Nowhere, Arizona Part 3

Jack silently handed Kip the folded note. Kip opened it up and read it. “So this is the farewell note from your folks, huh?”

“You’re pretty smart,” Jack answered sarcastically.

Kip nodded and folded the note back up. He sighed and looked out the window. “Yep, I see what you’re getting handed. Lots of talk about caring and loving you, but it doesn’t seem to take hold of you, does it?”

“Nope.”

Kip looked down. “Same with me. I was ten years old when my dad stood in the kitchen in front of the six of us kids and my ma, said he was leaving for another woman. Guess what? He did, never came back. I’m sixty-seven, and it still hurts, son.”

Jack looked up. “How’d you deal with it?”

Kip tapped the Bible. “Got me a Father, one who’d never leave. Only thing that kept me sane, boy. I’m not spiritualizing or preaching. I needed help, like you. Got me Jesus.”

Jack looked away. “Yeah, well, religion might be okay for you -“
“Hold your tongue and listen to me, “ Kip said with such force that Jack started. “Stop coming up with quick answers. Listen and look. Read that sentence your Uncle Bert highlighted with the crayon.”

Jack read it aloud. “His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace...’ crazy stuff. What’s it supposed to mean?”

Kip sat back, his fingers touching together lightly in tent-fashion as he spoke. “I did me some studying on this whenever your uncle mentioned it. This passage talks about a vision of Jesus, and a writer named John had this vision. Symbolism, and good stuff, too. You know what bronze feet meant? Metal that needed ‘cleaning.’Bronze had to be melted down, heated and re-heated until all the impurities were burnt out. That’s what made it so pure and valuable. They were doing that way back at the time Christ walked the earth, smelting the metal to make it stronger, better.”

Jack frowned. “Why are Jesus feet made that way?”

Kip leaned forward. “Get the parallel? Get the symbolism? Christ’s walk on this earth was full of suffering and hurt, more than you and me. Rejection, beatings, crucixion...it means if His steps were marked by days of pain, He can relate to the pain you’re going through right now. Who better to talk to you than someone who has been where you’ve been?” Kip sat back. “Worked for me, Jack. Kept me sane, and even more, gave me hope. Greater hope than I ever thought. Something that goes beyond this life.”

Jack leaned back and blew a slow long breath of air. “I appreciate this, Kip. This is a start.”

Kip nodded. “Yep. It’s a start. There was a Danish writer, name of Isak Dinesen, said something I’ll never forget. He said ‘God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road.’ We’ll get through this, you and me. Walk through the Bible. Okay? We’ll take it day-by-day, ask questions, get answers.” He slowly rose. “Put it in a pocket in your mind. You and me, we’re gonna talk some more.”

For the first time in a long time, Jack smiled. “Yeah, we’ll talk some more.”
The group entered the room, chattering once again. “Ah, friends, we found a break in the pattern. Some things that do not fit the scheme of the life of the meticulous Uncle Bert. Murray., if you will?”

Murray read dutifully from the pad of paper: “One roll-top desk, closed halfway, with three papers on the floor next to it. Three cars parked outside next to the Ferris wheel. Gate open next to the picnic area.”

“You did quite well for someone whose most intellectual reading are Game Boy manuals,” said Andy.

“Stick to the facts, friends,” said Hansen gesturing for everyone to be seated and closing the door to the room.

“All I know is that Kip and I got here and checked the house,” said Poli “ not wanting to bother Bert and Lea while they got ready for their trip. That’d be about six o-clock for me, later for Kip. Bert and Lea were in this room, watching TV while she cleaned up and he got his briefcase packed. I saw him come out and take the briefcase to the car.”

“That’s right,” agreed Kip. “Poli had phone me and told me to come up to Bert’s house, pick up a little extra cash for watching the home, but come inside down the hallway to the back kitchen for instructions, not to disturb Bert or Lea while they took a break to watch TV before they left. I was to go into the kitchen, have coffee and wait for Poli to come back from the Carousel and give me instruction as to watching the house.”

“Were you in the house whenever they were in this room?” asked Hansen.

“Yes,” said Kip, “I went by the closed door and I could tell that Bert was watching TV because he was switching channels. I’d known he had bad hearing and I could hear the volume out here in the hall. He was channel-surfing, no doubt. I could hear it.”

“Did you eat the jam and bread?” asked Andy.

Kip laughed. “Would have loved to, but you can ask my family doctor and anybody in town. Strawberries make me break out in hives, and that jam, I could tell, was homemade. No way I can even touch the stuff.”

“Ah! Then Bert is also allergic! That would be our break!” cried Murray.

“Nice try, wonder boy,” said Andy, “ but when I was working at the Carousel last week, I’d seen him eating a strawberry jam sandwich. Next thought, please.”

Jack stood up, went to the window and slid it open.

“Needing air, son?” asked Poli. “I’ll turn the air conditioning down some.”

“No, just needing to do this...” said Jack, leaning over out the window.

“Really, Jack, don’t take any drastic measures, life is too beautiful” said Hansen. “Besides, we’re on the ground floor, so the jump would be short.”

“Quit joking and call the police,” ordered Jack.

“Wonderful! I’ll do as you say,” said Hansen, punching the numbers to the cell phone. “But please make your explanation quick, for the police are not in the habit of following fables.”

Jack spun around. “Uncle Bert and Aunt Lea were abducted. Somebody must have been aware of the safe in the kitchen and the paper that would give the combination. That explains the desk being open. Uncle Bert and Aunt Lea have been missing much earlier than seven o’clock.”

Kip leaned back, interested. “But I came down the hall and heard them. I heard the channels changing, before Poli came and got me from the kitchen. Since the kitchen is across the hallway from the living room, I would have seen them leave early. I sat in that kitchen until Poli got me and sent me down the hill to post guard. That was at six-thirty, because I checked my watch.”

Jack pointed at the TV. “See the angle of the television to the window?”

Hansen nodded. “Yes, it faces the window, across the room. Why?”

Jack pointed to the window. “I bet a remote could change channels from that window. Someone could point the channel-changer from outside and give the impression that someone was in the room, changing channels.”

Andy scratched his head. “The door was closed, yes, and Kip was to sit right nearby, in the kitchen, well within hearing range. Good alibi. And they could give the impression that someone was here when actually they were gone.”
Poli waved his hands and stood up. “I see where this is going and I’m not going to get caught up in some fancy homeless kid’s imagination.”

“Please sit,” said Hansen, as he and Andy walked over to him. “Continue, Sherlock.”

“The first clue I got was the remote oon the kitchen floor, completely out of place. Then I got to thinking about the kitchen, besides the money. Uncle Bert likes jam, but wouldn’t leave a mess, being obsessive-compulsive. No way would he leave the jam opened and on the table. As for Aunt Lea, well, you can tell how neat a house she keeps, and the last room my mom checks before she leaves the house is the kitchen.”
“Very true,” said Hansen. “My mom double-checks every knob, drawer and corner in the kitchen before she leaves on a trip. Continue.”

Jack continued. “Kip is allergic to strawberries, so that leaves you, Poli. You ate the jam and bread, grabbing something to eat while you waited for Kip to arrive and help your alibi. When he came by the room, you had told him you were working on the carousel, but you were actually outside the house, leaning in the window and using the remote control to change channels as Kip went by. Kip thought they were watching television. My uncle and aunt weren’t in the room. You already had them abducted.”

“I’ll sue you for slander,” said Poli.

“Well, you could if I had no proof,” said Jack, turning to the others. “Notice that Poli offered to turn the air conditioning down when I went to the window? You will also notice something on the windowsill as I open it.”

Murray walked over and checked it carefully. “Small strawberry smudges! Wonderful! Fingerprints made to order!”

Poli started to bolt but Hansen and Andy performed an NFL-quality double-team tackle.

“The picnic gate’s open out there, I believe the boys had mentioned,” Kip said.

“Yes, and I have no doubt that there is a storage shed on the picnic grounds,” said Jack. “Poli took them over there in the car, dumped them in the shed, padlocked it and parked the car in the wrong place. Too obvious. Oh , and there’ll be fingerprints on the steering wheel, the shed doors...”

“There is a storage shed. Yahoo! I’m off to rescue the missing uncle and aunt,” yelled Murray. “I’ll cell-phone you when I get them freed.” He ran out the door.

Kip nodded. “Poli waited until Kip was down the hill, then used the stolen combination, and cleaned the safe of the money. You boys, however, arrived too early, causing him to retreat back to his post. When Jack arrived, he took a shot at a window, hoping to scare you boys away, but you stayed around. He had to bluff his way around and act like it was an accident.”

Poli’s head dropped. He was beaten. “More than fifteen thousand dollars,” he moaned.

Hansen shook his head. “Very meticulously planned but weak in the conclusion that you could outsmart the Wizards of Mofarse.”

Jack laughed again. “The Wizards of Nowhere, Arizona.”

Hansen’s phone rang, and he called out with Murray’s message: “Uncle Bert and Aunt Lea are shaken but safe. Murray sees the police cars coming up the hill.” He grinned at Jack. “Your mystery’s solved.”

Jack turned and picked up the Bible, looking at the passage in Revelation. “Not all my mysteries, not just yet.” He glanced over at Kip. “But this final one is one I think I’m going to enjoy solving.”

He took out the note and placed it in the Bible. Yes, you can get the answers to this bigger mystery. Find a Home beyond here...and have a home right here as well. No more wandering, getting shuffled around. You can come out of this with a home. A place.

And that place is a great place called Nowhere, Arizona.