OMG, A CUL8R Time Travel Mystery (11 page)

“
Why don’t you go ahead and eat, and I’ll take over.” Scott took her place and threatened to give her a hip bump but she was too fast and moved sideways to avoid her.  He held his hand out, and she passed him the spatula.

Kelly sat down
next to Jane and across from Austin. She picked out a bun and a well-done hot dog and squeezed on a generous portion of mustard and relish.

“This was
a good idea Kelly.” Austin devoured another hamburger.  “One more, Chef,” he yelled back to Scott.

“So why go to the library tomorrow
, Kelly?” Jane asked.

“
I love libraries.  I’ve read all the books on my Kindle, and I want to get a card so I can download more.  Your library does that here, doesn’t it?”

“I have no
idea, but I would assume it does.”  Jane nibbled on her hamburger.  “I’m not surprised that you like to read.  Your mother always spent all summer with her nose in a book.”

“Yeah, she read to me until I was old enough to read for myself.”

“You guys have been very nice to Kelly. Thank you,” Jane said, looking at Scott and Austin.  “She probably has already told you that I’m not mom material, and my job has long hours.”

“No worries.  She’s cool.
” Scott smiled.  “We’ll take care of her at school, too.  Have you gotten her registered yet?”

“Oh Lord
, no.  I need to do that, don’t I?”

“
If we swing by the school tomorrow, I’ll see if I can pick up the forms you’ll need,” Kelly offered.

“That would be very helpful, thanks.  We’ll
probably need to find you a doctor for a physical and get your shot records sent here, too.  A lot to do.” Her aunt put down her half-eaten hamburger. “Well, I’ve got some emails to get through.  Thanks for dinner, guys.  It was very good.”  Jane got up and carried her plate into the house.

“She
didn’t eat much, did she?” Kelly asked as she thought that maybe that was why her aunt was so thin.  Guiltily, she resisted reaching for that second hotdog that she so desperately wanted.

“I’d starve to death
.”  Austin helped himself to another hamburger and more chips.

“I could.
” Scott looked down at his half-eaten hamburger and a handful of chips.  “There are days when I forget to eat at all if I’m doing something interesting in the lab.”

“We had some
crazy day, didn’t we?” Kelly’s question was rhetorical.  She already knew the answer.

“
I’m really interested to find out tomorrow what happened to Wendy.” Austin took another bite of his food.

“
I hope they have the old newspapers.” Kelly pushed her plate away.

“
They should.  It’s a well-stocked library,” Scott assured her.  “If we leave here at 10, we’ll be at there in about fifteen minutes.  There’s plenty of parking, and it’ll be pretty empty in the summer.”

“
Do you always plan everything out like that?” Kelly asked.

“
Usually,” Scott admitted.  “I told you I’m a little OCD about things like that.  I don’t like surprises.”

CHAPTER
SEVEN

FRIDAY

They got a late start, and it was almost 10:30 before they left. 
Scott rode shotgun and Kelly, still trying to wake up, cuddled against the door in the back seat, using Austin’s football jacket as a pillow.

“I couldn’t sleep last night thinking about Wendy.”
Kelly yawned.

“Me neither.”  Austin looked both ways as he pulled onto Central Avenue.

“It’s nice down here with all the old trees shading the road.”  Kelly tried to stay awake.  She really wanted to take in all the scenery and buildings they were passing, but the sunlight flickering through the leaves and palm fronds was hypnotic.  She felt her eyelids drifting closed.

Austin parked, and
when he yanked open the back door, Kelly almost fell out onto the lot.  She smoothed her hair back and tightened the elastic band holding her ponytail.  With Scott on her left side and Austin on her right, they walked into the large brick building.

“Peri
odicals – 1st Floor.” Once inside the door, Scott took charge of their expedition by reading the map and leading the way.  They worked their way around the rows of shelves to the rear of the library.  Several large microfilm machines stood like Stonehenge tablets next to the digital screens.  No one was around. “We need to find her date of death, then look in the newspaper around that date for the details.”

They chec
ked the obituaries that were on-line in the library’s database.  “Here it is . . . October 14, 1966 . . . Wendy Lynn Summers.” Scott took a notebook out of his backpack and wrote down the date and her full name.

They pulled their chairs around the microfilm viewer with films for the month of
October, 1966.  Scott was operating the machine, while Kelly and Austin read over his shoulders.

“Stop, go back . . .
there’s a headline about a girl’s death.” Kelly squeezed Scott’s shoulder.

“Ouch.”
He tried to escape her grasp.  “I’m fragile.” He moved his shoulder in a circle and pulled away.

“
It’s the police report on the Crime and Courts page,” Kelly read aloud.  “
A Fort Myers Beach resident happened on a gruesome discovery early Saturday morning, October 15th, while walking his dog.  Sheriff’s Department spokesman Shirley Paige said the body of a young woman was discovered underneath the Fort Myers’ Fishing Pier.  Young Dan Denucci said he heard his dog barking and found the girl lying on the sand in a pool of blood.  It appears both of her wrists were cut.  The case has been turned over to the Lee County Medical Examiner’s Office for final determination of cause of death.
”

Kelly stepped away, shaken by the discovery.  She had never known anyone who had committed suicide.  Not that she actually knew Wendy, but after their brief conversations
, she felt like she did.  Suicide, especially someone so young, was such a tragedy.  Wendy had been only seventeen.  She had her whole life ahead of her.  What on earth could have happened that made her think life wasn’t worth living?

“
Maybe it wasn’t her,” she suggested hopefully.  “Is it awful of me to wish that maybe some other girl was under that pier?”

Austin gave her an understanding nod.  “That’s right.  That’s not necessarily Wendy.  Keep looking
.”

Again they crowded behind Scott as he scanned the pages.  They didn’t have to look too far.  The October 18th issue confirmed their worst fears.

“There’s her yearbook picture!” Scott exclaimed, then went on to read the article. “
Dead Girl Identified.  The Lee County Sherriff’s office released the details of their investigation of the young girl discovered on October 15th near the Fishing Pier.  The Lee County Medical Examiner’s office has determined that the young girl who was found by college student, Dan Denucci was seventeen-year old Wendy Lynn Summers, a senior at South Beach High School. Miss Summers apparently committed suicide by slashing her wrists. There were signs of bruising on her wrists and ankles that are being investigated further.  She was last seen leading cheers during the Panthers’ loss to the Golden Eagles at last Friday’s homecoming game.  She was also a National Honor Society member, debate club member and drama club member.  Miss Summers is survived by her father Jack Summers, her mother Louise and her brother Steven.  Services will be held on Friday at the Fort Myers First Baptist Church.
”

“
But why?” Austin muttered, his dark browns drawn together in a bewildered frown.  “Why would anyone kill herself?”

“Why did she have bruises on her arms and ankles?”  Scott wondered aloud.

“She was a cheerleader.  Maybe she got hurt.  Our cheerleaders get pretty roughed up sometimes.” Austin explained.

“
I may have led a sheltered life and not really know about this sort of thing, but Wendy seemed to have everything going for her at school.  Why would she do it?” Kelly mused.  “I wonder if she was depressed about something.  Maybe her parents were divorcing, or maybe she had just broken up with her boyfriend.  Or maybe she had some sort of incurable disease.”

“
Everyone I’ve ever heard of that killed themselves had some pretty heavy stuff going on in their life,” Austin added.  “Do you think they tested for drugs back then?”

“Don’t know
, but I could try and find out.” Scott made a note on a piece of paper.  “I like research.”

“Suicide is tragic for everyone.  It’s
sad that she must have thought she had no alternative than to kill herself.  Didn’t she have any friends?  Any teachers she felt like she could go to and talk things out?  Were people making fun of her or bullying her?”  Kelly needed to know for her own peace of mind.  “Nowadays, kids can get counseling or help of some kind if they’re feeling depressed or bullied.  But maybe they didn’t have anything like that back then.”

“It’s also the pits for her family, because they might not have known why she killed herself.
All these years have passed and no one knows the truth.  They might have felt guilty for something they said or did that they think might have caused her to do it.”  Austin was genuinely upset about this as well.

“It’s awful that someone couldn’t have talked her out of it
.   Unless drugs are involved, most growing-up kind of problems will go away and things will get better once they’re out of school.  But if they’re dead, they’ll miss it all.”  Even Scott was affected by this young woman none of them had ever actually met, but with whom they felt a strange bond.

“That’s why she’s asking us for help,” Kelly said.  “She wants us to find out the truth and to try and fix it.”

“It’s taken her all these years to get someone to listen,” Scott agreed.  “She wants to set the record straight.”

“
I’ve got an idea,” Kelly suggested.  “Why not stop by the school so I can pick up the forms I need?  Maybe there will be someone there who knew her or knows something the paper didn’t get into.”

“Mrs. Carter,” Scott and Austin said simultaneously.

“Who is Mrs. Carter?”

“
She’s been working at the school since the Calusa Indians held classes, I think,” Scott remarked.

“She knows
everything about everyone, so we’ll ask her what she remembers.” Austin stood up to leave.  “Are we done here?”  They quickly put the microfilms away and turned off the machine before exiting the library.

Austin popped the locks on the stallion’s doors
, and they piled in.

“Is it far away?” Kelly
asked.

“
Ten minutes.”

“
Who were the Calusa Indians?” Kelly had claimed shotgun on this part of the trip.  She was wide awake now and watched her surroundings with interest.

“They were the Indian nation that was here
a couple thousand years before the Seminoles arrived in the 1600s,” Scott spoke up from the backseat.  “They came here because of the abundant wildlife and great fishing.  No one is really sure why they left or where they went.”

Austin parked in front of the school that had only about a half dozen cars in the parking lot.  They walked to the front door where he pushed the button on the intercom.

“May I help you?” a female voice crackled over the speaker.

“Hey, Mrs. Carter, it’s Austin Burke
and Scott Talton.  We’ve got a new student with us who needs to register.”

A buzzer sounded and the lock released on the front door, allowing Austin to pull it open.  Kelly entered first, followed by Scott, then Austin.

“This way,” Scott said as he pointed to a hallway on the left.

As they walked down
the hall, Kelly looked around with growing excitement and a fresh surge of nerves.  In just a couple months, she would be here for real, surrounded by hundreds of students who knew way more about high school and each other than she did.

“Here’s the office.” Scott bumped her to his right to get her to turn into the office.

“Well, well, well, this is a surprise,” said the little old lady peeking over the counter.  “How are my favorite young men doing?  Did you miss me already?  We’ve only been out a week.” Her smile was as broad as she was tall.

“
You say that to all the guys,” Austin scolded her good-naturedly.

“M
rs. Carter, this is Kelly Welch.  Kelly needs a new student package to take home to her aunt.  She moved in next door to us.”

“Sure
thing.  Where are you from Kelly?”

“Friends
wood, Texas.  It’s sort of between Houston and Galveston.”

“You and you
aunt just moved here?”

“No ma
’am.  My aunt has lived here forever.  She’s an assistant District Attorney.”