Julia made her way to the library. She was there every week, so the librarians recognized her immediately. They knew her to be a history buff, so when she asked to use the microfiche and load the local newspapers from summer 1933, they did so with no questions asked. Julia sat down at the microfiche and started with April 1933. No one 18 had died that month. She briefly scanned the headlines of the paper; headlines concerning the national economic recovery were foremost. She moved on to May. There was a death of a woman age 20, from childbirth. She was a married woman, so that eliminated her.
A headline leapt out at her from May 29th , 1933.
“Local girl missing after Spring Ball”
Audeline Murphy age 18 was reported missing after not returning home from the Spring Ball Saturday night. The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Murphy, Owners of Murphy's Cleaners, said her daughter had never done anything like this before. Miss Murphy was last seen at the ball which ended at midnight May 27th. She is a recent graduate of high school and had been expected to join her parents in their local laundry business.
“Audie was at the dance, but no one saw her leave” said Miss Betty Lawson
The Murphy family said that Audie went to the dance at 8:00 p.m..
Audeline Murphy is 5’ 3” tall, has strawberry blond hair, green eyes and was wearing a green ball gown and cream shoes.
Julia asked the librarian to make copies of the paper from May 29th, and then resumed her research
Julia then went on to the subject of Ben Blakely. She first did a Google search on her laptop. It yielded over 10000 hits ; most referred to his family. His father, Theodore was a big lumber baron during the gilded age. The family had originally come from Scotland, emigrated to Canada and then moved to America in
1887. They still owned quite a large amount of virgin forest in Canada in the 1930’s. Theodore had amassed a fortune in the U.S. and was now looking to utilize their holdings in Canada. His oldest son, Ben was the heir apparent. In 1932 he had graduated from business school and was planning on returning to Canada as the head of the family company. There was another son Michael, 15 and a daughter Elizabeth 10.
Ben had moved to Canada in fall of 1933. He married, became a citizen of Canada and
fathered 3 children.
Julia copied all of this on her flash drive and then went home to play with Tav and ruminate all of this in her head. This afternoon she would be working at the battered womens shelter called Haven. She used her experience as a nurse to help women to find medical assistance as well as inspire them to better themselves. This was run in cooperation with the diocese in her parish.
A lifetime Catholic, Julia found strength in their faith, but always felt her insight into the dead would be a divisive subject. She sought to help women to find their own strength and to make better lives for themselves away from their abusers.
Julia threw the ball to Tav until he became bored with it. After a quick brushing followed by a cookie, Julia took a shower and dressed in her scrubs and a bright flowered lab coat before she left for her duties at the shelter. Most of the women at the shelter had been connected with social services, so their medical needs were seen to. Julia spoke to the women about their prescriptions, and looked after their healing bodies. There were quite a few new women at the shelter today. The upcoming holiday season usually ratcheted an upswing in violence. She saw a slight woman with dark brown hair sporting a very swollen black eye. She was sitting in the clinic waiting room for her turn. She checked how some of the medication was working for one of the ladies that suffered from high blood pressure. Her readings were normal. Then she saw a woman with a baby that was asthmatic. The baby's lungs sounded good and she reminded the mother to keep up with the nebulizer treatments and the antibiotics the baby was on for an infection.
Then the new woman with the black eye came in. Her name was Carolyn and she had recently arrived here from Alabama. She was alone and without children. She had been seen at the ER and referred to Haven. She had so far denied having any abusive spouse or boyfriend. She claimed to have left her former abuser in Alabama. She said she was returning home to her family, only to find that she wasn't wasn't welcome because her previous relationship had been interracial.
Julia found her to be a tough nut to crack. She answered in monosyllables.
“So how do you explain the bruises on your face Carolyn?”
“ Someone hit me. I don't know who they were. I came home from looking for a job and I was attacked”
“Where were you staying?”
“ I was at the Clarion”, the Clarion being a seedy boarding house on the edge of town.
“It was the cheapest place I could find until I get a job. I have $800 left from my money. I worked as a cook in Alabama and I'm looking for a job doing the same here”
“Were you sexually assaulted?”asked Julia
“No, he must have been waiting for me in my room. It was dark when I came off the bus”
“Did he rob you?”
“ No, he just hit me and then he was gone. I told the police all of this at the hospital”
“I'm just trying to help. The x-rays showed the eye socket wasn't broken, but it's pretty badly bruised. Just keep applying cold packs and take your Motrin 800. Let me know if you want to talk about anything, okay?”
“Sure, but there's not much to tell” sighed Carolyn
