Hometown Redemption - Book Three of the Western Girls Trilogy

Chapter 6

Mr. Archer was weary too. He'd been traveling by train for months, moving from one state to another, following every clue he came upon in his search for the truth about Ms. Desmond. He had even backtracked a few times to go over new clues that only came up after he delved deeper into her background. The woman was a complete mystery and every layer he overturned revealed another mystery.

He was thankful he was a single man and didn't have a wife or children to hurry back to. As it was, he'd left Abilene nearly six months ago and he still wasn't seeing the end to his search any time soon.

His folder was stuffed full of papers, and every stop he made added more to it. He'd resorted to binding it closed with leather straps, just to keep everything from falling out. He was sure more would be added to it before this was over.

He was sitting in a hotel dining room in Atlanta, Georgia, having already researched everything he could in the public records about Ms. Desmond, when a man in his late sixties approached the table with his hat in his hands. "Are you the man looking for a Ms. Desmond?" he asked.

"Yes I am," he stood and extended his hand. "Mr. Archer at your service. Do you have information about her?"

"Not exactly," he replied, shaking his hand firmly. "But I do have something that might prove useful."

"Please, have a seat. Have you eaten supper yet?"

"I'm just on my way home to join my wife," he smiled, waving his hand. "Judge Maloy said there was someone looking into Ms. Desmond at the courthouse and suggested I talk to you."

"Do you mind if I take notes?" Mr. Archer asked.

"Not at all. My name's John Blachly. I was the Sheriff in Manchester, New Hampshire many years ago."

"Manchester, you said?"

"Yes. Now, I'm not sure if the Ms. Desmond you're searching for is any relation, but there was a case in Manchester involving a Mr. Desmond.....a Mr. Bertram Desmond, who died under suspicious circumstances. The case was never solved, much to my dismay. Mr. Desmond was an older gentleman and an upstanding citizen of the city. I believe the newspaper wrote a fairly long article about the case. If you happen to be in Manchester, I suggest seeing if you can get your hands on a copy of the newspaper, but also the case notes I took while we were investigating. You'll find a good deal of information in both."

"Can you tell me what you remember about the case?"

"Certainly. Mr. Bertram was in his early sixties and  married a woman through a mail order bride advertisement, I believe. They were only married a few days when he was murdered. Beaten to death in his own home. The only clues we found was the murder weapon, which was a silver candlestick. It was fairly heavy and did a lot of damage. I've never seen anything like it before or since, and I don't wish it on anyone."

"Was the wife investigated?" Mr. Archer asked.

Mr. Blachly shook his head. "When the coroner looked at the body, he said it would have been impossible for a woman to have done that much damage. We were most certainly looking for a man. We questioned a lot of citizens and several people who were just passing through, but all either had an iron clad alibi, or no motive to kill the man. He had no enemies and not a single person in town had anything negative to say about the man. As much as I would have liked to bring his killer to justice, there was just never enough evidence to charge anyone."

"Thank you, Mr. Blachly. I'll definitely look into it and see if our cases are connected somehow."

"I'd be much obliged," he stood. "After twenty-three years, Mr. Desmond deserves some justice."