Annie gathered up her purse and the printouts she had brought with her. “You’ve been a tremendous help, neighbor.”
“Anytime.” Alice went with her to the door. “And I want to know what you find out about the aunt in New York, OK?”
“Sure. Have fun tonight.”
Annie waved and scurried back to her own front porch and into the house. It was getting colder. She took a few minutes to start a fire in the hearth and then looked through the day’s mail. Then she opened the drawer in the end table next to the couch and took out the stack of Susan’s letters.
She had read them over several times since she first discovered them, remembering the friends and happenings Susan had written about, looking for clues they might hold. Was there any use in reading them over again? Something she had missed?
She ruffled the corner of the yellowing envelopes and saw the return addresses on each of them flip past. Many of the letters had been mailed from Susan’s aunt’s house in New York, but several were from 214 Elm Street in Stony Point.
What was the house like now? Annie remembered it being a huge white building, very old, very square and straight, with black-shuttered windows and a pretty little fan-shaped window above the front door. Like Grey Gables, it had two stories plus a large attic full of places to explore and to hide in. She hoped for Susan’s sake that this Tom Maxwell had kept it nice. Being a handyman, he should.
Maybe she’d drive out and look at the old place again one of these days. It had been pretty old when she visited Susan there. No matter what kind of shape it was in now, it would be worth looking at.
In the meantime, Annie would keep working on her Maine sweater. Winter was just around the corner now. Even during the day, she had to turn up the heat. The sweater would be a necessity before much longer, and she could use a nice peaceful evening by the fire to crochet and think. Tomorrow she’d do some more research and track down Susan once and for all.
4
“You’re our first customer.” Grace stood up from her station behind the Circulation Desk and walked with Annie over to the Reference Room. “Still looking for Susan Morris?”
“I’m working on it. I tried to do some searching on my laptop at home this morning, but I realized I don’t have a clue what I’m doing.” Annie took her notepad out of her purse and opened it up. “If you have a few minutes, I’d appreciate it if you could give me some pointers on looking up what I need.”
“It can be a little overwhelming, can’t it? There’s so much to choose from.”
“Exactly. If you could point me in the right direction, that would sure save me time.”
“That’s what I’m here for. Let’s see what we can find.”
Annie followed her into the reference area and sat down at one of the computers. Grace looked over Annie’s shoulder at the screen.
“OK, what sort of information are you looking for today?”
“I’d like to know when Susan got married, and who her husband is.”
Grace nodded. “The best place to start would be the state’s marriage records. What else are you looking for?”
“She lived with an aunt in New York City when she went to high school. I’d like to find out where that aunt is.”
“Did you try looking her up by name?”
Annie chuckled. “That’s where the overwhelming part comes in. Do you know how many Kimberly Morrises there are in New York City? Alice told me you can get a phone number just by entering the address, but I don’t know what kind of site that would be or how to find it.”
“Supposing the aunt is still at the same address, you could try this white pages site and use their reverse lookup.” Grace jotted the web address down on a piece of scratch paper and gave it to Annie. “It’ll give you the phone number for the address you want and the name of the people living there. Provided it’s not unlisted, of course.”
“That’s perfect. I really appreciate it.”
Grace nodded. “And I’ll be right up front if you need more help.”
Annie thanked her and turned to the computer. She typed in “state of Maine marriage records.”
The link took her back to the official state site and then to a marriage index. She entered the bride’s name and town but left blank the fields for the groom’s information. For the marriage date, she put in the entire year of 1989. “That ought to bring up Prince Charming.” She hit Enter. A couple of seconds later, a message popped onto the screen: No records found that meet your search criteria.
Annie frowned. Maybe Susan hadn’t gotten married as soon after she sold the house as everyone thought. Annie changed the date to cover 1989 through 1990 and hit Enter. No records found that meet your search criteria.