Walking a Fine Line: Day 13

Word Count: 78,054

Summary of Events:

Having spent several days giving bleak reports as to the health of his false relative to the Żbikowskis and the false relative of the Żbikowskis to his family, Joseph finally told them that these false relatives had died, causing expressions of condolences. Mr. Żbikowski gave Joseph a day off for the funeral, and although Brighid was determined that Joseph get to the to-do list she had for him, he managed to dress up in his father's old work clothes and sneak off to Mr. Varley's apartment building without being discovered, and was relieved to learn the landlord was out of the building, but one of the other tenants would let him know that Joseph was there once he returned, leaving Joseph to sneak into Mr. Varley's apartment and have a more in-depth look around the place with the help of his father's tools…

Excerpt of the Day:

He also checked the drawers for false bottoms or other things by measuring them with Da’s tape measure and knocking on them to see if they were hollow, along with checking to be sure that the drawers were as deep as the dresser with the measuring tape, and he found that everything checked out as a normal dresser.

Finally, however, as he removed the last garment from one of the drawers, Joseph found an envelope. It was unlabelled, prompting him to wonder if it contained money from the pawning of the bracelet that he was currently hiding in his bedroom.

Instead, Joseph found photographs of varying sizes, featuring various people, all of whom looked related. One of the largest photos was a military portrait of a young man who looked strikingly like Mr. Varley, but it wasn’t him, for this young man had a decent-sized beauty mark on his jaw, just back of his chin, but Mr. Varley had no such marks on his face.

On the back Joseph found writing: Archie McElligott, aged 19. His military unit was named as well, and Joseph recognised it. He didn’t recall having ever met anyone from it, but he was sure he’d heard about it, as if it’d been close to where he’d been at every point in his time on the front, but he wasn’t fully sure.

Another of the larger photos was a family shot, and in that one Joseph saw both Archie — identified by his beauty mark — and Mr. Varley, standing beside him. They were undoubtedly brothers, and sons of the man who was seated front and centre beside his wife; two little girls, probably older than Elina, but not by too many years, and three little boys were also in the photo.

It, too, had writing on the back that was in the same feminine-looking hand as that of the first photo: C & R McElligott Family, April 1913. Clayton McElligott, aged 37; Rhoda McElligott, aged 31; Archie McElligott, aged 15; Charlie McElligott, aged 12; Winnie McElligott, aged 9; Virgie McElligott, aged 7; Willie McElligott, aged 5; Ollie McElligott, aged 4; Tommie McElligott, aged 2.

All of the other photos had similar inscriptions, all in the same distinctly feminine hand, and all of them looking old and slightly faded, as if they’d been written a long time ago, possibly by Mrs. Rhoda McElligott.

Photos showed Willie, Ollie, and Tommie at older ages, and there was a handsome photo of Mr. and Mrs. McElligott from just three years ago which was noted as having been taken on the occasion of their 20^th wedding anniversary.

Not exactly the evidence Joseph had been looking for, but it seemed pretty strong proof to him that Mr. Varley was, in fact, Charlie McElligott, as he’d been claiming, but the matter of his innocence remained unresolved, unless Joseph could find something yet in his searching, as he was by no means nearly done.