Jarod was dressed in khaki shorts, a white tee shirt, and
hiking boots. He was on his knees carefully brushing dirt
away from what appeared to be pottery. They had been
excavating a Indian mound for the past week. Serveral
beautiful atifacts had been recovered. They supposed to be
given to the tribune for a museum. Unfortunately several
pieces had been stolen from the expedition.
Jarod had decided to investigate, he had assumed that someone
was selling the artifacts and making money off the Indian's
history. It aggravated him for such an injustice to occur,
and he intended to find out who was behind it and have
everything returned to the rightful owners.
A pretty dark haired girl joined him at the site. She was
dressed similiarly to him, her long hair pulled back in a
ponytail. She wore little makeup and her natural beauty shown
through. she helped Jarod with the pottery as they gently
removed it from the ground.
"Hello, Annabelle." Jarod smiled as he spoke.
"Hello." she said energetically. "This is beautiful piece.
Lets hope we can get this where it belongs, I wish we knew
who was stealing from the site." she said with a frown. She
was just as intent as Jarod was getting the stolen pieces
back to the Indians.
"What do you have there?" asked Professor Pruitt. He was a
handsome middleaged man with a touch of grey at his temples.
He was very knowledgeable about the site, unfortunately he
had trouble with antifacts disappearing on his last couple of
expeditions. This had caused a few rumors.
Jarod handed him the piece of pottery. He took it gently and
throughly examined it. "This is a wonderful piece, it will be
wonderful for the museum." he said with a smile.
"If we get it there." mumbled Annabelle under her breath, she
wasn't sure she trusted Professor Pruitt.
That evening Jarod and Annebelle helped the Professor pack up
the pottery and some other valuable pieces to be shipped to
the museum site. A courier would pick up the package in the
morning.
Around one am, Jarod heard a noise, he crawled out of his
tent to investigate. He saw someone running along the
perimeter of the site. They were carrying a package, It
looked like the package they had packed earlier in the day.
Jarod went to building where antifacts were stored. Sure
enough the package was gone. He wasn't surprised. He decided
that this was an inside job.
The next morning he reported the theft to Professor Pruitt
and what he had seen. "Did you get a good look at the guy?"
asked the Professor.
"No, it was too dark." replied Jarod.
"What happened?" asked Annebelle as she walked up to Jarod.
Jarod explained about the missing antifacts. Annabelle looked
angry. She gave Professor Pruitt an odd look and went off to
breakfast.
Jarod noticed the look, he needed to talk to Annabelle. she
obviously had some thoughts on the thefts. He went to join
her at the breakfast table.
"Do you mind?" he asked as he sat down next to her.
"No, not at all." she replied with a smile.
"Annabelle, you don't trust Pruitt do you? Do you think he is
somehow related to the thefts?" asked Jarod in a quiet voice.
"No, I don't and yes, I do." she answered him, then added,
"He has had pieces disappear on his last three sites, don't
you think thats a little bit fishy? There have been rumors
but no hard evidence on him."
Meanwhile back at the Centre, Broots had news For Miss
Parker. A huge donation to an Indian tribe in New Mexico had
been made with the Centre's money. Jarod must be in New
Mexico!
Broots told Miss Parker what he knew, "Lets go. Get Sydney!"
she told him in him with ice in her voice. "This time Jarod,
you are mine!"
Broots, Sydney, and Miss Parker drove up to the expedition
site. They had read in the paper about the thefts of Indian
property and it didn't take a genius to know that "goody two
shoes" Jarod would be helping find the stolen pieces and
returning them.
"He is such a sucker for a sob story." thought Miss Parker.
As they pulled up to the site Miss Parker asked Sydney, "Why
do you suppose he cares if they get their artifacts back? Its
just a bunch of old pottery and arrowheads. It's not life
threatening."
Sydney tried to explain it to her,"Miss Parker, Jarod doesn't
have a past, well not one that he knows the details of. Its
important to him that he help preserve their history, that no
one steal it from them. Just as his was stolen from him. Can
you understand that?" even as he asked he knew she couldn't
understand, her father had brought her up so coldly, she had
a hard time anything that required emotion.
She just shook her head and said, "Whatever."
They got out of the car and went to intoduce themselves to
Professor Pruitt.They decided to tell him they were with a
company who wanted to make a donation, they knew that would
get his attention. Miss Parker looked around the site for
Jarod as Sydney and Broots gave their spiel to the Professor.
She spotted him at the mound, on his knees he was carefully
digging. "He's gotten quite tan." she thought to herself. A
dark haired girl was beside him, they were smiling and
talking to each other. She quickly decided she did not
like this girl. She watched a few moments and waited for
the girl to leave.
When Annabelle left, Jarod turned around to find Miss Parker
and her gun behind him.
"Okay, Jarod. This time you are mine. Come on. Lets go." she
motioned with the gun.
Annabelle had seen Miss Parker and came up behind her. She
hit her on the head with a rock. Miss Parker crumbled to the
ground. Jarod looked at Annabelle surprise on his face. "Lets
go." she said. He felt Miss Parker pulse, it was strong she
would be okay.
Annabelle took his hand and they got into a jeep. Jarod drove
them into town. They went to the public library, and went to
the internet room. Jarod and Annabelle took turns searching.
Jarod finally found what he wanted. One person had been with
Professor Pruitt in all his digs--Samuel Griffin. Mr. Griffin
also had a criminal record, he had fenced stolen merchandise
in the past, he had served jail time for it.
Annabelle and Jarod agreed he must be fencing the artifacts
far Pruitt. They hatched a plan to catch him in the act.
The two of them cautiously drove back into the camp. There
was no sign of Miss Parker and company.
Nonchalantly Annabelle and Jarod sought out Professor Pruitt.
He was wrapping up some beautiful pieces of jewelry that had
been excavated earlier in the day.
"Its beautiful." said Annabelle.
"Yes, it is." said Professor as he put the last piece in the
safe. "Well, thats that." he said as he locked the safe.
Jarod waited until dark and went back into the building where
the safe was. He hid carefully waiting for Professor Pruitt.
His waiting paid off. Professor Pruitt crept in and went to
the safe. He opened it and pulled out the wrapped jewelry.
Samuel Griffin soon joined him. Unbeknowst to them, Annabelle
was taping the whole scene through the window.
As the Professor Pruitt handed the last item to Samuel. Jarod
stepped out. "What are you doing with those?" he asked.
The Professor was startled, "Jarod, why are you here?"
"Justice, I just want to make sure these go where they
belong." he said with a smile.
"You're the one whose stealing these artifacts aren't you?"
"I think thats your word against mine." replied the Professor.
"No, I don't think so." said Annabelle as she entered the
building with her video camera.
Professor drew a gun from his pocket. "I'll take that." he
told Annabelle as she reluctantly handed over the camera.
"Now what to do with the two of you. Well, the site can be
dangerous at night. There could be an accident!" he told them
an evil look on his face.
Miss Parker then burst threw the door waving her gun. she
looked at the Professor and said pointedly, "I'm the only one
who gets to hold a gun on him. Now drop yours."
The professor dropped his gun. Miss Parker headed toward
Jarod. Annabelle picked up the gun and pointed at Miss
Parker, the Professor, and Mr. Griffin. "Go Jarod, get out of
here. I'll take care of this."
Jarod smiled at her widely. "I guess you can. I've called the
police earlier, they should be coming soon." Just then the
sirens sounded. "I've go to go" he gave Annabelle a quick
hug and left.
Miss Parker looked at Annabelle as Jarod left. "Okay, Missy,
thats twice you're messed with me. I don't suggest going for
a third try." she said her eyes piercing through Annabelle.
The police arrived and hauled everyone off including Miss Parker.
Several weeks later Annabelle received a call from Jarod. He
was congratulating her. She was now the manger over th site
and she was making sure that every artifact went where it
belonged.
After getting out of the police clutches Miss Parker was
surprised to find a package waiting for her. It was of course
from Jarod. She opened the box to find a pretty piece of
pottery. The note read...
I thought you'd like this. Its a replica of the real thing of
course, but it is full of history. I like history, I'd
especially like to know about mine. Wouldn't you like to know
about yours? Till we meet again.
Jarod
The End