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38

Her alarm jarred her awake. She was almost surprised to be back in her dorm room and not in the snow-covered cemetery. Blinking away the sleep, Virginia sat up and saw Catherine splashing her face with water at the sink.

"Hey sleepy head," smiled Catherine, dabbing off her face with a towel. "You were mumbling stuff in your sleep. Sounded like one hell of a dream."

"Yeah," Virginia rubbed her eyes. "Weird dream."

"What was it?" asked Catherine.

"I was in a cemetery," Virginia slid off the bed. "You were there. Like I said, weird."

What she didn't say was that it was useful dream, too. She had awakened with a new level of intensity toward this problem that had presented itself, this puzzle for her to solve, and with an eye toward solving it.

In their Intro to Literature class, Jim Hardwick came in late. "Sorry guys! I had a student stop in to see me just a couple of minutes ago, and it held me up. But anyway, we're done reading Poe! Happy day, right? Get to move onto something more light and fun, sound good?"

A few people offered up a mumble in support, but most were totally silent.

"Well good, I'm glad you're not too geared up for happy-go-lucky, because the next book we're going to read is Rebecca by Daphne Maurier," said their professor. "That's not exactly a happy story, so I'm glad you are up for the dark side."

Virginia glanced across the room at Greyson and Quinn. She'd been told to read Rebecca by her French teacher in high school, but she hadn't gotten around to it yet. Virginia knew that she wasn't even going to crack the cover, however, until she had the other mystery figured out. Having no idea where to start, all Virginia knew was that she needed to look into the history of the town back to the Civil War era, even before.

After she got through her math and history class, she went up to her professor, Dr. Grainger, to ask for his help. "Hi Dr. Grainger."

"What's up, Virginia?" he asked, looking up at her intently.

"I'm really interested in the local history, of the area right around here," Virginia decided to lead with something that would pique his interest, even if it wasn't the whole truth.

"Really?" he smiled. "Well, I'm always glad to hear that. What can I help you with?"

Virginia smiled. "I was just curious where I might go to find older records from the area. Should I go to Town Hall in Soulles or..."

"You certainly could," nodded Dr. Grainger. "Or you could go directly to our library. We have quite a bit of the county and town records, and if not originals, then copies. We even have a few artifacts given to us directly from families in the area when we were founded. It's quite the treasure trove."

"Okay," nodded Virginia. "So, if there's all that, where do I start?"

He smiled. "Find Patrice, one of the librarians, and ask her for the local records from whatever time period you want, and she'll get you there. Out of curiosity, what time are you looking for?"

She sucked in air through her teeth. "Civil War."

Dr. Grainger smiled. "Rich time. Tell me what you find, will you? I've been through most of those records myself, but a set of fresh eyes on it is always welcome along with a fresh perspective."