Along the Ravenswood (Chicago Stories Book 2) by Hamer Eileen Robertson

Author:Hamer, Eileen Robertson [Hamer, Eileen Robertson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mystery, Chicago, architect, Ravenswood, church, Louis Sullivan, war hero, Marine, hoarding, illegal immigrants, WW II, secret code, bell tower, font, female sleuth, Seraphy Pelligrini
ISBN: 9780988390348
Publisher: Hamer Publications
Published: 2012-12-17T23:00:00+00:00

Half an hour later they emptied box M-12 on the kitchen table.

Old black and white 9 x 10 prints: Ragged men marching along a road. Resting against a dirt bank with their hands tied behind them. Men standing along the road. Tanks, trucks, soldiers.

Two small wooden boxes.

Several inches of loose papers.

A small tattered and stained notebook.

Everything smelled faintly of smoke, but there was another underlying odor as well, the musty, faintly acidic scent of aging paper.

“See if anything jumps out at you. Watch for HUK.” Seraphy said, watching Tommy sort things into piles: photos, letters, Xeroxed articles and reports, folders, the tattered notebook.

“Check these out,” he said a few minutes later, handing her the wooden boxes.

She opened the boxes. It was a while before she spoke.

“I wonder if Eisstadt's kids knew about these,” she said. She swallowed. “A Purple Heart and A Silver Star. I've never seen a Silver Star before. These were Bob's? Is there any documentation?”

“Probably,” he said, scanning through a pile of official letters as he spoke. “We know Bob was on Bataan when MacArthur abandoned his men to the Japanese in January, 1942. He eventually got scooped up by the Japanese and sent on the Death March. These pictures from the National Archives are Japanese photos of the march and the prison camp. Bob ended up at Cabanatuan.” Tommy spread the pictures out as he talked.

“I think this is a diary.” Seraphy began paging through the tattered notebook. “It's in some kind of code.” She tossed it on the table.

“Bob was a prisoner all through the war.” Tommy divided the photos into three rows. “These last pictures are from when the Rangers brought the survivors out in June, 1945. Remember that movie?”

“The Great Raid, yeah. Great story. Before the movie came out, Bob was collecting stuff to write a book. Curt told us about that, and the guys at the VFW said Bob was always talking about his book.”

“He was scooped and it made him bitter,” Tommy said. “I can understand that. Writing his story was all he had after his wife died.” Tommy sat back and looked over the piles of photos, letters, Xeroxes, and the little notebook, tapping his fingers as he thought. “There's something here, or Bob wouldn't have had that note in his billfold. We're just not seeing it.”

“Seeing what?”

“Exactly. Okay.” The professor stopped riffling through the papers and started to rub his nose. His fingers touched burn ointment and he frowned. “I'm used to working with old records. Let me go through all this when I'm not so exhausted. I'll see if I can find HUK.” He hunted reached for a roll of paper towels and wiped his fingers.

Seraphy stretched and yawned. “I'm going home and see if I can find my bed. I have to work tomorrow.” She hesitated at the back door. “Will you be safe here with that box?”

“No problema, chica. You think someone tried to kill me? Ridiculous.”

“Maybe.” A vivid image of smoking ruins popped into her head.

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