by Diane Roads
They were listed as follows:
1 Black Coat XL
1 pair of Binoculars
1 Pen light
1 Black Bag (Large enough to hold a painting)
1 Duffel bag
1 Rope Ladder
1 Fishing Pole and Tackle Box.
He could figure out most of the other items, but the fishing pole and tackle? Then he remembered Millie say Mr. Skinner was here to do some night fishing. He must have taken it in case someone asked him about it all, but why did he need a rope ladder? Maybe he would find out this afternoon. He had a lot to do before he went over to the Twilliger's.
His first stop was Millie's. He figured that it was late enough that he wouldn't disturb anybody staying there, and Millie should be done with the breakfast crowd.
"Millie, I want the key to Mr. Skinner's room. And would you make up a bill for me and send it over to my office? I'll see to it that you get paid."
"Okay, but Mr. Skinner didn't make it home last night, or this morning."
"I know Millie, and if we did it by the book, he won't be back for ten to twenty years."
"Oh my! And to think, he was staying here! It just gives me shivers. Here's the key. Do you need anything else?"
"No, I'll send one of my men over later to box up all of his stuff."
Jasper went up the stairs to the second floor, and as he unlocked the door he said, "Well, what do you know?" There in the corner stood a fishing pole just like the one stolen and a tackle box next to it. He found a case under the bed with a layout of the Twilliger's house, and an auction bill from the auction house in New York.
He even found a copy of a sheet of one of the letters from George's daddy, Carl, describing the entrance to the tunnel, and how he happened on it. He said, “it was just a dirty old place, and you could only get to it from the house, because the ladder had broken a long time ago at the other end, but coming up to the house, there were steps.” He didn't even get a chance to tell Mr. Twilliger about it all. There wasn't anything but some old books and stuff down there, and it was real dirty. This was a copy of one of the letters George had given him to read. He wondered how Earl Scooter had managed to make a copy of it.
Jasper now knew where the rope ladder was. More pieces of the puzzle were falling into place. Earl knew about the tunnel in advance. He knew that he was going to need a ladder. It was time to close the door and go over to the hospital to see the Twilliger's, and talk to Carl Carter. He could give a little more insight into what was in that tunnel before Earl Scooter got to it.
Jasper didn't take the river route this time. He went directly to the Big City; he still had to cross the railroad tracks, but was grateful there was no train. He drove the additional 6 blocks, and went into the hospital. He stopped by to see Becky and the baby, and to grab Harry.
"Harry, I want you to come to the Twilliger's room with me and hear all I am about to say to them. Did you know we caught the guy who tried to do in Mr. Twilliger?"
"No!"
They walked into the Twilliger's room and were glad to see Carl was still there.
"Well, have you heard the news yet?"
Carl said, "George called early this morning, but he was so upset that I didn't get anything out of him. Something about you wanting to see the letters I wrote him… They might release Mr. Tom today or tomorrow, and I didn't want to leave the "Mrs." alone just in case, or I would have gone home."
"He said you caught the guy that tried to kill Mr. Tom, and that Rollo had stopped him from shooting you. That's about all I made sense of what he said, because he was saying something about phony FBI, and I didn't know what he was talking about. I told him I would be home later, and he could tell me all about it then. I want you to know he is a good boy, and he didn't have anything to do with all of this, Sheriff."
"I know he is Carl, so don't worry about it. I told the FBI that he didn't have anything to do with all events that happened, and they believed me, so everything is okay. But he was right about some phony FBI agents." Jasper told his story for everyone to hear.
"Well, Sheriff," said Mr. Twilliger. "I can add to that story, because I can remember what happened to me that morning. I remember walking down to the drug store to get Rollo one of those 2-foot long rawhide dog chews. I knew I was going to be gone a while, and I thought that would keep him occupied ‘til I got back. Well, remember, I told you I saw that man you keep calling Earl Skinner downtown. When I got home, I decided to shave my beard, and I had gotten some of that foam-in hair color, and I wanted to use it. After I was done, I took the rawhide dog chew out to Rollo. When I got out in the backyard, I saw that Earl Skinner again. We had some words about the Bruskey. The next thing I knew we were fighting and he took the dog chew away from me, and hit me on the head with it. Poor Rollo was raising such a fit because he was locked up and couldn't help.
Everything went black after that. All I remember is waking up covered up with dirt. There was a man there, and I had never seen him before. I had dug my way out partially, but couldn't remember anything at all. The man started to help me get out. I didn't know where I was, or who I was, so I just started walking along the river ‘til I got to the highway after he helped me out of the hole. That man started to follow me. He kept asking me if I wanted my coat back, and I said ‘no,’ that was the last I saw of him. Remember, I told you some trucker stopped on the highway and gave me a ride. He could see that I was in bad shape, and said something about taking me to the hospital. I remember getting there but that's it ‘til I woke up yesterday."
"If it hadn't been for Smokey, I would have never known you were missing, and Millie's fine help in keeping me posted on where Earl Skinner was, or if you prefer his other name he is known as Earl Scooter. And did you hear Quincy has asked her to marry him?"
"No, that's wonderful! We will have to do something nice for her."
"You were right about having selective memory. Part of this you already told me. Oh, and the man that helped you out of the hole is Anthony Pavarotti. He is a transient. He had your coat on when we found him. He pretty much told us the same story. He said he followed you and tried to give you back your coat, and you told him to keep it. It sounds like, if he hadn't shown up, you might not have gotten out of the hole.”
"I remember being real tired. I almost couldn't move my arms anymore. You’re right that I might not have made it out of the hole."
"Carl, what do you know about the tunnel he was in?"
"Well sir, a while back I was cleaning in the pantry and found out that the coat of arms moved and a door opened. When I looked down, there were steps leading down to a tunnel. It looked like it hadn't been used for a long time. In fact I was surprised it hadn’t caved in after all these years. It is not very sturdy down there."
"There was just some old books and stuff in there, didn't look like anything of any importance to me. I didn't spend any time at all down there, not with all those spiders. I almost didn't even go down the tunnel."
"I found out later that the other end went up a shaft that was out by the bushes. I always thought that was an old dried up well. Never knew it was a way into the house, not until that day when I clipped the lid with the tractor. The lid moved and my hat fell down the hole. You see, that was the hat that George had given me the only Christmas we ever had together. I didn't want to lose it. So I got a flashlight and ladder, and went back out. It wasn’t until then, when I found out that it was the other end of the tunnel. I didn't figure it would do anybody any good because the ladder was broken. There was no way to climb down, and it was real dark and damp down there. That is why I couldn’t understand why it didn’t cave in yet. There were no real support beams."
"So I just forgot about it, except, I did tell George about it when I was trying to think about something to write. Nothing ever happens around here. It's always so quiet, that sometimes it's hard to think of something to say. But I want you to know George didn't have anything to do with that. In fact, he has ne
ver even been down there. I would have never told him about it if I thought it would get him into trouble. I didn’t think about someone else reading his letters."
"I know, I know, Carl. We are going back out there at one o’clock this afternoon, and I wanted an idea of what was down there before Earl Scooter as we are calling him was in there. Thanks for the information."
Jasper and Harry stepped out of the room. "Jasper, I'd like to be there when you go down in the tunnel. This is history. I'll tell Becky and her dad that I am going to leave for a while, and will be back later."
"Are you sure? It's going to be very dirty down there. I don’t think the tunnel is very wide. If you are claustrophobic at all, it might not be the place for you. Aunt Mattie said there was some stuff left from when the Underground Railroad was going on. She was down there when she was a kid, and remembers seeing some things. Some of it is in this book she wrote over 20 years ago. She died a few years back, or I would have asked her some questions."
"Let me get some lunch, and then I'll be there at one o'clock. Claustrophobic, or not."
"Lunch! That reminds me, I haven't even talked to Sally. She probably heard the gunshots, and is worried about me. I had better go have lunch also, if I know what's good for me."
Back at Sally's café, Jasper marveled at how Sally made her customers feel warm and welcome. Going around filling up coffee cups, she didn't see Jasper slip into a booth. Everyone knew Sally always waited on Jasper, and was sweet on him. One of the customers pointed in his direction. Sally looked up, and her smile brightened. She turned to one of the waitress’ and told her to send over two cups of coffee and one Blue Plate Special. She knew whenever Jasper took a booth; he wanted to talk alone with her.
"Hi, Jasper, Honey, you doing okay today?"
"Yes Sally, you doing okay?"
"I am, now that you are here. Sara told me this morning that you were alright. I figured you were, or someone would have told me. The guys have always been real nice about that. I sent the Blue Plate Special over for you."
"We were at the church last night for the prayer meeting, and we heard gun shots going off. Brother Michael said everything must have been fine because we didn't hear an ambulance go by."
"He said someone must have tried to scare a noisy old owl off. He did a good job about calming us down, but now, really, tell me what happened last night."
"Well, basically, we caught the group of men that were involved with what had happened to Mr. Twilliger, and were part of an international art smuggling ring. The head of the smuggling ring was the cellmate of George Carter when he was in prison."
“You’re telling me that nice quiet man, son of Carl Carter was in on it all?! I can’t believe that!” Sally retorted.
“You are right; he wasn’t in on it at all. In prison there is not much going on, so when you get a letter everybody reads it. He let Earl Scooter read the letter, and Carl had talked about the Twilliger’s house. Some of the discoveries he had found out helped Earl get into the house. Neither George, or Carl, had any idea of what was going on.”
“See? I told you I was a good judge of character. I knew they were both good people. You didn’t lock them up did you? I haven’t seen any of them in here this morning.”
“No. They are still up at the hospital. Mr. Twilliger will probably get out today.”
Jasper finished telling her all of the details. When he got to the part where he told her about Rollo thwarting the bullet he heard a little "Thank You Lord, Oh, Thank You Lord." When he finished, she gave him a big hug and kiss.
"Now, on to the exciting part…"
"Exciting part? I would have thought a bullet whizzing past your ear was excitement enough, you mean there is more?!"
"There will be. I am going over to the Twilliger's this afternoon. We are going back into the tunnel to see what else is in there. Earl Scooter was down there, and who knows what he left in the tunnel. Plus, my Aunt Mattie wrote a book about our family history. She talked about the house and the tunnel. In it, she said there was some stuff from the Underground Railroad down there, and Carl Carter has been in there also. He confirmed what she had said. I can hardly wait until we get into it all.”
“I don’t understand why your Aunt Mattie would pick that house to write about,” questioned Sally.
“That goes back to something I never really found a reason to talk about. The house was built by my Great-great-grandfather, an abolitionist. My Grandfather lost it in the stock market crash of 1929. My family used to have money also, which is why so much of what you see is named Quagmire. My Grandfather bought it. Here I have been so busy with finding Mr. Twilliger that I don't even know what's been happening with you. Are you really doing okay?"
"Outside of a scare or two when guns shots went off, I think I will survive. I was going through some things looking for some letters. I did find this one I would like to read you. It is from my Uncle Paul, he could always make me laugh.
July 11, 1965 ‘Dear Sally Girl, Remember the old movie where this guy Jack says to Billy. “There is only one thing. Just one thing that is important. Out of all the world, there is only one thing that is really important.” Then Billy said to him, “What would that be?” Jack then says, “That's up to you. Whatever that one thing is.” That movie made me remember when the kids were young they wanted a cat. My wife took them down to the Humane Society to get a kitten. They found a very nice looking black and white kitten. I liked the kitten. Then about a year later a stray showed up, so we took it in. Then another one ended up at our house. Now we had three cats. As time went on, the kids grew up and moved out. I was left with all of these cats to take care of. I didn't mind the expense so much, but it was all the work that goes along with having three cats. I looked up to the sky one day with my hands raised and said. Lord, please, can you let me have this one thing, just this one thing; I want to live just one year cat free. Please just one year cat free. Well, the next week two of the cats just went off and died. That was last week. Now I have just one cat. I am doing everything I can to keep it alive. I'm not ready to die yet. When I made this bargain with God I wasn't wishing for anything to happen to them. But now that it has, I hope that God didn't misunderstand what I said. I don't want to live just one year after the cat dies. My daughter thought she would take care of the problem. She sent me a stuffed cat. She said it can't die. I don't think it's the same thing. This cat is no spring chicken. She is 16 years old. I am thinking about checking into a special diet for old age cats to help them live longer. If you have any suggestions let me know. Love Uncle Paul.’
Isn't that the funniest thing you ever heard?"
"How old did the cat live to be?"
"Oh the cat lived to be 22 years old."
"So the following year your Uncle Paul died?"
"Oh, no.”
"Wait a minute. Didn't I meet him about four years ago?"
"Yes, that was him. In fact he called me last night. He’s planning on opening something called the Last Chance. I don't know all the details, but he knows some guy by the name of Peter that is going to help him."
"I enjoyed the letter. It was a nice break in the middle of all of this. I'm sorry Sugar to be cutting this short, but I promise, I'm all yours on Sunday." He quickly finished his lunch, kissed her, and left.