The B Girls (9 page)

He stepped inside without meeting Lucy's eyes. His
own eyes darted around as if he thought maybe what he was looking for would be
written on the walls, floors and ceiling. She'd bet money the walls of his
workspace--and maybe his bedroom for that matter--were covered with notes,
pictures and other bits of academic flotsam.

"Let's go into the kitchen. I need
coffee," she said.

Perry snapped his attention back to her as if he'd
already forgotten she was there. "Uh, sure."

Maybe he was better with the written word, Lucy
thought.

She pushed her unruly hair out of her eyes, irritated
to realize she must look a bigger mess than usual after having slept in her
clothes, and more irritated that she was worried about her appearance when
Belle could be hurt or scared or God knew what.

She detoured to the end-table, retrieved her
reading glasses and pushed them up onto her head to hold her hair back as she
led the way to the coffee pot. For Lucy, glasses were as much a hair accessory
as an aid to her vision.

"So, tell me how you knew I was coming
here," she said as she rounded up the coffee, filters and water and
started the brew.

"Belle told me when I called yesterday."
He stood shifting from foot to foot while he watched--or rather stared at--Lucy
making coffee.

That was odd. "Do you talk to Belle
often?"

"I've only known her for a couple of weeks.
Your family turned up in my research on the Dunlap Broadside."

Back to the Dunlap Broadside whatever that was. She
invited him to sit and offered him a cup of coffee. "Maybe you should
start at the beginning."

"I contacted Belle about two weeks ago--"

"Good--whoa," Jane said as she came into
the kitchen with wild hair and a silk robe. "Who are you?"

Perry blinked and stared.

"This is Perry Thiel. Belle was helping him
with something to do with his dissertation," Lucy said. She raised her eyebrows
to let Jane know she was still didn't know what to make of Perry.

Perry nodded.

Lucy
really
hoped he was better with the written word.

"I see," Jane said though clearly she
didn't.

"He was telling me how he and Belle met,"
Lucy said just as Mae stepped into the kitchen.

Fully dressed in suburban casual chic, with every
hair in place and appropriate subtle make-up perfectly done, Mae slipped into
hostess mode without missing a beat. "Hello, I'm Mae Taylor," she
said stepping up to the table and offering her hand.

Perry half-dropped his cup onto the table, sloshing
coffee over the side in his haste to free his hand for shaking. "Uh, Perry
Thiel."

"Pleased to meet you," Mae said.

Lucy and Jane exchanged "can you believe
this?" looks.

Mae took her hand back from Perry and straightened.
"Looks like we could use a little breakfast. Any preferences?" She
looked at Perry, the guest, when she said it.

Perry, who probably didn't give much thought to
food other than how fast he could get something that wouldn't drip on his
papers, looked perplexed.

"No? Well I'll just take a look and see what
we have," Mae said.

Jane couldn't stand it another second. "Honest
to God Mae, you are such a Stepford wife. You walk in, find a complete stranger
in the kitchen, and all you can think about is serving refreshments? You don't
have to cook. We can toast a bagel or something. As for Perry here, I don't
think Lucy's decided what to do about him just yet."

Mae looked completely nonplussed for a second
before realization dawned and she laughed. "Oh my, that was a little Sally
Field in
Steel Magnolias
wasn't
it?"

"No, I'm sticking with my Stepford wife
analogy. Maybe you should say 'fuck' one time to make sure you got it out of
your system," Jane said.

Perry goggled and, for the first time since Lucy
opened the door, seemed to realize he might be in over his head.

"How about if we all sit down, have some
coffee and find out what Perry and Belle were working on," Lucy said.

"Fine by me," Jane said.

Mae looked like she wasn't sure what to do with
herself if there wasn't cooking or cleaning to be done but she nodded her head
and joined them at the table.

"Okay, Perry you were saying?" Lucy
prompted.

"I'm writing my dissertation on the events
surrounding the drafting and publication of the Declaration of Independence. I
have some new theories about the fate of the original document signed by John
Hancock and Charles Thomson."

"I'm beginning to get it," Lucy said. The
Declaration of Independence. That was the connection she'd been looking for.
"You're here about that old family legend."

Perry looked hopeful. "So you do know about
it."

"Just some old family story about my many
times over great-grandparents. He was a shop boy or an apprentice or something
for the printer who printed the first copies of the Declaration of
Independence. She was the daughter of a tavern keeper. They were both
supposedly around the print shop on the night the Declaration was printed and
family legend has it they kept a copy and passed it down to their oldest son and
so on."

"There's a lot more to it than that but you've
got the basic story right," Perry said.

"Well, if you talked to Belle about this then
you know our family doesn't have the Declaration anymore if we ever did. It was
lost during the Civil War," Lucy said.

"Belle thought she had a lead on where to find
it," Perry said. "And I'm not talking about the printed version
turned out by John Dunlap--the Dunlap Broadside, which is rare enough--the last
one to surface sold for nearly ten million dollars. I'm talking about the
signed draft Dunlap received from John Hancock. The document from which he set
the type."

"I thought the original Declaration of
Independence was on display in Washington. Didn't they just make a movie about
that?" Mae said.

Perry shook his head. "How much do you know
about the Declaration of Independence?"

"Clearly not as much as I thought," Mae
said.

Lucy and Mae nodded their encouragement for him to
continue.

"Okay, I'll give you the short version."

"Who knew I'd be getting a history lesson this
early in the morning," Jane said.

Perry's face fell at the hint of sarcasm in Jane's
voice. "Would you rather I didn't go into it? I mean all you need to know
in order to search for Belle is that she was looking for a rare document."

"Sorry," Jane said. "I'm not a
morning person. I really do want to hear about it."

Perry perked up and he seemed fully in the moment
for the first time. "Okay. It's early June, 1776 and the Continental
Congress has pretty much decided they're going to vote to declare independence
from Britain."

Nods of agreement. Lucy did know this much but she
found herself getting into the story. This was obviously Perry's forte. The
subject on which he could shine.

"The Congress needs a document they can vote
on, something to publish and send to King George, so they appoint a committee
of five men to write one. The five men include John Adams, Benjamin Franklin
and Thomas Jefferson and they all agree Jefferson is the guy to write the
declaration. He humbly accepts the task and goes home to get busy." He
paused and sipped at his coffee.

Lucy couldn't wait to see where this was going. The
guy seemed to know what he was talking about but she had serious doubts that
the Morris family ever had anything more than a copy of the Dunlap Broadside.
Still, if she heard something that would help her find Belle she'd listen to
Perry recite the phone book.

"So, Jefferson writes a first draft of the
Declaration of Independence and sends it to the other committee members for
their input. They do some editing, making their changes right on the draft and
send it back to him. Jefferson now has this original that's had stuff crossed
out and other stuff added. It's looking a little messy so he makes a brand new
copy that incorporates the input of the rest of the committee. You with me so
far?"

Lucy nods. "At that point there are two copies
of the declaration. The original that's been edited and had stuff crossed out
and added. And a nice neat copy Jefferson made to present to Congress."

"Exactly!" Perry said. "So Jefferson
and the rest of the committee of five take their nice neat copy to Congress.
It's read and debated and now Congress has a few suggestions and changes which
they make on the page. On July 4, 1776, everyone's happy and they vote to adopt
the Declaration of Independence. Now this final somewhat messy copy was
supposedly signed by John Hancock, President of the Congress and Charles
Thomson, Secretary of the Congress. Congress then tells the original committee
of five to get the Declaration printed.

"Now, things get a little fuzzy. No one knows
who took the signed copy of the Declaration to John Dunlap's print shop but
somehow it made it there. John Dunlap was the official printer for the
Continental Congress and risked his life by adding his name as printer of the
Declaration to the names of Hancock and Thomson as signers. The story goes that
Dunlap turned out somewhere around two hundred copies of the Declaration late
July 4 and into early July 5 when the first printed copies were sent out.
Twenty-five of those Broadsides are accounted for today. But the original
handwritten document, approved by Congress and signed by John Hancock
disappeared, presumably destroyed at the print shop after John Dunlap was
finished with it. The same way you'd destroy a draft of a letter today after
it's been printed."

"So what's on display in Washington?" Mae
asked.

"The official engrossed copy of the
Declaration made in August of 1776 and signed by almost all the members of
Congress. Thomas Jefferson's personal first draft with changes by the committee
is also accounted for and housed in the Library of Congress. But that final
version signed by John Hancock and used as a master to set the type for the
Broadside has never been found."

"And you think Belle has some idea where to
find this original?" Lucy said. "I don't remember the story that way.
It doesn't matter anyway because Belle's not here and she didn't tell me
anything about it."

"You didn't find any notes? She must have left
something," Perry insisted.

"Maybe. If I come across anything I'll let you
know." Lucy was ready for Perry to leave. She had a bad feeling about
Belle going missing while looking for a presumably priceless document. And if
her disappearance was related to the Declaration, Perry would have to be at the
top of the suspect list.

"But my dissertation depends on my finding out
what happened to that document."

"Why not write it without the conclusions
about the original copy? Surely there must be enough other ground to
cover," she said.

He looked at her as if she'd suggested he sacrifice
a goat to Satan. "My dissertation will change the history of the
Declaration. I'm not just covering old ground here."

The dream of every academic, to be the one to make
the breakthrough and have their names printed in textbooks the world over, to
be The Authority. "What if there's nothing to find?"

"There has to be. I'm sure Belle was onto
something. All my research . . ."

He left it hanging as if it should be obvious to
Lucy that he couldn't have come to any false conclusions. After all, he'd done
Research
.

"I don't know what to tell you except I'm much
more interested in finding my aunt than I am about helping you with your
dissertation. If you leave your number I'll call you if I find something or have
Belle call you when she returns." Assuming she did return.

Perry looked confused. "But, I thought--I mean
I really need--Couldn't you just let me--"

Jane held up a hand to stop him. "Look Perry,
you're being completely inappropriate. Lucy just told you Belle is missing and
she's not going to let you rummage through Belle's personal papers. If we find
something you might find useful, we'll let you know. Okay?"

Apparently, Perry was used to people resorting to
rude bluntness when dealing with him. He didn't get offended but nodded.
"Yeah, sure." He reached down into the bulging briefcase and somehow
came up with a pad of Post-It notes and a pen. He scribbled something and
handed it to Lucy. "You'll call if you find something? Or make sure Belle
calls when she turns up?"

"I'll call." Lucy didn't say when, but
then, she didn't have a lot of hope he'd stay away for long.

Mae came back to the table and gave his arm a
little tug. "I'll walk you out," she said with her Stepford smile
back in place.

Jane rolled her eyes but Perry stood up. "Uh,
sure."

Lucy was relieved to see him disappear toward the
front door while Mae 'blessed his heart' for all she was worth.

"What a nut job," Jane said.