Abram's Bridge Read Online Free Page A

missing persons happen here over the last thirty years. Do you know what year yours is?” he asked.
    Mine, Ron thought. He guessed he was sort of taking ownership of this one.
    He didn’t know the year of the incident. He’d never thought to ask. Hell, he didn’t even know Sweet Kate’s full name.
    “No, sir. I just have a first name.”
    “That’ll do just fine. Is it Mary Mur—”
    “Katharine. Her name’s Katharine.”
    “Ah…yes. Katharine Bell. Sweetest little thing. She didn’t seem to have many friends, which is why a lot of people thought she just ran away.”
    “No one thought she was murdered?”
    Mr. Schultz stopped midstep—Li’l Ron almost walked into the white wall of his backside, thoughts of crashing into snow piles back home in Bethel Park crossing his mind.
    Mr. Schultz turned, brows furrowed, head tilted, and looked over his lenses. “Murdered? Goodness no. Why in heavens would someone think such a thing?”
    “I don’t know, I was just thinking—”
    “Too many monster movies and zombie books—you kids these days are more warped than the old Kenny Rogers LP I have on my turntable,” he said, turning around and moving on.
    “Her mother passed away a couple years ago…cancer, I believe.”
    Li’l Ron followed. He saw Heath Barnes watching them as they disappeared down an aisle of boxes.
    “Now, I think Katharine went missing in 2000…yes. I believe she disappeared in 2000, shortly after that whole Y2K mumbo jumbo. And it’s…right…” he squinted, holding the corners of his glasses, “…here,” he said.
    Pulling down the box, Mr. Schultz nodded for Li’l Ron to head back the way they’d come.
    They reappeared two tables from Heath, Mr. Schultz dropping the box on top of the table with a loud thud . More dust danced up into the ray of sunlight bursting through the large window on the other side of the genius with the curly, blond locks.
    Heath couldn’t stop looking up from his book every other second.
    “This is our collection of the Coral County Sentinel . Circa 2000, January to April. You’ll find what you’re looking for in mid-to-late April, if memory serves me, which, even at my age, I think it still does.”
    Li’l Ron watched him tap the table with one of his fat, sausage-like fingers before waddling back toward the desk.
    “I’ll be right over here if you should need anything else.”
    “Okay, thanks, Mr. Schultz.”
    He pulled off the box cover layered with a sheet of inch-thick dust. The Coral County Sentinel wasn’t very big. He pulled out the entire month behind the little green label reading “April”, sitting it on the tabletop.
    He found what he was looking for on Sunday, April 23.
    MISSING: 14-Year-Old Marsden Resident Katharine Bell
    Parents say Katharine left their home on Jefferson Hill Road Friday afternoon after school and never returned. Local police conducted a search for the missing girl Saturday from sunup to sundown. The search turned up empty. A larger search party is scheduled for today, featuring members of the community and members of the four Coral County Sheriff’s Departments.
    Two thousand, Li’l Ron thought. His dad must have heard about this. Maybe he and Big Ron even helped look for her.
    There was a follow-up in the Monday edition, stating much of the same.
    He carried the papers over to the desk.
    “Mr. Schultz, can I get you to photocopy these for me?”
    “Sure, son. I think there may have been another follow-up in one of the July editions from that year, as well. Would you like that too?”
    There was, and he did.
    The third article followed up, saying that there was no evidence of foul play, and no body was ever recovered. To the town, she was a runaway.
    No wonder she’s still here. Nobody knows she was killed. Ron remembered reading about ghosts who were trapped on earth. Some supposedly thought they were still alive; some were victims of improper burials. The one standing out in his mind at the moment was about