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Disclaimer: The characters are own by NBC. I want to thank my sister for this story. I have been after her to write one for
me. It took a lot of begging but she did. I hope you like it. Thanks again, sis. Love you!


Digging For The Truth
A. Price


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? Ist 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. It's 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









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