Letters From the Grave

my house and come live down here. We’d have a lot of cash and could even buy a place on the water, if you wanted. Between your Army retirement, my pension, and our home equities, we could really live comfortably.”

  Both were smiling at the prospects shaping up. He said, “You’d give up teaching?”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t have to. Each year, the kids are the same, just different names. I can teach anywhere. It’s a great gig, summers off, Christmas vacation, all that. You could even keep flying if you wanted. Or we could just enjoy retirement at a very early age.”

  “Wow. Some conditions you have, lady. When can I start?” She smiled and beckoned him to keep walking.

  They walked back to the hotel slowly and had a drink on the lanai before midnight. Both savored the sea air and the special memory they would have of this day forever.

  As they got ready for bed she said, “By the way, in my first marriage – I proposed.”

  Released

  Jake had never been happier. Julie had experienced the joys of love twice before, but never with more intensity than with him. They planned a fall wedding. There was no rush. It would take time to reconcile their two properties and make retirement plans for her. She might complete one more year of teaching, then move in the summer to Louisiana.

  She went back to Mineral Springs happy to be with her friends, some of whom she’d known since childhood. She had one fleeting moment, thinking about leaving a community she’d lived in all of her life, except for two years away at college. But Louisiana was still close enough to visit. Her friends could visit, and so could she. Paul would be missed for the rest of her life, but she knew he would have approved of Jake. She had no regrets. They’d had a wonderful life together. Now it was important that she continue the rest of hers. She was still young by modern standards. If sixty was really the new forty, she was only in her thirties.

  Jake wanted to move out of his house immediately. Once Julie agreed to marry him, he couldn’t wait to start their life together. Some of his male friends never married and would never marry. He wasn’t like them. He had gone through a dark period that had lasted much too long, but it was behind him. Now he just wanted to be out of the man-cave he’d developed and start a real life. His house was for sale, and he was spending his free time fixing and painting parts that he’d neglected over eight years. It seemed like he’d just moved in, but he’d lived there since retiring from the Army. Julie was right. They could live on his retirement and hers if they wanted. Jake was a Lieutenant Colonel when he retired and got a decent check every month, over four thousand dollars. He never thought about it, because it all went automatically into investments. Some went into gold coins and some into mutual funds. He hadn’t paid much attention, but his stock portfolio was worth over a quarter million most of the time, depending on the market. The house wasn’t worth much, and probably wasn’t the kind of place a senior military officer should be expected to be living in. It was time to live properly, especially with a new bride. When he wasn’t fixing things to sell the house, during his free time he was scouting areas along the Gulf Coast for them to buy. Dwellings had only been a place to sleep and stay dry over his entire life. Now it meant something quite different, something special. He was excited.

  This time, he was looking for a place for Julie, not just for himself. For married couples, the house really belonged to the wives. Husbands just lived there. That was okay with him. He wasn’t in a big hurry. It would be months before she moved down. He knew it would be hard on her and he didn’t want to push, but he was also anxious to get their lives together started.

  That night, sitting alone in his living room, she called, and they talked for an hour. Two couples had looked at her house. She confirmed that it was a desirable community, and they both agreed that she shouldn’t be rushed to sell it. Julie and Paul had invested their free time improving the house since purchasing it twenty-five years earlier. Someone would get more value than expected, even if they paid top dollar. They were talking about wedding venues when Jake’s phone beeped, indicating another call. He looked at the display. “Honey, I gotta take this. I’ll call back soon.”

  He pressed the answer key, “Hello, this is Jake.”

  “Hi, Jake. You sound cheerful. This is Tibbs at the police department.”

  Jake sat upright, “Detective, Tibbs! It’s been a while. How’s it going?”

  “Jake, I guess you know I wouldn’t be making a social call.”

  “Yeah, so, what’s up?”

  “Will Ryan was released on parole today.”

  Jake remembered his threats. “So, what does that mean for me?” He hadn’t even thought about Ryan in weeks.

  Tibbs explained. “Jake, this is just a courtesy call. Since you and Ryan have a history, I wanted to give you a heads-up that he would be back in Lafayette.”

  “What?”

  “Part of the parole process is to release the criminals gradually back into society. Ryan is assigned to a halfway house. He’s under a case worker who will keep a close eye on him. They’re supposed to look for work and stay in view of the case worker all the time. They really don’t get freedom as you and I know it.”

  “How long does it last?”

  “Technically, it lasts till the end of his regular sentence, so about a year from now.”

  “Should I be worried about him?”

  “I don’t think so, but you should be cautious anyway.”

  “I went to see him at Angola.”

  “Why’d you do that, Jake?”

  “I wanted some answers, maybe get my other coins back.”

  “Did he lead you back to Jones?”

  “Yeah, kinda, indirectly. But he also made some threats.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He’s fixated on my gold coins. He thinks he can scare me out of them.”

  Tibbs sounded concerned. “Sometimes these perps get on a one-lane track and can’t get off. Even if there are thousands of other targets to choose from, they go back to the one they know best. They feel entitled in some way after being caught and punished.”

  “Yeah, that’s basically what he said. He said he’d earned it.”

  “Yeah, well. I wouldn’t get too concerned. We, on the force, get threats all the time. I don’t know of any that ever got carried out, but it would be best to be on guard for a while. Time usually reduces the threat, so be careful right now. I’ll talk to his case officer and let him know about the threat.”

  Jake thought about it. “No, I’d rather you didn’t. This guy’s pretty strung out, and he might act on his impulses if someone challenges him on this. Just let him chill. I’ll be careful.”

  “All right, Jake. Whatever you want.”

  “Thanks for the warning, Tibbs, I’ll be watching for him.”

  Halfway House

  Processing out was easy, although the prison “counselor” advised him to get his hair cut and to shave clean. He told her he had recreated himself in the image of Our Lord Jesus Christ. She didn’t like the joke, but they couldn’t force him to clean up his appearance. He didn’t have any serious plans about job hunting anyway. She tried not to show her fear of him, or disgust, he couldn’t tell which it was. She did this with every exiting inmate, maintaining an iceberg chilled demeanor.

  “Mr. Ryan, you’re semi-free at this point. You will be required to live in a place in a civilian community under strict supervision. You will have $200 per week allowance for up to five weeks to buy clothes and use public transportation or other necessities until you find work. The place where you live will have computers and other resources to help you locate work. It will also provide meals, unless you eat outside. You will be monitored closely, checking in and out and counseled three times each week to assess your progress, melding back into free society.

  “I want to be clear that you are not a free man. You are on parole of your sentence for another year
and can be returned to prison if you break any on the parole rules that will be conveyed by your case officer. Any questions?”

  “Yeah. When do I get outta here?”

  An unmarked van with three passenger seats behind the driver was outside the Release Gate of the prison. Ryan walked outside, passing through the two chain-link gates, topped with razor wire, without restraints for the first time in over two years. The air smelled a little fresher today. At the second gate, a guard signaled for him to enter the van, which he did defiantly. He was the only inmate released, and he flipped the bird at the officer, at the whole prison, as the van pulled away.

  He said, “Hey, driver, where we goin’.”

  The old fat man was wearing some kind of driver uniform, but there weren’t any markings Ryan could see. “I’m taking you to a nice place in beautiful Lafayette, where you can start a new life as a good Christian.”

  “Fuck you.”

  He stared out the window in silence for the rest of the trip, savoring the next stage in his plans. It wasn’t complicated, and he’d rehearsed it a thousand times in his mind. The only thing that had changed recently was that BJ died. Good riddance. Ramsey probably had all the coins now.

  New Beginning

  In Mineral Wells, Julie was busy in her classroom, preparing for the new school year to begin in a little over a week. Sue Sanchez stopped in from her third-grade room across the hall. They had been friends for ten years since Sue