The Lingering

In 1925 most of the farm girls in the community of Landover, Minnesota likely expected a life filled with the familiar and white-haired children. Hester Lilje would have been one of them. But with the sudden death of the mother she adored such girlish thoughts left her imagination forever. Within a matter of months Hester, along with her father and younger brother traveled the vast expanse between everything she had ever known and her grandparents’ farm which was located on the coast of the Pacific Northwest, and there she remained until her death. Had Hester Lilje been anyone but who she was, the story would have ended there, but Hester Lilje wouldn’t have allowed that. At the young age of ten she’d very clearly defined her life’s goal and to the end of her days nothing dissuaded her. Hester’s vow was a simple one; she’d be the woman her mother would have been proud of and not the embarrassment Auntie had proclaimed her to be. So over the years Hester Lilje became Port Frey’s beloved Miss Lily. In the eighty years she’s lived in Port Frey, Miss Lily had worked at many things but in the winter of 2006, she found herself part of the investigation into the disappearances of Jonathan and Harriet Killen, the town’s only socialites. True to herself to the end, Miss Lily unexpectedly holds the missing pieces to the puzzle.