A Coffin for Santa Rosa by Steve Hayes Read Free Book Online Page B

Gabriel warned softly.
    But Raven had already jumped down from the wagon and was marching toward a tall, paunchy man with thinning dark hair and banker’s spectacles who was talking to a Mexican helper mending a fence.
    Before she could reach him a short, pear-shaped woman wearing a green scarf over her gray hair and an apron tied around her enormous waist came waddling out of the house. Pausing on the porch, she was about to call to her husband, Lylo, when she spotted Raven and broke into a big smile.
    ‘Why, goodness gracious me,’ she exclaimed. ‘I don’t believe it. Is that really you, Raven?’
    ‘Hello, Mrs Willis.’ Raven stopped and smiled at the woman. ‘Yeah, it’s me all right.’
    ‘Well, good heavens, child! You come over here and give me a big hug right this minute. Why, I never expected to see you again!’
    Grudgingly, Raven went over and let Mrs Willis hug her.
    ‘Here, let me look at you.’ She stepped back and held Raven at arms length. ‘My o’ my, you’re all growed up. And so pretty. Your ma must be so proud of you.’ Mrs Willis looked at the wagon, frowning as she saw Gabriel instead of Ingrid holding the reins. ‘Where is your ma, child?’
    ‘She passed,’ Raven said.
    ‘Oh, no-o. You poor sweet lamb. When? What happened?’
    ‘Fever took her.’ Raven turned to Gabriel, still seated on the wagon box, her eyes asking him to explain for her.
    ‘Ingrid died a few days ago,’ he told Mrs Willis. ‘In Old Calico, a mining town near Placerville.’
    ‘I’ve heard of it. Out west in California, ain’t it, Mr uh—?’
    ‘Moonlight,’ Gabriel said. He climbed down from the wagon and stood, towering over the women. ‘It was typhoid … there was an outbreak. Had somethin’ to do with the water gettin’ contaminated after an earthquake. Ol’ Doc Guzman did his best to control it, but things got out of hand an’ by the time it’d run its course, a lot of good folks were dead.’
    ‘That’s why we’re here,’ Raven put in. ‘So we can bury Momma next to my Dad.’
    Mrs Willis frowned. Subtly, her sunny demeanor changed andshe became uneasy. ‘Lylo,’ she called, waving to her husband. ‘Get on over here. You need to hear this.’
    Lylo Willis knew better than to argue with his wife. Leaving his helper to finish repairing the fence, he trotted up to her.
    ‘Yes, dearest?’
    ‘You remember Raven?’
    ‘Why of course. What a delightful surprise. What brings you—?’
    ‘Now don’t get to jawing, mister,’ his wife snapped. ‘The poor child’s lost her momma and she and Mr uh—’
    ‘Moonlight,’ Gabriel reminded.
    ‘Moonlight, have come all the way from California to bury Ingrid next to her beloved husband.’
    Lylo Willis looked at his wife as if he hadn’t heard her correctly. But the scowl on her round, beefy, cherry-cheeked face told him he had – and, more importantly, that she expected him to solve the unmentioned problem.
    ‘I’m very sorry for your loss,’ he told Raven. ‘And there’s nothing I’d like more than to accommodate your Momma’s wishes—’
    ‘What’s stoppin’ you?’ Gabriel interrupted.
    ‘N-Nothing, nothing at all.’ Lylo avoided his wife’s glare and turned back to Raven. ‘It’s just … uhm … I didn’t know Sven was buried here.’
    ‘Over there,’ Raven said, pointing. ‘Behind the barn.’
    ‘Really?’ Lylo Willis removed his spectacles, pinched his nose as if he had a headache, replaced the steel-framed glasses and did his best to look puzzled. ‘Don’t remember seeing a marker when we were rebuilding.’
    ‘Then I’ll show you. C’mon.’ Raven led him and Gabriel to the barn and on, around in back, where Lylo’s 16-year-old son, Cory, was chopping logs into kindling.
    Surprised to see Raven, he lowered his axe and rubbed the sweat from his eyes. ‘What’re you doin’ here? Thought you’n your ma had high-tailed it to Californee.’
    ‘Shows you how much you know, don’t it?’ Raven