentioned anything about the case to you, so just stay out of it.”
    With a flash of anger, Laura told her brother he had no right to tell her what she