I almost parked out front last night, but I’m pretty sure your dad would have gotten the wrong idea.”
The thought of him parking his car outside her house, keeping a watch over her through the whole night made her sleepy and warm inside. She wished she had met him summers ago.
“Yeah, I supposed it would, but it’s awful sweet.” She gave him a quick peck on the cheek just before shuffling him into the breakfast area where the table was laid. He bent down to receive it and blushed a little.
“Mom, this is Tanner. I don’t think you met him the other day.”
“Hello, Tanner. It’s nice to meet you.” Her mother responded, smiling broadly.
“You remember Dad…” Jen said.
“Of course.” Tanner said, nodding slightly and shaking her dad’s hand. She could tell from his smile that he thoroughly approved of Tanner.
“Have a seat! It’s just hot dogs, but they’re good Wisconsin all-meat links!” Jen felt her appetite slip a little. Her dad was not good at chitchat.
“That’s good, Dad. They’ll be fine. This is my little brother Chase.” She said smiling at Tanner who had seated himself next to her.
“Hey, man! What’s up?” Tanner said, smiling at Chase, who, out of shyness simply said “Hey” and sat down.
“Tanner, I understand you’ve spent a great deal of time on the lake growing up.” Jen’s mom said.
“Yes, ma’am. My dad grew up here. I’ve spent my summer’s here since I can remember. It’s a great town and a great lake.”
“Jen also tells me you have quite a boat.” She continued.
“Well, yeah, when it’s running, I guess. It’s an older boat, but my Uncle helps me keep it running.”
Small talk like this ruled the dinner conversation but Tanner saw the weariness in Jen’s eyes, and just a trace of fear, still visibly shaken from last night. It was clear she wanted to get out of there and talk.
“Mom, Dad, Tanner’s going to take me into town, ok?’ she asked when the last of the watermelon was gone. Tanner had eaten his share, and she wondered how anyone could eat like that and have a flat stomach. She wanted to get out of there, and she wanted him to be with her. She needed to able to talk about last night, and it wasn’t time to bring her parents into the deal yet. At the first opportunity, they slipped out the side screen door, Tanner once again thanking her mom for lunch.
“It was just hot dogs…” she teased.
“Yeah, but they were good.” He replied. Someone had taught him courtesy early and well. They hopped into his truck, and Jen slid near him with no hesitation this time. It felt as natural to both of them as if she had been doing it all her life.
“Well, I thought about it all night until I went to sleep, and still don’t know what to do. I stared at the window in my room for a couple of hours waiting for some person’s – or something’s – head to pop up. I don’t know why they make lake houses with no drapes. I’m putting some blinds of some kind in that window tonight, even if it’s just a T shirt.”
“Jen, I think you’re in danger. Probably your friend, too.”
The Newspaper Office
Jen thought about this, and knew this was true although she hadn’t formed the thought in her head yet. The primitive part of her brain that was responsible for safety was too busy reacting to the situation for the conscious part of her brain to get involved in the process.
“From him? I mean, what can he do? I was more afraid of those things in the trees, around the house. I mean, physically afraid. Whatever was walking around the house and crying was scary as hell, but I didn’t really feel physically threatened. But those dogs or wolves or whatever the hell they were…”
“I don’t know, and that’s the part that scares me the most. We need to find out more about this. Before we talk to the police, let’s see if we can dig up anything about that house and the murder. I’m betting that’s where this happened. There’s a newspaper office in Sangamon. It’s just ten minutes from here. There has to be some record of this happening in the paper. Reighelheim doesn’t have a paper, but the Sangamon paper covers stuff here. I can get onto our neighbor’s wifi connection sometimes at night. They don’t have it password protected. I did some googling around, looking for any news items from this area. I didn’t find much, but there was one thing. An article from a Madison paper in 1963 that talked about an unsolved murder in Reigelheim. Some men were killed in a house that bordered on the forest preserve. Wanna drive over there?”
“Sure.” Jen said.
Tanner and Jen cruised the county road that led to the county seat of Sangamon in Tanner’s truck.
“I don’t know where the newspaper office is, but I’m sure it’s on the square, or near it.” Tanner said. Jen had never been to Sangamon, and merely shrugged her shoulders.
“Is it a lot bigger than Reigelheim?” Jen asked.
“Some, but it’s still pretty small. Almost all the businesses are right downtown.”
Sangamon appeared through the thick pines some 20 minutes later, old stone and brick buildings built by the early German settlers still sitting sensibly and strong, lining neat streets shaded by pines and sycamores. Tanner eased the truck onto the circle that surrounded the obligatory German band shell park where summer picnics and holiday concerts were held.
“There it is.” Tanner said, pointing at a red brick building near the West corner of the circle. Carved in stone above the front door were the words “Sangamon Tribune – 1905”.
“They’ll have papers going back far enough for our research, that’s for sure.” Jen said
“Yeah. I just hope they kept up with Reigelheim all along.” Tanner replied.
Once inside, a pale middle aged woman with an extremely bored expression greeted them, reluctantly. She was ensconced behind a tall desk type podium, and peered down at them imperiously.
“Do you have your back issues on microfiche?” Tanner asked.
The woman looked at him as if he had asked if she had the Titanic in a tub in back.
“No.”
“Nothing? No back issues?”
“Oh, we have plenty of back issues, just no micro fiche. They’re all downstairs. Just ask Ted back there at the card catalogue to let you down there, and he’ll show you where to go.” She seemed helpful, but her gaze was questioning. They got the feeling she knew every teenager in Sangamon, and knew they were “out of towners.” Jen also imagined that people don’t often wander in off the street wanting to view back issues of the newspaper.
Ted proved to be a very bored student age summer worker who was more than happy to leave his filing duties for a trip to the basement. He led them to the back of the racks of books to a dusty, apparently very little used staircase. Flipping on an ancient light switch, dim yellow light showed a steep set of steps leading down into darkness. Descending, they heard the ancient wood creak beneath them, as if complaining. “Folks don’t come down here much, do they, Ted?” Tanner said. Ted turned to him and smiled, saying “Just me, really.”
The steps led out into a corridor lined with old wooden doors with glass windows and transoms over them. Ted hit a light switch that lit bare bulbs hanging in a procession down the hall, and led them to the third door on the left, a double door. Opening it, he hit another light switch that caused a few more old bare bulbs to shed light on rows of stacks of boxes. The smell of dust mingled with another smell that both teenagers recognized pretty quickly.
“Hey, you guys want to blow one?” Ted asked, preferring a fat joint from his shirt pocket.
“Uh, no, actually, dude, it’s like 10 in the morning, so we’ll pass. I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t, either, inasmuch as it’s like illegal, and we’re here to find some newspapers, not get arrested, ok, Ted?” Tanner said. Tanner, a head taller than the intern had just enough “man” tone in his voice so that Ted’s little friend went quickly back in his pocket.
“No problem, man! Just a thought. So, what years do you need to look at?” Ted a
sked motioning with his head at a wall of the basement that was sectioned off with a thin chain. “They’re all in there, starting at 1909. There’s some really exciting stuff in there, let me tell you!” Judging by Ted’s expression and the musty smell of old marijuana smoke, they guessed that Ted spent a good bit of his day “researching” old issues of the paper.
“What we’re looking for is anything having to do with a lake house that was built around the back side of Potowamish around 1940 or 50.”
“Not much news about the Reigelheim area, for the most part. Some stuff about the lake, though. They used to have these big 4th of July boat parades out there. Boats lined the lake, man. I can show you pictures…” Ted started for the gated entrance to the stacks area.
“Actually, that’s OK. Ted. I’m sure that was quite a sight. We’re really looking for information about a house there. About, maybe, something happening at a house. Something bad…” Jen said.
Ted looked perplexed. “Like some kind of mass murder, or suicide or something?!” he said, eyes lighting at the thought of some real juicy news.
“I don’t think anything that drastic. Really don’t know what we’re looking for. Just something unusual. Something that would have made the paper.” Jen said.
“Hmmm.” Ted said. “Don’t know where to start. I remember somebody painted their boat house pink and the neighbors got pissed and burned it down; that was the rumor, anyway. Pretty sure that was on