Clete’s Mystery

The neighbor was murdering Ely again. When he went to bury the ashes Page and Babs ran to the parking area and started the MG. The horse was tied to a hitching rail.

“Funny,” Page said. “The only time we can see the hitching rail is when the horse is tethered there.”

“I’ve wondered about that. Maybe Beverly could tell us why.” Babs suggested.

“Here he comes.” Page said.

The man mounted the horse and lay on the whip. The poor frightened animal charged down the lane with the MG hot on his heels. Tree limbs whipped by that weren’t there in the real world. They dodged chug holes that didn’t exist. Page finally gave up and just drove straight. Apparently the things that didn’t exist in their time had no effect on the car. The horse suddenly stopped his maddening dash and turned left into a trail. The MG skidded to a halt and the girls got down examining the area. They could see the fleeing horse fade out of sight along the trail, and then the trail disappeared. The area became so much underbrush.

Page stood with hands on hips and looked after the horseman.

“What have we in this direction on the old maps?” She asked.

“I’ll have to look and see,” Babs answered.

The girls rushed back to the house and ran to the study. The walls had been plastered with printouts of maps from the eighteen fifties, giving a layout of the local area. Babs had pieced them together to represent the area around Charleston.

“He went down the lane here,” Babs said, trailing the horseman’s path with her finger, “Then he turned left about here. There is a trail her all right. It shows on some of the maps. That would lead to -. Oh heck it leads to three different plantations. See, it splits here and here.” She indicated the areas by circling them.

“Don’t mark up the maps,” Page said. “We’ll have to print them out all over again.”

“Sorry, got carried away. To be so close,” She wondered if there was any way to eliminate one or more of the possibilities.

“How old would you say the man was?” Page asked. “The first plantation was owned by an elderly man. He could have had sons old enough to have been involved in this.”