“Are you going to be in town for a while?”
Annie nodded. “I have some errands to take care of. Do you think it will be that quick?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I’ll see what I can do before you get back.”
Annie ran her errands and even stopped in to chat with Peggy at the diner, catching her up on this most recent development. When she returned to the library, though, Grace didn’t have any results for her. But by the next afternoon, she called to ask Annie to come see her.
“Success.” She gave Annie a couple of pieces of paper. “A few years ago, I worked with a woman who’s at the library in Charleston now. She was nice enough to e-mail me a copy of the article you wanted, as well as an earlier one on the drowning.”
Annie glanced at the pages. “I really appreciate it. What do I owe you for them?”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. She sent them to me as a favor, and I’m just passing them on. Sorry it had to be bad news, though.”
“At least I know for sure.” Annie sighed. “I was really looking forward to getting back in touch with Susan. I guess that’ll teach me not to take any of my friends for granted.”
“You never know how long you have with anyone. I guess we both know that too well.” There was a touch of wistfulness in Grace’s expression, and Annie remembered that she, too, was a widow. “But at least you tried to find her. That was thoughtful of you.”
Annie thanked her one last time; then she went over to one of the overstuffed chairs in the reading area and sat down. The first article was dated August 22, 1989.
CHARLESTON RESCUE SEEKING WOMAN MISSING OFF FOLLY BEACH
FOLLY BEACH – Last night, a woman disappeared from the yacht she and her fiancé were sailing down the coast to Florida. It is believed that the 22-year-old may have fallen overboard during the brief storm that blew into the Charleston area last night around midnight. Her fiancé told police that he was sleeping below deck and did not realize she was missing until early this morning. Authorities have not released the couple’s names, but report that they had sailed from the Portland, Maine, area. The victim’s fiancé was not immediately available for comment.
The poor man, whoever he was. What a terrible blow it must have been to lose Susan just as they were starting their life together.
Annie looked at the other article. It was the one she had originally requested from August 27 of that year.
SEARCH HALTED FOR MAINE WOMAN BELIEVED DROWNED
FOLLY BEACH – After the Coast Guard and Charleston Rescue abandoned search operations today, police released the name of the woman believed drowned off Folly Beach on August 21. She has been identified as Susan Morris, 22, of Stony Point, Maine. According to her fiancé, Archer Prescott, owner of sporting-goods manufacturing concern JFP Athletics Inc., the couple had been sailing down the coast to his estate in Vero Beach, Fla., for their wedding.
“I knew there was a little storm coming up, but it wasn’t due for a while. The sea was quiet, so I went to my cabin for a nap,” Prescott said. “It was pretty late. Susan told me she would keep watch and let me know if she needed me for anything. She had done it several times before, so I didn’t think anything would go wrong. I guess I was more tired than I thought, because I slept right through the night. I’d never done that before. When I woke up and didn’t find her on deck or anywhere below, I radioed the Coast Guard, but she was gone. Just gone.”
A general alert along the North and South Carolina coasts, and to ships in the area has brought no results. Coast Guard Captain Michael Raintree, in command of the search operation, could offer no hope that Morris might still be alive. “Anyone alone out on the ocean has very little chance of being found, and that chance becomes smaller and smaller with every hour that passes. She was reported to be a strong swimmer, but even if that’s the case, no one could last this long in open water. We would have been notified by now if another vessel had picked her up, or if she had reached shore. It’s a tragedy, of course, to lose a young woman like that. We hate to have to give up, but experience tells us that there’s nothing more we can do.”
Prescott, however, was unwilling to accept the decision made by Charleston Rescue, the Coast Guard and others involved in the search. “I’m not giving up,” he said. “If Susan’s out there, if she’s alive, I’m going to find her. And if, God forbid, she’s dead, I want to know that too. I can’t just abandon her. I’ll never forgive myself for leaving her on deck like that, and I owe it to her to keep looking. She’s everything to me.”