Dallas, Texas

"The arts school is this way", falling behind the tour group they were following around the SMU campus, Katherine looked in the general direction their guide was pointing and turned to Nancy, looking at her watch and then making her pre-planned excuse, "I've got a meeting to attend. You go on ahead".

"A meeting?" questioning her, she didn't sound accusatory, just confused, which was positive.

"My family hardly ever come to Dallas but apparently we know a lot of people here. It'd be rude not to say hello. I'll catch up with you soon", bending the truth a little, she didn't expect Nancy to say anything, they weren't close, choosing to walk together on the tour simply to know someone else in the group, not because they liked each other all that much. Nancy was the perfect companion for the situation she'd put herself in, she knew enough to know who the Wentworth family were and find it plausible that they did have Dallas connections but not enough to be the weak link in her cover story. The way she was choosing to spend the rest of her day would never get back to her parents so long as Nancy remained an acquaintance rather than a friend.

"Are you sure?" appearing hesitant, Nancy's concern was understandable. Mrs Ward, their college counsellor, had gone over the expectations for arranged campus visits with their class at the beginning of the semester; they might be seniors but they were still Oaks students, representatives of their fine community.

"Yes, I'll be back before you know it", standing still, she waved goodbye to Nancy, sending her off to re-join the rest of the group for their campus tour.

Half an hour later, after locating a taxi and arranging for the driver to wait for her while she visited her second destination of the day, she quietly, reverently knelt down on the fresh cemetery grass. It was one thing to see the names in an obituary, it was quite another to see them etched into stone. She wasn't completely certain of the relation of the young woman and her son to her mother but in the moment it didn't really matter, it was terribly sad and confronting to read evidence of lives that had started and ended so soon.

Listening to the sound of the rustling trees, she was still for a while, silently reflecting on what she knew and what she assumed, eventually standing to leave. Turning back towards the parking lot, she turned around to look again at the plots as something caught her eye. She hadn't noticed it at first, probably because she hadn't been looking for it, but beside Pamela and Willard was a second Willard, a much older Willard.

She recognised the name, Willard Barnes, he'd been mentioned in Pamela's obituary, he was her father and as far as the tone she'd read the obituary in, he was alive, or at least he had been at the time of her death. There were no details, no exact dates, just a name and a simple 1916-1973. It wasn't entirely clear what had happened but it wasn't particularly difficult to figure out that whatever it was was reasonably recent.

Glancing at her watch, she couldn't believe the time, it was midday already and she'd barely completed any of the tasks she had planned. Ideally she would get her Dallas based investigation done today, firstly for her own peace of mind but also because it was easy to convince her parents that she wanted to tour SMU once but they knew her well enough to question multiple visits. She'd never expressed any interest in staying in Texas for college and while nice, what she'd seen of SMU still hadn't convinced her that her future wasn't somewhere in the northeast.

Giving her taxi driver further instructions, she was silent during the drive back downtown, her mind racing trying to rearrange all the pieces of the puzzle to make sense. She hoped her next meeting would shed some light on the situation but she wasn't sure Mr Cliff Barnes would know any more than she already did about why her mother was holding on to newspaper cuttings regarding his sister and nephew.

Noting the time as they pulled up outside the tall building, she opted to settle her fare and let her driver go for now, unsure how long her meeting with Cliff would run. Unfortunately, after heading up in the elevator and putting her request to the receptionist, she was back out on the street again within ten minutes, having been told that there was no chance she'd see Cliff today as he was out-of-town and wouldn't be back for some time.

It was disappointing, she had come all the way to Dallas to speak to someone involved with Pamela and so far found out nothing. The only positive was that she was now ahead of schedule again; she had time to head to Ewing Oil to speak to Bobby Ewing before returning to campus to complete a quick tour in order to have something substantial to relay to her parents when they asked how her day had gone. Her class was scheduled to depart Dallas for Houston at 3.15pm and she couldn't miss that but she still had a couple of hours before then and now was the time to make those hours count.

Arriving at the next tall building downtown, she entered the lobby and confidently headed towards the elevator. Ascending the floors, watching as men and occasionally women exited at offices below where she was heading, some for other companies and others for Ewing Oil's many operations, the elevator eventually stopped at the floor she was looking for.

Approaching one of the two women sitting at side-by-side desks, she greeted her politely and made her request, "I'd like to speak with Mr Ewing please".

Nodding, the younger woman acknowledged her request with a question, "may I ask which Mr Ewing you'd like to speak with?"

Feeling a little silly that she'd forgotten that Ewing Oil was a family business, she clarified, "Bobby Ewing".

Looking at each other, the two secretaries appeared uncomfortable and the second asked, "do you have an appointment?"

"No, but it won't take very long", shaking her head, she didn't enjoy the feeling of being left out; clearly they knew something she didn't and it bothered her greatly that she didn't have the slightest clue what it was.

She knew of Bobby only from the references to him in articles she'd read on microfiche; he was Pam's surviving husband, the son of Jock Ewing, owner of Ewing Oil, and at least a few years back he'd been quoted as the director of public relations for Ewing Oil; if things had changed, they hadn't been documented in the media.

"I'm sorry, that won't be possible", apologising, the woman declined her request, giving her no reason for the decision.

Ready to reframe her request, she stopped and turned as she heard a man's voice behind her. "Diane…" starting to speak, he stopped just as quickly, looking her up and down and then changing his sentence to acknowledge her presence, "good afternoon".

"Good afternoon", smiling, she studied his face; he had to be in his mid-thirties at least, so he wasn't Bobby, but he definitely wasn't Jock, he had to be the other son the newspaper articles had mentioned, the vice president.

"May we help you?" sounding far more willing to assist her than either of the two secretaries had, his hospitality was a welcome change.

"Yes, I was hoping to speak to Bobby Ewing", repeating her request, she watched his face fall and knew at that moment that there was definitely something she wasn't aware of.

"He's not available at the moment, but I'm his brother. JR Ewing", regaining his composure, he held out his hand to introduce himself.

Taking his hand, she shook it and made his acquaintance, "Katherine Wentworth, nice to meet you".

"Likewise, now, Miss Wentworth, why don't we continue this discussion in my office", sliding his hand from hers, he gestured down the hall and then before she knew it, was escorting her out of the reception area.

She'd come to find Bobby Ewing, not JR Ewing, and she couldn't say yet whether JR could offer her anything worthwhile, but considering no one else was willing or available to assist her, he'd have to do.

To be continued…