Standing in Gran's cluttered shed, I found it nearly impossible to focus on the task at hand. There was much more compelling information crowding my mind.

I wanted to go back in and tear through the rest of Gran's diaries to find out more about Annie's disappearance, about "that night" Gran had mentioned, but Anabel was right on one count: I had willpower. Maybe I wouldn't make it long trying to ration my grandmother's stories now that there was a mystery unfolding, but I would at least make it long enough that I wouldn't dig into all of these secrets by myself. Ana would be back, and we'd read together.

There was comfort in that. I no longer felt quite so alone out here.

I had to focus on work. I had to stay busy until Ana came back that evening.

The entire right wall of the shed was devoted to wide shelves where Gran's gardening stuff, some pots, and some seasonal outdoor decorations had been stored, like boxes of Christmas lights for the house. There were bags of potting soil, fertilizers, insecticides, an old bird feeder, and a plastic grocery bag containing half a dozen mouse traps.

"Gross," I muttered.

I wiped my hands on my leggings, crouching down to look at the bottom shelf. It was so cobwebby and dusty that I wasn't compelled to be very thorough. I was afraid that a mouse or a snake was going to jump out at me any minute. I saw a couple of cans of wood stain and varnish, two gallon buckets of paint, some mold killer, bottles of motor oil, and a jug of antifreeze. Everything looked older than I was.

I snapped a few pictures of the things on the shelves. Then I turned to the rest of the shed. There were garden tools and hedge clippers hanging from pegs on the walls, and, of course, the largest thing in the shed was Gran's riding lawnmower. I didn't see a need to do much investigation of these items and simply took a few more pictures to record what was there.

"There's probably a lot more dust where this came from when I get to the attic." I wiped my brow and stepped out of the shed, pulling the door closed and locking it with the keys I'd found in one of Gran's junk drawers. I glanced up at the house, squinting against the sun. It would make sense to move from one dusty job to another and tackle the attic while I was in the mode.

I headed back toward the back porch and let myself into the kitchen, where I was greeted by Porkie. I stepped to the side to allow her out into the yard and went into the house to wash my hands and get a glass of water. As I stood at the sink, sipping the drink, my eyes fell on the cracker tin standing on the counter, and my thoughts returned to Anna Elvers.

Gran had said that Anna was one of nine kids. Could she truly have gone away to a maternity home, or to stay with her aunt until the baby had come, and never returned home? Wouldn't her family have gone looking for her?

I wondered if any of them were still around. I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it before now. They would know what had happened to her.

I let Porkie back into the house and went in search of my iPad. Then I sat down at the dining room table and opened the Facebook app. Under the search option, I selected People and typed in Elvers. I knew that if any of her five sisters had gotten married, they would likely have changed their last names, but it was possible that some of them listed their maiden names. Otherwise, she'd had three brothers who could come up.

After the results appeared, I narrowed them by location to Myrtle, Iowa. I had no idea what Anna's siblings' names were, but there were a number of results, some of them for similarly-spelled last names. The Elverses listed were Jodi, Jerry, Diane, Paisley, Chelsey, and K.J.

I checked each of their profiles, trying to get a sense of who they were and if there was a chance they might have known Anna. Some information was private, which, I figured, was a good thing—annoying to me, but helpful to these poor strangers who were being stalked without their awareness by somebody they didn't know.

Just from profile pictures, I could see that Jodi, Jerry, and Diane were older, while Paisley, Chelsey, and K.J. were younger, teens or early twenty-somethings at the outside.

"So if anybody knew her, it was probably these guys," I mused, returning to the results page and scanning Jodi, Jerry, and Diane's names again. "And the women might've married in, so..."

I looked down at Porkie, who had settled into her dining room bed and watched me with a doleful gaze. "Should I do it?"

She blinked at me.

"You know. Message this guy out of the blue about his..." I tried to do the math. "...Great aunt?" I was relatively certain that these people weren't Anna's direct descendants. Surely if she'd returned to Myrtle with a family, Gran would have known about it.

Porkie didn't say anything to warn me off what I was about to do, so I tapped into Jerry Elvers's profile and opened a new message to him.

Hello,

My name is Tabitha Carter. I am the granddaughter of Ruth Carter, who recently passed away in Myrtle. I'm not sure if you knew her at all. I have been going through some of her things and found some of her old diary entries in which she referred to Anna Elvers as a good friend when she was young.

Unfortunately, it seems like Gran and Anna lost touch a long time ago. I am trying to find some people in town who might have known her (family members). I wanted to reach out to see if you are familiar at all with Anna and what might have happened to her.

I would like to let her know of Gran's passing, at the least, and tell her that Gran remembered her fondly.

Thank you for any information you may be able to provide.

Tabitha