She found her answer about three-quarters of the way down the page.
I remember it, because that was the same day they were searching for a girl who had drowned off Folly Beach. I didn’t know her, but the newspaper said her name was Susan Morris, and she was from someplace called Stony Point, Maine. I remember her name because I thought then that someone ought to remember it. Remember her. And I thought it was strange that she had come so far just to drown.
Tears burned in Annie’s eyes. Drowned? Not Susan. Not after everything else that had happened to her. It wasn’t fair.
Annie blinked hard and read the post again. The blogger gave only a first name, Maggie. Maggie of Maggie’s Musings. No city. No state. No contact information. How long ago had the drowning been? Where was Folly Beach anyway?
It took only a second to look up Folly Beach, South Carolina. It was not far from Charleston. What newspaper did they have there?
She typed in “Charleston SC newspaper,” and got the site for The Post and Courier and clicked the “Contact Us” link. There she found a list of names and e-mail addresses for various departments and then, at the bottom, a link that said “Archives.”
“Oh, please, please be searchable.”
She clicked the link and found “Search the archives” and “Advanced search.” Yes.
She typed in Susan’s name, but there were only two results. One was an article about healthy eating and the other was a death notice for a woman aged 83. Not her Susan.
Entering “Stony Point” returned articles on the local woods, a golf course, and a historic home.
How could this Maggie have read about Susan in the newspaper if there wasn’t an article? And if there was an article, why wasn’t it in their archives? Wait. The searchable archives went back only as far as 1994. Susan had sold her house in 1989, and maybe she had drowned later that same year. Would the newspaper be willing to send her a copy of the article?
She clicked on the link that said “More information about finding stories from The Post and Courier” and quickly decided against that idea. They wanted a pretty penny for doing research for anyone not on staff, but she was glad to see that the county public library had microfilm of all issues of the paper from 1931 through 1993. And they had kindly furnished a link.
She clicked through to the library’s index and once again typed in Susan’s name. In the field for “Pub Year” she typed in 1989. The search brought up one article, and she clicked on the box marked “Details.” Coast Guard and Charleston Rescue abandon search for Susan Morris of Stony Point, Maine, believed drowned off Folly Beach 08/24/1989. The article titled “Search Halted for Maine Woman Believed Drowned” was dated August 27, 1989.
Annie pressed her hands against the sides of her aching head and realized it was far past lunchtime. A sandwich and a strong cup of coffee would be the best thing to pull her back into the present. Susan was gone, and regret wouldn’t bring her back.
Annie printed out the information available about the article, including the contact number for the library. She would give them a call once she’d had a chance to process everything she’d found out so far. Maybe they’d send her a copy of the article and not expect her eyeteeth in return.
She thought for a minute. Maybe it would be better to talk to Grace again. Sometimes libraries exchanged information with each other more quickly than they did with Citizen Jane.
She spruced herself up and drove to the library. The Circulation Desk was deserted, so she tapped the little bell that was labeled “Ring for Assistance.” A few seconds later, Grace came out of one of the back rooms.
“Annie, good to see you. I’ve been wondering how you were doing. Did you ever find your friend?”
“Yeah.” Annie blinked hard. “I did. And I guess I found out more than I wanted to know.”
“Bad news?”
“She drowned back in 1989, and I never even heard about it.”
“That’s too bad. What happened?”
Annie showed the librarian the information she had found so far.
“I was going to give the library there a call to see what they have on that newspaper article. Then I was thinking maybe you could get the information sent up here, and I wouldn’t have to go all the way to Charleston for it.”
Grace took the printout. “Let me see what I can do. If they’re not too busy, they may be able to fax or e-mail me a copy right away, library to library.”
“I was hoping you’d say that. It won’t be too much trouble, will it?”
Grace smiled. “I told you, I know people.”
Annie wanted to hug her for being so helpful. “Thanks so much Grace! Anything you could get from them would be wonderful.”