by Diane Roads
"That must have been what we heard. Keep me posted."
The phone rang again.
"Hi, Sheriff, this is John at the sporting goods store. I just showed up and my back door has been jimmied."
"Did you go inside yet?"
"No, I figured I'd better call you first. It is standing open."
"Good thinking. Wait before you go inside. I'm on my way." Jasper hung up the phone. "Want to go play a little more policeman as Ms. Brolin thinks you do? Come on, we're heading over to the Riverside Sporting Goods store. The back door has been jimmied open."
The two men zipped out the door; Jasper wished he had Smokey to go with them, but they didn’t have enough time to go get him. Sara was coming in as they were pulling out.
"There might be someone over at the sporting goods store. John said the back door has been jimmied. We're going to go check it out," shouted Jasper
Both men had their guns drawn as they met John around the back.
"I've been watching, but nobody has come out and I haven't heard anything," said John.
"Stay back and we'll go in," cautioned Jasper.
Jasper and Mark were glad a gun did not greet them as they stepped in the back door. The back room was full of boxes going 8 feet up against the back wall. Jasper turned to look behind the back door to be greeted by a stuffed Raccoon sitting on top of a box. They checked out a supply room and then the back office. The place was empty.
"Okay, John, you can come in now. It's all clear. See what all they took just don't touch anything," replied Mark.
John's first trip was to the cash register. It was open. The room looked as though it had been ransacked by a wild animal, coats and pants and hats were all over the place. One mallard duck decoy was sitting in the middle of the pile of clothes. One of the glass display cases was broken; it had an assortment of knives and other hunting gear in it. Behind the cash register the glass was broken where the binoculars were kept.
John was heard saying. "The only thing I keep in the cash register is $75.00 to start the day, and it's gone. The good news is that the guns were in the vault hidden behind this poster on the wall. It will take a while to check and see if anything else is gone."
As Jasper observed the room he said. "Don't touch anything until Mark says its okay."
"No problem, I should have the information later today," said John.
Jasper was back at the station going over the list of names that Carl dropped off from Mrs. Twilliger. A couple of them that Jasper tried were on the route to Gulf Seas Imports, but no one had heard from Mr. Twilliger. He didn't really expect anyone to have seen him because his car had been found at Jonesy’s.
Then he started on the local list, but didn’t find anything there. He even took a long shot and called the Shreveport hospital, but no such luck. The paperwork was really getting to Jasper, and he needed a break, no matter how small it was. He thought the drive to the Big City might help. He needed to see Harry and his family, and while he was there check on the John Doe that Harry was talking about. That was a real long shot. On the way back he would stop by and see Mark. He should be finished with what he was working on. Hopefully, he would find a workable match.
The phone started to ring again. He looked down at the phone and saw that the two other lines were lit up. Sara must have been busy. Jasper answered, "Quagmire Police Department."
"Hello Jasper, I have some bad news to report. When I got to Helen Brolin's house she wasn't there, so I took a look around, and found her trying to climb a tree after some cat. She slipped and fell, and now she has a broken wrist. It is just a hairline fracture. I did bring her to the Big City hospital while we try to regulate her medication. We got her all settled in a room or at least we thought, next thing the nurses knew, she was gone. We combed the hospital and found her somewhere she shouldn't have been. She kept saying it's him; it's the dark haired man. She was so loud and wouldn't stop, so we gave her something to calm her down. I don't know what to make of it." Doc Lewis said.
"I might, I am on my way up there in just a little bit. Do you think I might be able to talk to her?"
"She is resting right now, but should be awake when you get here. I don't see any reason why not. I will be around just in case. The nurses know how to get me if there are any problems. It's a good thing I stopped by when I did. Who knows what she might have done. Oh, and I have an unloaded shotgun in my trunk. I had to unload it before I put it in. I'll drop it off at the station when I go to Quagmire tomorrow. I’m glad I came when I did. She might have really tried to shoot someone."
"Okay, and thanks Doc, I will see her in a little bit. Thanks for stopping by to see her. Big City doctor playing country doctor... That’s something you don't see everyday."
"Well Helen is kind of special to me. She was a close friend of my mom. My Mom would have stopped by to check up on her when she was alive. If she needed anything medically mom would let me know. That went on for years and years. I can remember going out there when I was just a little kid. When I became a doctor it seem kind of strange at first, but then I got used to doctoring people I had known for a while."
"Helen is very lucky to have someone like you in her life."
"I just wish I could get her to move into the city. They have nice retirement homes here that she could live very comfortable in, but she won't hear of it. She has lived on that property all of her life, she says, and nothing is going to blast her out of there. She would say…'them's my woods.' It would make her mad to even think about moving. I have a nurse check on her once a week. She would fill her pill case, and so far she has been taking them." You could hear a pager going off in the background as Doc Lewis said "Goodbye."
Jasper had a quiet moment, something he hadn't had in a few days. His thoughts went to the Serenity Prayer, something that always put him at peace. He walked out with it on his mind and headed toward the Big City as he said.
"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change"
So far he couldn't change the pain Mrs. Twilliger was suffering, and he couldn't change the weather conditions. The sky was still so hazy, and not fit to breathe, and he appreciated the men and women working in these conditions.
"Courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
He couldn't take away her pain, but he could find her husband. At least he could try. Some little voice in his head said "you will find him alive, and it will be all right." Whenever Jasper heard that voice he knew God was talking to him. He was so glad he had taken the time to listen. Otherwise he might not have heard that message. He hoped that Helen Brolin would be okay, and that she heard from the same God that everyone else did and he was grateful for the extra help in the search.
"Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time."
With all the money and love the Twilliger's had, it hadn't changed a thing. He was still missing and Jasper at that point vowed not to take his life for granted or anyone else's.
"Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace. Taking as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will."
He did feel peace because through all of this the Lord was with him every step of the way.
"That I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with Him forever in the next."
He took comfort in the fact that Mrs. Twilliger said Mr. Twilliger was a strong christian. He knew God was looking out for him, and Jasper had a peace about him in the midst of all the turmoil that had been going on.