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.
“The mines will kill a man before his time,” he’d said. “I’ve got bigger plans.”
Eliza knew he spoke the truth, because her daddy had been laid in the ground the year before his 40th birthday.
As they pushed back and forth in her mama’s porch swing, Martin told of how he was already apprenticed to a Charleston electrician and in five years would be considered a master electrician himself.
“I’m gonna make it big; really big,” he’d said. “A few years from now, when everybody’s looking to have electric lights in their house, I’ll be riding the gravy train.”
He was a smooth-talker who won her over with promises of love and a life finer than anyone in that coal mining town could ever imagine. After painting their future with a rose-colored