Mad for Mel--The Morelville Mysteries--Book 7

by Anne Hagan

  “I don’t even want to know!”

  “Mom! They were nothing dirty, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  “Look, why don’t you call her and tell her you want to go out to dinner tonight. Have her meet you in town at Adornetto’s. I’ll call them and make the reservation for you even. You just have to show up and have a calm, quiet evening out.”

  “I don’t know when I’ll be able to get out of here but I don’t want to be out real late either. I’m beat.”

  “I’ll make it for 5:30 and send up a prayer that it all works out.”

  Mel sighed. “Okay; you roped me in, now I really have to go if I want to be there by 5:30.”

  I watched now as Faye came back up front. “Well, what did you think,” I asked her.

  “It was, uh, interesting.” She looked around. “Where’s Dana now?”

  “Outside, just finishing up with the Adornetto’s delivery driver.”

  “Speaking of them, I need to make them a reservation there tonight for 5:30.”

  “All right! Way to go!” I dropped my voice, “I’m glad we did this.”

  “We?”

  “Yes, we. I admit I spoke to Mel before. That’s why she wrote the note. Did she tell you about that?”

  “Note? Don’t you mean notes?”

  “She wrote another one? Dana only mentioned one.”

  “Then she didn’t get today’s yet.”

  I thought for a few seconds and then looked toward the door for Dana myself. When I didn’t see her yet I told Faye, “Okay, here’s the plan. You go and add the dinner invitation for tonight to Mel’s new note. I’ll make the reservations.”

  “I’m not getting into their mail!”

  “Look, if we want this to go perfectly, we have to make sure Dana knows about it. I’m sure there have been times Jesse has gotten busy and has forgotten to tell you things...” I looked at Faye pointedly.

  She nodded, “You’re right.”

  “Where do you want to meet later, your house or mine?”

  “For what?”

  “Adornetto’s silly. We’re going too. We can’t leave anything to chance.”

  Chapter 9 – On Assignment

  Dana

  12:45 PM Wednesday, February 11th

  Morelville Ohio

  As soon as Dad was back at the store, I excused myself and got out of there.

  After a brief stop at home to let Boo out, freshen up and grab a few things, I went off to try and get a meeting with Warren Brietland.

  I was nervous about the meeting with him, to say the least. I recalled when I’d first moved in with Mel, while I was recovering from multiple leg surgeries, that the Brietland clan figured prominently in one of her cases that I got sucked into involuntarily. I shuddered at the thought. I hope this go around with them works out a lot better!

  Brietland met with me in his study. He dispensed immediately with pleasantries and got right down to business.

  “I’ve worked with Young a few times in the past,” he informed me. “I keep using Russ because he offers me fast, discreet service. I expect it to be no different on this occasion.”

  “Of course Mr. Brietland.”

  “How long have you been with Russ?”

  “I worked with him directly for three years. Now I work with him from time to time as his needs warrant.”

  Brietland nodded. “That will have to do on such short notice. If I’d have had my druthers, I’d have taken care of this some time ago.”

  I didn’t speak, I just nodded politely and let the man talk.

  He continued, “My granddaughter Erin is among the last in a line of Brietland heirs that are worth a damn. Or, at least, that could be worth a damn. She’s a smart one but, I fear...Anyway, there are no Brietland males to inherit the Brietland fortune. The illegitimate bastard that should have been given the family name, Ryan McClarnan, is in jail just like his daddy.”

  I shuddered again but Brietland didn’t seem to notice the effect the name ‘McClarnan’ had on me.

  “Neither of my sons has produced a male heir. The three young women they have sired between them all stand to divide quite a fortune when I pass on, completely aside from anything their own fathers will inherit or will have added in value to the family holdings. They’ll be passing all of this wealth along to families that have no knowledge of our family history.”

  He paused, leaned forward in his chair and looked at me intently. “All things change. I’m no fool. However, I don’t want to see the family coffers just frittered away and the good Brietland name dragged through the mud by these young women and the men they choose to mate with. Two of them are still in high school and, for now, they are of little consequence, but Erin is unfortunately married – for lack of a better term – to a vile man whom I detest.”

  “What’s his name sir?”

  “Victor Voll and she goes by Erin Voll, for now, at least. Victor is a criminal, pure and simple. What Erin ever saw in him – he’s a good ten years or more her senior, by the way – I’ll never know. My fear is, he is controlling her and manipulating her and getting her to do his dirty bidding. I can’t abide by that.”

  He paused and drew in a deep breath. “Erin has been told she has money in trust and that she will begin receiving payments from on her 25th birthday in May, conditionally.”

  “Are those conditions important to my investigation sir?”

  “Not necessarily. They involve her husband more so than her and I’m dealing with him. You are to focus on her.”

  “What exactly is that you need from me...from Young, Mr. Brietland?”

  “Erin knows about the trust but she doesn’t know about the total wealth she stands to inherit. As it is, I intend to see to it that she does not get either the trust or a later inheritance if she’s not deserving of them. Your job will to be to look at my granddaughter very closely and specifically at the things she does that may aid her worthless spouse and anything she does apart from him that could be suspect.”

  That’s still pretty vague.

  He wasn’t finished. “I want to know where she goes, who she meets with, who her friends are...everything you can find out. If at all possible, I need some sort of report by Saturday.”

  I did my best not to react strongly to the short window.

  “I know this is short notice. Money isn’t a concern. If you need to follow her around the clock between now and then, I expect you to do it.”

  He slid a sheet of paper out of a folder on his desk and held it out to me. “That should get you started.”

  Glancing quickly over it, I could see that it contained Erin’s vitals, her address and telephone number.

  “Frankly, I’d like to see Victor Voll dead or behind bars with Billy Bob and Ryan; I don’t care which. Then Erin would be free to carry the Brietland family name honorably again.”

  She’s still a female...her carrying the name doesn’t continue the family line.

  “I’m not stupid Miss. As I’ve alluded, Erin is no saint. I know for sure that she’s into drugs. I need to know if she’s actually dealing and what else she’s involved in. If it’s only a matter of drugs, I’d rather have her away from Voll, in rehab and cleaning up her act before she receives money from her trust or inheriting even a small part of the family fortune.”

  I rushed the straight home in a panic. It was already after 2:00 on Wednesday and Brietland wanted some sort of report on Saturday. I could hardly afford to waste time.

  Absent mindedly, I grabbed the mail on my way into the house. I dropped it on the corner of Mel’s desk, fired up her laptop and started looking into online databases and look ups for everything I could find about Erin and Victor Voll.

  Two hours and a half dozen calls later, I’d gathered everything I could nail down electronically but I’d hit a wall with most of my calls. I leaned back and took a deep breath while I contemplated trying to track the heiress down and following her around for a while.

  Catching sight
of the little pile of mail, I noticed another plain white envelope that was like the one I’d found in the box the day before. I edged it out of the stack and savored the fact that, judging by my name scrawled in the middle of it, I’d gotten another love note from Mel.

  I slid the sheet out and smiled to myself as I read a note as tender as the first.

  Dana,

  Your kiss rocks me to my core. The fire in you, the passion in you fascinates and excites me. I just want to sail away with you to the middle of nowhere, free of duty and obligation; just free to be you and me.

  I keep thinking about the time we were in Tennessee, just the two of us. There was trouble there, yes...it seems to find us wherever we go, but the good outweighed the bad and the strange by a country mile. I want to take you back there again and be just Mel and Dana, together, again.

  I love you Dana, more today than I did yesterday and twice as much as tomorrow.

  Love,

  Mel

  I smiled at her sentiments and thought briefly of our time in Tennessee myself. Her sweet attempts at romance had me blushing so much; I almost missed the P.S. scratched on at the bottom of the page.

  P.S. Please meet me for and dinner and dessert at 5:30 tonight at Addornetto’s.

  The last bit actually looked like it was added by someone else. I looked at the clock; it was already after 3:00. I better call Mel and confirm that...

  To my surprise she was actually in her office and Holly was able to get her right on the phone.

  “Dana?”

  “Hi sweetie. I got your note and I’m looking forward to our date.”

  It was quiet for several seconds.

  “Mel?”

  “Oh, um yeah, sorry.”

  “I’m sorry, you’re probably really busy.”

  “Um, no. It actually hasn’t been too bad today.”

  “Oh. Well, you seem a little distracted. If you can’t do dinner tonight after all, it’s okay.” I tried to keep my tone light but I’d already been looking forward to us having a night out.

  “Dana, I’d love to go out with you tonight. I, um, said 5:30, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  “I’ll be waiting. Bye Mel; love you.”

  “Love you too.”

  It wasn’t until we hung up that I thought again about the short deadline on the Brietland job and I realized I really should have cancelled the date and let her off the hook after all.

  “Damn it!” I exclaimed out loud startling Boo enough for her to jump into a standing position from her blankie on the floor where she’d been slumbering. I looked at her and then back at my notes and printouts. “We need this night.” She stared at me uneasily then stretched, turned around in a couple of circles and, when I didn’t say anything else, she laid back down.

  I’m in a little over my head here. Free databases and social network searches will only take me so far. I mentally kicked myself. I’m not prepared to a full background check until I set up accounts. I need to get my ducks in a row.

  The realization that I wasn’t prepared to go out and spy on Ms. Erin Voll yet, plans with Mel or no plans, didn’t sit well.

  I knew I could call Young and they’d do the full searches I needed but that was defeating the purpose of them subbing the job out to me in the first place.

  Biting the bullet, I pulled up the site of one of the biggest background checking agencies out there, established a corporate unlimited account with them and then plugged all of Voll’s known information in to begin my first search. For good measure, I requested Victor Voll’s background too. If you’re going to do it, do it all the way! Now I was congratulating myself. I’d finally started to act like the professional investigator I’d been pretending to be.

  Realizing that it would be at least a couple of hours before I got any return on that little investment so I decided to run Boo outside and then get ready for my date.

  Chapter 10 – Tripped Up

  Mel

  4:30 Wednesday Afternoon, February 11th

  I blew out a heavy breath as I closed the last report that had rolled across my desk during the course of the day. At my buzz, Holly appeared in my doorway.

  “You rang, boss?” Her smile lightened the tinge of sarcasm in her question.

  “Yes I did! I’ve finally gotten through all of these reports. They need to go back to the investigating deputies for my corrections or for follow-up.” I held the stack of files out to her and she took them.

  “Bet you’re glad to be done with them.”

  “To say the least. Thankfully, it’s been a pretty quiet day and we could all play a little catch up.”

  “Mason get anywhere with that drive-by?”

  “On that, unfortunately no. If there were any witnesses, they aren’t talking. I hate that...you know?”

  “Having another murder case that will probably go unsolved?”

  I nodded.

  “Not much we can do about it Sheriff; not unless we take gang members down and get people to turn to save their own butts.”

  “That’s what I hate even more; the spread of gangs in the county. Policing here is so different now than when we joined the department.”

  We chatted for another couple of minutes and then Holly made to leave to return the files. She paused in the hallway and backed herself back into my office, “Don’t forget you have a ribbon cutting in the morning at that new senior center, 9:00.”

  “Thanks. I would have forgotten.” I was glad she reminded me. “Look, once you drop those off, why don’t you get out of here? You’ve already put in a lot of hours this week.”

  “I could say the same for you, boss lady.”

  “Oh, I intend to be on my way shortly. I have a date.”

  When I got out to the lot, I debated turning left and getting into my pick-up or turning to my right and getting into my county SUV. Given the unpredictability of the winter weather and the fact that I was performing an official function in the morning, I opted for my SUV and left my truck where it was.

  Once I was inside the SUV, out of habit, I turned on the two-way and the computer. I smirked as I checked the time. It wasn’t quite five and the restaurant was only a few minutes away, uptown. I figured I’d probably be there before Dana.

  As I crossed over the Muskingum, a 911 dispatch call for all units startled me out of my first near relaxed state in days. “All units, 10-32, 10-46 in progress, corner of McConnell and Maple.

  Armed bank robbery a mile ahead! “County Unit One en-route.” I was the first to respond. Two other units immediately followed suit, one of mine and one with the Zanesville PD.

  As I sped toward the bank, another call came across, “Suspect leaving the scene. Proceed with caution.” That was followed moments later with a description of the get-away car that dispatch reported was proceeding north on Maple.

  I flipped on my lights and my siren and gave the truck a little more gas. I was on Maple so, if I could find it, I planned to give chase.

  People were leaving work so the traffic was heavy. Cars got out of my way as quickly as they could; I just hoped the throngs were slowing my quarry down. Sure enough, I spotted the suspected escape car about a block and a half ahead of me. The driver was weaving in and out of traffic where he could.

  As I closed the distance, he must have heard me coming. I watched in horror as he cut off and almost hit another vehicle when he took a right into a KFC parking lot from the left hand lane. Moments later, I made the same right myself and sped around behind the restaurant to see him navigating wildly around the restaurants’ drive thru lane and then across berms to get out to Brookover Avenue. He didn’t stop as he crossed traffic on Brookover and headed north up the narrow access road on the other side of it.

  “Unit 1, in pursuit. Vehicle just crossed Brookover Avenue,” I radioed.

  I slammed on the brakes as the car stopped. The male in the passenger seat jumped out and fled toward a building on foot.

&n
bsp; Making a quick decision, I keyed my uniform mike and told dispatch, “Robbery suspect is now on foot. In pursuit.”

  As I watched the suspect enter a building from the rear, a PD cruiser screamed into the parking lot on my left. I waved at the getaway car that was now pulling away. They gave chase to the driver while I sprinted for the door of the building.

  I was in a busy restaurant kitchen. I realized then that I was at Adornetto’s. What are the odds?

  “Where did he go?” I called out to the staff inside.

  A dishwasher waved his hand toward the swinging doors into the dining room. I barged on through them into the dimly lit room and immediately tried to see the front door, thinking he had probably just passed through the place but there was no sign of him.

  I stopped a server. “Did a man just run through here?”

  She shook her head no.

  “You didn’t see anybody come from the kitchen?”

  “I was just taking an order over there.” She pointed to a table not far from the front door.

  “Anyone go out the door, there?”

  “No; not that I saw. Did you check the restroom?”

  I turned and headed toward the hallway where I knew the restrooms were located. Halfway there, after rounding a corner, I stopped dead in my tracks as I saw Dana, following a hostess, being led to a semi-secluded booth.

  My jaw went slack. She was stunning in an evening dress my favorite shade of electric blue and wearing her hair up. I’d never seen her with it up before. She’d once told me she’d always hated wearing it on top of her head.

  She smiled at me and I smiled back. Forgetting everything else, I moved toward the booth and, once she was seated, took my place across from her.

  “You look amazing.”

  “Thank you. You don’t look so bad yourself.”

  I looked down at my uniform and laughed but then sobered immediately, remembering why I was in the restaurant in the first place. My eyes darted toward the hallway but no one had emerged. I didn’t recall any windows in their ladies room and I hoped there were none in the men’s room.”

  “Are you all right?” Dana quizzed me.