“That’s it. There is nothing else to find here that I can tell,” said Perri as she stacked the last file folder at the end of the table. “I’m beat. Let’s call it a night.”
Nina stood and stretched, “So, tomorrow we go to Todd County? Where do we have to go to look for records there?”
“Elkton,” responded Perri with a tired sigh.
“How far is that? Will it take us long to get there?” asked Nina in a weary tone.
“No, not at all. Our hotel is a little bit closer to Elkton than it is to Russellville.”
“That’s handy.”
“That’s one reason I picked the Crow’s Rest though, because it was kind of in the middle. The second cemetery we went to on Saturday was in Todd County.”
Perri and Nina left the files in place and gathered their belongings from the table outside the door of the document room. Cora was at her desk near the front door as they walked toward the exit. “We’re done here, Cora. We left the files on the table,” Perri hooked her thumb back toward the document room, “and we are headed out.”
“Alright-y. You going over to Todd’s clerk’s office tomorrow? I heard Sarah talking to you about it.”
Perri nodded, “We’ll go see what we can find there, if anything.”
“Well, you girls be careful, ok? I hope you find something. I’ll be glad when all this business is over.” Cora shook her head slowly back and forth.
“Thank you, we will.” Perri and Nina each pushed open one of the doors and stepped out into the warm evening.
The parking lot was in shade and the lowering sun reached its beams along the top and edges of the building. Perri said, “What do you say we pick up something, a pizza maybe, and take it back to eat in the room. I’m done for the day.”
“Me too. I don’t want to read anything more complicated than a menu the rest of the night. Pizza it is.”
Perri realized how hungry she was and looked forward to a pizza, or two. “There’s a pizza place on 68; we’ll stop there.”
They had just gotten back into the Cooper, Nina balancing two hot pizzas straight out of the oven on her purse in her lap, when Perri’s phone buzzed. “Hello?”
“Hi Perri, this is Sarah Vines. I’m sorry to bother you, I know it’s been a long day.”
“Yes, it has. I didn’t find anything else in the files today. Sorry, I was going to call you later. Nina and I just picked up a pizza and are headed back to the hotel. We’re toast.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that, no problem at all. Trust me, I would be worn out if I had to look through as many documents as you have today,” reassured Sarah. “I wanted to touch base with you about going over to Todd County tomorrow, that still ok with you both?”
“Yes, we were planning on it. That’s one reason we wanted to make an earlier night of it tonight, get some rest and head over there in the morning. What time do you want us to be there?”
“I’ll call them first thing, around 8 o’clock and ask them to go ahead and start pulling files with the Blackwell’s names, in any category. If you can be there at 9 o’clock, I hope that isn’t too early, that should give you time to search through the records.”
“Do you want us to copy everything?” asked Perri.
“If possible. If there turns out to be a glut of information on Isaiah, give me a call. I’m more interested in Jonathan. We may be able to pick and choose if there are a lot of documents on Isaiah.”
“Ok, thanks. That will help. Most of the time I would feel I was being overly ambitious if I was afraid of too many documents, but this would be the one time there might be a cartload.” Perri breathed a sigh of relief.
Sarah laughed, “I understand.” She paused, “And Perri, there’s something else.”
“Ok, what?”
“I wanted you to be aware that Rodney Sauer’s body was found this afternoon. I know there was an incident where he threatened you following your encounter with his father.”
“Oh, my gosh! I see.” Perri’s face blanched a little bit. She turned to look at Nina with wide eyes and a startled expression.
“What? What is it?” asked Nina. Perri held up one forefinger.
Nina whispered, “What?” and Perri shook her head.
Sarah continued, “I wanted to let you know because he didn’t die in an accident. He was killed, um, murdered, and we are concerned that his death is connected to Amy’s.” She paused and heard only silence. “I can’t give details, but I want you to know we feel strongly the deaths are related and if you don’t want to continue with the document search, I will understand completely. I don’t want you to do anything you aren’t comfortable doing.”
“Uh, yeah, I thank you for that. I can only speak for myself, but I definitely want to continue. I feel vested in solving this mystery, at least the historical part of it, if I can. But, I can only speak for myself. Can I call you back after I talk to Nina? Just a few minutes?”
Nina plucked at Perri’s sleeve again, “What, what?”
“Certainly. I’ll wait to hear from you.”
Perri ended the call. “That was Detective Vines. She said that Rodney Sauer was found dead today...murdered.” Nina let her mouth fall open, said nothing, “…and that they feel pretty sure his and Amy’s death are related. She said we don’t have to continue the research if we feel uncomfortable. So, well, you heard the rest.”
“Yeah. Yeah, ok. I don’t know. I mean, do you think it’s dangerous for us?”
“I have no idea. I want to continue, but Nina, if you don’t, I get that. You have a family.”
“Uhhhh. I want to, but, you’re right. But I don’t want to miss out.” Nina thought, then said, “Look, tomorrow is my last day to stay here. We’re going to another county and will be in a government building all day, right?” Perri nodded affirmatively. “I want to go tomorrow but no more cemeteries or weird abandoned places, ok?”
“No, definitely not! We’ll only go the Clerk’s office and back here, and we’ll get drive through for food rather than go in somewhere, or even ask someone to get it for us, ok? After that, unless there is something else I can do, we’ll both be going home Wednesday morning and leaving this behind. Deal?”
Nina nodded, “Deal.”
“Alright, I’ll call Sarah back and let her know we’ll be there.”