The B Girls

Theories





Chimes. Loud. Insistent.

Lucy didn't recognize the sound. She opened her eyes trying to orient herself.

The chiming sounded again.

Lucy bolted upright on the couch. The doorbell. Maybe someone had news about Aunt Belle.

She glanced at the clock on the mantle. Seven AM.

People don't knock on doors at seven AM with good news.

On her way to the door she scrubbed her face with her hands in an attempt to get the blood flowing.

She thumbed the deadbolt and threw open the door without checking to see who was on the other side.

A man of about thirty with a bad haircut, dressed in threadbare jeans and a wrinkled button down, stood clutching a battered, soft-sided leather briefcase overflowing with paper in his right hand. The index finger of his left hand was poised over the doorbell button prepared to ring again.

He didn't look like a cop of any sort so maybe it wasn't bad news after all.

She scowled at him. If he was some sort of religious do-gooder she was going to say something sure to send her straight to hell. "What?"

A series of expressions crossed his face, startled, confused and finally smiling. "Lucy Deen?"

His smiling mouth didn't match something a little desperate and edgy in his eyes and Lucy wasn't sure she wanted to answer. "Who are you?"

His smile got bigger, showing more teeth. "Perry Thiel. I'm here to see Belle."

Lucy stared for several seconds while her sleep deprived brain tried to dredge up information matching the name or the face. The man clearly expected her to know him.

Nothing.

"Do I know you?"

His face fell. "Belle didn't tell you?"

Lucy frowned. "Belle isn't here."

"Not here?"

Lucy wasn't big on patience this morning but she bit back an urge to be rude. The guy seemed to know something about what Belle was up to. "No, she didn't come home yesterday and I'm afraid something's happened to her. Did she tell you where she was going?"

Perry looked a little alarmed now as well as desperate. "No. She was helping me with something and I thought she told you about it. It's pretty important. Maybe you can help me."

Incredulous, Lucy started to slam the door in his face but decided to give him a piece of her mind first. "Didn't you hear me? I said Belle is missing. Now is not the time." She stepped back to close the door.

"Wait! Maybe I can help you figure out where she went. It probably had something to do with the Dunlap Broadside? My PhD dissertation?"

An academic. She should have recognized the signs. Dunlap Broadside? Something about the phrase tickled Lucy's brain but she couldn't make the final connection. She found it hard to believe Belle was involved in some sort of research for this odd man's dissertation. "I doubt Belle went missing in a library."

"She wasn't helping me that way. She was trying to find a rare copy of the Dunlap Broadside. She was supposed to get in touch with me yesterday after she checked out a lead she'd found."

"What lead? I thought you said she didn't tell you where she was going."

"She didn't. She said she found a clue but she wouldn't say what it was. She said she didn't want to get my hopes up if it didn't pan out. Maybe if we put our heads together we can figure it out."

When Lucy hesitated, Perry gave her a pleading look. "Please! If you'll just give me ten minutes I can explain."

The guy looked desperate. He also looked harmless. Of course they say Ted Bundy looked harmless too when he faked a broken limb to lure women to their doom. But this guy had the look of some of the people who had stumbled in and out of her parent's sphere of influence from time to time. People who spent so much time in the mustiest parts of the library with old crumbling books that when they came up for air they had trouble interacting with real live people.

Social skills were not a top priority for people like Perry Thiel.

The question was what to do with him now that he'd arrived on Belle's doorstep. Belle would have let him in. She never turned down an opportunity to meet someone with a new perspective.

With a sigh, Lucy stepped back and opened the door wider. "Maybe you should come in so we can sort this out."

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 'f*ck' 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.

"Don't be so sure," Mae said as she walked back into the kitchen. "Didn't you hear Lucy say his research matches a family legend? I say it's a sign."

Lucy could see where this was going. "It's just a story. And even if it's true the Declaration is long gone."

"A sign of what?" Jane wanted to know, ignoring Lucy's attempt to bring the discussion back to reality.

"A sign that we should declare our independence from suburban stereotypes. If we could actually find the original Declaration of Independence wouldn't that be proof we're destined for more than life in McMansion hell?"

"I think you're absolutely right," Jane said. She turned to Lucy. "We have to try."

Lucy still thought it was a good possibility the whole thing was a wild goose chase.

"What if Belle did find something? What if it has something to do with her being missing?" Mae said.

Hearing Mae voice the idea made Lucy think she might not be as paranoid as she'd feared.

"That's just crazy talk," Jane said.

"Why?" Mae said. "The Declaration is bound to be worth a lot of money."

"Belle didn't find anything because there's nothing to find," Lucy said. But she was beginning to wonder. Perry certainly thought there was something to find.

Maybe.

Could it have something to do with Belle's disappearance?

Probably not.

"But suppose someone believes she knows where to find the Declaration?" Mae said. "If what Perry said is true it would probably be priceless."

"I'm sure the only person who would know is Perry and he obviously doesn't know where Belle is," Lucy said.

"We don't know that," Jane said.

"Why would he come here if he had something to do with Belle going missing?" Lucy said.

"To find her notes. Just like he said," Mae suggested.

The whole thing seemed a little far-fetched to Lucy. Except for the fact that Belle was indeed missing and she was willing to grasp at straws. "I'm more concerned about Belle than some mythical copy of the Declaration of Independence but since we don't have any other explanation for her disappearance, looking for the Declaration seems the only way of looking for Belle." She had to do something more than call the police every hour and worry.

Mae suddenly clamped a hand to her mouth. "Oh my God!"

"What?" Lucy said.

"Maybe the house was open when we got here because somebody took the notes," Mae said.

"So we're screwed," Jane said. "If there was anything here it's gone."

Lucy so hoped that wasn't the case. Belle off on a tear somewhere was one thing. Belle in some kind of danger because of this treasure hunt was another--and something Lucy didn't want to think about. "Let's hope not. Those notes may be our only chance of finding Belle."

"And finding ourselves. We don't know anyone broke in," Mae said. "I think we should still see what we can find."

"Okay then, we search for clues," Jane said. "After we finish coffee and get dressed."

Lucy wasn't excited about the delay but they'd be sharper after caffeine and showers.



###



"Kitchen, bedroom and study," Mae said a half hour later when they reassembled in the kitchen. "We should each take one. That's where the paper is in my house. At least the paper that doesn't belong to the kids."

"I'll take the study," Jane said.

"Kitchen," Mae said.

"Okay then I'll take the bedroom. If anyone finds something labeled 'Declaration of Independence' holler. Otherwise bring everything back here and we'll sort through it together."

They split up and Lucy took a deep breath before heading up to Belle's bedroom.

She swallowed past the lump in her throat when she crossed the threshold into Belle's room. Belle would be fine. She had to be.

Lucy went to the bed and sat down to pull herself together. She loved this room because it reflected Belle's personality perfectly.

Nothing in here matched. The bed was Shaker style covered with an assortment of brightly colored pillows, a crazy quilt and a Navajo blanket. The art on the wall was a mix of black and white landscape photographs, Native American sand paintings and a couple of masks of unknown origin. The bed-tables were made of twigs and had silk scarves thrown over their tops. The lamps were almost certainly Tiffany. The only other furniture in the room was a pair of slipper chairs upholstered in cream colored silk and an old steamer trunk plastered with postcards and other bits of paper memorabilia between them that served as a table. Belle added layers to the decoration over the years, saying she liked to lounge and daydream about all the things she'd seen.

Nothing matched but it all somehow made sense.

Since Belle had a huge, custom designed walk-in closet/dressing room there wasn't a need for dressers or mirrors in the bedroom. And since there were no drawers in the bed-tables there wasn't much to search.

After gathering herself, Lucy shook out the books scattered around the room, noting their titles as she did. No papers fell out but she saw that Belle was going through a Patricia Cornwell phase.

Lucy moved on to the dressing room. There was a lot more ground to cover in here.

She opened drawers, slid her hand between folded sweaters and checked handbags. Luckily all the shoes were housed in transparent plastic shoeboxes so she didn't have to sort through them all--well over a hundred pairs.

Nothing.

Until she found a lined basket on a lower shelf filled with all manner of paper bits. Receipts. Post cards. Notes. Greeting cards. Letters. It looked like a mixture of mail Belle couldn't bear to part with and things she emptied out of purses and pockets at the end of the day. Nothing that remotely related to the Dunlap Broadside, the Declaration of Independence or Colonial era ancestors.

She went downstairs empty-handed and found Jane and Mae shaking their heads. Neither had found anything useful.

"So, someone probably did break in," Jane said.

Lucy hated to agree. It seemed so paranoid except for the fact that Belle wasn't home. She dropped into the chair she'd spent the night dozing on and reached up to pull her glasses off her head.

"Ouch! Damn it!" She tried to free a few strands of hair caught in the nosepiece and wound up with the glasses dangling in front of her eyes. She yanked and blinked back tears when hair came loose with the glasses.

She put the glasses on the end table with a disgusted sigh. "I shudder to think what my horoscope says. Probably lock yourself in the bathroom and come out next year."

"We could start searching the rest of the house," Mae said.

Lucy started to shake her head when she remembered something. "Maybe we won't have to," she said. "I think I know where to look."

Jane and Mae followed her as she went into the kitchen and removed a brick from the raised hearth of the fireplace. "I forgot all about this. Belle showed it to me years ago. She told me I could use it to hide my most secret things when I spent my twelfth summer with her."

Praying she wouldn't find any spiders, Lucy put her hand into the hollow space--and pulled out a bundle of letters tied together with a frayed black ribbon and a folder full of loose papers.

"Jackpot," Lucy said, holding up her prize.

The letters were indeed what they'd been looking for, written by Lucy's ancestor, Paul Morris to his wife Molly during the Civil War. The loose papers were Belle's notes and more computer printouts.

Paul's grandfather, John Morris, was the printer's boy who'd supposedly taken the original Declaration of Independence from Dunlap's in July 1776. Paul had moved south, married Molly, and obtained a homestead grant. Belle had tracked down the Morris' old homestead grant to what was now Cohutta wilderness area.

They struggled to read Paul's chicken scratch, wading through descriptions of military equipment and living conditions and getting misty at the sentimental parts while looking for any reference to the Declaration.

The biggest surprise was the fact that he'd written the letters while wearing a Union uniform. No wonder they'd been worried about losing everything, the Morrises were Union sympathizers.

"This is it!" Lucy said.

"You found something?" Jane asked.

"I think so. He says he hid their most precious possessions in Lover's Cave on the old homestead." She read on, "And he put a map of the cave under the hearthstone at the cabin."

"That doesn't make sense," Jane said. "Why would he need to tell her that if she was living at the cabin?"

Lucy looked at one of the envelopes. "This is addressed to Molly in Atlanta. She must have gone to family in the city when the war started."

"So Belle did have a lead on the Declaration. Our ranger friend said she was planning to find the homestead site," Jane said.

"We have the coordinates of the homestead, right here in Belle's notes," Lucy said. "Maybe we can find the clue there."

"Now?" Jane said.

Lucy nodded. "Yes. If the cops aren't willing to do anything to find Belle, I'm going to do it myself. I can't just sit on my hands and wait."