Balancing the Ledger

    As John Jordan turned over the first shovelful of soil at the groundbreaking ceremony for his new insurance office in the Rehobeth Beach Coastal Mall he struck an unusually hard object. Although it seemed like a rock, when John reached down to retrieve it, it felt like hardened  cardboard. 

      He had found some type of book, like a journal or diary. Badly-smeared  ink scrawls revealed the entries on pages stuck together by what looked like dried blood.     

   Jordan knew about the tales of an unsolved murder in the area, but still had outbid a number of others for this prime real estate. A little negative publicity would not stand in the way of his dream.

     The body of Mary McFee, a successful financial planner at the firm previously located next to John’s office site, had been found 51 years ago near Harley’s Market in an adjacent area of Sussex County. Looked like a sexual assault had preceded the murder. 

       Many Rehobeth Beach residents believed the clues to Mary’s disappearance and death lay buried near the site of her former office. However, the mall’s new owners said they had thoroughly cleared the area before reopening of the newly-refurbished mall. 

      “The time has come to put baseless speculation behind us,” John said, “this site has an excellent view of the Atlantic Ocean and excavations already exist for utilities. We stand here today ready to write a new, positive chapter in this area.”

    He then examined his discovery more closely:

     “Seems like an investment account book that the financial planner also used as a diary. The client, Joseph Callihan, apparently ran into a bad streak in the stock market and the accounts Mary administered for him took a nosedive. Looks like his planner also mixed business with pleasure. She writes about a love affair with Callihan that went South the same time he went bankrupt. He apparently blamed his girlfriend for his bad luck and decided to delete both the red ink in his ledgers and the blot on his personal life.”

      Another clue—airplane ticket stubs for a one-way flight to Colorado tucked into one of the back inside covers of the diary.

     Some more light shed on the story by Frank Thompson, retired editor of The Rehobeth Beachcomer, a local newspaper that had existed from the 1940s to the 1970s, who stood nearby during the ceremony:

     “Stories we ran at that time said Joseph’s wife found out about the affair and told him to end it. Shortly after they dug up Mary’s body Callihan also disappeared. Noone ever found him, but they found his pickup ditched near Harley’s Market. Mrs. Callihan died about five years ago.”

     Jordan didn’t realize, however, that Callihan had kept up with the news of his old neighborhood on Google every day from the backwoods cabin 20 miles outside of Denver where he had hidden from the authorities for more than a half century.  He had read the notice of the groundbreaking and returned to the scene of his crime in a carefully-crafted disguise. 

     The murderer stood in the back row during the ceremony waiting for his chance to completely destroy the evidence and keep his secret hidden.  He knew that he could put an end to the life of anybody who got in his way—just as he had put an end to Mary McFee 51 years ago.

     Callihan shouted from the back of the crowd,

     “Don’t make another move Jordan. I didn’t hide in Colorado for a half century just to wind up in the Delaware pen. Bury your so-called evidence again and find another site for your office.”

       However, another onlooker also had made her way to the beachfront ceremony.

     When the paramour crossed over to the other side she had made a number of friends. Among them, one of the Eastern Shore’s most famous personalities, former Cambridge resident Annie Oakley, one of the greatest Wild West sharpshooters of all time. 

     Annie had retired from life on earth but she never completely hung up her .22 caliber rifle, even in the great beyond, and, just as Callihan did, she also kept tabs on her old neighborhood. Mary stayed in touch with her during shows Annie performed for her fellow residents of their new neighborhood.

     During the 51 years since the slaying of Mary, time travel technology had made great strides, as had communications between the present and the future.  The two friends kept close watch on these advances as Annie mapped out a plan to return to Delaware and set matters right with Callihan.   

       They read everything they could get their hands on about scientists seeking the most efficient way to travel across the continuum to the era of the groundbreaking. 

       The sharp shooter appeared in a dream to Professor Frank Thompson of Johns Hopkins University,  then considered the most prominent expert in time dilation. She convinced him to engineer her travel across the Timeline. The inventor trained her for six months on his newly-invented Duration Travel Mobility Device and prepared her to cross through the barriers of time and space.

       Although Annie planned to avenge Mary’s killing, she convinced the professor that she aimed only to reverse a loss she had unfairly suffered in a rigged shooting contest during her time on earth.

      Thompson launched his time machine and set it to take off for Delaware on the date of the groundbreaking,  Callihan had just taken aim at Jordan and the diary, but Annie Oakley materialized and drew a bead on the murderer with the most powerful rifle she owned.

      However, before the sharpshooter squeezed the trigger, Sheriff Jason Morehead shot the weapon from her hand and screamed, “Both of you drop your guns now. Annie, thanks for your help, but I will take it from here.”

     Morehead cuffed Callihan and took him into Rehobeth Beach City Jail and Annie Oakley suddenly disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Six months later, Callihan was found guilty of the murder of Mary McFee and the people of Rehobeth closed the book on the tale of the investor’s revenge.