by Haley James
“Yes, mother,” Mitch brings the phone to his ear and hits his turn signal on his side panel.
“Mitchell? You left without saying bye!”
“Sorry, mom, police duty calls, I’m just getting back to the station now, but I’ll see you at dinner tonight.”
“No!” Her voice is loud and boss like. It reminds Mitch of all too many situations in his life where he had been told what to do by her, “You need to come back immediately! This is police business!”
“What’s wrong, mom?” Mitch asks, clear by his tone that he has no intension of taking this serious.
His mother lowers her voice, and starts to mumble something he can’t understand from the other side of the line.
Mitch sighs into the receiver. “WHAT? I can barely hear you, mom, you’re going to have to speak up.”
“Kenny is here,” Mrs. Manner says with a slight strain in her tone.
Kenny? What was she talking about? Mitch didn’t even knew a Kenny, but Mitch had long ago stopped trying to figure out why his mother would call him to inform him of things that were of no importance to him. Ever since he had become a cop she was calling him as soon as she felt like something suspicious was going on, especially when it was things that Mitch had no control over anyway.
One time she had called him to tell him that a suspicious man was in the diner that morning, one she hadn’t seen around town before, and she felt like he was up to no good. When Mitch had asker her why she felt that way, his mother had told him that the man had ordered bananas in his pancakes, and if that wasn’t suspicious she didn’t know what was since that wasn’t even an option on the menu.
“Mom,” Mitch says gasping into the receiver a little harder then necessary, “I’m kind of in the middle of something…”
“Kenny!” His mother sounds exasperated and annoyed, like she’s trying to talk to her son about a top secret mission, and he’s just not getting the hints. “Kenny! Who works down at the copy mart! You know Kenny!”
A vision of a small red headed boy with freckles and a bright smile pops into Mitch’s head. He vaguely remembered seeing the kid around town and had heard he had moved here from New York to get a fresh start when his parents had died the year before. Sad story, one that often left Mitch feeling sorry for him when he did see him wondering the streets of the town like a lost puppy dog. He knew now that his aunt and uncle owned the copy mart in town so it only made sense he would be working there, wasn’t exactly world breaking news his mother was delivering him.
“Yes, mother, I know Kenny.” Mitch starts yawning, beyond bored with the conversation.
“He’s in here! Talking about some papers Melissa was in there copying this morning! And he seems to think they were building plans or something…”
Mitch screeches on the brakes in his car, practically sending the cup of cold coffee in his holder flying all over the floor. Of course she had made copies of the papers, why wouldn’t she? She was only completely and totally out of her mind. Makes perfect sense she would want to keep proving that.
“Shouldn’t that kind of thing be privileged, Mitch? I mean I don’t feel comfortable knowing that anyone could know what I was copying at any moment, what if it was a medical report, or something…”
“Mom, I have to go,” Mitch says, the wheels in his head already starting to turn. “I’ll see you tonight, and tell Kenny to shut his mouth.”
He clicks the end button on his cell phone and glances at the clock on his dashboard. If he knew Melissa Miller at all she was probably already on her way to the Morgan’s estate upstate. Then Mitch sighed, turned his cruiser around, and set out to do the one thing he had just promised himself he wouldn’t. Save Melissa Miller from herself again.
***
Melissa pressed her foot down harder and harder on the gas. Of course she had made copies of those papers. She was no fool. Her plan had been to sneak back in and put them back some day in the future before anyone could know they were gone. But apparently the Morgan’s checked on their paperwork daily. If that didn’t scream that they were hiding something she didn’t know what did.
After Mitch left her house earlier, she had spent a little while freaking out. Thinking about the worst thing that could happen and what she would do if she ended up going to jail. But after the panic wore off, she had decided to go on with her plan to sneak up to the Morgan’s estate anyway.
I mean, what was the worst that could happen? It’s not like anyone was going to be there anyway. She would just sneak in, have a look around, and be on her way again. In and out, and she would be super careful to not leave any traces of herself behind. The original papers were destroyed. No one even knew she had even taken them; besides Mitch. But even that would be his word against hers.
Her phone buzzes from her dashboard. She glances at the caller Id before setting it back down without picking it up. Mitch again. He had called at least three times in the past four minutes. Didn’t he have anything better to do besides harass her? It was like he couldn’t leave her alone for two seconds.
She shook her head to herself, wondering how she could have had such a big crush on him in high school; he was clearly the most annoying and arrogant person she had ever met.
Her phone stared buzzing again and this time after rejecting the call, she powered the device down, she didn’t have time for his games right now. She was off on the pursuit of justice! Justice for her sister. The thought brought a sense of relief over her.
She turned the music up a little louder and watched her car increase in speed as she got closer and closer to what she was so sure was the truth she so desperately searched for.
** WANT MORE MITCH AND MELISSA? THE NEXT INSTALMENT OF OFF LIMITS IS COMING SOON FROM NEW AUTHOR HALEY JAMES! FOLLOW HER ON TWITTER FOR NEWS AND BOOK UPDATES AT @haleyjamesfans **