CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The next morning found Ellie and Kevin at the downtown branch of the Hennepin County Library.
“How does this work again?” Ellie asked Kevin for the third time.
Kevin rolled his eyes. “Ellie, I don’t know how you’ve managed all this time without figuring out how to use modern technology.”
Ellie shrugged. “I have told you that I prefer the regular old forms of communication.”
“Here, let me do it,” Kevin sighed.
Ellie switched chairs with him so that he was facing the computer terminal instead. Kevin pulled up a search engine and typed “Joseph Bradford.” Instantly there were several hits, and they scrolled through them.
“These all look like they have to do with his business dealings,” Ellie commented.
“Nothing newer than the early 1900s it looks like,” Kevin added. “These are all historical references to the companies that ran the iron mines up north.”
“Wait, go back,” Ellie said, catching a glimpse of a word that got her excited. “What’s that one?”
Kevin clicked on the link, and it took them to a genealogy page. A family tree ran down the page, and ended with Joseph Bradford.
“Looks like the agent was right that kids didn’t happen in that relationship,” Kevin commented. “You see how Lillian’s name is underlined?” He pointed to Lillian’s name.
“Yes,” Ellie said.
“That means we can click on that and there is more information,” Kevin said.
Ellie felt like Kevin was talking to a four-year-old by his tone. “So what does that show?” she said, ignoring it. It wasn’t her fault that she had never had any use for the Internet before.
Kevin clicked on the link, and it pulled up another family tree. “Lillian’s maiden name was Kellogg. Okay, this is weird.”
Ellie saw what he was looking at. Another branch led from Lillian’s name to another name: Emma Decatur.
“She did have a sister named Emma.” Ellie felt vindicated.
“Ellie, you are seriously creeping me out,” Kevin said.
“Emma’s name is underlined too. Can you click on that?” Ellie asked.
Kevin did as she asked.
“She was married to Henry Decatur. That’s odd.” She frowned.
“What?” Kevin asked.
“I don’t see any children. In my dream, Emma was definitely pregnant, and quite far along.”
“That really may have been a dream,” Kevin offered.
“Why would the rest of it have been true, but that wouldn’t be?” Ellie asked.
“I don’t know, Ellie. Maybe it could be the fact that you were dreaming about seeing people who lived a hundred years ago?” Kevin said as he crossed his arms.
Ellie drummed her fingers on the desk. “Do a search on Henry Decatur,” she said after a few moments.
Kevin sighed, but typed the name into the search engine. A few seconds later they found a reference to a page that was obviously done by someone who had an interest in the Decatur family.
“The Decatur family was a well-to-do family from the South. The family’s fortunes went downhill in the early 1900s when they lost all their money in some bad business investments,” Kevin summarized after a quick scan.
“That would make sense,” Ellie said. “It seemed like the Bradfords were helping Henry and Emma out financially. If they were expecting a baby, I would guess that they were looking for all the help they could get.”
“The family heir, Henry, disappeared a few years later. Nothing here says what happened to him. And the plot thickens,” Kevin said slowly.
“What?” Ellie asked, craning to read the words on the screen.
“It says that Henry and his wife had originally relocated to try to get back on their feet, but it doesn’t say where. Then they basically disappeared.”
“So the Bradfords and the Decaturs were both here. Joseph was in some kind of trouble and asked Henry for help. Then within what, weeks of each other, all four of them disappeared?” Ellie said, looking at Kevin.
“I think that we have indulged your morbid curiosity enough for one day,” Kevin said.
Ellie didn’t answer.
“Do you even know when the funeral is?” Kevin asked.
“What?” Ellie was still deep in thought. The images of Emma and Henry from her dream filled her head.
“Jake’s funeral,” he repeated. “Do you even know when it is?”
“No,” she said. “I’m not calling Jenny either.”
“The Internet to the rescue again,” Kevin said. He pulled up the Star Tribune webpage and typed in Jake’s name. Immediately a link was pulled up under the obituary section.
“I can’t look,” Ellie said, turning her face away.
Kevin read the short story quickly. “It’s tomorrow at the Hillwood Funeral Home in Apple Valley.”
“I can’t go to that,” Ellie said.
“Ellie, you said yourself that it would look weird if you didn’t. Don’t you kind of owe it to Jake? Especially considering how you left things? You said you guys had a reconciliation of sorts, right?” Kevin pushed.
“Yes,” Ellie admitted.
“Then why wouldn’t you want to go?” he said.
“Because I feel responsible for what happened and Jenny Marks hates me,” she said, looking down at her hands.
“Maybe she does, but there’s really no love lost there, is there?”
“I did like her once. But after what happened with Jake, there was no way I would have continued being friends with her.”
“Let me ask you this then.” Kevin turned in his chair and swung her chair so that it was facing him. She was forced to look at his face. “Would you be able to live with yourself if you didn’t go, despite how the new queen bee feels about you?”
Ellie knew the answer to the question, and knew that Kevin knew it as well. “Will you go with me?” she asked.
“Anything you need, Ellie.” He squeezed her knee. “But maybe you should ask David. I will definitely go with you if he can’t make it, but I need to start paying attention to my boyfriend soon. He’s going to start thinking that I went straight on him at this rate.”
Ellie smiled. “That’s a good idea. Thanks, Kevin. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” She gave him a quick hug.
“Duh, you’d be sinking into a hole of despair,” he said, flipping her hair out of her face.
“No doubt,” Ellie agreed.
“Shhhh,” a woman at the next computer terminal said with a finger to her mouth looking at them.
Kevin flung his arm around her shoulders. “Let’s get out of here.”