Two Heads are Better than One

[st_clare]

The days in late January were just the slightest bit longer, but the weather was still crisp. The highway had been one long stretch of asphalt, only a few cars and the occasional semi sharing the road.

Julianna had taken the day off, leaving her teaching duties to Clarissa, so that she and Gerald could make the drive to Searchlight. They didn't have a town hall, but there was a library there, and she knew from experience that they had some of the town archives in a special section. She already had her reason prepared, that she was planning a lecture about local history of Clark County and needed to see surveyor's maps and census figures from when the township was first established.

She parked the BMW in the lot, killed the engine and got out. She'd worn a light jacket against the slight chill of the day, and she tugged it closed as she started towards the building that housed the library. If there was something to be found, surely two sets of eyes could find it.

Comments

Two Heads are Better than One

[ghargreaves]

Gerald had taken the city car, and the driver had taken him to Searchlight a little earlier than they had agreed to meet Julianna at the library. He wanted to get a feel for the small town and its surrounds. There was not a lot to the place, he learned quickly, but there was some history, clearly, which he hoped they might learn more about during their research.

He had the driver drop him at the end of the street and suggested he might like to acquaint himself with the local cafe. "You can see if there is anywhere here that serves a decent meal," he told him, before starting his walk to the library. He often found one could get a much better feel for a place if one walked at least some of its streets. This place told him that most were not used to the cold weather they were experiencing, and were inclined to be indoors. When he reached the library and rounded the building toward the entrance, he saw Julianna's car and his fellow Watcher making her way to the door.

"Julianna, what perfect timing," he called out to her, his cane tapping the ground as he walked briskly.

Re: Two Heads are Better than One

[st_clare]

The silence meant that Julianna heard her colleague's cane almost before she heard his voice, and her messenger bag slapped against her hip as she turned and raised her hand in greeting. She was aware that Gerald usually used a car with a driver, if only to keep from having to remember American rules about what side of the road to drive on, so the automobile was probably already elsewhere.

"I've only just arrived," she said, pointing towards the glass doors of the library. "As you can tell, it's a small place, but there has to be a reason it's still here after such an ebb and flow of population. I've only been here twice before, so I'm not that familiar with it. There has to be something to find, though."

Re: Two Heads are Better than One

[ghargreaves]

"Well, let us go and discover," he said, walking as he spoke and pulling the door open as he reached it. He held it for Julianna, the new world attitude to politeness far beneath his beliefs in what was right and wrong when it came to courtesy.

"I was thinking that if we have time we could also visit the churches. The graveyards may reveal some hidden secrets too," he said, "I saw there were a couple in town."

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[st_clare]

"I don't see why there wouldn't be time for that," she answered as she preceded him inside. "That's the reason I wanted to be here when the library opened, so there'd be enough daylight to do some looking around after we finish with whatever records we can find."

The heat was on inside, Julianna felt the wash of warm air when she passed through the doors. There were no other patrons around, but a librarian was already at her station at the circulation desk. The Watcher put on her best professional expression as she moved in that direction.

"Yes, hello. Is it policy to sign in somewhere to see what's contained within the town archives?"

Re: Two Heads are Better than One

[ghargreaves]

"Uh, depends I guess, on what you were wanting." The librarian looked from the lady to the gentleman and back to the lady. "Are you reporters? Or something?"

Gerald shook his head, stepping forward and smiling beatifically. "No, we're historians," he replied, indicating himself and Julianna. "And we're currently studying the locations in Nevada and Arizona, looking at the affects the construction of the Hoover Dam had on the population in these areas, and what long term affect it had on the development of infrastructure," he said smoothly, "such as a fine archive as you are keeping here."

A major event such as the construction of the dam was always handy to have to use as a cover for their real purpose.

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[st_clare]

"Oh, right," the librarian said, and she stepped away from the desk and towards a separate table where a book with an imitation leather cover rested. She flipped it open, then turned it around on the solid surface to reveal lined pages. She produced a ballpoint pen, but Julianna had already retrieved one from her bag.

"Just put your names here and you can have as much time as you want. We just opened, so there shouldn't be anyone else in for a while. I'll come in and let you know if someone else wants to use the space as well."

The female half of the pair signed her name with a flourish, then handed the pen to Gerald. As small as Searchlight may have been, having people there who knew what they were about was good fortune. Now to see if they could improve on that.

Re: Two Heads are Better than One

[ghargreaves]

Gerald accepted the pen and signed his name to the ledger, returning the pen to Julianna before turning to the librarian again and asking where they might find the restrooms. He thanked her when she pointed out the door at the other end of the desk, then looked around the library as she continued, pointing out the catalogue drawers and the general direction of the archives.

"Thank you, you've been most helpful," he told her as the two Watchers made their way toward the section they were seeking. "I do like the feel of a book, but sometimes I can appreciate the speed of having archives loaded into computers. It's times like this they do make searching a little more efficient," he murmured as it became clear to them that the years had not been kind to much of the material in this section. "Let's hope it's at least all been returned to the correct positions on the shelf," he muttered under his breath as he cast an eye across the journals and folders that were stacked, in some cases a little haphazardly, on shelves where the labeling was a little peeled and faded.

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[st_clare]

"I have the feeling that computer use hasn't quite caught up around here," Julianna said in a murmur as she and Gerald stepped into the archives room. She could smell dust and old books, frowned with faint disapproval as she noticed the poor condition of the bindings and their cataloging system. Things on campus were in much better shape, but the university had more money to afford computers than a small local library would.

She plucked one book from the shelf, a faded tome with a grayish cover. It was stamped with the year nineteen-twelve. She held it up for the other Watcher's inspection. "Perhaps if we start at opposite ends of the room, one of us will find something useful."

Re: Two Heads are Better than One

[ghargreaves]

Nodding in agreement Gerald made his way to the other end of the room, eyeing the shelves and pulling out a pair of reading glasses. He started along the shelves, fingers lightly running along the spines of the books that were standing upright. He tugged one out, checked the cover and opened it, then returned it, continuing along the shelves till he had finished one side, then moved to the other.

He pulled yet another book from the shelf, checked the cover and then opened it, the handwriting on the inside of the front cover declaring it to be the 'Property of Sheriff Silas Montgomery'. He leafed through the pages, noticing there were handwritten notes in the margins of a number of pages. He turned and placed the book on the table, looking a little closer, and noticing that the handwriting was in fact from different people. One was clearly a male's handwritten words, the other possibly female. He couldn't be sure how many individuals might have been responsible for recording information in the margins and he carried it across to Julianna and showed it to her.

"What do you make of this?" he asked her showing her the different writing, then the title of the book, 'The Bible'. It was what had drawn his attention to it in the first place. "I'm not sure exactly why this would be here, in the archives of the library and not in one of the churches."

Re: Two Heads are Better than One

[st_clare]

She'd been studying the first-hand account of one of the prospectors from the year nineteen-ten, a man named Thomas Burns, and when Gerald spoke to her she marked her place with her thumb and turned her attention towards him. The difference in handwriting caught her eye first, then the notes in the margins.

"Possibly the sheriff's wife took over keeping this account after he passed away," she offered, noting the feminine slant to the script in later entries. She put down the first book she'd been perusing, gave the inscription inside the front cover a second look. There was no mention of a wife taking possession of the book, but Silas Montgomery would likely be mentioned somewhere in the town records. It would just depend on how long he'd served as sheriff.

"As for why it's here instead of a church, one of the churches was demolished early last year. Perhaps they found it among the rubble, or even before the building was razed. If it's historical in nature rather than religious, someone could have decided it was more appropriate here."

Re: Two Heads are Better than One

[ghargreaves]

"A church was demolished?" Gerald said, an eyebrow lifting and his curiosity piqued. "Why would they have demolished it, unless they were building a new one, and I am sure there are no new church buildings in this parish," he continued, looking around for a set of map drawers, seeing it and moving to it and opening a drawer, looking for a map of the town.

Re: Two Heads are Better than One

[st_clare]

"I don't know the reasons," Julianna responded, continuing to study the Montgomery account. "It does seem odd, though. Churches are usually re-purposed if they're no longer used to hold services of host weddings. If the pastor leaves the area, someone replaces them, but they don't knock the building down."

The handwriting became spidery as the entries continued, and the Watcher adjusted her glasses. It seemed to be an account of every day life, and she squinted as the penmanship became difficult to read. She paused long enough to check Gerald's progress in looking for a map, then turned back.

"This was written in nineteen-fifteen," she noted, finding a date as she flipped pages. "I don't suppose this Montgomery fellow was prominent other than being in office, was he? If this is his wife's writing, she's quite detailed in her journaling,"

Re: Two Heads are Better than One

[ghargreaves]

The drawers were full of a range of different drawings, from blueprints for the library itself to some engineers' drawings of the diner and other commercial buildings, all buildings from the last millennium, which led Gerald to believe that the library was being used as a 'store' rather than an archive.

Finally, in a drawer toward the bottom, he came across some old divisional maps, one of them showing parishes, another mapping out the town's sewers and water lines. He pulled them out and carried them across to the table, pushing aside a couple of books he'd pulled out earlier. "Is there any mention of a parish in there, in her writings?" he asked, putting his glasses on as he started to try and make out the faded brown ink on the well-aged, yellowed paper.

Re: Two Heads are Better than One

[st_clare]

Julianna sat down and turned on a table lamp, because she needed better light than the overheads alone could offer. Did she have to get a stronger prescription for her reading glasses?

"It's mostly mentions of neighbors coming and going in town," she answered, using her finger to hold her place on the page as the writing became worse. "There is some talk of visiting church, but she doesn't say where specifically. I think..."

Her voice trailed off, and her finger paused between one sentence and another. Julianna squinted, read it again. Then re-read it. "Apparently, she saw a naked man on the outskirts of town near the end of the year. Said she saw him hiding near the entrance of the mines, but didn't confront him or even make an approach because she was frightened. 'He had the look of the devil about him. I ran home and locked myself in the house, for fear he would follow me..'"

She looked over at her colleague, lifted her shoulders in a slight shrug. "I'm not sure what to make of that, exactly. I don't know how old our unknown journaler was when she wrote this, but there's a chance that she imagined it. That might be too convenient an excuse, though."

Re: Two Heads are Better than One

[ghargreaves]

"Well, given that the original owner of the bible was a sheriff, I would suspect that the author of the notes you are reading is not the wife of the original owner, as she would surely have reported the sighting to her husband, and noted as such." He looked at Julianna, pondering the situation described. "She does write more after that, does she?" he asked, angling his head to see the writing she was indicating. "That wasn't her demise, was it?"

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[st_clare]

Pages flipped, carefully so due to the aged condition of the paper. "No. There are notes after that, in the same handwriting. No other mentions of the man, though. Either he didn't see her or he was too frightened himself to venture closer to town. If he existed at all, that is."

Even as Julianna said it, the words sounded false. Supernatural phenomena often occurred in remote areas. The Council archives were full of sightings that had been reported and followed up on. Why an unknown person would lie, not even knowing if her notes would be read later on, was unknown to the Watcher.

"Let's say she was correct and she did see something." The Watcher had lowered her voice a bit, although the floor beyond the archive room was uncarpeted and therefore footsteps would have been noticeable. "A vampire would have followed her, even if it couldn't enter the house. It wouldn't have been cowering in the shadows, regardless. Could it have been a shape-shifter?"

Re: Two Heads are Better than One

[ghargreaves]

"Unless it was daytime. Though it is more likely a shape-shifter would be naked, having just shifted back, than a vampire, though the vampire would have a perfect lair in a disused mine," he mused, moving back to the plan-drawers to see if there were any maps of the mines. He found something in the bottom drawer, caught up in the back as if it had been pushed beyond the shallow back lip of the large flat drawer. He carried it over to the table.

"This is looking a little more useful. It's a geological survey, dated in 1917, so should, from all accounts, have most of the mines from back then displayed." He looked at it for a little longer then pointed out the section that was identifiable as the corner of the town. "Now we need to find where this woman saw the 'man', and where this church is." He looked at Julianna. "Rarely is there explanations for these things simple, in my experience, when there are oddities that don't add up. I'm sure you've experienced the same on occasion."

[st_clare]

"Yes, the gold and silver ran out in nineteen seventeen," she said with a nod. Putting the book aside, she pulled out a pen and paper and wrote down the name Silas Montgomery, then wrote 'wife' with a question mark next to it. Perhaps the librarian would know something.

She looked at the map again, then up at Gerald's face. "As you say, these things are unpredictable. And we don't even know if anything was seen or not. First, we have to find out if Montgomery had a wife or other female relatives that inherited the Bible when he passed away. Knowing who actually wrote these notes might lead us somewhere reliable."

Re: Two Heads are Better than One

[ghargreaves]

Gerald nodded and looked around the shelves for something that resembled a births, deaths and marriages register. Given the state of the shelves he did doubt the existence of something so devilishly useful, but was somewhat pleased to come across a large ledger, A3 in size, that quickly revealed a veritable treasure trove of information on those whose lives began, ended, and were combined in the tiny town. He carried it back to the table where Julianna sat, dusting it off with his kerchief, before opening it again.

"See what you can find in there, I'll check to see if there is a listing of town buildings and development applications," he said, returning to the shelves.

Re: Two Heads are Better than One

[st_clare]

The smell of dust was stronger now that they'd been shifting things around, and Julianna ran her finger down the first few pages of the ledger. Whoever had been responsible for record-keeping had been a bit haphazard about it, but given the general state of things in this section that wasn't surprising. She moved the book directly under the light from the table lamp to better be able to read the slightly faded writing.

"Silas Montgomery married Emily Swain just before the turn of the twentieth century," she told Gerald. "They had four children, one of whom died in infancy. He passed away just before his term in office was over, and his brother took over his duties before being elected to the position himself. I presume the Bible became Emily's after his death, and perhaps she bequeathed it to one of her children later."

The Watcher went back to her perusal of the Bible, carefully turning the nearly transparent pages. Then she eyed the ledger again. "There are no other mentions of this mysterious man, though, but Silas' grandson Albert returned to the area after attending school in the East." Julianna lifted her gaze to glance at her colleague.

"Unless he's passed on himself, might he be available to answer questions?"

Re: Two Heads are Better than One

[ghargreaves]

"He went to school in the east and returned here?" Gerald said with no little hint of disbelief in his voice. "Why on earth would you return here?" he muttered, shaking his head. It had always puzzled him how some individuals didn't appreciate the finer things in life that was not available in tiny towns such as this. He could accept that if one was raised in a world that did not offer the opportunity to become aware of what was available, then one did not miss what one did not know existed, but to be aware of the type of life available to one, and ignore it almost made him question an individual's abilities and intelligence. Either that, or they had some knowledge of their original place of birth that was a greater draw than the possibilities that lay beyond.

"If he's not woken up to himself and returned east, then yes, he could in fact be of some use, and at least provide us with anecdotes," he added reaching into his pocket for his kerchief as he felt a sneeze coming on. Once he had blown his nose, capturing the sneeze itself, he returned his kerchief to his pocket and continued his perusal of the tomes sitting on the shelf.

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[st_clare]

"That's even more of a mystery than the decision to demolish a church," Julianna replied, because she couldn't imagine it either. Even Las Vegas was preferable to her compared to Searchlight. The East might not have been as glamorous as somewhere overseas, but it certainly would have been an improvement over this place.

"Since he's a local, the librarian might know him," she suggested. "If you'd like, we can visit the cemeteries while the light is still strong, then see if Mr. Montgomery is available. What do you think?"

Re: Two Heads are Better than One

[ghargreaves]

"That's rather a commendable idea, Julianna, and while we're talking to the librarian we can ask if there was anything saved from the old church, perhaps moved to another church somewhere, such as records, or items."

He returned to the table as he spoke and studied a few more of the maps he'd pulled out, making a few mental notes of places and distances.

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[st_clare]

"Let me tidy this up a bit."

There was a thin film of dust on the tabletop when Julianna closed the ledger, and she had to hunt for the correct spot on the shelf to put the book back. She plucked a tissue from her pocket, then used it to clean up the dust before tossing it into the nearby wastebasket.

It would probably too much to expect to be able to take the Bible with them, so she handed it off to Gerald. She was completely bollocks when it came to maps - she even had trouble with road maps - so she was willing to wait until her colleague was finished with his perusal.

Re: Two Heads are Better than One

[ghargreaves]

It didn't take him long to note the co-ordinates of the marks he could discern might still be there, and carefully returned the maps to the large shallow drawers, ensuring each was flat and stored correctly. He had little tolerance for tardiness in the way such things were stored, knowing from many decades just how important even the most insignificant of marks can make a major difference in deciphering the information. Fold and creases had a way of hiding marks that are meant to be there, disguising their importance, costing maybe many hours, or even years of searching.

"Right we are then," he said, closing the last of the drawers and brushing his hands together. He glanced at his watch then at Julianna. "Shall we take my car? Give my driver something to do," he suggested, making his way toward the door and holding it open for his colleague.

Re: Two Heads are Better than One

[st_clare]

"Yes, I don't see why not," she replied, following after him. Driving in America was easier for her than it was for Gerald, but as long as long as the driver was here, they might as well make use of him.

A few patrons had arrived at the library since the two Watchers arrived, and Julianna waited for the young librarian to finish checking in some materials. There was dust on the fingers of her left hand, and she brushed her hands together.

"Yes, Ma'am, how can I help you?" "I was wondering if you'd know an Albert Montgomery. We found his name in some birth records and discovered that he's related to a past member of the local law enforcement. "Is he currently in town, and if so, would you know where he resides?"

"Oh, Albert? He moved into what was left of the old Montgomery place and fixed it up when he came back. He keeps to himself, though He's a little..."

She touched the side of her head, and Julianna nodded sagely. "I see. Well, we'd like to at least try and speak with him. For research purposes." The librarian looked dubious, but she scrawled down an address on a piece of paper and handed it to the Watcher. "Good luck with getting him to answer the door."

"Sorry to keep you waiting," she told Gerald as she re-joined him. "We can head to the cemeteries first, then try Mr. Montogomery's house. Apparently he's a bit eccentric. He might know something, though."