Crooked

Prov. 3:6-- "in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."

Because of the "I'm not Tim, it's a fake name" news on the bus to San Diego at the beginning of our marriage and Tim's constant jumpiness around any sort of law enforcement, I took on that same nervousness. I dreaded having a policeman drive behind me, fearing they'd pull me over any minute...even though I wasn't doing anything wrong, I felt as if I were! And while I wasn't doing anything illegal, Tim started hanging around with shady guys and acting differently. His restlessness to travel took the form of always being gone or visiting people. Inevitably, Tim got found out by the law...and it wasn't for the false identity or parole-jumping, it was the company he was keeping! He'd returned to his old ways, and it caught up with him.

The scene is still pretty clear in my memory...now the secretary at my church and expecting our second child, I was in the church office, trying to finish up some typing before leaving work. A sheriff car pulled up to the church, which of course quickened my pulse; seeing my mom get out of the passenger side really caused me alarm! The deputy and my mom came into the church, and my mom broke the news gently: "Tim's been arrested." When they arrested Tim, he'd expressed concern about my pregnancy and asked them to get my mom to help break the news. The officer told me that Tim would be extradited back to California because of the parole violation. They weren't sure what to do with the fake name part, because this was in the late 1980s, when identity theft wasn't a commonly-known crime. As a matter of fact, Tim was even questioned by someone from the Social Security Administration about how he got the social security card, etc., more as a fact-finding mission rather than a pressing-of-charges situation.

My dad watched my son, while my mom and I went to the sheriff's office; they told me I could see Tim after he'd been processed. The detectives thankfully didn't question me about anything, but told me that they knew about the name change, California parole, everything. While I was half flipping-out, there was also a small sense of unburdening, as I'd been carrying this information about my husband for awhile, alone! The relief was short-lived, however, and replaced with a bit of alarm and uncertainty, when the lead detective told me that he couldn't, in good conscience, let me leave without telling me that he feared for my children and I if we went back to Tim, based on what he'd seen from his criminal record and in interviewing him...

I'd always known that Tim was selfish, moody, had a horrible childhood, etc., but to hear a sheriff officer advice you not to return to your husband because he is so criminal is quite a jolt!