Christopher Baird

The Fifty Year Summer Christopher Baird

Curtis twists from the grasp of a pale, overweight man and scrambles across the ground on his hands and knees; he runs headlong through the woods, the man in hot pursuit as lightning torches the sky. Curtis walks into a funeral parlor, looks into a white coffin and sees his cousin dressed in a white first communion suit. Curtis Kramer was ten years old when he was attacked by a serial killer. A few days later, his cousin disappeared after dinner and was found the following morning hanging from a tree that bordered their farm. Some thought the crimes were committed by the same man, but the two law enforcement officers involved, for very different reasons, never investigated the possible link. It would be fifty years before Curtis learned what happened to his cousin. At its heart, this is a story of how lives intertwine to produce events in ways no one could foresee. The truth of George's death may have been lost forever had the paths of his brother, Charles, and the investigating sheriff not crossed years after he was found hanging from a tree at the edge of their property. That truth taught Curtis that the line between good and evil was not as clear as he once thought. It also relieved the pain of an eighty-seven year old detective who blamed himself for what happened to those he pledged to protect.