Free Letters in the Attic by DeAnna Julie Dodson Page B

in touch with Susan. I guess that’ll teach me not to take any of my friends for granted.”
    “You never know how long you have with anyone. I guess we both know that too well.” There was a touch of wistfulness in Grace’s expression, and Annie remembered that she, too, was a widow. “But at least you tried to find her. That was thoughtful of you.”
    Annie thanked her one last time; then she went over to one of the overstuffed chairs in the reading area and sat down. The first article was dated August 22, 1989.

    CHARLESTON RESCUE SEEKING WOMAN MISSING OFF FOLLY BEACH
    FOLLY BEACH – Last night, a woman disappeared from the yacht she and her fiancé were sailing down the coast to Florida. It is believed that the 22-year-old may have fallen overboard during the brief storm that blew into the Charleston area last night around midnight. Her fiancé told police that he was sleeping below deck and did not realize she was missing until early this morning. Authorities have not released the couple’s names, but report that they had sailed from the Portland, Maine, area. The victim’s fiancé was not immediately available for comment.

    The poor man, whoever he was. What a terrible blow it must have been to lose Susan just as they were starting their life together.
    Annie looked at the other article. It was the one she had originally requested from August 27 of that year.

    SEARCH HALTED FOR MAINE WOMAN BELIEVED DROWNED
    FOLLY BEACH – After the Coast Guard and Charleston Rescue abandoned search operations today, police released the name of the woman believed drowned off Folly Beach on August 21. She has been identified as Susan Morris, 22, of Stony Point, Maine. According to her fiancé, Archer Prescott, owner of sporting-goods manufacturing concern JFP Athletics Inc., the couple had been sailing down the coast to his estate in Vero Beach, Fla., for their wedding.
    “I knew there was a little storm coming up, but it wasn’t due for a while. The sea was quiet, so I went to my cabin for a nap,” Prescott said. “It was pretty late. Susan told me she would keep watch and let me know if she needed me for anything. She had done it several times before, so I didn’t think anything would go wrong. I guess I was more tired than I thought, because I slept right through the night. I’d never done that before. When I woke up and didn’t find her on deck or anywhere below, I radioed the Coast Guard, but she was gone. Just gone.”
    A general alert along the North and South Carolina coasts, and to ships in the area has brought no results. Coast Guard Captain Michael Raintree, in command of the search operation, could offer no hope that Morris might still be alive. “Anyone alone out on the ocean has very little chance of being found, and that chance becomes smaller and smaller with every hour that passes. She was reported to be a strong swimmer, but even if that’s the case, no one could last this long in open water. We would have been notified by now if another vessel had picked her up, or if she had reached shore. It’s a tragedy, of course, to lose a young woman like that. We hate to have to give up, but experience tells us that there’s nothing more we can do.”
    Prescott, however, was unwilling to accept the decision made by Charleston Rescue, the Coast Guard and others involved in the search. “I’m not giving up,” he said. “If Susan’s out there, if she’s alive, I’m going to find her. And if, God forbid, she’s dead, I want to know that too. I can’t just abandon her. I’ll never forgive myself for leaving her on deck like that, and I owe it to her to keep looking. She’s everything to me.”
    The couple’s wedding was scheduled for today.

    Annie closed her eyes for a minute. That was it, then. Susan was gone, and no doubt this Archer Prescott had picked himself up and moved on with his life. He was probably married to someone else and had kids—maybe even grandkids; 1989 was a long time ago.
    She