Digging Up History by Sheila Connolly

Author:Sheila Connolly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
Publisher: Beyond the Page
Published: 2019-06-17T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Even though I was pretty much seeing cross-eyed, I felt proud. I’d actually solved one part of the mystery: to which church did the old cemetery belong? Of course, that had revealed another mystery: why had only part of the cemetery been moved to its new location? Had the church forgotten about hundreds of bodies? Run out of time and money? But how could they have callously just paved over them? But the church itself had changed locations and been rebuilt more than once. Still, it was troubling. I wasn’t sure whether I hoped the solution turned out to be simple neglect, not deliberate malfeasance—if, say, the option to purchase the lot for other purposes was about to expire, so a few lies were told or a few palms greased in the 1860s. I had to suppose that there were no Civil War deceased in the town site. Maybe those who still had family members associated with the church had buried them all at Mount Moriah—I’d have to check sometime.

But that wasn’t really my problem, was it? Should I go digging through city records to see if there was any more information? From what little I’d read, the city had been rather casual about old cemeteries and hadn’t really looked into legal responsibilities, once the church had abandoned their burial ground. Separation of church and state? Or just basic confusion?

James had left after lunch and finally called after six. “You ready to go?”

“My brain has turned to mush, so I guess the answer’s yes. Where are you?”

“Downstairs.”

“Have you seen Marty or Dylan?”

“No, but I just got here.”

“I’ll see if I can find them and send them home. This place is closed tomorrow, so we can come back and put in a few more hours. Maybe by then the detective will have sorted out what the police and the city want to do about this mess.” Before he could protest, I added, “I know, I know, you have one of those normal day jobs, so you can go to work. We’ll manage without you.”

“Thank you—I think.”

I think one of my feet had gone to sleep, and I sort of stumbled when I stood up. When I could move without limping, I made a quick pass at the map room, and there were Marty and Dylan, working side by side in silence. We were clearly gluttons for punishment, for here we were, hard at work on a weekend.

“Gang,” I said, “I can’t see straight, and James is waiting for me downstairs. I vote we call it a day and get an early start tomorrow. Marty, you can stay if you want—you’ve still got a key, right?”

“Yes, but I feel like a zombie. Anything to report?”

“I think I’ve nailed down the church, although there are still some mysterious elements about what happened to the cemetery. If it wasn’t on the up and up, I doubt there will be any records. You?”

“I’ve been trying to match up the old maps and the 1790 census, plus whatever city directories I can find, but they’re kind of patchy.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.