by Anne Hagan
Barb dropped her head and her shoulders slumped. “Janet moved out last night.”
“What?” Tom asked.
“Yeah Dad. She moved out.”
“What did you say to her?” Amy asked.
“That’s just it. Nothing. She was gone when I got there.”
“Oh honey, no…”
Chapter 22
9:35 AM, Monday, June 22nd
“I called out to Barb’s house to talk to Amy about Barb and Janet,” Chloe told Dana over the phone.
“And?”
“And nothing. All bets are off in that regard. Amy and Tom moved back to their place yesterday.”
“Hang on Mama, I think I have Amy’s cell number in my phone. She’ll probably still be willing to help out. After all, it’s for a good cause!”
Mel, who had just gotten back up after being called out bed in the middle of the night to help patrol process an accident scene, quirked an eyebrow at her wife. “What are you two up to” she asked Dana in a voice low enough that Chloe couldn’t hear her.
Dana put her hand over the receiver. “Nothing much. I’ll tell you in a minute.”
Mel rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “I’m probably going to be sorry I asked.”
Chloe was still waiting on the other end of the line. Dana picked up her cell, punched a couple of buttons and read the number off to her mother.
“Just hang on. I haven’t told you everything.”
Her tone was muted and a sense of foreboding washed over Dana.”Did they fight about Saturday night?”
“No. At least I don’t think so. From what I gathered, when Janet left the farm yesterday, she must have gone back to Barb’s packed her stuff and left. Barb was in Zanesville helping her folks get settled in. When she got home, Janet was gone.”
Dana was shocked. “Wow,” was all she could manage.
“I take it you haven’t heard from her then?”
“No Mama, not a word.”
“Where do you think she might have gone?”
“Right now, she’s probably at work.” Dana glanced over at Mel who was sitting, arms crossed, a frown on her face, taking in everything that she could hear. Mel shrugged in response.
Dana turned away from her wife as she asked, “Do you think I should call her?”
“Not if she’s at work. That wouldn’t be a good idea.”
Shooting her wife a quick look, she saw Mel nod. She’d heard and agreed with her mother.
“It appears that Janet moved out of Barb’s house yesterday. Barb hasn’t heard from her. She’s not returning her call or her messages.”
Mel studied Dana and measured her words before speaking. “I know you two have gotten to be friends.”
Dana nodded.
“If you want to call her, call her, but do it when she’s off her shift later today. I need her to be as level headed as she can be…under the circumstances.”
“Right.”
“As for what you and your Mama are cooking up…”
“Nothing,” Dana started to say.
Mel held up a hand. “Come on babe; I know better. I know your mother, remember?”
“Okay, I admit we were trying to plan a little something but that was before this happened. Apparently their issues go deeper than we thought.”
“Then I think you just leave it alone, at this point. Don’t push it. You two, and hell, even my mother, brought the two of them together once and it obviously didn’t work out. Maybe they just aren’t meant to be together.”
Dana nodded but, to herself, she thought, ‘They are but they’re both too stubborn to see it.’
“You should probably just leave it alone. If it were me, I wouldn’t even call her…not just yet. Give her some space.”
When Mel left for work, Dana grabbed the key for her writing shed off the rack on the wall. She wanted to go out and scribble out her thoughts while they were still fresh. Writing was a catharsis for her pain sometimes.
Boo, her Boston terrier, walked over to her and nudged her leg with her nose. She wanted to go too.
Dana turned back to the key rack for the leash. She noticed the spare key for the lock to Janet’s storage unit hanging there then. She stared at it and wondered where Janet might have gone overnight and if she took any of her stuff out of storage.
She thought about asking Mel to try and find something…anything out but, knowing how Mel felt about it all, she decided it would be pointless to even ask her.
Chapter 23
10:40 AM, Monday June 22nd
Muskingum County Sheriff’s Department
“Any word on our crash victim, Holly?” Mel asked her friend, the deputy who had been acting as her assistant since she’d become the Sheriff, as she walked through the door.
“He’s stable but still in the ICU.” Holly followed Mel into her office.
“Why’d you go out to the scene last night? I thought Mason was on call?”
Mel shrugged. “I was closer,” she said. She wasn’t sure that Holly, or anyone in the department for that matter, knew Janet had been living in Morelville too and with Barb, at that. It hadn’t been her business to bring it up and she wasn’t about to do it now.
The look Holly gave her told her she wasn’t buying that explanation.
“Hell, I don’t know. Patrol called me. I went.”
Holly stood there, arms crossed, nodding but with a look on her face like she didn’t believe a word of it.
“Is Mason in?” Mel asked, ignoring the questioning look she was getting.
“Her car was in the lot when I got here.”
“And, it’s Monday,” Mel said, “so you were in by 6:00 to play your usual game of catch up before I get here, I bet?”
Holly smiled. “Usually you’re here before 7:00, Boss Woman.”
Mel rolled her eyes at the nickname her long time friend sometimes used for her. “What’s my agenda look like today?”
“It’s pretty clear. I moved the appointment you were supposed to have with Commissioner Kent this morning to tomorrow morning. That worked better for him anyway.”
Mel nodded. “Call down to the squad bay in about 15 minutes. If Mason is hanging around down there, have her come up. I’m going to take her with me back to the accident scene to do some measuring.”
Mel handed Janet one end of the tape. “Walk to the other end of the skid marks with that.”
Silently, Janet did as asked. Mel watched her back as she retreated toward the beginning of the marks made by the braking of the crash victims car. Her shoulders were slumped and the normally chatty Jr. Detective was acting like she wanted to be anywhere but at work.
Janet stopped and turned at the end of the pair of wavy, black marks.
“24 feet, 4 inches - give or take,” Mel called out. “See anything on the berm or just past it on that end like maybe he steered off first and then back on?”
Janet stepped sideways and scanned the shoulder of the road. “No Sheriff,” came her clipped response.
“He might have been better off to just steer right and go off, regardless,” Mel said. “There’s no bank to roll down and nothing to hit on that side.” She shook her head. “Who brakes, and hard at that, when a vehicle goes left of center and comes straight at you? That strike you as odd too?”
The Deputy just nodded.
“All right, spill it,” Mel demanded. “What’s eating at you today?”
“Nothing Sheriff,” she said as she looked away.
“Don’t give me that Mason. Your business is your business but when it affects your performance, it becomes mine.”
“Sorry Sheriff. I’m just really tired, I guess. It was a rough night…for sleeping, I mean, last night.”
###
Back in her office, Mel sat thinking. Janet was acting moody and brooding in much the same way she herself had acted when Dana had gotten mixed up in a murder case and had disappeared the year before. Mel didn’t know where she was or if she’d ever see her again. I
t was obvious that Janet was in emotional pain. As much as she didn’t want to get too personal with her Deputy, she did find herself wondering how her friend Barb was feeling.
She walked to her office door and looked out. Holly’s desk was empty. She’d said she had errands to run during lunch.
Mel closed her office door for a little privacy in case the other woman returned and dialed her friends cell number.
Barb answered right away.
“Mel? Is something wrong? Aren’t you at work?”
“Not on my end. Not directly.”
“Oh,” Barb said.
Mel let out a breath. “I was, uh…Oh hell. I’m not good at this stuff, you know? I was just worried about you.”
“That’s so sweet but I’m a big girl. I’ll be okay.”
“Will you?” Her tone was deeply probing.
Barb sighed. “It’s hard, you know?” Her voice trembled. “I’ve been thinking all morning about Lisa…isn’t that weird?”
Mel didn’t respond. She just sat at her desk, listening.
“I know Janet isn’t Lisa. I never tried to make her out to be…be a replacement for…Anyway, they couldn’t be more different people. Lisa was the love of my life. The thing is, she was the person I was at my most serious with. I mean, don’t get me wrong,” she paused to clear her throat. “We had good times…great times, with each other but our lives the last few years we were…were together revolved around business and the next big move, the next big thing.”
“And with Janet?” Mel asked.
“Completely different. Night and day. I mean, when we met, Janet’s mother was gravely ill and that was serious. She has a serious job, obviously. When we were together though, it was all about the two of us…having fun, blowing off steam…At least it was for the short time we were together before my dad started having his troubles.”
“But she lived with you? Couldn’t you…didn’t you…” Mel didn’t know exactly what she was asking.
Barb sniffled a little. “She did live there but that was it. I treated her more like a boarder than a…a lover or even a friend.”
Mel could tell Barb was crying even before the other woman drew attention to it.
“Listen to me starting to blubber. Hang on.”
The sound over the phone became slightly muffled then Mel heard Barb blow her nose. Women crying had always been tough for her to handle but she resolved to stick it out for her friend.
“Sorry,” Barb said as she came back on the line. “Listen, I don’t need to be taking up any of your time. I know you have things to do. I’m going to be okay.”
Mel wasn’t so sure. “Do you think there’s a chance for the two of you to…I don’t know, but a chance to be together?”
“She moved out hon. Not so much as a note. She won’t even return my calls or texts.”
A sob escaped Barb’s throat and Mel winced.
“That tells me she doesn’t want anything to do with me.”
“Hang in there. I have reason to believe different.”
“You sound like a cop.”
“I am a cop but trust me on this.”
“Don’t say anything to her Mel. Just let it be.”
“Is that really what you want?”
“Yes.”
Mel didn’t believe her. “Just answer one question?”
“That’s what I’ve been doing here.”
“Do you love her?”
“You’re the second person to ask me that today.”
Mel knew Chloe was the first. “And?”
“Yes; of course I do. Why do you think this is so hard?”
###
“Dana, it’s me”
“What’s up?”
“I vowed I would never do this.”
“Okaaaay…”
“This is the first and only time.”
“What’s going on Mel?”
“I’m about to get involved in someone else’s relationship. Actually, I sort of already have.”
“Let me guess…”
“No need,” Mel cut in. “You know who I’m talking about.”
“Barb and Janet?”
“Janet’s moping around here today like a lost puppy and all but worthless.”
“I can only imagine,” Dana said, trying to keep the smirk out of her voice.
“And,” Mel said and then paused to take a deep breath and let it out slow, “I called Barb.”
Dana reacted with surprise on her end but managed to squeak out, “How’s she taking it?”
“Pretty bad.”
“So…”
“So this is me asking you…you and your mother, Barb’s mother…whoever; do what you have to do to get them back together.”
“You’re sure?”
“Hell no, I’m not sure. And, whatever you decide to do, keep me out of it.”
Chapter 24
Early Tuesday Morning, June 23rd
“So here’s the plan…”
“La la la la la la la,” Mel called out as she stuck her fingers in her ears.
Dana moved around the end of the bed to where her wife was standing, uniform shirt half buttoned, acting like a small child instead of a county Sheriff. She reached up and took hold of Mel’s wrists and pulled back gently, dislodging her fingers.
Mel wasn’t happy. “I told you, whatever you do, keep me out of it.”
“And we will, would you just hear me out?”
“You’re not going to let me leave for work until I do, are you?”
Dana shook her head.
“Fine. Spill it.”
“We have a master plan,” Dana said as she let go of Mel’s wrists. “Me and…”
Mel held up a hand. “I don’t need to know who.”
“Fine. You wanna play it that way…” Dana screwed up her face for a few seconds, thinking then she continued. “Janet has the later shift today, right?”
“I imagine. That’s the way it’s scheduled but I leave that to her and Shane. As long as one of them is available,” Mel shrugged, “I don’t have an issue.”
“Hmm. Do you suppose you could let me know if she’s there when you get in? Just a text…that’d be fine.”
“Sure. I could do that.”
“Once we’re sure she’s at work and you’re keeping her plenty busy so she has no reason to be out running around Zanesville…”
“Wait, what? I can’t let her out of the station?”
“Well no…If you’d just let me tell the whole story…”
“I don’t have a lot of time Babe. I have a meeting with the commissioner this morning that was moved from yesterday morning.”
“Oh, okay. Sorry. The gist is that no one knows exactly where Janet is staying. We’re going to be doing…stuff that we don’t want her to see. If she goes out running around in town this morning or out to lunch and she sees something…”
Nodding, Mel said, “I get it. So I keep her busy inside this morning and that’s all I have to do, right?”
“That would be amazing babe.” Dana arched up a little on her toes and gave her wife a quick kiss.
“Why do I still get the feeling I’m being set up?”
9:03 AM
Route 146 Storage
Zanesville, Ohio
Dana turned the key in the lock, yanked it open and removed it from the slide on the overhead door. She handed it off to Amy for safekeeping then bent and reached for the rope to pull the door up. The sliding door was made of lightweight aluminum and slid up in it’s tracks much more easily than she thought it would.
Chloe and Amy stood back and took it all in while Dana made sure the door was going to stay up and not come down on them.
“Wow; that’s a lot of stuff,” Amy said.
Chloe shook her head. “It’s actually not as bad as I thought. She sold the house furnished with a lot of the pieces her mother already had. There isn’t anything huge in here.”
“We’re not taking everything ladies,” Dana told them. �
��We’re going to have to pick through it for her personal stuff. We’ll leave what furniture is here and her mother’s things here for now.”
“That won’t be so bad then,” Amy said.
10:20 AM
Muskingum County Sheriff’s Department
Zanesville, Ohio
“Sheriff,” Janet said over the phone from the evidence lock up, “are you sure those photos are in the ‘91 files? Could it be late ‘90 or maybe early ‘92?”
Mel scratched at her head as she debated what to say. She hated lying to her detective but she needed to keep her in the station for at least a while longer. “Yeah, check those boxes and any other stuff down there too. They’ve got to be in a file box or bagged up there somewhere.”
“You think they would have bagged them?”
“I don’t have the foggiest idea. That was before my time but I’ve found weirder stuff in evidence down there. I’m surprised that stuff hasn’t been moved out to the file storage facility anyway. We’re lucky it’s even here.”
“This is still like looking for a needle in a haystack, Sheriff.”
‘That’s the point,’ Mel thought.
Out in the outer office, Holly pushed the switch down to hang the line up before Mel did. ‘Mel’s awful distracted and she’s got Janet, who’s been a mess herself the last two days, off on a wild goose chase,’ Holly thought. ‘Somethings’ up,’
11:05 AM
Morelville, Ohio
“Barb in yet?” Tom asked the bartender who answered the phone.
“Yep, just got here but she’s already pitching in, in the kitchen for the lunch rush. Something I can help you with?”
“No thanks, it can wait,” he said as he flashed a thumbs up sign to Amy, Dana and Faye looking on. After he hung up, he said, “You ladies are a go. She’s all tied up with lunch.”
Looking at his wife he asked, “You have the key, right?”
She nodded.
Chloe chimed in, “Come to think of it, I still have one too. After I finished all of the decorating, she never asked for it back and I forgot all about having it.”