#Wattys2015 The Ghost of James Fitzpatrick

Chapter 23

The two girls had parked themselves at one of the long tables in the Reference Room next to a library computer.

"My thought is that Zwicki is not a common name" began Sarah "therefor it shouldn't be difficult to find the whereabouts of the Zwicki residences in 1978, and by residences plural, I mean where Principal Zwicki lived..."

"While he was a kid, and where his grandmother lived," interjected Lucy.

"Exactly. And I know, from my history report that Mr. Nelson gave me a 93% on, that the growth of Arden has been really slow, and almost exclusively to the northwest, which is typical of most American towns and cities, and northwest of here was all empty land until about 20 years ago, so, I'm thinking..."

"The house with the well is still somewhere in Arden, but Sarah," said Lucy seriously, "I want you to keep something in mind for me because I know there's a lot more to this than you're telling me right now, which is fine, but you do realize the chance of finding that same old house and well are outrageously slim etcetera, etcetera?"

"Believe me Lucy, I've thought a lot about this, and as crazy as this sounds, I have faith enough for both of us," said Sarah smiling, and for some reason, she did.

Lucy raised her fist for a fist bump and Sarah bumped it. "Let's do it then," said Lucy.

The girls sat down, grabbed a phone book and flipped to the back toward the 'Z's.

"Already found some Zwickis," said Lucy.

"Me too," replied Sarah.

Both girls put their respective books together to compare the addresses.

"There are only four Zwickis, in '77 and '78, mine are exactly the same as yours, and my guess is they are all related somehow." said Sarah. "'Abner and Doris at 12765 County Rd., Arden', don't know where that is, 'John Zwicki at 912 Magnolia'."

"Which could definitely be his parents and his childhood home because the first name is the same, and it's pretty close to your neighborhood," said Lucy.

"A Dr. P. and Mrs. Helen, at 1214 East Arbor, but that's across the Bridge," continued Sarah, "and William J. and Doris at 776 Essex."

Sarah leaned over to the library computer. She typed Google maps in the search line and then 'Arden, Mo' until she saw the bird's eye view of her familiar hometown.

"Ok, that one at 912 Magnolia, the one we think may be his parents, is about," Sarah counts on the computer screen, "six blocks from my house, which is most likely where he grew up."

She typed in another address. "The Dr. Zwicki house is definitely across the Bridge, very swanky area, I'm guessing no creepy old wells in 1978."

"And this one on County Road, it's 12765," said Lucy as Sarah quickly typed and waited for the map to load. Once it came up on the screen, both girls leaned in. It looked promising enough to make Sarah's heart rate accelerate.

"We know where this is, we just call it the highway, it's out by the lake at Willow Springs," Sarah pointed to the computer screen again, "see, there's the lake right there."

"Yeah," said Lucy, "that's close enough to town, zoom in."

The girls leaned in to the screen.

"It's a pretty big lot," said Lucy.

"And old," added Sarah.

"It's hard to tell if there's a well there, there're just too many trees and too much junk back there," said Lucy. There were visible small outbuildings or sheds and four or five blue tarps covering various portions of the property in back.

Sarah looked at her watch. "When do you need to be home?" she asked Lucy.

"I'm on my bike, Sarah. Mom has the car."

"That makes two of us," said Sarah, "and I don't think Nancy Drew drove a car."

"No, you're wrong, she did actually drive and oh my God, we're such losers," Lucy said packing up their things.