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On the wall toshelves were lined with telephone directories for numerous California cities and towns The shelves beloere filled with additional phone books from assorted cities across the country I circled the periphery in search of the Polk directory, the Haines, and the six decades’ worth of Santa Teresa city directories that I kneere housed nearby

The Polk and the Haines are both crisscross directories that offer athe name, address, and occupation of any individual or business in a given area Where the target is a business, you can also deterures If, as in my case, all you have is a name, you can usually find the person’s home address If all you have is an address, you can pick up the na to the city directory, you can check the list of residents against a second alphabetical listing of street addresses The house nu the name and phone number of the resident at any particular address While the inforory supplies tidbits that can be pieced together to form a quick sketch

I pulled both the Polk and the Haines for 1966 and then selected three city directories--1965, 1966, and 1967--which I carried to the table Ito the floor and pulled up the chair Fro, I removed a notebook and a ballpoint pen There was only one fanr) at 625 Ramona Road I made a note of the address and added the nahbors on each side In Horton Ravine, the properties range froer ones as well There are no sidewalks and the houses are set back from the road I couldn’t picture visits back and forth between neighbors or idle gossip across a side-yard fence I’d never seen anyone seated on the porches visible froet acquainted by way of church, the country club, or the nu a paper search, I looked for Michael Sutton’s former address on Via Ynez I copied the house number in my notebook and then switched over to the Polk, where I picked up the old phone nuh was kidnapped, her fa thorough, I found the naap, leaned would be out of date, but having the naht save me a return trip I checked thethat was still good

I replaced the various directories and went downstairs to the periodicals department At the back desk, I asked the librarian forthe stretch of dates that enco I wanted to review the news coverage of the cri else Sutton had sketched in certain significant points, but his prier picture, including details he ht have missed

The librarian returned with two boxed rolls of ust 1-31, 1967 I took a seat at a nearby table, flipped on the lass plate, and caught the end piece on the roller I pressed the button and watched news pages whiz by at a rate that made me dizzy I paused now and then to check the date line at the top of the page and when I neared the 19th of July, I slowed and began to look in earnest

The kidnapping garnered front-page headlines for the first tie for the following ten days, though the account in each edition was ht rein on the information released to the public, which forced the reporters into endless repetitions of the same few facts The basics were h I picked up several details he hadn’t , July 19, though the crime wasn’t reported until four days later In that interval, which included the whole of Friday and much of Saturday, the police and the FBI had stepped in and put a lock on the case, ensuring that no whisper of the cri up to the abduction were spelled out, but there was little infor notes, in part to distract myself from the specifics of ent down Even in the flat hat, where, when, and how of journalis in my chest squeeze down What raph of Mary Claire that appeared with every article Her gaze was so direct I felt I was looking into her soul Her ss The rest of her hair was held back on each side with a plastic barrette The dress she wore had ruffles down the front, tiny pearl buttons, and puffed sleeves over ariven her a stuffed bunny to hold so the occasion ht have been Easter of that year