We went to Thankful's house after the funeral to feed Mr. Johnson, the cat. As we pulled up....FBI Agents were in front of the house. I parked on the street...Tammy and I walked. Detective Croze was on the porch, ranting about the FBI being on his turf. We walked up to the yellow tape...I mentioned Agent Englend's name to the Agents standing in front...they lifted the tape and let us through.
We stepped up on the porch as Detective Croze gave us an angry look and said,"What the hell are you two doing back here?" I gave him an angry look back and said,"Feed the cat...anyhow...this is my house now...Thankful left it to me in her will." I could see Agent Mandy Englend standing in the living room...she motioned us in.
A guy was vacuuming the kitchen floor where the oatmeal was. I noticed some sparkles in the oatmeal he hadn't sucked up yet. Agent Englend said,"The little jar must have broken...we actually found three of the hairs."
I asked Agent Englend about DNA stuff. She looked at me like I was weird and said,"DNA...you mean the spiral model? I said,"No...just something Thankful said....I don't know why....she seemed to think DNA had something to do with solving the murders?" Agent Englend said,"Well...we don't do that....I don't even think it exists but we can match the hair like a fingerprint."
My hopes were revived that they would catch the real murderer. I fed the cat....Tammy and I said goodbye to Agent Englend and left.
Weeks and then months went by with no news from the FBI. The story faded into years. Tammy and I had gotten married soon after high school. We moved into Thankful's house and rented the cottage. We refinished the second floor and turned the entire bottom floor into a Thankful museum.
We had pictures of Vaudeville stars and Thankful together. We encased the song that Scott Joplin gave her. There was Hollywood stuff...Baseball stuff...Football stuff...she even had a picture of her and Bart Starr. A local artist painted a large picture of Thankful in her Packers hat and Raider's jacket for us. We hung it over the fireplace.
I had been looking through her diary's one day and found the DNA connection. She had known Rosalind Franklin back in 1956...one of the pioneering women scientists of DNA research. Thankful had boxes full of old Popular Science magazines too.
And then I saw it on the television. It was the spring of the year 2002.
