The Mystery at Sag Bridge

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

After Frannie left, Cisco said, "I don't want you going out there alone. I should go with you."

"Please, Hon, let me do this my way. I just want to put myself where Meg was, to try to understand her better. I have to be alone to do that. We've been out there a dozen times-what could happen?"

She didn't mention the sixth sense that compelled her to go unaccompanied, as she could think of no way to explain that.

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The next morning Cora picked up Meg's diary and went through all of it this time, hoping to know and understand Meg as well as she could before going to Saint James.

The entries were well written and entertaining. She wondered if, had she lived, Meg would have achieved her ambition to be a writer, as noted by the uncle who gave her the book. In fact, the diary itself was publish-worthy, in Cora's opinion, presenting a delightful picture of a young woman at a particular time and place. Perhaps when this was all over Cora would look into what it took to publish it.

Cora tried to take notes that might help to solve the mystery of Meg's death, but had no idea what details could be important, and soon became lost in Meg's life and set the note pad aside. Cora began to view Meg as a friend-a close friend.

She was amused to read of trivial day-to-day events like buying new clothes, gossip among school friends, and spats with her sister. It seemed she and her sister were very different people who battled frequently, but besides frequent outbursts of anger, she wrote of occasionally standing up for her against their mam or anyone who treated Sally poorly.

Meg gave very vivid descriptions of her thoughts about the Columbian Exposition, and what it was like to be a single woman living and working in Chicago. She had worked at Marshall Field's Department Store as a clerk, and told a story about how Marshall Field had sold his interests in a store in Sag Bridge to open his store in Chicago. The Sag store had apparently been doing quite well, and the partner laughed at Field's decision, calling him a fool. Cora had heard this story before, but had never been able to find any facts to back it up.

She talked about meeting Packey when returning to Sag for a Fourth of July picnic, and how he immediately swept her off her feet with his commanding presence and infectious good humor. She admitted to arriving at the picnic with her nose in the air, in a stylish dress and hat unlike what local women were wearing, feeling better than "this old town". Packey told Meg what attracted him from across the grove was not her stylish clothes, but how she moved with energy and confidence, which reminded him of the red-headed "spitfires" he had known in Ireland. Throughout the diary Meg wrote about how much everyone loved and admired Packey, and how fortunate she felt to be his wife, missing her life in Chicago, but never regretting her decision to marry Packey and move back to Sag.

She talked about life on the farm before her father died, and how decisions were made about where her mother would live and who would run the farm after his death.

As she read, she recalled Bridey's stories. Bridey's father was a young boy when Meg died, and Cora envisioned him at the farms and in the town of Sag, fishing and visiting the quarries where Packey worked. Bridey said Packey had sometimes given her father fossils.