In the Shadows of Fate

by Rick Jurewicz

  Reports have come in that the victims of this tragic fire are family patriarch and son of Francis Gale, Thomas Gale, 55; Thomas’s younger brother, Edward Gale, 50; and Edward’s 16-year-old daughter, Cobie. Also lost in the blaze was Suzanne Gale, 22, daughter of Thomas Gale. Escaping the flames were Victoria Gale, wife of Thomas Gale, and the 16-year-old son of Thomas and Victoria, David Gale, as well as Suzanne Gale’s three-year-old toddler, whose name had not been released at press time. Also, a nanny is said to have escaped the burning home as well.

  Francis Gale passed away of natural causes in December of 1988 at the age of 89.

  The survivors had been treated for minor smoke inhalation at a local medical facility, and released Friday evening.

  The incident remains under investigation.

  Miranda bookmarked the story, and typed in the search bar “Gale Fire Investigation Michigan”. The next item she found had the headline “Suspect Arrested in Galestone Fire Death Investigation”.

  GALESTONE, Michigan – June 16, 1993

  An arrest has been made in the arson investigation in the Upper Peninsula that claimed the lives of four members of the once prominent Gale family of Galestone, Michigan.

  Michigan State Police, in cooperation with local sheriff’s department officials, announced Thursday that they have taken into custody 49-year-old Daryl Grimes, a local homeless man that once worked for the Gale Mining Company. Police believe that Grimes may have had a grudge against the Gale family, blaming them for the loss of his job years ago. After the mine closed, Grimes was hired by the Gales to do handiwork and gardening around the Gale Homestead after the former gardener moved on, but Grimes was also cut from his job with the Gales once more when costs no longer permitted Grimes’ further employment. Gasoline was found as an accelerant at the scene, and police dogs had been called in to search the surrounding area, which led them to Grimes hiding in the forest less than a quarter mile from the Gale home. He was found with an empty gas can in his possession, and immediately taken in for questioning and later charged the same day.

  Police and the prosecutor’s office say the evidence is substantial, but have stated that Grimes has not uttered one word since he was taken into custody. Grimes will be undergoing psychological evaluation in as early as the next few days.

  Miranda sat back in her chair as she studied a picture of the Gale home after the fire. There had been significant damage to one corner section of the house, and more extensive damage to the floors above. Much of the external structure of the house stood intact but was badly burned. She was trying to remember any fragment of a memory she had of the house, but nothing came to her. She started to wonder on a conscious level if she was letting her imagination run away with itself in all of this, but her gut told her something different. She had noticed that the child’s name was still not mentioned in the second article, as well as any of the other survivors or victims. Finally, she did a search for “Daryl Grimes”, and found an article on the trial and verdict:

  Guilty Verdict Found in Gale Murder and Arson Trial

  April 5, 1994

  A unanimous guilty verdict was returned yesterday on all counts for Daryl Grimes, 50, the man charged in the deaths of four members of the Gale family of Galestone last year.

  The verdict brings to a close the long and difficult ordeal that Victoria Gale and her 17-year-old son, David, the only surviving members of the Gale family, have been going through since the terrible tragedy that occurred in June of last year.

  Grimes has not spoken since he was taken into custody just a few days after he started the fire that killed Thomas Gale, Edward Gale, Suzanne Gale and Cobie Gale. He was found competent to stand trial last July, despite efforts from the court appointed defense to prove otherwise. The guilty verdict calls for a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.

  Mrs. Gale and her son have been making preparations for months to move to Great Britain at the conclusion of the trial.

  “We have endured a tremendous loss to our family. As much as we appreciate all the love and support that we have received from the incredible people of Galestone, my son and I feel there is nothing left for us here. It is time for us to move back to my husband's family roots, and try to find peace in what this world still has left to offer our family. We thank you all from the bottoms of our hearts,” Victoria Gale said in a statement.

  Miranda looked at the photograph on the screen of Victoria Gale and her son David. Victoria was a beautiful woman, especially for her age, dressed in a long black dress and wide brimmed, velvet hat. David, standing beside her, had a stern and sullen look on his face. He had short, dark brown hair, with eyes that were a soft, pale blue. Miranda felt sad at that moment, not being able to imagine what the two of them had gone through. But that moment seemed suddenly overshadowed by the fact that there was no mention of the granddaughter once more. Had the press just forgotten about her? Miranda was puzzled by this. If this woman in the picture was the little girl's biological grandmother, whose only daughter was lost in this horrible fire, then why would she have given up her daughter’s only child?

  “Miranda?” said a man's voice beside her.

  Miranda looked up and saw the man, in his early 20s with piercing blue eyes and thick, medium length dark brown hair standing beside her. He was wearing blue jeans and a brown leather jacket, with a black motorcycle helmet in hand. She quickly closed down the screen on her computer and stood up from her table.

  “Jake," Miranda said his name as she rose from her seat. A slow grin came to Jake's face, giving Miranda a slight touch of relief in the awkwardness of the moment. She dug deep and pulled out a smile of her own.

  "Oh my God! It’s...it's good to see you,” Miranda said with a hug, not sure if the words fully matched the true sentiment she was feeling in that moment.

  “What are you doing here? I thought you were living far, far away from little Native Springs,” said Jake, with a mildly sarcastic tone.

  “I am. I just…I came home for a few days. My parents wanted me to check out the new house, and I had some time off from classes, so I thought I'd come up and visit for a few days,” Miranda lied. Her reasons she came home, she felt, were best left kept to herself.

  “Ah…I see,” said Jake. “So you visit your parents after not seeing them for almost a year by hanging out alone in a local restaurant playing around on your computer?” he said with a half grin on his face.

  “I guess that’s it then,” Miranda shot back, with a cool smile. She wasn’t surprised Jake Neilson was giving her grief for anything or even everything. He had good reason to. For one thing, it was because he could see right through her, even after not seeing her for almost four years now.

  Jake and Miranda had been together on and off for most of their high school years. When Miranda had let loose a wilder side of herself years back, she and Jake were a hot and heavy item. The partying, the drinking, the all night rides on Jake's Harley Davidson. Jake and Miranda were two white-hot souls burning hot and fast through their teenage years. Of course with that kind of relationship comes the more volatile side as well; the fighting, the screaming, the breaking up just to get back together again a few days later. It was this that brought about the other reason she expected static from Jake. She broke off their relationship the day of their high school graduation. He wanted to talk…he begged her to talk, or even to scream at him and tell him why, but she wouldn’t fight with him. Without tears, and without any apparent regret, she told him that she was sorry. She told him to never look back. Miranda felt she had her reasons, but they were her reasons, and that was all she felt she could offer him then, hoping one day he might understand.

  And now here he was, with every reason possible to hate her. He stood in front of her, post-hug, with that smart-ass grin on his face, giving her a hard time like it was the day before graduation. A day when Jake still believed they were about to face a new and uncertain world beyond high school beside one another.

  �
��Yeah,” he said after a long pause, his eyes locked with Miranda's. “I guess it is.” His eyes glanced down to her beat up leather jacket, the one he had given her years before.

  “I hope you’re taking care of that,” he said, nodding down to the jacket. “It’s a classic…just like you.”

  “I take care of it just fine, thank you. It means a lot to me…whether you believe it or not,” said Miranda.

  “Jake! Your order’s up!” a voice called from the bar side of the restaurant.

  Jake looked away across the room for only a moment, then fixed his eyes on Miranda’s face, which made her feel a little uneasy, not knowing why.

  “Well…you take care of yourself. Maybe I’ll see you around before you take off again,” he said with that same smirk he'd been holding for almost the entire time since the moment he first spotted Miranda in the tavern.

  Miranda didn’t say anything to this. She returned the same grin to him, and gave a slight nod of her head as he turned to walk away. Jake took one more quick glance over his shoulder at her as he crossed the room. He took his order and walked out the door. She could hear the Harley’s engine fire up outside, and slowly fade into the distance. She sat back down, and tried to shift her focus back on what she would do next.

  With the Gales moved back to Europe so many years ago, and the fact that it seemed obvious that she was something they no longer wanted in their lives, she felt that tracking them down via the Internet to try and get answers might not be the most successful way to go. But the town of Galestone was still there and within reach, just a six hour trip up the roads in the wilds of the Upper Peninsula. Perhaps a ride north would do her some good, and maybe even provide her with a little illumination as to what might have happened in the Gale house that still haunts her dreams today. Maybe it was nothing. But with all that she had found out today alone, she was driven to find out as much as she could about where she had come from. Who were the Gales behind closed doors? What might the locals still know, about both the Gale family and the man that tried and almost succeeded in killing an entire family? And why did her grandmother give her up? What secrets were still held in the town of Galestone?

  She knew that her parents, especially her mother, would not be crazy about her running off so soon after her arrival home. And they would especially not be comfortable with her real reasoning as to where she was going and what she was doing.

  She decided she would go home for the night and put what she had discovered that day, as hard as it may be, out of her mind and concentrate on being the good daughter and enjoy some quality time with the family. That would also offer the opportunity for her to come up with something to tell her parents as to why she was leaving for a couple of days. After she finds what she needs, she can take the time to explain everything when she returns home.

  CHAPTER 3

  “I don’t understand why you are running off so soon after you just got here,” said Lorri, as Miranda brought a small suitcase borrowed from her parents up the stairs from the basement, along with her messenger bag and computer slung over the other arm. Her father grabbed the suitcase from her to help her out to her car.

  “Thanks, Dad,” she said with a smile. “It’s only going to be a couple of days, Mom. I promise.”

  “But you just got home yesterday,” her mother said. “Can’t you at least wait a couple more days to get a little more settled in?”

  “I've been home for two days already, Mom. My friend Tammy from school is staying with her parents at their cabin in the U.P. She has gone on and on about the place. She found out from Lydia that I was home, and invited me up for a few days. They are only going to be there for the next couple of days, and if I don’t see the place for myself, when I get back to school I will never hear the end of ‘how great it is’ and ‘you should have really come up,’” said Miranda.

  “It’ll be fine, Lorri,” said Robert. “She will have plenty of time to catch up more when she gets back, and I can’t think of a much better place to decompress for a few days than in the middle of nowhere, which is pretty much anywhere in the U.P. And it’s not like she will be alone. She will be with her friend and her family. She’ll be fine.”

  Lorri hugged Miranda. “I know she will be fine! Alright. Have a good time then. Drive safe. Call us when you get up there, okay?”

  Robert walked his daughter out to the car. “See you, sweetie,” he said, giving Miranda a quick kiss to her forehead.

  “I'll see you in a couple days,” Miranda said back to him. The two smiled at each other, and she waved as she went back down the road.

  Miranda was only about 20 minutes up the road when she got a text from her father. It read “Check glovebox – just in case. Have fun. Dad.” She opened the glovebox, and inside on top of a small leather booklet in which she kept repair invoices, registration and proof of insurance, was her father’s credit card and two $50 bills.

  “Dad,” she said to herself with a little shake of her head. She took the card and money out and put it in her jacket pocket. She planned on paying it back to him regardless if she decided to use it to stay any longer than she anticipated. As far as her parents knew, she had a place to stay rent free while she visited the Upper Peninsula, so she assumed he wanted to help his cash strapped daughter with some gas money for the trip up. It was sweet, but it wasn’t necessary. It was true that she was currently without a job, and a full-time student on leave for a while, but she was also very smart with her money and had been saving for quite a while. She had student loans out, and had already been paying them back for some time. Not having to do a ton of driving and not having a car payment, along with sharing the apartment rent with Lydia, actually gave her some room to breathe, financially speaking. She didn’t even need both jobs that she had been working. But they were easy jobs, and being that she didn’t burden herself with an over active social life allowed her the time to have both of them. One of the jobs was working for a company that did retail product shelf resets in a variety of different stores. The work times were flexible, and most of them came late at night, offering her anywhere from 10 to 20 hours a week. The other job was working in the campus library, which was another 15 plus hours a week. Miranda did prefer the library job. She loved books, and found quite a bit of time to read when she didn’t have to be actively helping students find periodicals or help return books to the shelves that had been checked out.

  The hum of the Pontiac crossing the grating of the Mackinaw Bridge can be unnerving to some, but it didn’t really bother Miranda too much. It had been years since she crossed the bridge for any reason, rarely having a need to travel to the north side. The five mile span of the bridge crossed the Straits of Mackinaw, and connected Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas. It was once the world’s longest suspension bridge, and drew people from all over the world to either see it or just to say that they crossed it. Many locals took its majesty for granted, just looking at it as a way to get from point “a” to point “b”, whether it be traveling to work, or as a means to get between northern Michigan's “Indian Casinos” that seemed to be popping up in more and more places in these regions of the state. But the bridge truly was an engineering marvel, built with blood, sweat and tears.

  She paid her toll at the tollbooth, and exited I-75 heading west on US-2. The road was a busy one that many people seemed to forget was not an expressway. She kept up with traffic, but the farther out she got from the bridge, the busyness of the road seemed to slow somewhat. It was about another two hours before she came upon the road heading northward once more that would take her to the town of Galestone. She still had somewhere between another hour and a half to two hours before she would reach the three mile turnoff to the town.

  The entirety of the trip took about five and a half hours. For many people, it would have been a full 6-hour trip, but Miranda had a tendency to have a heavy foot on the gas pedal. The road in from the main highway was paved but broken and worn down. It was wide for all of the iron ore trucks t
hat used to traverse it on a regular basis, but she had a feeling that there was not an awful lot of traffic traveling this road these days. About the only draw in the town anymore was the scenic wilderness areas, but these areas were not easy to explore due to the rocky and rough terrain that was part of the natural landscape of the Upper Peninsula. These hiking trails catered more to experienced hikers and rock climbers, although others did come to the town just for the seclusion.

  It was truly a beautiful place, but didn’t have the scenic lure of the Pictured Rocks area of the Lake Superior shoreline in Munising, or the historical significance of Marquette, both within a couple hours drive. Galestone, however, had its own quiet serenity, but that was barely enough to keep it going on its own. Miranda passed the Buckshot Tavern, the only year-round local eatery in town, and turned into the driveway of the Wellman House Bed & Breakfast.

  The bed and breakfast had actually only been there for about six years now. Owned by Beverly and Tom Wellman, the house had originally been the home of John Pittman, a foreman at the Gale mines who had worked for Francis Gale for many years. After the mine closed, John and his family moved on and had to leave the house behind. The house eventually went back to the bank, and had been for sale up until the day the Wellman’s bought it for less than $20,000 six years back. It was an absolute steal for what the structure was, on the 4 1/2 acres of property that it had been built on. It needed a lot of work for it to be what they wanted it to be, but Bev and Tom retired in their fifties from one of the big Detroit auto companies and were looking for an investment, as well as the peace and quiet of being as far away from the big city as they could afford to get. Now they had a beautiful, Victorian style white painted bed and breakfast in some of the most glorious wild country Michigan had to offer.