A Firm Foundation

by Anne Marie Rodgers

Clifton harrumphed. “The town paper used to publish these cookbooks every once in a while. Ida Mae wanted you to have this,” he said. “She thought you’d enjoy some of the recipes. We been using some of them for years and years.”

  “Clifton, I can’t take Ida Mae’s recipe book,” Kate said, touched by the gesture. She tried to hand it back to him.

  “Yes, you can,” Clifton insisted. “She can’t use it anymore because of her health.” Ida Mae had heart trouble and exertion of any kind was troublesome for her. “If you really have to thank her, make one of the pies in that book. You do make excellent pies, Mrs. Hanlon.”

  Kate hugged the book to her as she stretched up and pecked him on the cheek. “Thank you. You tell Ida Mae I’m honored, and I promise to bring her a pie.”

  “Oh boy.” Clifton smacked his lips, and Kate laughed. Clifton was especially fond of Kate’s pies and even claimed they helped his bursitis.

  Then something occurred to her. “Clifton, do you know Malcolm Dekker?”

  Clifton snorted. “Of course. I’ve known him since he was a little kid. His father and I used to bowl duckpins together years ago.”

  “As you probably know, he’s on the town council now,” Kate said casually. “I guess he’s one of the people making decisions about what’s going to happen to our library.”

  “Malcolm keeps the town council and that windbag of a president in line,” Clifton said, grinning. He squinted at her. “The library’s in good hands. Malcolm’s an odd duck sometimes, but he’s got a heart of gold.”

  His turn of phrase reminded her of the photo in Lawton Briddle’s office of Briddle, Tosten Glass, and Gerald Foxfield panning for gold and the mayor’s statement about Glass’ interest in gold.

  Her own interest piqued, Kate said, “Hey, that reminds me. Have you ever heard anyone talk about finding gold around here?”

  Clifton nodded. “That’s what they say, although I never saw any.”

  Kate was ready to ask him who “they” were, but she was instantly diverted by the sight of a car down the street. It was moving at a slow crawl, but as her gaze met that of the driver through the window, the car sped up and moved off down the street at a much brisker pace.

  “Clifton! Do you know that car?” She tried to fix the driver’s features in her mind, but it was very sunny outside, and the interior of the car had been in shadow. All she knew for certain was that it was a man with short, darkish hair.

  “Hoo-wee! I haven’t seen a car like that in forever. What a beauty.” The old fellow shook his head. “No, Kate, I didn’t get much of a look at the driver. But from what I could see, I didn’t recognize him. Or the car either, for that matter. Never seen it around here before.”

  Kate had. It was the same white-topped, pale blue Cadillac in near-mint condition that had been parked along the street in front of Louisa Pellman’s parents’ house on Monday.

  LOUISA CAME WALKING into the library not long after Kate arrived. Jeremy trotted at her side.

  The moment the boy saw Kate, he broke away and came running to her. “Mom says you want to take pictures of the squirrels today, and I should help! I brought some peanuts so I could help get them to come out.”

  “I’m counting on it,” Kate told him with a smile. She gestured toward the door, where Jeremy was already glancing longingly. “Go ahead. I have to talk to your mother for a moment, and then I’ll be out.”

  Jeremy rushed back out the door. “Cool!”

  “I want to thank you again for dinner the other night,” Louisa began as she drew near. “And I got the title information I promised you.” She tapped a folder she was carrying. She was wearing a slim indigo skirt and an ivory blouse, and she looked chic and slender. She also looked even more tired than she had earlier in the week, Kate thought, observing the dark circles beneath the young mother’s eyes.

  “That’s great,” Kate said as Louisa handed her the file. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”

  “I couldn’t make copies of all of the deeds,” Louisa said quickly. “Just the current owner. So I just wrote down all the information from the older titles. I hope that’s all right.”

  “That’ll be fine,” Kate assured her. “Thanks again.” She hesitated. “By the way, do you know who drives a light blue Cadillac around town?”

  Louisa stared at her. “N-no. I don’t think so.”

  “But the car was parked in front of your mother’s house when I dropped Jeremy off the other night.”

  “Oh!” Louisa said, suddenly animated. “That car. That’s just a friend of my mom’s. I don’t really know his name.”

  Jeremy had told Kate that the blue Cadillac belonged to Louisa’s friend, not a friend of her mother’s. But the young woman was looking agitated, and Kate realized that the time to ask probing questions was not in the library lobby.

  “Well...” She grinned and held up the camera she had taken out of her handbag. “I guess I’m headed outside with your son on a squirrel photo op.”

  Louisa’s anxious expression eased. “He’s totally obsessed with animals,” she said, smiling a little.

  Kate chuckled. “There are many worse things he could be obsessed with. Count your blessings.”

  Louisa nodded, her smile fading. “I do. Every single day.”

  As Louisa turned away, Kate eagerly opened the file the young woman had brought her.

  The first name on the list was the person who must have had the house built. The first deed was drawn up in 1897. It had been sold to a different family in 1903, and that family lived there until 1916. Then the property had been purchased by Gerald Foxfield’s ancestor Charles. That meshed with the information she had gotten from the census documents at the historical society.

  It was there that the records showed property information that the census had not. According to this information, the property had stayed in the Foxfield family, rather than being donated to the town, as Livvy had assumed. The building passed to a second Foxfield in 1976 and then to a third in 2006 at which time it had passed to yet another member of the family: Gerald Foxfield. But according to what Kate had learned about the town, the library was deeded to the town by an anonymous donor in 1934. Kate recalled that she and Livvy had concluded Charles W. Foxfield was likely the anonymous donor.

  So Gerald Foxfield had recently inherited the property, although it appeared he hadn’t inherited his ancestors’ benevolence. Disappointment swamped her. Now that she’d confirmed that the man really did have a legal claim to the property, she suspected it would be much more difficult to refuse his right to dispose of the property as he wished.

  Chapter Twenty

  Hey, Mrs. Hanlon! Come on, there’s a squirrel out here.” Jeremy had pushed back through the lobby doors, his voice jarring her from her unpleasant thoughts.

  “I’m coming,” she said, moving toward him.

  The two of them walked to a shady spot and took seats on the grass beneath a tree.

  “Jeremy,” Kate said casually, “Remember when your mom said you notice details?”

  Jeremy nodded. “If you watched the squirrels more, you’d notice how different they look from gray squirrels or red squirrels.”

  Kate smiled. He certainly was single-minded. “Do you remember the blue car in front of your grandmother’s house the night I dropped you off?” She tried to keep her tone casual. “Whose car was that?”

  Jeremy nodded his head. “Some man.” Clearly he had little interest in the topic.

  “A friend of your grandma’s?” she asked.

  “No. He’s mom’s friend...I guess.” The child’s voice lowered. “But he talks kinda mean to her, like my daddy did.”

  Kate’s heart went out to the boy. “I’d like to talk to him. Do you think he’ll be coming back to your grandma’s house?”

  Jeremy shrugged. “I dunno.” Then his face lit up. “Oh! Oh! There’s one.” He pointed. “Get your camera, quick.”

  True to the boy’s claim, there was a squirrel moving ne
ar the corner of the building’s foundation. Quickly she dug for the camera she had placed in her handbag, thankful for the timely distraction.

  When she found the camera, she debated about how to get the best photographs. If she moved much closer, she might scare the squirrel into hiding again. But she was so far away...She settled for using the zoom function on her little point-and-shoot camera to bring the squirrel as close as possible. Elspeth could try to enlarge the photos if she desired.

  She shot about a dozen photographs, giving a silent cheer when a second squirrel came out and joined the first. Finally she put her camera away and went inside, leaving Jeremy to his observations.

  After taking time to upload her photos and send them to Elspeth, Kate went to Livvy to get her work assignment for the morning. She hoped to work on Jeremy’s sun catcher in the afternoon after her visit to Paul’s work site.

  Paul called midmorning. “Hello, wife,” he said when she answered her cell phone. “Would you like to join me for lunch today?”

  “Hello, husband. I’d love to.” Kate smiled, her heart warming at the thought of spending time with the man she loved.

  “I...ah...thought we could go out to the Smokeshack,” he told her.

  The invitation made her laugh. “Any excuse to go out for barbecue,” she teased. Then she said, “That’s fine as long as you don’t make me eat outside in this heat.”

  “We’ll take it home,” Paul promised.

  “All right. How about I come pick you up?”

  “That would be fine,” he said.

  “Remember,” she cautioned him, “don’t mention that I’m coming to the site, okay?”

  After saying good-bye, Kate headed back downstairs to get more boxes and saw Renee and Caroline coming into the library.

  Renee looked around, spotting Kate immediately. “This is just devastating,” she said. “I can’t believe the library is closing.”

  Kate nodded. If Renee only knew!

  Caroline sank down in a folding chair near Kate and fanned herself with a large picture book from the top of a stack of boxes. “My stars, it’s hot out there,” she said.

  Kate nodded. “It certainly is.” She sat back on her heels. “I found the name of that family you were talking about.”

  “Well, what is it?” Caroline demanded. “I still can’t pull it out of these old, musty files.” She tapped her head to indicate her brain.

  “Does Foxfield ring a bell?”

  “Foxfield!” Caroline exclaimed. “That was it!”

  “When the Foxfields moved to McMinnville,” Kate said, “do you remember anything about where they may have lived? I’m trying to locate a descendant, Gerald Foxfield, to ask him a few questions, but he’s not easy to find.”

  “Did you check the telephone book?” Renee wanted to know.

  Kate took a deep breath. “Yes. And I checked several Internet sources, but there’s no listing for him.”

  “My mama used to play bridge with Mrs. Foxfield,” Caroline said. “And I recall we went to tea at their house once after they moved.” She thought for a moment. “It was a big yellow house, and I recall playing Gold Miner down in the kitchen until the cook kicked us out.”

  “Gold Miner?” Kate couldn’t help but find that an interesting statement, given the photo she’d seen on the mayor’s wall.

  “There was a placer of gold found here years ago.” Caroline’s eyes took on a faraway and unfocused look as she reminisced. “We did love to pretend. I believe the Foxfield home was on...Maple Avenue.” She nodded her head, short and decisive. “Yes, it was on Maple, although I don’t remember the number.”

  “On Maple. Thank you, Caroline!” Kate was elated. Even without a number, that brought her a lot closer to locating Gerald than she’d been before. “I believe I’m going to take another little trip to McMinnville,” she said.

  “Oh, I’m sorry I can’t go with you,” Renee said as if Kate had invited her. “But I simply must bathe Kisses this afternoon. Isn’t that right, my sweet Little Umpkins,” she cooed to the tiny dog, who was snuggled in her arms.

  “Oh well,” Kate said, doing her best to sound regretful. “I suppose I’ll have to do it alone.” She turned and said farewell to Caroline, who was preparing to take her leave.

  BEFORE SHE WENT ON any more excursions, Kate needed to finish the work she’d promised Livvy she would do. There were a few books still upstairs in the room that had been water damaged. She trudged up the steps and filled a small box, returning to the first floor to add it to a stack for the movers.

  As she went back for a second box, she decided not to mention anything more about Foxfield, Tosten Glass, or the demolition to Livvy, who was looking increasingly frazzled. She appeared to have given up any hope that the library could be saved since her guarded optimism the day before. Kate was becoming a little discouraged herself, and she didn’t want to get Livvy’s hopes up.

  Kate climbed the stairs to the historical room again for one last load. The broken window was still covered up, but no repair had been done. What was the point until they knew what was going to happen to the building? Kate took a seat at a small table that had been left in the room with two chairs. All of the other furniture had been moved, except for several bookcases that still held books.

  When she sat down, she saw the glitter of glass beneath one of the bookcases. It probably hadn’t been visible from a standing position, and Morty must have missed it when he cleaned up after the storm. She rose and went over to the shelf, carefully getting down on her knees to pick up the glass. It was a rather large piece, and she was glad she had seen it. A mover picking up the bookcase could have hurt himself. As she withdrew the glass, something else caught her eye.

  There was a book under there too, way back against the wall. She never would have seen it if she hadn’t noticed the glass.

  Kate disposed of the glass in a metal trash can and then returned to get the book. It was old, she saw as she withdrew it and held it up to the light. Perhaps it had been on the shelf beneath the window that had gotten damaged by the storm. It looked as if it had been knocked underneath this other bookcase, which had kept it dry when other books on the floor had gotten wet. She thought she’d better give it to Livvy so it could be packed with other things from the proper time period.

  It was titled “Entering the Twentieth Century: A Celebration of Copper Mill History.” She sank into a chair, ready for a short break as she leafed through the tome. It appeared to be a collection of photographs and articles written about the festivities celebrating the town’s history during the summer of 1900. It appeared there had been quite a few events dedicated to portraying the town’s history as it moved into a new century.

  Kate smiled over an Independence Day parade in which female participants were identified by their husbands’ names: Mrs. David Tabler, Mrs. Robert Nutting.

  Then another photograph caught her eye. It was a float in the same parade, drawn by two horses and festooned with bunting and other period decorations. The title of the float was printed beneath the photograph: Prospecting for Gold. Kate peered more closely at the old black-and-white photograph. Sure enough, there was a man kneeling beside a slightly raised streambed filled with tumbling rock, and he seemed to be panning for gold with some kind of large, flat basin. Behind him was a rough wooden hut with a pair of long johns pegged on a length of rope that served as a clothesline.

  A little thrill went through her. Caroline obviously had known what she was talking about. Gold mining had been a part of Copper Mill’s history.

  Clutching the book, Kate went downstairs.

  “Livvy? I’d like to borrow this book. I found it beneath one of the shelves in the history room.”

  Livvy waved a tired hand. “Take it.”

  “Shall I sign it out?”

  Livvy gestured around her, her posture defeated. “Where? Everything down here is just about packed. I have no way to record it other than to write it on an index card and hope it doesn’t ge
t lost.” She blew a strand of hair out of her face. “Take it. If I can’t trust you to return it, I’m in even bigger trouble than I thought.”

  Kate gave her friend a hug. “Thank you. I’ll be back later.”

  Livvy didn’t even ask where Kate was going, an omission that saddened Kate. It was as if Livvy had given up.

  Lord, she prayed, be with Livvy during this trying time. Fill her with your spirit, surround her with your love. Remind her—and me—to believe in miracles. After all, the gift of eternal life you promise us rose from the very worst time imaginable, the willing surrender of your Son on the cross. That’s the greatest miracle of all.

  As Kate took her car keys from her handbag, she thought, And Lord? If you could send a little of that my way, I’d really appreciate it. Amen.

  KATE DROVE OUT to Louisa Pellman’s home, where she knew Paul and his team were taking their turn working on the roof today. As she neared the house, she realized her hands were shaking.

  Well, of course. The last time she’d been there, she and Paul had nearly been caught in a tornado. She decided to forgive herself for a small case of nerves.

  She left the car running when she got out. No sense letting it get hot inside when she and Paul would be leaving in minutes. She walked around to the back of the house, wondering where all the men’s cars were.

  She got her answer the moment she rounded the house. There were five or six vehicles parked back there. They apparently had driven the whole way back, where the driveway wound around to a detached garage. She saw Paul’s truck and a motley assortment of other vehicles, mostly SUVs and trucks.

  But there was one vehicle that stood out like a sore thumb. She couldn’t say she was entirely surprised, after Paul had told her last evening that his co-worker had been asking about her. She’d had her suspicions about exactly who Jerry Cox was.

  Still, it was a shock to see the white-topped, blue Cadillac parked right beside Paul’s truck, large as life.

  “Hello there.” The voice belonged to her husband.

  The men were on the ground, wiping their hands and clothes off before they broke for lunch.