Trevor Goodwin arrives at the Valiant Detective Agency to see if they
think they can determine "whether or my girlfriend's husband is really
her husband." (Gerti: "In a they're-not-really-married sense, or a
he-killed-him-and-replaced-him sense?"). He explains a little
further: his girlfriend is Helen Martin; a man calling himself Gary
Martin, her husband, has returned after nearly two decades, having
vanished from the 33rd Battalion in the Great War during a big
sandstorm. Trevor thinks he's a con artist after Helen's money. The
Valiants think they can investigate this, so Trevor says he'll have
Helen come by. Eddie writes letters to Roderick and Dr. Schreber asking about the sandstorm. (Roderick: "A sandstorm? In Egypt? How unusual!")
Tommy, feeling sort of melancholy and thinking about friends who never
came back from the war, goes to visit the cemetery on Rindge Avenue
where some guys he knows are buried. A woman named Adele Thurmond,
dressed somewhat old-fashionedly, introduces herself to him, they
chat, and Tommy buys her coffee.
Gerti looks up some more information on the 33rd - yup, it vanished in a sandstorm, and was never seen again. Eddie tries to find the Martin's marriage license but fails.
Tuesday, October 15, 1935
Helen comes into the Valiant's office, and Gerti and Eddie question
her in more detail about her husband, why she thinks it's not him,
whether it could be him, and so on. He came back on the 8th, and
says he was captured and held in a Turkish prison. He escaped, and
came to find her. She's not sure if he has any papers, or how exactly
he got into the country.
The Martins were married for three years, before Gary was drafted in 1919. He seems to remember some details, but is sort of fuzzy on many other things. And he's much thinner and with less hair; physically, it could maybe be him. No, there aren't any relatives left to ask. There are some college friends that Gary knew twenty years ago, but whether they'd be able to provide conclusive ID is less clear.
Charlie is asked to ask around at the docks and see if Gary came in that way. Tommy calls the War department, but as of a few months ago, nobody from the 33rd had returned. The YMCA confirms that Gary came in on the 5th and stayed with them for several days, but he doesn't seem to have talked much to them.
