Fiction

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“Liz…..”

She cuts Jerry off before he can finish that thought “I am NOT Liz, I am Brena. Liz is gone, I kicked her out and none too soon. She always takes the ones I love, she can’t have any of them anymore! I have seen to that with the exception of you and you haven’t seen her in what, two years? Maybe you’re safe…..”

I notice that Cody is watching both Brena and Jerry quite intently but is laying down by the couch. This is apparently the roommate that Sheriff Tom spoke with but did Jerry call her Liz or was he just starting to say something about Liz… this is getting more puzzling. And what did she mean about Jerry’s grandparents and their fire? He is an only child so this couldn’t be his sister. How would the roommate know of the fire or almost act like she was there?

“Liz…Brena…”

Upon hearing the name Liz again I see Brena grab for the Buck knife she has under her shirt, it is huge. It looks like it is time for a dressing change. I come out of my place on the corner of the porch and knocking sharply on the door. Nehi is right beside me.

Brena looks quickly in my direction sheathing the Buck knife “Who the heck are you?”

“Hi, I’m Joie, Dr. Heinze’s home health nurse, coming to check my patient here.”

“Yah, with an orange tabby in tow – hey, what’s wrong with Cody – he’d wagging his tail at a CAT. See you later!” With that comment and a shake of her head Brena pushes past us and takes off across the yard the way she came.

“Can you help me get into your 4 Runner right now? We need to go where your cell phone works and call Sheriff Tom. THAT was my Ex wife Liz, in spite of the radical hair color change. There is something critically strange going on here! Did you hear her practically admit to setting the fire at my grandparent’s place?”

So that is why Cody isn’t playing watch dog, he knows that woman, apparently he once knew her pretty well.

“I am SO confused about what Liz, ah, Brena was saying. Why do you think she was talking about Liz like that was not her name? What was she like when you were married to her? Did she have any evidence of mental illness? She is almost acting schizophrenic .”

“No diagnosis like that but she did seem a study in contrasts. Mostly she was ultra feminine,dressed in ruffles and was pretty helpless. Then sometimes she’d wear those cowgirl boots and be a take charge gal, so different. I just took it as part of the Liz mystique. At times, she seemed to ignore stuff we’d said or things we had done like it didn’t happen. I thought she was playing a head game with me. Now I am not so sure. Lou used to talk to me about going out with a gal named Brena, now I am wondering…..”

“You mean he actually might have thought she was Brena , not your wife? Hang on, I think I have some bars on my cell phone…..hey, it’s ringing the Sheriff.”

“Sheriff, it’s Joie and Jerry. I just heard his Ex talking about the fire at his grandparent’s place and it sounded like she might have set it. She was saying things that led me to believe she might have killed Lou Jasper. She was just at Jerry’s place, then went back across his property on foot towards the old homestead. No, we’re both here in my truck driving to get cell coverage. You did? This doesn’t make sense. No, Jerry’s with me and we have Nehi and Cody here too. OK, will do. Yes, and she pulled a huge Buck knife on Jerry right before I decided to get in there and change his dressing – yes, that’s when she took off. OK, we’ll stay away until we hear back from you.”

“What did Sheriff Tom have to say? Guess I might be off the hook now?”

“That’s for sure. He said more pieces of evidence have come in. He can’t talk about it as this is an ongoing investigation but you are off the hook. We are to stay away from your place until we hear back from him. So do you think that Liz might really believe that there are two ladies, one named Liz and the other named Brena? Do you think Brena was so jealous of Liz spending time with Lou that she killed Lou?”

“I have no clue. I really haven’t seen Liz or Lou in two years. Once I found out they were seeing each other, I left.”

“Did you ever talk with either of them?”

“Let’s just say I found them in a very compromising situation together, no words were needed. That revelation just made me break. I left and never turned back. My business partner, my wife and probably the business too was too much to lose.”

“Jerry, this is going to sound like a weird question but what color hair did she have when you saw them together?”

“Oh, my, you don’t think that Lou really didn’t know it was my wife? Wonder if she told him that she had a “look-alike” relative with dark hair? When she put on the cowgirl boots she did have a really different personality.”

“Maybe we’ll unravel more of this mystery when the Sheriff can talk to us about what he knows.”
“This makes me really unsure about so much. How can you live with someone for fifteen years then find out you don’t really know them? Now I am thinking that maybe my partner wasn’t such a scoundrel after all. And now he is dead!”

“I can only imagine if all of this is leaving me with many more questions than answers how you must be feeling, Jerry. Ah, just a slight change of subject here, since we are in town how about stopping at the clinic to give Doc Heinze a chance to take a peek at your leg. I notice you aren’t limping very much at all today.”

“That’s ok by me. You must have been praying for me like I asked. I was able to have a bit of a chat with the Lord myself. Joie, I never knew how great it could feel to be free and forgiven! For the past two years I felt as if was lugging around a back pack with a ten ton boulder in it. I didn’t have to be carrying that around. I feel like a new person without it. Clear breathing is now a part of life again! Thanks so much for giving me a listening ear. I still can’t get over this morning with Liz-Brena. I am mentally just shaking my head. Can she really not know that Brena and Liz are the same person?”

(C) Marijo Phelps all rights reserved. Use with proper credits.

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