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“Oh, we don’t expect that,” Anita hurried to say.
Maggie gave an exaggerated look to where Herb was still talking to the librarian. “I don’t mind. I could use the distraction anyway. I’ve become discouraged in my search, and I think the only recourse is to take a trip to San Francisco myself.”
“You’d go that far just to track down an artist?”
Maggie’s smile was soft. “He used to be a friend, although we didn’t know each other for too long. We lost touch, and well...I’d like to find him.”
“Just like Mr. Davis wanting to find Susan,” Carly said.
“Gramps hasn’t said anything like that,” Wyatt cut in, his tone firm. “We’re just finding out information on our end.”
Anita set a hand on Carly’s shoulder. “Right. We don’t want to encourage anything extra with Wyatt’s grandfather.”
“All right,” she said dejectedly. Then she seemed to shrug it off. “I can’t wait to see what the old yearbooks look like. The hairstyles are going to be amazing.”
“Right you are, young lady,” Maggie said with a chuckle.
As they walked over to the Seattle History section, Wyatt and Carly strode ahead.
Maggie fell into step with Anita. “You have a great girl, there. Now, I noticed neither you nor the gentleman you arrived with are wearing wedding rings. Is Wyatt your special someone?”
“Oh no,” she said. “We’ve only recently met, and since Carly and I became friends with his grandfather, it sort of extended to Wyatt too. There’s nothing, uh, between us.”
Maggie smiled. “Friendships are very important in life. I should know. I’ve had over ninety years of experience. And Wyatt seems like a good man. I have a sense for these things.”
Warmth prickled along Anita’s arms. “You’re in your nineties?”
“Ninety-four,” she said with pride. “When you’re my age, you wear it like a badge of honor.”
“Mom!” Carly whispered-yelled. “We found the yearbooks.”
Anita and Maggie shared an eager expression, then joined the others in the aisle. Carly was right. An entire section was taken up with yearbooks. Wyatt had crouched down, exploring the titles on the bottom row.
“The oldest one here is from 1952,” he said, then straightened. “Maybe they have older ones on microfilm?”
“Let’s ask the librarian,” Maggie said. “I’ll drag her away from Herb if I have to.”
Wyatt’s face twisted with amusement. “Do you need help?”
Her eyes twinkled. “I’ve got this.” She moved out of the aisle, and Anita and the others followed. They stopped a few paces from where Herb was still talking to the librarian.
“Herb, I think Gerald could use your help,” Maggie said. “He’s been standing in front of the mystery novels for twenty minutes. Don’t you know all of the detective series?”
Herb turned his eyes on Maggie, his hand gripping his cane. “I sure do. Where is Gerald?”
“Just over there.” She pointed.
After Herb shuffled off, Maggie turned to the librarian, who frankly looked relieved. “Mrs. Proctor, we need some assistance,” she said. “Is the microfilm room available?”
Mrs. Proctor tucked a stray bit of auburn hair behind her ear. “Of course, come this way. What are you looking for?”
Wyatt explained about the yearbooks, and she gave a brisk nod. “Just give me a few minutes, and I should be able to locate those couple of years.”
They crowded into the microfilm room, and everyone took a chair. When the librarian returned, she carried a film canister. “This one has five years’ worth, so you should be able to find what you’re looking for—if it’s here.” She loaded the machine and showed everyone how to advance the images to search through the yearbook pages.
Wyatt sat in the middle chair and began to scroll through. They first found Samuel Davis listed in the index, and Carly wrote down all the page numbers to check. Finding Susan’s name was harder because they didn’t know her last name. There were several Susans, and who knew if there would be pictures with both Mr. Davis and Susan together anyway?
“The index might not have every mention of a person,” Maggie mused. “There could be group shots of things like socials and dances.”
