by Diane Roads
"Dear George, As usual Quagmire is quiet, even more so, now that the Twilliger's are out of town. Rollo usually sleeps in the house with the Twilliger's. When they are out of town he sleeps in his room in the garage. I was getting ready to put him in there when I noticed the furnace in the garage had gone out. Some switch had burned out. I didn't want to leave Rollo in the house alone, so I brought him up to my room. It was kind of nice having him with me. It reminded me of a dog I had as a kid. He was just a mutt, but he was my mutt.
Oh, remember I told you that last month Mr. Tom had found the third Brusky he had been looking for? Well, he told me that a lady who lives in New York might have the fourth one. Rumors have it that she has it in a summer house overseas somewhere. She is going to sell the house, and ship all of her art work to New York. Some time later this year she will have big auction house in New York to sell her art. Mr. Twilliger thinks he has a good chance of getting it. I looked it up on the internet, and the Round Tree Auction House is a real fine house. I told Mr. Tom that he had better make sure he had plenty of money with him that day. They really do big business.
Remember what I told you George? Well I talked to Mr. Tom, and he said that it would fine if you came here to live. They have a nice church here, if you would like to go. I know that you haven't been in a long time. You don't have to, but would you please just think about it for your old dad. They really won't judge you because you have been in prison. They care about the person, not the crime.
Son I do love you, and I will write soon again soon. Love, Dad.”
Jasper didn't like reading people private letters, even if he did have permission to do so. But the proof that he needed seemed to be in the letters, so Jasper continued to read.
"Dear George, Something finally happened. You won't believe what I found. Mrs. Twilliger had asked me to clean some things off the top shelf in the pantry. There is a coat of arms on the back wall of the pantry. It always looked kind of funny being there. You won't believe this, I bumped it, and it moved. It slid to the side, and the back wall opened, just like a door. I looked down there, and there were steps. I went and found a flashlight, and then I went to check it out. It was a real long tunnel. It looked like it went out to the windrow of trees maybe. I just went into the tunnel a little ways. There was a box with some old books in it. I didn’t find anything else down there. I couldn't imagine what the tunnel was for. I figured maybe it was some kind of a cellar they used in the old days. It gets better George. I found something else. I was out back of the house, by that old windrow of trees. I have been by that spot a million times, and never thought much about that old well that was there. It must have dried up years ago. At least, that is what I always thought until today.
I was mowing out there, and forgot it was even there. The lid was so covered in grass. My tractor clipped it just as a big wind came up. My hat blew off and fell in the hole. Well, that was the hat you had given me that one Christmas we tried to get together years ago. I didn't want to lose it, so I went back to the house and got a flashlight. Then I went back out. It wasn't nearly as deep as I thought. I looked down, and there was my hat. I got the ladder from the tool shed and put it in the hole, and climbed down. There was a ladder already in there, but it was so old I didn't trust it. That is all I would need, to fall down there, and no one know where I was.
It's a good thing I am not squirmy with all of those spiders and such. There was a tunnel that went all the way to the house. I could find the door but wasn't sure how to open it. I finally figured it out. There was a chunk of wood on the middle of the door. It slide to one side, and then the door opened. Just like the coat of arms in the pantry.
You can imagine the surprise I had when I found myself standing in the pantry of the kitchen. On the other side of the chunk of wood was the coat of arms. I looked it up in a book and it is the Quagmire coat of arms. You know, I have cleaned that coat of arms for years and never knew it moved. I was going to tell Mr. Tom, but Mrs. Twilliger was always around when I thought about it. They were out of town when I found it. I didn't want to scare her by thinking that someone could get into the house.
I went back out, and covered up the hole just to make sure I didn't run over it again. Now that I know where it is, I think I will put a picket fence around it. I don't want someone falling into it, or maybe crawling in the tunnel. I can’t believe how long the tunnel has been there, and no one has ever noticed it before. It sure has been a well kept secret. I think if Mr. Tom would have known about it he would have told me, but then maybe the people he bought the house from never knew about it, so he had no way of knowing about the tunnel.
Son, I keep praying for you. The Lord loves you. You do what they tell you, and it won't be long before you are home with me. Love Dad.”
Jasper had a lot of paperwork to go over before he went up to the hospital. This was the boring part of the job. In his inbox he found one report that interested him, a list of items thought to be missing from the sporting goods store the morning it was robbed. Some more things were falling into place.
