"Katherine Heaton?" Quimby sounded shocked. "I haven't heard that name in forty years. Dear God, has she been found?"
"I'm sorry, no." I hated lying, but had to be careful. "I'm updating cold cases for the DOE network. I thought you might have information we could use."
"I'd love to help, but I told the police everything I knew. The day she disappeared, Katherine and I were supposed to meet for lunch. She never showed."
"Sylvia Briggerman told me you were working on a science project together."
"Yes." Quimby paused. "You know, I don't think I mentioned the science project in my statement. No one ever asked, and it didn't seem important."
"Please tell me what you remember."
"Our assignment was to do an ecological survey," Quimby said. "Simple stuff, really. But Katherine and I wanted to study an endangered species. It was 1969, and the whole conservation movement was just picking up steam. Katherine was scouting the beaches, looking for possibilities."
"Do you know where she'd planned to go the day she went missing?"
"Oh my goodness!" Quimby's voice rose. "The Morris Lighthouse. I'd forgotten that. I can recall it so clearly now. I'm not sure if I told that to the officer who interviewed me or not. At the time, I was very upset."
My pulse quickened. The Morris Lighthouse wasn't mentioned in the missing person report.
"Wasn't that lighthouse decommissioned by '69?" I asked.
"Yes. It had been replaced by the one on Sullivan's Island. Katherine wanted to see which bird species were nesting there."
I thought a moment. The Morris Lighthouse stood on a sandbar, which, even at low tide, was a short distance offshore.
"How did Katherine plan to get out to the lighthouse?"
"She kept a little kayak in the back of her van." Pause. "That's what made her disappearance so suspicious. If she'd capsized and drowned, her van should still have been parked wherever she left it."
"It wasn't?"
"No. And it was never found."
I waited, hoping she'd elaborate. She did.
"Wait." The excitement drained from Quimby's voice. "It's all coming back. The police checked the lighthouse during the search. They found nothing."
"Do you know if Katherine actually went there?"
"No."
Silence hummed across the line.
"You know, Katherine did find a species that interested her. Not that it matters now, bless her heart."
"What species?" I asked.
"I have no earthly clue. Katherine left a message with my mother, but no details. Then she vanished."
"Might anyone else know?"
"I doubt it." Quimby gave a self-deprecating laugh. "We were going to be famous biologists. We kept our big ideas secret." Pause. "After Katherine vanished, I was excused from school for a few weeks. The project never crossed my mind again."
More silence. Then, "I wish someone had found Katherine's notebook."
"Notebook?" My ears perked up.
"Katherine always recorded her thoughts. She took her journal everywhere. If she'd found something, she'd have written about it in her notebook."
I'd run out of questions.
"Thank you, Ms. Quimby. We'll add this information to Katherine's file."
"Sorry I couldn't tell y'all more." Quimby sighed. "The police searched everywhere. Never found a thing."
"You've been very helpful," I said. "Thanks again." I gave her my number. "Please call if you remember anything else."
"I will. And let me know if there are any new developments."
"Of course."
"Well?" Hi asked when I'd disconnected.
I recapped the entire conversation.
"The science project stuff is new," I said. "The police didn't know about it back in '69."
"It's pretty thin." Hi scratched his chin. "We know Heaton was searching the beaches for endangered species. The police may not have known that, but according to news reports, the search focused on marshes and shorelines anyway."
"I know. But it's the only information the cops didn't have. They didn't know Katherine was looking for something specific."
"So what's our next move?"
Quimby had given us a single lead.
"The lighthouse," I said. "Maybe we'll stir up a ghost."
CHAPTER 58
"Why go out there now?" Shelton, as usual, was nervous.
"The thing is falling apart."
We'd gathered aboard Sewee, at the Morris Island dock. Our bunker was out. Too risky. Ben and Shelton had settled Coop into the ladder bunker, the best we could do for now. I hoped he wouldn't wander too far.
"Katherine might've gone to the lighthouse," I said. "That could be where she was attacked."
"But her body was buried on Loggerhead," Ben said. "We know that, even if no one believes us. Who cares if she stopped by the old lighthouse?"
"According to Abby Quimby, Katherine recorded everything she did. If we recover her notebook we might get the answers we need."
"We're going to find a forty-year-old journal?" Ben was way beyond dubious. "You can't be serious. Anyway, the police checked the lighthouse."
"They didn't know about Katherine's plans," I argued. "Maybe they didn't look very hard. Maybe they missed something important."