Chapter 14 - The Sighting of a Clue

by Monica Rose and Marina Kelly
Editor: Qmodo

Emily, living in a small rural community, was just as starved for the friendship of a kindred spirit and they found themselves meshing quickly. Her experiences had not been nearly as bad as Leslie's, but being different in cowboy country was still difficult. She had grown up here in Laramie and there had never been problems, but it was still lonely. As long as she did not flaunt the fact that she was a lesbian, folks pretended that she was like the rest of them. Still...things were getting to the point where she felt some tenseness with people. While she seriously contemplated moving away, the economy made it hard to relocate.

After they had left Patrick and Mary Sue, they had come back to Emily's house. They had spent hours talking and laughing, she couldn't remember when she had enjoyed herself so much. When Emily and Leslie discovered each other it had been like a blast of sunshine and a chill that ran up and down both their spines. They had laughed and talked nonstop, not even pausing when they had gotten snacks from the kitchen. Leslie had fallen asleep in the middle of the conversation and it appeared that Emily had steered her to bed and covered her with an afghan, then crawled into bed and spooned against her new friend.

Leslie watched Emily sleeping beside her for several minutes, being careful not to move and wake the other woman.

Most of her two tours of duty had been spent in stealth mode, keeping her true sexuality under wraps, afraid to open herself to anyone and knowing that it would have been the end of her military career to let herself be exposed by falling in love. The stress had finally reached a breaking point for her and she had left the Marines on friendly terms. Her training and the decorations she had earned were a fast track to her posting in the state police here in her home state. With an area of over a quarter of a million square miles to be patrolled by three hundred troopers, her ability to work alone and show initiative was a valuable asset.

There were a few homophobes among her police co-workers, so she did not advertise the fact that she preferred the company of woman. That didn't mean that she didn't socialize with everyone. In fact she had turned down several invitations from men over the past couple of years, though it would have reinforced her cover as a heterosexual woman. The excuse she gave was that she had not been treated very well by guys while she had been in the Middle East and she was pretty gun shy.

That didn't keep rumors from starting, but no one was foolish enough to voice any kind of slur within her hearing. While she never did any permanent damage, her reputation as being an expert in multiple disciplines of martial arts had become legend. Some of her co-workers had been fool hardy enough to insist upon sparring with her and found themselves flat on their back with Leslie looking down on them. She apologized after the third time for not telling anyone that she had earned the coveted sixth degree Black Belt.

For all of her iron exterior, she was still very much a girly girl at heart and she loved to let her soft feminine side out to play. She hated labels; but if she was forced to choose, ‘lipstick lesbian’ would probably be the most appropriate. She had discovered that Emily was a kindred spirit and just as much a girly girl as she was, but that had been obvious from their first encounter in Emily's office.

A couple of miles away, Pat and Mary had both been exhausted when they returned from dinner and had fallen asleep in the living room. The sound of the clanking radiator was enough to wake him with a start. Everything that had happened lately made him a bit jumpy, but he knew that the house was locked up tight and he forced himself to relax. The clock over the fireplace showed that they had only been asleep for maybe an hour.

Seeing that Mary Sue looked like she was going to sleep through the night, and he knew that she needed the rest, he moved her into the bedroom by the simple expedient of getting her on her feet and walking her to bed. She barely woke up and she snuggled into the blanket that he spread over her.

He hadn't had the energy to set himself up on the couch in the living room, so he crawled onto the bed beside her with another blanket. It felt good to have her next to him. There was something about her that really attracted him and he just liked looking at her.

@ @ @ @

A sixth sense must have told Emily that Leslie was looking at her or maybe she could feel her looking because her eyes fluttered open to meet Leslie's. A sleepy smile spread across her face, "Morning."

"Good morning," Leslie answered. It felt good to just be here with Emily. She was in no hurry to move. If she did, she was afraid that everything would fall apart and she would be alone again. As a result, the two women spent several minutes trying to discover what the other was thinking.

They had barely touched each other after dinner and had spent the evening drinking hot cocoa. Calories be damned! It appeared that neither of them had much use for alcohol, so they had clear heads this morning. Leslie finally broke the staring contest by going up on one elbow, leaning over and giving Emily a chaste kiss on the lips. Emily indicated that she was ready for it to go further as her tongue darted out to tease Leslie.

Leslie was smiling happily as she pulled back. "I have things that must be done today. Are you doing anything tonight?"

Emily returned her smile and said, "No. It's Sunday and almost everything on this side of town is closed up except for Danny's diner. I have the entire day free."

"I need to check on my two witnesses to see if they need anything and I need to talk to a few more people before I'm done here in town. I just need to track them down. I have no idea how long that will take."

Emily nodded with a smile. "This town is the closest thing to the bible belt you will find north of the Mason-Dixon Line, everyone in town will be at church. If you waited until after services you could talk to whomever you wanted."

Leslie thought for a moment. "I wouldn't mind going to services myself, but I don't have any dress clothes along with me."

Emily was tickled pink to have Leslie come along to church with her. She was sure that the two of them walking in together would set some tongues wagging. She didn't really care about the gossips though, Leslie was the best thing to come into her life in a long time. She needed to get some chores done at some point though, she wanted the place looking nice.

"That isn't a problem. We're pretty laid back here. We have a lot of ranch hands who will come straight from their work shift." She smiled as she said, "I'm just glad that they change their boots." Leslie returned her smile as she caught on to her attempt at humor. “The church is a just a couple of blocks away. I usually walk over when the weather is good. You're more than welcome to come along with me."

As a good host, Emily gave Leslie first shot at the hot water and made sure that there were clean towels when she finished. She felt a little funny about going into the bathroom with the towels while Leslie was just on the other side of the shower curtain. They had only known each other for a few hours, but she found her to be an interesting person to talk to, with her tales of exotic places that Emily had only read about. Never mind the fact that she was sexy too. They found themselves going out of their way to respect the other's modesty. They may have been the same gender, but seeing someone who got you hot and bothered in the buff wasn't right if you weren't in a committed relationship.

Over the noise of running water, Emily called, “Leslie I have been hurt in the past. So can I ask you something really personal?”

Leslie turned off the water and stuck her head out of the shower curtain. “Sure ask away. I’ll answer if I can.”

Emily looked down at the floor and inquired, “Do you believe in monogamy?”

Leslie wiped the soap out of her eyes and replied, “Hell, I can’t even spell monogamy. But then again I have never been in love before.”

Emily couldn’t but help perking up to the word ‘before’.

Showers completed, Emily stepped out of her bedroom wearing a simple cotton blouse and a skirt that ended just below her knees. The dark blue of the skirt seemed to make her white blouse all that more eye catching. Her shoes could have qualified as flats with their chunky one-inch heels.

"This is one of the few skirts I have that I like," Emily said. "The mornings are just cool enough for the skirt and hose to keep me warm without it being too warm later on."

Leslie looked her up and down. In contrast, she wore a cotton shirt and denim jeans. Being on the road meant that she had to be prepared to be away from home at the spur of the moment. She couldn't keep much of a wardrobe handy, so denims were the easiest to pack and wash. They also had the benefit of not needing to be washed at the end of the day. While her jeans were the standard light blue for denim jeans, it went well with the yellow in her shirt.

"I think that you look very nice," she told Emily. "Compared to you, I look like one of those ranch hands who just came in from the barn."

Emily gave her a hug. "I think that you look great. I wish that I was smaller so I could lend you something, but my stuff is probably a size too big for you."

Leslie eyeballed Emily’s ample bosom and sighed, "No, you're perfect the way you are.”

The two women clung to each other for a few moments. It was amazing how nice it was to hold someone and to be held in return. Leslie finally rubbed her hands up and down Emily's back and said that they needed to check on Pat and Mary Sue.

* * * * *

At about the same time, Pat and Mary Sue were finally up and moving themselves.

Sometime in the night, the two of them had ended up spooning against each other and Pat's arm ended up trapped under her head. He woke up with his arm completely numb. He pulled his arm free and Mary Sue rolled onto her back. Her damaged arm was held close to her body and the movement of her shoulder made her whimper.

Pat propped himself up on his dead arm to look down at her. She was completely relaxed, none of the pain or frustration that she had seen over the past few days showed on her face. Even when she was asleep, her red hair seemed to curl around and frame her face. He remembered the first time they had met each other in the grocery store and her nervousness had been so attractive.

When he had heard that she had been shot, he hadn't been told that she had only been hurt. The thought that she could have been killed still caused his gut to tighten. For someone that he had known for all of a week, he found her to be someone well worth being around and to keep getting to know better. To be honest with himself, he had been worried about being without her.

He could see that she was going to be waking up in a little while, so he padded out to the living room to retrieve Mary Sue's luggage. He set it down along one wall in the bedroom and quietly retrieved a change of clothes for himself. It felt like he had been in these clothes for a week and he really wanted a shower.

He hurried through his shave and shower because Murphy's Law said that Mary Sue would be getting up and wanting to use the bathroom at the most inconvenient time. Sure enough, his planning had him out of the shower and almost dressed when there was a tentative knock at the door.

Mary woke with a start, looking around she realized she was in Pat’s bed. She felt an urgent call of nature, and headed for the bathroom. Where she knocked lightly.

"I'm sorry," she said. "Could I get in there? I didn't know if you had another bathroom upstairs."

"It's okay," he replied. "I tried to hurry so that I would be out of your way." He grabbed his shirt and toothbrush. "I can finish up in the kitchen. I put out some towels for you."

He found himself talking to the door as it closed in his face. She shouted, "Thank you," through the door.

He went out to the kitchen with a big smile on his face, feeling a little giddy. He had seen that kind of behavior while he had been away at college, but it was the first time it had happened to him. So this is what growing up with a sister would have been like.

He started organizing breakfast when he heard Mary Sue go back into the bathroom and start the shower. By the time Mary Sue was finished and dressed, Pat had plates of eggs, bacon, juice, and coffee ready to be served.

"How do you feel?" He asked as she came into the kitchen.

She smiled. "My shoulder is pretty sore, but I'm a lot better now that I've had a shower. Were you next to me last night?"

Pat froze and an icy jolt went through his gut. He wasn't sure how she might feel about having been held all night.

"Yes, I was," he replied carefully. "I hope you don't mind, but it just felt like the right thing to do." He kept his eyes focused on the table between them.

She reached across the table and put her hand over his beside his plate and said, "Thank you. It was good to know that someone was there. I think it helped me feel safe with some of dreams that I had. It kept them from being as bad as they could have been." He looked up to meet Mary's eyes and her smile. "I remember that you walked me to bed, but nothing until I woke up this morning. I think that I knew that you were there and it did help me. Thank you for letting me stay here."

Pat smiled in relief. The last thing he wanted was to offend her and drive her away. "I liked holding you too." He suddenly felt a little shy.

"What are we going to do today?" she asked.

"I don't know. We need to find out if it's safe to leave the house. I'd like to get back into the library and see what I can do about cleaning the place up and what I can salvage."

"I'll be glad to help," she offered. "My research is finished here, but I can't leave until Leslie tells me I can go."

He smiled warmly. "I don't mind having you here at all. You are more than welcome to stay. I'll sleep on one of the beds upstairs tonight though."

"Thank you for the invitation. I was just feeling kind of awkward and that I was imposing on you. I'll move to the bedroom upstairs though, I shouldn't put you out of your own bed."

"It's not an imposition at all. Ever since I met you, I've found myself enjoying your company. I'm just sorry that you had to get shot to keep you around town a little longer.” Privately, he thought to himself, ‘If I had known that is what it took to keep you here I might have shot you myself.’

His comment earned him a punch in the arm. Mary Sue could feel herself blushing as her cheeks seemed to tingle. What can you say to someone when they tell you that they want to spend time with you and you don't mind? All she could say was, "Thank you."

To relax the tension that he had unintentionally created, Pat said, "Considering what I've been through this week and how things have worked out, I really think that I want to go to church this morning. Would you care to join me? It's a non-denominational service and pretty much casual dress.

“We even allow slings," he said with a grin.

Mary Sue nodded and returned his smile. "I don't usually get to church, but I do give thanks and pray throughout the week. But I think that a worship service would be a nice way to start the day, as long as you think it’s safe."

* * * * *

They were preparing to leave the house and walk down to the church when Emily's truck pulled up outside. Even though they knew the vehicle, the two were gun-shy enough to take a step back into the house until Leslie stepped out.

She could see that they were preparing to do just what she and Emily were doing, but Leslie's playful side showed itself for a moment as she said, "I thought I told you that you should stay home to be safe!" The grin that followed her question took the sting out. "Emily and I plan on going to church. Pat, seeing as how you are wearing your dress boots, I can only assume that you were going to do the same thing. Why don't we use my car?"

They were fairly comfortable on the ride over to the church. The car was obviously not a standard-issue police vechile because there was leg room in the back.

It wasn't a large church, maybe able to seat a couple of hundred people at one time, but it was beautiful. The building appeared to be one of the oldest buildings in town, but it had been lovingly maintained. The colorful stained glass windows lit the sanctuary with brilliant hues.

Pat and Emily were warmly greeted at the door as regulars and the four of them were shown to a pew. They seated themselves on the outside so that Mary Sue could satisfy the historian in her by getting a better view of the windows. They hadn’t been there for more than a few minutes when Mary felt the familiar chill along her spine. She carefully took stock of what was around her and there was nothing out of the ordinary, only additional worshippers taking their seats. The cold feeling she felt seemed to fade away as quickly as it had struck her.

The service was only about an hour long and the pastor's sermon was moving. During the time for silent reflection, Mary Sue gave thanks for everything that had happened in just the past week. She had reached Laramie safely after escaping from a possibly dangerous situation, survived two attempts upon her life, and met friends that she hadn't known were missing from her life. After only a week, she had hopes that one of those friends might become so much more to her.

Mary Sue shivered as the cold sensation hit her again, this time it was almost an arctic blast. She slowly turned her head, scanning the congregation. Her companions sat beside her with their heads bowed. As she looked across the sanctuary, she saw Tom and Ron Kaylock sitting on the other side of the room.

The two men wore suits and ties, causing them to stand out among everyone else who was dressed more casually. They were seated in almost the exact center of the sanctuary where they held themselves almost like royalty among commoners, the two of them were conversing quietly instead of praying.

Their behavior was not unusual and she would not have looked at them again except for the woman who was standing with them. Mary looked closer at the girl and realized that the surroundings of the three of them was visible through the girl’s body. She did not appear to be much older than Mary Sue herself and she was dressed in a white gown that appeared to be an antiquated wedding gown.

Mary Sue glanced around herself to see that no one had noticed that she was looking across the sanctuary instead of praying herself, so she continued to study the Kaylocks. The girl with them did not appear to actually be part of their group as she was not part of their conversation. There was something familiar about the young girl. Mary just attributed it to the fact she must have seen her around town. The girl stood scowling at the two men, with coal black eyes and an expression of complete anger and frustration.

She moved around in front of them so that she was facing both men. They continued their quiet conversation, looking up at the pastor every few moments to see if the service was about to continue. Something about the scene didn’t look quite right to Mary Sue and it took her a moment to see that the girl stood directly between Tom and Ron’s line of sight to the pulpit. But neither man seemed to be concerned with having their view obstructed. That finally clued Mary Sue into the fact that there was no room between the Kaylocks and the pew in front of them. The girl was not kneeling in front of them, but she was actually standing upright. The wooden bench meant nothing to the girl because she was standing in the middle of it.

A feeling of horripilation traced up her spine and down her arms, literally making the hairs on her arm stand up as the skin crinkled with goosebumps. Her eyes widened in a combination of shock and fear as she realized that she was seeing something that her 20th century education told her could not exist. Still, the apparition seemed to sense Mary was looking at her because she broke off her one-sided staring contest and turned toward Mary Sue. Her angry expression softened as she smiled warmly at Mary and nodded in acknowledgement. All Mary Sue could do was stare as the chill around her turned to a summery warmth.

Pat noticed that Mary Sue appeared to be distracted and touched her elbow. She looked up at Pat, wide-eyed. Pat's expression was a question that became concerned at the look of shock and fear on Mary's face. When she looked back toward the Kaylocks to explain what the problem was, only the father and son were sitting there, oblivious to the scene taking place on the other side of the church. Pat figured his companion was frightened by the close proximity of the Kaylocks. He knew that not even they would try something in church. So he patted Mary’s hand to reassure her.

As she took in the fact that she had witnessed an apparition of some sort, her rational mind was trying to convince her it must have been a hallucination, a side effect from the painkillers she had been given. As the warmth she had felt faded, it was replaced with the almost overpowering sweet scent of flowers enveloping her. The smell was almost so strong that she had to fight to stifle a sneeze. Interestingly enough, no one else was reacting to the scent. She leaned over to Pat and asked, "Do you smell that?"

Pat looked down at her with a frown. "Smell what?"

"The flowers," she whispered. "You really can't smell that? It's so strong."

Pat sniffed the air again and looked at Mary. "I can smell something. It's sweet and a little flowery."

Mary shook her head in confusion. "Never mind." If he couldn't smell the aroma when it was thick enough to cut with a knife, there was no point in trying to convince him that it was there. The service was almost over anyway.

The foursome filed out of the church several minutes behind the Kaylocks, Mary Sue kept looking over her shoulder searching for the woman in white but saw nothing. She refocused her attention searching for the Kaylocks but they were long gone by the time they got out of the front door. The party stopped at the foot of the steps, Emily would identify the people and introduce Leslie to them. Leslie pulled an occasional suspect off to the side and had a whispered conversation.

As their party moved toward the parking lot they were surprised to see the ground covered in a carpet of blue blossoms. Additional petals sifted through the air like manna from heaven and were blown by a light breeze. Their source was a complete mystery. Each gentle curved petal fluttered through the air as if Mother Nature herself was shedding tears. An occasional swirling wind would blast through the lot creating mini tornados that raised the blossoms back into the air to head height then would gently float back to earth. There was the scent of lilac and violets in the air. Mary Sue knelt to scoop up a handful of flower petals and was unsurprised to see that the flowers were wild violets.

Violets seemed to have become part of her life so many times in the past several days. She had found the potted plant in the school house where she was sure it had not been moments before, they were growing all around Pat's house, and they had been in her hospital room for the time that she had been there. Now she was seeing ghosts and smelling the flowers when no one else did. She wouldn't have been surprised if she had pointed out the girl she had seen to Pat and he wouldn't have seen her.

She kept her mouth shut about things while Leslie bid goodbye to Emily and gave her a hug. Emily refused to go and insisted that she wanted to spend the day with Leslie, arguing she could be of help as a tour guide. Leslie smiled at her offer, they both knew that she really did not need a guide. There would be no violence to be concerned about, so she agreed to Emily’s offer. After Pat promised to make them all breakfast the four of them returned to Pat's house to discuss the day's plans

* * * * *

Mary had been quiet during the ride home from church and she took a seat on one end of the couch. She didn’t disbelieve in ghosts. No one was hungry at the moment,so Pat went off to make coffee.

Emily smiled at Leslie and said, “Someday he is going to make someone a wonderful wife.”

Everyone smiled except Mary who plopped down on the couch and starred off into space. She couldn’t stop thinking about what she had seen in church. There had to be some rational explanation. What it was eluded her. The more she tried to solve the problem, the more confused she became. She couldn’t get the girl's face out of her mind’s eye. There was something familiar about this manifestation. It took her a while before it hit her. The girl in the library back in New York. It was difficult to admit to herself that ghosts were real and that it had actually acknowledged her. Her behavior did not go unnoticed by either Pat, Emily, or Leslie though.

"Are you okay Mary?" Pat said. He was concerned that the trauma to her shoulder was causing some additional problems for her.

"I’m fine. I’m just a little shaky, I guess," she replied.

"Do you want me to call the doctor?"

"No. It’s nothing like that, "she answered. "I just saw something at church that scared me a little."

Leslie leaned forward, her lawman’s instincts telling her that Mary might have seen something important. "What did you see?"

"At this point, I’m not sure. I think that I saw a ghost." At their skeptical looks, she proceeded to tell them about everything that had been going on since she had started out from New York. How she felt like she had been guided along her trip and actually warned about danger. It was when she started telling them about how violets had appeared in a schoolhouse she should not have been able to enter and how violets seemed be growing around Pat’s house that she appeared to win Pat over.

"You’re right, Mary," he said. "I noticed them a few days ago, but I didn’t think much of it at the time. The flowerbeds all around the house have violets growing in with the flowers that my mother planted over the years. I know that she didn’t plant the violets though. At least not all around the house."

"Remember when I asked you if could smell something at church?" she asked. "That was right after I saw a girl standing in front of Tom and Ron Kaylock. But they acted like she wasn’t there and it looked like she was standing right in the middle of the pew. Do you remember all of the flower blossoms that were blowing around outside of the church? Those were violets too."

Mary had started speaking faster as she told about her experience at the church and was practically panting by the time she was finished.

"What did the girl look like?” Leslie asked. It didn’t matter if she believed everything that Mary said. What was important was that she had seen something and the truth was in there somewhere.

"She was about my height, a petite, small bosomed woman with brown hair that came down to her shoulders. I couldn’t tell what color her eyes were, but they looked dark, so I’m pretty sure that they weren’t blue. It looked like she was wearing an old-style wedding dress."

"It makes sense that a ghost would be wearing old style clothes." Pat said trying to liven things up.

Pat suddenly jumped up and ran from the room saying, "You’re describing someone who sounds familiar. Wait right here."

He left the room for a moment to go back to his bedroom. He returned holding Yolanda’s journal, thumbing through the pages so that an old faded photograph fell onto the table. .Mary Sue gasped, "That’s the girl who was in church!"

Pat passed the photo around for everyone to get a good look. "Are you sure that is what you saw in church? According to the inscription on the back that is a reproduction of a photograph of Yolanda on her wedding day.” He was scanning the pages of the journal as he said, “I thought that I recalled a few lines that described her appearance when she realized the effect of the herbs her mother had given her."

"I don’t think you need to look too hard Pat," Mary said. "This is a picture of Yolanda and we can assume the man standing next to her is husband Nathaniel Kaylock." She pushed the picture across the table and the other three leaned over to see it more closely. Leslie, the consummate cynic, attributed what Mary described as being a subconscious recollection from what Mary had seen previously in the journal.

They all exchanged doubtful looks, brows raised. "I’m not sure that I believe in ghosts either,” Pat said. "If you actually saw this girl today, then you had to have seen her spirit."

Leslie said, “Or more likely one of her descendants that still lives in these parts.”

“Not very likely” Mary pointed out. “Since Yolanda was a man, and married to another man they certainly didn’t sire any children.”

Leslie put in. "I guess that the best thing to do is to keep an open mind about it. I’m far more concerned about what is going on in the here and now though. I need to find out who is committing arson, assault, and attempted murder. And I am sure it isn’t some century year old phantom!"

Her statement brought them back to the present and they nodded. A poltergeist might not be able to do anything to them or maybe it could. But they were sure that it was a flesh and blood person who had committed the attacks.

"Everything seems to center around my research," Mary said. "Nothing unusual had happened here until I showed up. It seems like someone wants to keep information about Yolanda from becoming public." She looked a Pat and said, “Do you think this has anything to do with the fact that Yolanda was actually a man?"

"It might. It can’t be a coincidence that she married Nathaniel and that everything has centered on the two of them."

Mary sat down on the couch again and said sadly, "I guess we’re seeing typical bigoted thinking about people like Yolanda. From what I’ve seen in her journal, prejudice was just as common back then too."

"It’s probably a good bet that Yolanda was killed because she was transgendered," Leslie said. "My family was faced with that thinking too. My brother was beaten and killed for wearing a skirt and makeup. I was stationed in Okinawa and I came back for his funeral. What happened to him is one of the things that made me decide to leave the Marines and come back here."

"I’m sorry to hear about your brother, it would seem that anyone who is different has a target on their back." Mary said quietly.

"Thank you," was all Leslie could say. "The Neanderthals who beat him up talked about doing it the next night when they were out drinking. That bragging got them twenty to life in prison. They killed him because they thought he was gay. Which he wasn’t, he just enjoyed wearing woman’s clothes. It would be the ultimate irony if they both are someone’s bitch in prison. I might stop by next visitor’s day and bring each of them a care package of woman’s cosmetics."

Everyone laughed at that.

"I don’t think that Yolanda saw that kind of justice,” Mary said quietly. "We didn’t find anything in the papers we went through that said anything about who shot her or her husband." She paused as she thought about it. "She saved a lot of people on that wagon train, she was probably responsible for it reaching Laramie. After she was here, she even had an impact on the local population. She deserves to be celebrated, not just another pioneer lost in the pages of time."

Emily added, “If the two of them were married, doesn't that mean that Nathaniel was gay?”

Pat chimed in, “Not necessarily. Loving someone and committing to them does not have to translate into a sexual relationship.” Looking at Mary he went on to say, “There are people that you are just happy being together. Sex is not necessarily a requirement for love.”

Pat smiled as he thought about it. "I can see it now. Yolanda Days. Every man in town parading down Main Street in a dress, with violets in this hair and carrying a parasol. That’s something I would pay to see."

He held his hands up in apology at the dark looks that the ladies gave him.

Emily grinned and said "Don’t go getting all sassy with us. I remember a Halloween when a certain someone spent the day as Wonder Woman. Any idea who that might have been Pat?"

Pat blushed cherry red as he remembered that particular event. "Give me a break, it was the only costume left. Everyone had to come to school in costume."

Emily had no intention of letting him off the hook that easily. "That may be true but; that doesn’t explain how well you handled walking in the knee length high heeled boots."

Pat blushed so hard his face was crimson. "Alright. I admit that I used to walk around the house in my mother’s heels. A lot of my friends did the same kind of thing. It was no big deal.”

Attempting to change the subject he said, "I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful. I’ve read her journal and Yolanda did more than anyone knows. I just don’t know how we could honor her accomplishments. I wish we could find more hard evidence of her accomplishments."

"My thesis will tell a lot of her story," Mary said. “I have most of what I need already. I don’t think that I will even need to go any further west along the path the train took. I think that I may change the focus of my thesis to center around Yolanda."

Leslie broke in to say, "I need to talk to the Kaylocks today. Once I have the information from them, you won’t need to stay here. I’m afraid that your car will have to stay as evidence though. Sorry. You’ll be free to go unless I find information that might require that you testify or provide a deposition."

"I guess that would be okay," a disappointed Mary said. Leaving was the last thing Mary wanted to do now, why would she want to go back to New York and leave something that she had just discovered? "If I were to go back to New York now, I would have to fly, I can’t imagine spending a week on a bus."

"We’ll work all of that out when we have to," Pat put in. The look on Mary’s face told him that she felt the same way he did. He just had to get an opportunity to be able to talk to her and figure things out. He didn’t know what he was going to say though, he didn’t have enough experience to know how to tell someone that he really liked her and wanted to get to know her even more. Of course there was his grandmother’s ring sitting in his safe-deposit box.

Yolanda’s presence at church and her association with violets had been forgotten for the moment, but the subject would have occasion to be recalled later.