Chapter 32

Jasper had been having a difficult time since killing Roy. He never shot anyone before. He was having problems sleeping and seemed off. Soon as he was done with work he often headed down to the bar in town and got drunk. Or he would get drunk at the ranger station or walk into the mountains.

Josh noticed Jasper was not acting like his normal jovial self.

Jasper was done with work and he went up to his room and grabbed a bottle of vodka and headed out to his favorite mountain cliff.

David had replaced Jasper at the front desk. Josh was talking to David when he saw Jasper come down with a bottle of vodka in his hand. Josh did not like what he saw. He was just finishing his work day; he grabbed his jacket and took off after Jasper.

Josh was following Jasper who made no attempt to hide where he was going. Jasper was sitting at the edge of the cliff and opened the bottle of vodka. He took a big swig from the bottle.

Josh came and sat down next to Jasper. Jasper had not even noticed that Josh was there. Jasper was just staring straight ahead.

"Beautiful view, do you come here often," Josh said.

"Oh Josh, I did not see you sit down," Jasper said.

"Could I have a swig of that?" Josh asked.

Jasper handed Josh the bottle of Vodka, Josh took a little and sat it down, away from Jasper.

"Wow that is some strong stuff."

Jasper said, "I guess."

"About 4 years after I joined the rangers, there were some escaped convicts from Folsom Prison. Some of the prisoners took three college age women hostages. Your uncle Cody and I tracked them thru the mountains. They beat one of the women to death while raping her multiple times. We found her body just discarded. I have never seen anything like that. They were animals. We managed to track the convicts to an empty cabin, they were able to get hold of some weapons they found in the cabin. Your uncle Cody and I pinned them down. One of the convicts fired at us. And I shot back and killed him. The other two convicts surrendered, and we were able to free the two remaining women. They had been beaten, but luckily, they had not been raped. For weeks I kept re-living everything from that day. I could not sleep; I could not eat and drank too much. It almost cost me my job." Josh paused a bit. "It was the first time I shot and killed someone."

"So how did you get it to stop?" Jasper asked.

"To start, I put the bottle down," Jasper explained. "Then I asked a friend for help. He made me an appointment with a counselor to help talk things out. It took a while for the dreams to fully go away, but they did. Charles T. Dales was his name. He had been convicted of raping three women, killing one, and left the other two for dead."

Jasper responded, "He was a bad man. I killed a cop."

"He was a bad man too. You saw how Jen looked when they found her. He nearly beat her to death, he raped her, he threated to kill your uncle Cody and Alex. From what Cody told me, Jen had been running from him for over 11 years. I know Jen is traumatized by the things he did to her. Cody is worried she won't ever come out of it."

"Josh…. I need help. I want the dreams to go away." Jasper had tears in his eyes.

Josh gave him a side hug, "Whatever we talk about will remain between us. I won't say anything to your parents, your uncle, or your sister. What happens and what we discuss will stay between us. Okay?"

"Okay."

"I will make you an appointment with Doctor Sanders."