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B y the time Doreen had gone to bed last night, she realized that she had gotten absolutely nowhere. She woke up this morning determined to make some progress one way or another, so she headed to the library. Luckily her favorite librarian was there.

The smiling woman looked up, then frowned. “ Uh-oh , you appear to be working.”

“I am, and it’s a hard one,” Doreen shared, looking around, not finding anybody else here at the moment. “It might be the case that kills me. Though I just got it, so I shouldn’t be so depressed already,” she muttered.

“Tell me more.”

“Do you know anything about a toddler who died at about eighteen months old, some thirty-five years ago?”

She frowned, thought about it, and then shook her head. “No,… I can’t say that I do, but that’s just off the top of my head, without having had a chance to think about it.”

“I think that’ll be the issue on this one, jogging people’s memories.”

“How on earth did you find out about this case?” she exclaimed.

“You can blame the captain for that,” Doreen stated, with a smile. “Apparently the bones have been held in the morgue, and, because the police just don’t have any way to move on it, the captain suggested I take a stab at it and see if I could find any information.”

“Oh, that’s lovely,” she cried out in delight. “You must be awfully happy.”

“I am to a degree, but I would be happier if I had anything to go on. It’s pretty slim pickings where the details are concerned.”

“Of course,” the librarian muttered. “If it was an easy one, they could have done it themselves years ago, but without the manpower to put into it…”

“Exactly,” Doreen agreed. “All I have is that the bones were recovered from a garden in the Black Mountain area in southeast Kelowna, and the death appears to have been thirty-five years ago, plus or minus ten.” Doreen sighed heavily. “Nobody really has anything more definitive than that. I will ask the captain if we have DNA. If we don’t, could we get some?… That’ll just be one of those conversations where, if you need me to do something here, I must get some information at least.”

“The DNA would help a lot,” the librarian agreed. “You could upload it to one of the genealogy sites. And, even if it doesn’t get a direct hit, still, you may get half matches there,” she pointed out.

Doreen agreed. “It would also still be there for anything in the future that might pop up.”

“Exactly,” she stated. “Just eighteen months old, poor baby. Wow.… Obviously we’ve had deaths at that age because, even when you think everything seems good at birth, it doesn’t mean the child was born in good health.”

“That’s true, but—”

“So, an eighteen-month-old dying even thirty-five years ago isn’t a surprise. I mean, look at sudden infant death. Have they figured that out yet?”

“But”—Doreen leaned in closer, lowered her voice, and looked around to confirm the two of them were alone—“the child seemed to have sustained beatings over time.”

“Oh no.” The librarian gasped, as she looked at Doreen in horror. “I always hate to hear about those cases.”

“Yeah, you and me both.” Doreen grimaced. “Something is just so wrong about a child ending up that way.”

“Oh, absolutely.” Shocked and still groaning at the idea, the librarian added, “So, we’re potentially talking about a murder case then.” She stared at Doreen, one raised eyebrow.

“Yes, we could be looking at a murder case,” Doreen confirmed. “Yet we don’t have anything more to go by at this point. So, for all we know, this was something else entirely.”

“It could be an acute case of brittle bones or something. Back then I doubt there was even research about that medical phenomenon.”

“Oh my,” Doreen murmured. “I hadn’t even considered that myself. I guess that’s why we can’t jump to any conclusions. I so hate to think about a little girl being lost and buried like that—or not even buried deep enough because of the animal activity noted on her bones.”

“No, no, of course not,” she agreed. “I really would love to help you. Just tell me what I can do.”

“Exactly.” Doreen nodded. “That’s why, even as difficult as this case appears it’ll be, I’ll still have to do everything I can to solve it.”

“I think you put your heart and soul into every one of them,” the librarian noted with a smile, “whether it’s a child or not.”

“I would like to think so,” Doreen murmured. “Anyway, one of the things I wanted to ask you about was where I would find birth announcements from thirty-five years ago?”

The librarian raised her eyebrows. “Oh wow.”

“Oh wow, what?”

“Do you have any idea how many you’ll end up with?”

“I don’t know,” Doreen admitted. “I don’t have a clue, but I don’t know of any other way to get an idea of what we could be looking at.”

“That’s true,” she said, “and, for this little girl, I would do all that too.” She led the way to the microfiche at the back.

Not knowing the exact time frame they were looking at, Doreen had the librarian take her back fifty years, as she worked up to thirty years ago. Surely that would cover the estimated death of thirty-five years ago, plus or minus ten years. Then Doreen sat down with a hard sigh and muttered, “Okay, I’ll see you in about fifteen years.”

The librarian laughed out loud. “It won’t take you quite that long, but see what you can come up with. Meanwhile I’ll rack my brains on other ways to figure this out.”

“Any and all help is appreciated,” Doreen called out. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll just be back here, lost in the archives.”

And, with that, she pulled out her notepad and set to work. It was pretty easy once she got the hang of it. She couldn’t filter anything, so she manually reviewed each announcement. Much later, when a tap came on her shoulder, she jolted, then looked up to see the librarian again.

“Any luck?” the librarian asked.

“I’ve written down quite a few names,” Doreen explained. “I wrote down all the births.” She frowned, looking at her notepad. “I only wrote down the deaths if they involved infants or toddlers.”

“Right, because not everybody would necessarily go through a formal funeral, but they might have sent out a notice,” the librarian noted. “Smart thinking.”

“Thirty-five years ago that area wasn’t incorporated into Kelowna proper. So, as much as people seem to think it was fairly lawless back then or so rural that no one else was around, it really wasn’t. It’s not as if we are talking one hundred years ago,” Doreen said. “There were still neighbors around, with professional medical help nearby. So, a notification in the papers would help people looking for answers.”

“Oh my, yes. I agree totally. I’ll leave you to get back to it.” And then she took off.

When Doreen’s back began to complain, she knew it was time to call it quits, at least for today. She straightened up and groaned as her back made a few snaps, crackles, and pops.

Another woman walking by winced for her. “Oh my, you really shouldn’t be sitting there hunched over like you were for so long.”

“I lost track of time,” Doreen admitted. “That’s a bit of a problem when I get caught up in my work.”

“It is for all of us,” the older woman stated, with a chuckle. “But take it from me that there is no amount of research that makes destroying your back worthwhile.”

She moved on, leaving Doreen standing here, thinking about what she’d said. The woman was right to a certain extent, and Doreen would certainly have to be more careful. She didn’t want to cause any long-term trouble for herself, but this little girl?… Just something about her had gotten a hold of Doreen, and she couldn’t imagine not getting the answers she needed. It might take longer than she expected, and this might even be a case she had to shelve for a while, but she wouldn’t ever let it go. She just couldn’t imagine giving up on this one.

Not when Doreen knew a baby girl had been buried in a vegetable garden, discovered by scavenging animals, and then otherwise left for all eternity. Just the thought of it all hurt Doreen deeply. Maybe because there had been so much death in her life recently that Doreen just couldn’t let this one go.