(The 5th in a 8 part series.)
The sheriff had an excited look of anticipation as he hung up the phone. "Gloria wrote a letter to her sister!" he exclaimed. "She's on her way with it now. It'll take her about a half hour, so I'll call Red Hawk, and invite him to the Grand Opening." The phone rang, and the sheriff found himself talking to a representative of the university. "Yes, that will be fine," he said, "And I'll be bringing along a couple of people who are helping in my investigation." Hanging up, he showed a glimmer of hope for the first time since the case began. "Now, maybe we're going to get someplace."
The clock ticked on, and everyone got antsy. "I expected her to be here by now," Waters said, showing some alarm. "I never feel comfortable with anything in the Shepherds' case." The sheriff agreed. "I hope nothing has gone wrong. I'll try calling her cell phone to make sure." He punched in her number, and began to fidget as he received no answer. "She's not answering, he said nervously. Les, lets go see what's going on. Pastor, will you hold things down while we check?" Waters answered in the affirmative, and the two lawman hastily departed.
The road would take them right by the Shepherd place, noted Les. "I'm beginning not to like this road,"he said. "I must admit it's not my favorite drive, either,"responded the sheriff. They had gone about half way to the Shepherd property when Les let out a whistle. "Isn't that Gloria's sister's car pulled over to the side of the road up ahead?" he asked. "Sure is," the sheriff answered worriedly. "And there's a man and another car there, too." As they pulled up to the two vehicles, they were relieved to see the man was Jess Gardener, the Shepherd's neighbor. He was pouring a small can of gasoline in the sister's car. "Oh, sheriff, I'm so sorry to worry everybody, but I can't remember a thing after getting that letter. I forgot to get gas when I left home this morning, and I forgot my cell phone. Lucky for me, Mr. Gardener came along, and has gas available at his ranch. I should have had him call you so you wouldn't worry."
" Well, all's well that ends well," the sheriff said, "And we're much
obliged to you, Jess, for being Johnny on the spot." Jess said he was
happy to be of service. "How are you coming with this case?" "Up to now, not very well," the sheriff answered, "But we hope this little lady has a lead for us. We'll keep everyone posted." They all returned to their respective vehicles and headed to town. Les served as chauffeur of the sister's car because she was now in a state of high nervousness.
The trio reached the office just as Red Hawk drove up. They exchanged
greetings and excitedly entered the office. They told Water what had
transpired, and gathered around a table as the letter was placed in front of the sheriff. It was in a brown envelop. The sheriff opened the envelop carefully and extracted a single piece of paper, folded neatly. He opened it, and there was a single sheet of white unruled paper. The message was brief.
"Hi, Sis.
Don't worry. We are safe and fine. Our animals are fine, too. Sorry we didn't have a chance to say goodbye. Looking forward to seeing you. Keep the faith. Big hugs all around,"
Gloria
While there was some relief in the air after the message was read,
there was also a loud groan at the lack of information. "We still have no idea of where they are," complained Les. "Well, maybe we do," responded the sheriff. "We have the envelop, and if it was mailed, we'll at least know here they were. That could be a starting point." He retrieved the brown envelop from the middle of the table. Then it was his turn to whistle. "This letter was mailed from Israel!" the sheriff exclaimed, unbelieving. Everyone looked stunned. "How did they get to Israel, and where are the animals?" Waters asked. He picked up the envelop and examine it closely. He corresponded to some Christians in Israel occasionally, so he was somewhat familiar with the mail. Now he became the third whistler in the group. "This is not possible," he exclaimed.
"What do you mean?" questioned the sheriff, who by now was becoming
used to impossibilities. "What's impossible about an envelop?" "The
cancellation stamp shows the time and date!" exclaimed Waters. "This
letter was mailed before the Shepherds went missing, and it was mailed
from Israel as well. This is a physical impossibility. "Are you absolutely
certain of this?" the sheriff asked. "Yes, sir," Waters said. "We know
Gloria called her sister last Saturday night. Right?" Gloria's sister, replied, "Yes, that's right." "Then she couldn't have mailed this letter from Israel if she was still here, right?"
Red Hawk had been thoughtfully quiet throughout the letter opening, and didn't seem too perturbed about the turn of events. "If the situation cries out to be spiritual rather than physical, we should consider all possibilities," he said. If you've ever been party to a miracle, you know we don't usually understand what happened. We have developed all kinds of science, except in the field of cognitive understanding. What we now consider "ordinary" science such as television was unknown years ago. When you said pictures were transmitted through thin air, people laughed. We've been to the moon, but there's a lot we don't know."
Waters agreed with Red Hawk." I've been a Christian preacher for many
years, and yet I find more and more believers in God pray without really
accepting positive answers. They say they are Christians, but they don't
have confidence and belief in Christ. They are like doubting Thomas, and
have to be physically shown to believe. I have also witnessed a couple
of miracles, so I know anything is possible. Still, we need to try and find
the answer to this puzzle."
The sheriff pounded the table with his fist and declared, "This case
is beyond me, and I'm calling in the FBI." I believe that's a good idea, Ben," agreed Red Hawk. "And I need to have a private personal talk with you about something from the Reservation." "Oh, my God!" exclaimed the
sheriff. "It's a good thing I'm bald and don't have any hair to turn gray!"
(To be continued)
Rev. Walbear
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