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you were wrong, about everything. Matthew Voss was not an adulterer, nor was he a coward. Even if he had some recent financial reversals, which I don't believe, he would never have taken his life." She stopped, fighting back tears.
    Turning her face away and looking in vain for a handkerchief, she suddenly felt indescribably weary. She also felt self-conscious remaining in front of Mr. Dawson dressed as Sibyl. Her head ached under the tight wig, and she was sure that her tears were making a mess of her face. She just wanted this man, and his infuriating suspicions, to be gone.
    Blotting her face with the edge of her shawl, Annie said quietly, "Please, I have answered your questions, and you have answered mine. Will you now leave?"
    "Listen," he said, leaning forward and briefly reaching out as if to touch her shoulder, "I know I have behaved abominably tonight. You have every right to be angry, and I am sorry. Clearly, my uncle and I were very mistaken in some of our conclusions, certainly in those regarding you. My younger sister Laura would rip me to shreds if she heard what a foolish mistake I made. She says that I am hopelessly out-dated in my attitudes towards women. I suspect the two of you would get along famously."
    She looked up and caught a glimpse of a wry smile. His expression then turned serious.
    "Mrs. Fuller, please say that you will forgive me. You must understand, from our perspective our speculations made some sense. We were wrong about you, obviously, but that still leaves us with the problem of Voss’s suicide."
    Annie started to speak, but he continued. "The evidence is really very convincing. The coroner clearly stated that Voss died of a poison called cyanide, which is evidently not something one would take by accident. There is no indication anyone else was with him, and then there is the note."
    Here, she successfully interrupted. "What note? Are you saying that he left a suicide note?"
    "Yes, on his desk was a half sheet of torn paper. It said, 'I am sorry.' At the bottom was his signature."
    Her indignation rose. "That is absurd and not at all like Mr. Voss. If he had decided to take his life, he would have explained, made sure that everything was straight, orderly. That note could have meant anything, been torn off of a letter about something entirely different."
    "I know...I know. You believe he was in good financial shape, but perhaps there was some problem in his life that required him to sell all his assets or some sorrow that you didn't know about."
    "But there wasn't. He would have told me. In fact, he was very excited about how he was going to spend all the money he had been making. Even if he had already liquidated his stocks and property to make a large purchase, another business, a piece of property, well, there still would have been something to show for it!"
    "Maybe you're right. I can't argue with you because I didn't know Voss personally. Perhaps you are also right about his assets. I certainly hope so, because otherwise his family will be in some difficulty. Overall, he owned sixty percent of the furniture company, his partner the other forty percent. Voss left ten percent of his shares of the company to his sister and divided the rest equally between his son and his wife. His wife also got the Geary Street house and property. There are a few small legacies, to his manservant, for example, and to a local orphan society. The rest of his estate, which at this point seems to be non-existent, is to be divided equally between his wife and his son."
    Annie frowned, wondering where the assets might have gone, when she noticed a quizzical expression on Mr. Dawson's face.
    He said, "You know, you still haven't asked what Voss left you in his will. Perhaps as a clairvoyant you already knew."
    Annie wasn't in any mood to be teased. "I am not that sort of clairvoyant!" She then continued with more composure. "Frankly, I doubt that he left me more than a token. I thought of him as a friend, but