HER ONLY LOVE-46

[Zochitl]

 

          It took O’Connor a good two hours to reach the town and head for City Hall. Parking the car he heads for the door of the building and goes inside. He looked at his watch and saw it was one in the afternoon so he knew he could make the records department in time before they closed it. He could now observe there was a policeman sitting behind a desk in the lobby.  Heading towards him he begins to take his badge from his inside pocket and shows it to him.

“And a good afternoon to ye.” He began.  “I’m detective O’Connor from the town of Branton, up north of here.   Could ye be so kind as to show me the way to the County Clerk’s Office?” He smiled.

“Sure thing Detective. Go down this hall to your left and follow it to the last door you see and just go inside.”   The policeman answered.

O’Connor thanks him and started down the hall finally reaching a door that had inscribed on the glass-part; Office of the County Clerk.   Stepping inside he goes to the counter.   After greeting the man and explaining to him what he was there for, the man opens a side door and lets him inside.

“I will take you to the section where we have all those past records that you want to look at, Detective.   There’s a desk there and you can sit and I will bring you the boxes for you to find what you’re looking for.   I can’t stay because we have an important meeting in ten minutes that I have to attend personally, so just leave the boxes there and I will take care of them after you’re finished.   If you have any questions you will have to wait until I get back and that might be about a half hour later.”  The short pudgy man with a grey mustache hurriedly rattled off to him.  

 Do you have any questions for me?”  He added, looking through his  wiry glasses.

  “Oh no questions at all my good man.  You have clarified things very well.  Just lead me to where that desk is and I will not take any more of yur precious time.   I will wait for your return if I have something to say to ye.” O’Connor smiled.

He led O’Connor through a long, dark, narrow hallway until they reached another door and inside O’Connor could see rows and rows of metal stands with countless boxes lined in rows of three’s on the shelves. The man goes to the third shelf and takes out two boxes, then places them on a desk that was on his left.  He looks at O’Connor.  “Help yourself.” He said and then leaves the room.

O’Connor noticed the place was cold and damp and he thought he better hurry and not stay there very long.  He sits down and begins to look through the first box. “I’ll never plough a field by turning it over in my mind.” He thought. “I better get to work.   I don’t care to stay here longer than I have to or my bones will begin to ache. “

Twenty minutes passed and he still hadn’t found what he was looking for.   Finally he opened the last box and began to leaf one by one through all those papers inside.  All of a sudden he stops and pulls one out and begins to read it more intently.

“Aha. This is what I’ve been caring to see now.” He calls out.  Taking the paper and heading out of the room he returns to the front and begins to look for a copy machine.   After his eyes scouted the whole room he sees one in the far corner and heads for it.  Looking at it to familiarize himself with the machine he places the paper in the right place and presses the button.  The echo of the motor began to whizz slowly like a banshee passing quickly by he thought, and he felt  some shivers down his spine.  Finally it made a copy and finally the paper spitted out on the other side.   After that O’Connor goes back through the dark hallway and places the paper back in the box and shuts the lid on it.

As he headed again for the front the short mustached man was entering the room.

“Well, I see you got what you were looking for eh?”

“I sure did thanks to yuh for placing the right boxes in front of me, even though it took me a wee longer than expected. That room is sure cold and muggy you have back there. Makes one’s bones creek and rattle.”

“Well we usually don’t like to stay there longer than we have to,  since nothing has been done to fix it in years.  You know how that goes with funds always being short and such things.”  The clerk answered.

“How long have you been the clerk here, by the way? “ O’Connor inquired.

“I will retire after this year. It’s been a good over 50 years. I began when I was nineteen years old.  At the time the town was small and no one wanted to take the job to record.   It was a tedious job then.   No computers and such mechanical stuff we have now you know, so everything was done by hand.”

“I noticed that from the paper I just copied that it’s all handwritten.   This goes back fifty years. I wonder if ye remember this case.  It was an adoption.  I’ve been trying to solve this case for many years and maybe ye could help throw in some light if ye can remember something about it?”   O’Connor nudged for more answers.  He handed the paper to the clerk.

The old man took it in one hand while at the same time reached for his wiry glasses out of his pocket with the other one.  He was a stout, short man, as O’Connor had noticed before and looked like he was in his late sixties with   a good head of white hair on his head.  He had a round face with carved lines permanently set in around his wide mouth and forehead that had been made by the passing of many years.  His nose looked like a small, shiny knob on his face and small beady eyes that kept squinting as he stared down at the paper, probably trying to see if he could remember something.  He was wearing a faded blue shirt that had printer’s cuffs at the sleeves and his brown pants were held by navy blue suspenders.  The grey mustache kept moving from side to side as he kept sniffing from his nose making it dance. 

“Well, hell yes.  It has been a long time but this one was different.  I seem to remember the man that wrote this.  It’s been so long, my God.  He made an impression on me because if I recall correctly, he was dressed very differently than we used to wear at the time.  I remember his top hat and he had on a shirt that the collar was bent over forming a winged collar sort-of-thing.   His necktie had an oversized knot compared to what we do with neckties today.  And his suit coat was so much longer than it was used to be worn at that time. He sure was an odd fellow, looked like he had stepped out of some  past of another place  long ago.”  He paused for a while.    “Ah yes.”   He kept looking at the paper in his hands and wrinkling his eyebrows as he rubbed his forehead with the other hand.  “Yes, of course.” He continued.  “ I remember he wanted to make sure I had the names right.  They were unusual names for this part of the country. He also had a funny accent if I remember correctly.  You know, sounded like he was from somewhere in the South.  That drawl those people make. He wasn’t Eastern for sure.   It’s coming back to me now but I’d have to do more thinking you know; it’s been so many years ago.    I do remember those particulars because I had never seen a person dressed like that and never saw another one since either.”  He looked at O’Connor. “Hope that helped you some, Detective?”

“Questioning is the door of knowledge, my friend.” O’Connor answered and smiled.   “There is not a tree in heaven higher than the tree of patience and I think I am finally be getting to the end of my quest.  When God made time, he made plenty of it so that I might finally solve this old mystery that’s been hanging around my neck.  I thank ye for helping me. Yes sir you have.”

“If I can remember something else I will surely give you a ring, Detective.  By the way if you ever need something else don’t hesitate to call on old Henry Fischer here. I’ll be happy to go over some of my old records if need be. We’ve got some back there that date back to the 1700’s you know.”  His beady eyes practically closed as he let out a big laugh.

“Will do my friend and now I must be going back to where I belong. I hope you come to visit me in Branton if you ever wander away from this desk.  The river is no wider from this side than from the other, ye know. I will be happy to see you there.”  He shook the old man’s hand and left.

By now, the sun was going down and O’Connor realized he better start for Branton since dusk would soon set in and then it would start getting darker so he got in his car and decided he wouldn’t stop to grab a bite to eat until he got back home. There was so much paperwork to do once he got there. He experienced a sense of satisfaction that he hadn’t felt in a long time. Now he could place all the different parts together and would come to the right conclusion. “I know some people will certainly get hurt because of this last part he had retrieved from old Fischer but this cannot be helped.” He thought smiling to himself amusingly.

[RavenDelcor]

"I'll never plough a field by turning it over in my mind." brilliant! O'Connor is quite the philosopher as well as a detective. I suppose there is little difference between the two. Philosophers pursue wisdom while detectives search for the things that inform that wisdom. What has he found? What did Fischer supply? Who gets hurt by this information? Even more, who gets helped by it?

At least, Vivianne did not get injured in this episode! Sunday brunch with a roast slo-cooking in the background ... all from a popcorn addict.