Assistant curator, Casey O'Hara, discovers an 18th-century letter that rewrites town history with a tale of adultery and murder. Things heat up when she finds a corpse in the local cemetery--an unburied one. But when she connects the two murders, committed three centuries apart, Casey's in danger of becoming history herself.

"On a hot August day in 1707, this hourglass was found in a wooded area out past the old Holloway garrison house—beside Mindwell Brigham’s mutilated body."

I had injected my tone with a little "Boris Karloff," then pointed to the crudely constructed timepiece behind the glass of the display case. I heard a few gasps and w atched the entire group of the Middlesex County Cultural Guild cast nervous glances around the museum, as if worrying the costumed mannequins might spring to life.

"Is that the girl who was scalped?" asked a wiry woman in a moss green suit and beige orthopedic shoes the size of those cigar boxes we stored our pencils in back at St. Peter’s grammar school.

"Millie!" another woman chided in a stage whisper, as she clutched handbag to breast as if designer leather might offer an effective shield against evil.

When I confirmed that Mindwell Brigham had met with that unspeakable fate, a single mass of faces leaned towards me eager to hear the rest of the horrific story.

Anyone who’s spent time in Bartlett knows of Mindwell Brigham, doomed orphaned girl taken in by the town’s minister and his wife, and scalped by Indians who’d come down from Canada in 1707. The story had fascinated me as a young girl: it had ignited my interest in all things historical, and I never tired of relaying it to tour groups here at the Bartlett Historical Museum. The tale was gory, yes. Sensational? You betcha. But if my visitors are shocked, it means they’re paying attention to me, Casey O’Hara, which, as assistant curator of this small Massachusetts historical museum, is all I can ask for.

We resurrect the dead here. Well, at least resurrect their stories in order to preserve them. No guarantee these ladies will give a second thought to poor Mindwell Brigham once they walk out the door. But I think it’s worth the effort...