“It’s another place to look.” Bryce set aside his laptop and went into the bedroom.
“These entries are anywhere from thirty to seventy years old,” Jesse replied. “I’m not sure how relevant they’ll be to our case.”
Bryce lifted the lid off the first box. Stacks of journals lay inside. Gingerly, Bryce lifted one out. The book wasn’t fragile, but he felt like he was cracking open a tomb to poke at the remains. These were personal journals, not sterile files like the archives. “That’s the thing about some of our cases. They can stretch back decades. Centuries. St. Louis is an old city, and ancient in places.”
“Never knew that,” Jesse said as he took out another volume. “These won’t be the easiest to read. Sometimes he only used initials to refer to people. He has a kind of shorthand that’s unique to him. I think he was scared someone would find them. And then other times he doesn’t seem to give a shit.”
“I’ll ask for help if I need it,” Bryce replied. “I’d like to spend some time with physical pages. Spent far too much with digital this week.”
“Sure. See if you can find anything related to Henry Valless. He’s Renee and Ronald’s grandfather, if I have the family tree right. My uncle ran into him a few times in the late fifties, I think.”
“Think?”
Jesse tapped the box. “I have read over forty years of entries, and I don’t have a photographic memory. Most of that reading took place years ago. I was going to go through them all again, when I made time.”
“But you haven’t. And we might be chasing a dead end,” Bryce replied.
“We can split the work. I can keep digging through my modern investigations and you can dig through Ephraim’s journals. Then, we can swap whenever we start getting sick of our material.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Bryce opened the journal in his hands.December 1972-April 1973.
“Little warning before you get started, Ephraim gets pretty graphic in places. About sex, too.” Jesse kissed Bryce’s cheek. “Tread carefully.”
“If he’s as kinky as you, I won’t have a problem.”
“Oh, he’s kinkier.Muchkinkier.” Jesse winked and resumed his pacing.
At least Bryce had found some interesting reading material.
