Page 44 of Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

“You don’t have to be a college graduate to be a historian. You just have to love history.”

He laughed. “I don’t love history. I just love my town.”

I could argue with him but didn’t see the point. Chip had been a blue-collar man his entire life and tended to look down on men who wore suits for a living. It was obvious he equated historians with the latter.

“This should have what you’re lookin’ for,” he said, walking toward me with the box. “You want to look at it here at the house?”

It was more of a suggestion than a question. Chip obviously considered his collection treasures and didn’t want to risk losing them.

“Yeah.” I gestured to the furniture on his back patio. “I can sit out here and look through them.” Then when he frowned, I added, “Not to worry, I’ll make sure nothing gets dirty. It’s just that it’s so nice outside today.”

He nodded. “That it is.”

He insisted on carrying the box to the patio set, and I told myself it was because he was being chivalrous and not because he was worried I’d drop it and its precious contents.

Giving the box one last look, he took a step backward. “I hope you find what you’re looking for.”

“Me too.” I took off the lid and carefully set it on the metal coffee table.

He seemed appeased and headed back to the garage while I looked inside the box. It was sectioned off into four quadrants with cardboard that Chip had rigged up himself. Each section was divided by time period and filled with stacks of directories of varying heights, but the top of each stack contained a directory from four different churches, each one’s date one or two years before. Which meant Chip collected directories from other chuches too.

Down the road, I needed to remember Chip had this, for help with future investigation cases.

I started pulling out the Methodist church directories. It looked like the past decade or so’s directories were updated every two years, but prior to the early 2000s, there were new ones made every year. I went back to the oldest directory in the stack, relieved to see it was fifty-one years old, likely old enough to include the Brewers…if they had indeed been members.

Sure enough, the family appeared only a few pages in, a solemn-looking couple with two girls, one preteen and the other a young teenager, just as solemn. Their faces were in sharp contrast to the other smiling families, including the photo of Chip’s family from when he was himself a boy, his parents,Chip and his two brothers. I turned another page and found Luke’s mother, a happy three-year-old surrounded by her happy parents and her older brother and sister. But I quickly turned back to the Brewers, reading the names underneath.Jim Bob and Celia, Lila and Bethany Brewer.

Bethany.

Well, at least we had her name.

I snapped a photo of the page, then pulled out the next directory, looking for the family. They were there, looking just as unhappy, but the two sisters were holding hands.

Had the photographer instructed them to do that or had they done it on their own? It seemed odd for teenage sisters to hold hands, but maybe they’d been close. I scanned the directory, confirming that no other children were holding hands.

Interesting.

Their serious photos continued for several more years, although the girls weren’t holding hands anymore. In the last photo that showed the entire family, Lila looked like she was a high school senior and Bethany a sophomore. Lila had a defiant look in her eyes, while Bethany looked defeated.

The next year’s photo featured just Jim Bob and Celia, who had a vacant look in her eyes. In the following year’s directory, there was no photo or a listing for any of the Brewers.

I took snapshots of every year’s photo and started to put the directories back in the box. Then on a whim, I grabbed one and started to flip through it, discovering there was a listing for members who had passed away the previous year. Grabbing the booklets I’d just returned, I opened the one where the family had been absent. In the back, under the headlineDeceased, Jim Bob and Celia’s names were listed.

After writing down the year and their names in my notebook, I grabbed the directory containing the photo of just Lila’s parents. In the back, Bethany’s name was listed as deceased. Imade a note of it, put everything back into the box, then carried the file to the shed. I considered putting it back on the shelf, but Chip seemed to be anal enough that I suspected he would want to make sure everything was in order and put it back himself, so I set it on the floor.

Then after a quick goodbye, I got in my car and headed back to downtown. I still had time to make a quick stop at the courthouse. I wanted to find out the cause of their deaths, and I knew the best way to get it. I was going to dig up their death certificates.

Chapter Seventeen

Summer

The courthouse was closed when I got there, so that left online work and in-person interviews. Now that I had some significant information, I needed to come up with a plan.

I headed over to the office and found Dixie deep in paperwork from the box. Stacks of envelopes covered her desk.

“Find out anything?” I asked as I walked through the door.

She grimaced. “Only that their electricity bills were insanely cheap.”

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