Margaret leaned forward, her heart suddenly racing.
“Dewey joined the army in November 1917, did his basic training in Spartanburg, South Carolina, at Camp Wadsworth and was shipped out to France the following summer. My initial report from the Veterans Bureau stated that he was wounded in France but supposedly treated here in the States. I didn’t follow up, because that’s when your husband, Albert, said to drop the investigation.”
“Dewey. Was he—is he—still alive?”
Tom shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. To find out, I would’ve had to do a much more extensive search of the Veterans Bureau files, which presented a bit of problem since that organization became part of the Veterans Administration about twenty years earlier.”
“Was there anything on any of the others—Virgil, Oliver, John Paul? Edward was the baby. Surely you found something on him.”
He gave a grimace and shook his head. “I only worked on this for a short time, then your husband—”
“I know,” Margaret said sadly. “Told you to drop the investigation.”
Tom gave an apologetic nod. “I wish I could tell you something more, but…” As his words trailed off, he stood. “If you like, I’ll leave this folder with you. Perhaps you can get someone else to take it from here.”
He gathered the sheets of paper, slid them back into the folder, and handed it to Margaret. “Good luck. I hope you do find your family. It’s what your husband wanted for you.”
As Margaret stepped into the hall to show Tom out, she bumped into Josie who was standing there with a plate of cookies.
“Sorry,” she said, “I was coming in to ask if you and your guest would like—”
“Not now,” Margaret replied and continued toward the door.
Again, she thanked Tom for coming. They shook hands, and he left. When Margaret turned back, Josie was still standing there with the cookies.
“You’re just going to let him leave like that? You’re not going to ask him to keep looking for your sister and brothers?”
“He’s retired. He doesn’t do detective work anymore.”
“But you didn’t ask.”
“I had to practically beg him to look for the file. There’s no way he’d—”
“Not if you don’t ask. After all these years of worrying about your family, you’re gonna let the one person who might have a shot at finding them walk away?”
“I couldn’t ask him, not after he’s already said—”
“If it’s no, it’s no. At least you’ll have tried. If Elgin or one of my kids was missing, I’d do way more than ask. I’d get down on my knees and beg him to keep looking.”
Margaret stood there, her eyes flicking back and forth first through the window at Tom as he moved down the walkway then back to Josie’s impassioned expression.
“You’ve got to do it,” Josie pleaded. “You’ll hate yourself if you don’t.”
IF YOU NEVER TRY, YOU WILL NEVER SUCCEED.
A fire sparked in Margaret’s eyes. “You’re right, I should have—”
Before she’d finished the thought, Josie shoved the plate at Margaret, flung open the door, and darted down the walkway. She was skinny as a stick and lightning fast.
Tom was almost to his car when she hollered out, “Excuse me, sir. Mrs. McCutcheon would like you to come back. She forgot to ask you something.”
He grinned. “I thought she might.”
Once he was back inside, Margaret hemmed and hawed for several minutes, first claiming she’d forgotten to give him his final check, then asking questions about how he thought one would go about obtaining a detective willing to undertake such a search. After almost 10 minutes, she finally got around to asking if he’d be willing to pick up where he left off.
“Josie thought I should ask you to do it, since you’re familiar with the case and you’ve already done so much work on it. I explained that you were retired, but she suggested it wouldn’t be the same as taking on a new case. Just more like finishing up one you’d already started.”
“It’s been twenty-four years. That’s a long time for a missing person case to sit and grow colder. I didn’t have a whole lot to go on back then, and with no new leads to follow…”
“I could give you more; tell you things Albert wasn’t aware of, like details on my brothers and sisters. That’s something to go on.”
“You need someone with fresh eyes, a new way of looking at things. I’ve been retired for five years, and don’t have the connections I once had.”
“But you’ve got experience, and Albert trusted you.”
He hesitated a moment then grinned. “I’ll admit, it’s an interesting challenge, but I’m not ready to take on a full-time job. It’s too—”
“It doesn’t have to be full-time. Work on it when you want; I promise not to hound you. I’ve waited this long; it won’t kill me to wait a bit longer.”
“Without much to go on, it could easily be six months, maybe even a year or more. And after all that, you might not know anything more than you know now.”
“At least I’ll know one more thing,” Margaret said. “I’ll know I tried.”
He smiled and gave a nod. “You’ve got me on that.”
Her face brightened. “So you’ll do it?”
“Depends,” he said and smiled. “Are you asking, or is that still Josie?”
With her cheeks taking on color, she lifted her eyes and said, “I’m asking.”
That afternoon they talked for almost three hours. Tom asked questions and took notes as Margaret told what she could remember. She recalled most of their birthdays but in some cases could not say where her brothers had been when she last heard. After she found herself unable to answer several questions, she shook her head and slumped back in disappointment.
“Seems I don’t know that much about Nellie and my brothers after all. If only I could…”
“Give it time,” Tom said. “Once your memory starts going back, you’ll be surprised at what you come up with.”
That night when Margaret drifted off, she was picturing the dirt road that wound its way up the mountain to where the small house sat just beyond the bend in the creek.
1901
Coal Creek, West Virginia
In the Beginning
THE YEAR MARGARET ROSE WAS born was one Eliza Hobbs would remember forever. Her marriage to Martin was rocky almost from the start, but that summer brought soaring new highs and a low that would forever taint their relationship.
At one time Eliza was considered the prettiest girl not just in Coal Creek but in all of Kanawha County, West Virginia. She had light brown curls, eyes the soft blue of a summer sky, and a smile that drew people to her. Back then she’d had her choice of suitors, but she’d chosen Martin. He was taller than most, broad-shouldered, and didn’t have a speck of coal dust clinging to his skin.