by Diane Roads
CHAPTER 15
With all that had happened, Jasper still could not sleep past 7:00 am. He was at the station at 8:00 am. Sara was already in place doing her thing, making coffee and cleaning up after the men.
"Jasper, Mort called, and said 'Your out of town map has been staying at Millie's?' He said you would know what he was talking about, and George Carter dropped off these letters for you. He wasn't making any sense. What happened here last night? It looks like you had a big party here, with all of the coffee cups and such lying around."
"Sorry about that, Sara, I'll make it up to you. How about I take your next turn cleaning the bathroom?"
"Oh, that's okay, I don't mind, but you sure do look like you could use a cup of coffee. I could go over to Sally's and get some donuts too if you would like?"
"I would like! Thanks Sara, I don't know what I would do without you, but first let me fill you in. Turns out our Mr. Earl Skinner was really Earl Scooter. We caught him and two others the FBI had been looking for."
Jasper filled Sara in on the rest of the details. She ‘oohed’ when he told her about the Van Gogh. When he got to the point about the gun going off she gasped, and plopped down in a chair. When he was done, he asked a pale looking Sara if she was okay. She nodded.
Sara got up slowly and said, "I'll go over and get those donuts now. The fresh air will be good."
"Take your time. I'll be here for a while."
Jasper called Mark to thank him and his men for all their fine help. "Hi Mark, I know you're a little bit of a history buff, and we are going to be back at the Twilliger's to check out the tunnel at 1:00 today. According to the book my Aunt Mattie wrote, there is some stuff down there from the Civil War days. I knew the house had been used as a safe-house at one time during the 1850's. I am not sure what we'll find, but you're welcome to join us if you want."
"Want?! You say one o'clock? I'll be there. Oh the civil war days! This ought to be very interesting. Count me in!" Mark's mind was just rolling with thoughts of the days of the Civil War. This was the chance of a lifetime to see history first hand. He had a hard time concentrating on the report he was working on. The minutes seemed to go by like hours until 1:00.
Sara poked her head in the office, “Sheriff we just got a call on the third line. I guess the phones are still messed up, because the main line isn’t working. Anyway, this guy got our number from the caller ID in his friend’s house. He said someone keeps calling the number of the house he’s been checking in on from time to time. He wanted us to call the guy, his friend, on his cell phone if we have anymore questions. His phone number goes with the tags that were on the car Earl Scooter had. Turns out the guy who lives there is out of town. In fact, he has been out of the country since a week ago Friday, and he didn’t take his car. He won't be back for another week. I got his name and the number of where he is staying. He is in Mexico as we speak. The friend checked, and the car is missing. Do you want me to call the number?"
"No, I will give the information to the FBI. They can follow up on it. Thanks Sara."
That answered the question about whose car Earl was driving, and how he got it.
Jasper figured he would read the letters that George had sent over. They would make the time go by faster. The box must have had at least one hundred letters in it. Jasper was glad that Carl was not big on writing long letters. He decided to pull out the letters that had to do with this last year first, which was when Earl Scooter had been George’s cell mate.
