The Morelville Mysteries Collection

by Anne Hagan

  It was overcast by the time I walked back out of the station. We needed a little rain but wishing for that in Ohio was like dancing with the devil. The usual torrential rains of spring would begin soon enough. There wasn’t any need to hurry them along.

  I guided Holly’s truck out of the staff lot. I was careful to not even go by the other lot or to look in that direction. Genesis Medical Center is about 10 minutes away from the station. Dad would be getting close to his drive by swing. I picked my own way through town and then took a series of twisting, turning, rolling back country roads to the farm. I looped around a couple of times to make sure I wasn’t followed. Any Chicago gangbangers trying to follow me were sure to be lost or ill or both by now. If they had a local watching me, my disguise must have worked. The last few miles, there wasn’t another vehicle anywhere in sight.

  The farm house was set back from the road. Once I got up the drive, I could see that the ranger and Dana’s little Chevy were sitting out in front of the house. Dad and Dana were nowhere in sight. I hustled inside through the kitchen door. I could hear voices from what my mom still called the “front room.” Dad was always unfailingly polite and chatty with strangers and he was being nice to Dana, as a result. He just didn’t have much to say otherwise.

  I put a smile on my face and stepped into the room. “Thanks so much for your help dad. I appreciate it.”

  “I best be getting back to your mother and sister so I’ll leave you and the Agent here to talk.” He paused and thought for a second. “Beth and Cole will be along soon.”

  “Right. Thanks for reminding me. I’m sure they’ll be hungry. Dana and I can have our chat in the kitchen while I fix them something.”

  “Okay then.” He left.

  “Your dad is so sweet.”

  We walked back through to the kitchen. “He’s a good man. He’s not usually so talkative. How did he know you’re an agent?”

  “I didn’t know what you’d told him so I just introduced myself and told the truth; I’m a federal agent working on a case that ties into a case you’re working on and we needed a more private place to talk than the sheriff’s office. He didn’t ask any questions.”

  “He wouldn’t.” I opened the fridge and dug around for sandwich fixings. “Are you hungry?”

  “I could eat. Would you like some help?”

  “No, I’ve got it. The kids are staying here while Kris is laid up and... well, you know. They’re at school. The bus should be dropping them off any minute. They’re teenagers so they’re always hungry.”

  Dana laughed. “I remember those days! Actually, I don’t think I really outgrew them.”

  I grinned back at her. “You wear your lust for food well Ms. Rossi!”

  “That’s because I’m always on the move.”

  “I hear that. I also hear the school bus or, rather, I hear our old farm dog, Bear, barking because she hears the bus. Would you look in that cupboard over there and see if there are any chips?”

  “Gotcha.” Dana moved to the cupboard where mom stocked the snacks. While she was digging in there, Cole and Beth tumbled through the door, fighting to be first. Cole screamed, “Hands in the air!” but neither Dana or I moved. We were expecting them.

  Realizing it was me and someone that I must know in their grandparents’ house, rather than someone out to do them harm, they settled down pretty quickly.

  Beth came over and hugged me. “Aunt Mel, I’m so glad you’re here. When we saw that strange truck and the strange car, we didn’t know who was here.”

  “I wasn’t scared,” Cole said, “but Beth was. Bear wasn’t barking at anything but the bus, like usual.”

  “I was not!” Beth smacked his shoulder.

  “Were too!”

  “Whatever.”

  “Okay, that’s enough! I made you two some sandwiches and there’s chips. That ought to hold you over till grandma gets back.”

  Cole asked, “Is mom still in the hospital?” while Beth eyeballed Dana.

  “Yes, but she’s doing a lot better. Grandpa said they might let her come home tonight. We’ll have to wait and see.”

  “I don’t want her to come home,” Beth said. “Not until you catch whoever did this to her.”

  “She’ll come and stay here with you guys and grandma and grandpa. You’re all safe here. Agent Rossi here and I are working on catching the person who did this. We need to talk. We’ll be in the front room. You guys go up to do your homework after you eat.”

  Both kids grumbled but lost their attitudes when I set their food down in front of them. We picked up our own plates and headed back into the front room.

  The room had originally been intended as a more formal parlor in the old farm house my parents owned. It had a door to close it off like the den in a more modern home with an open floor plan would have. I closed it now to give us some privacy from curious young ears.

  Dana looked around again and then chose a seat on the sofa, placing her plate on the coffee table in front of her. “Should we be eating in here?”

  “We’re grown women... just don’t spill!”

  She laughed. Her laugh was contagious and I caught it too. It felt good to relieve the tension that had been building inside me since she asked back at the station to talk somewhere privately. Dana, on the other hand, looked pensive. She took a bite of her food and then stared off into space while she chewed. I started to eat my sandwich.

  In between bites, Dana asked, “Mel, how well did you know Sheriff Carter?”

  “Sheriff’ is usually an elected position around here. He was elected a few years before I got on the force and then re-elected every election cycle after that. He was a politician more than he was a lawman.”

  “In what ways?”

  “He was always campaigning or making moves that made him look good politically even if they weren’t the best moves for the department. He was all about Caden Carter, not about what was best for Muskingum County.”

  “Couldn’t people see that?”

  “He was a “good” politician Dana. He had the ultra-conservative community around here eating out of the palm of his hand.”

  “Were you two friends or did you socialize with him?”

  “I went to official functions out of a sense of duty but I never socialized with him off duty. We’re from completely different backgrounds. I was raised in the country life in this county and I enjoy it. He was raised here in the county too but he’s from one of our more, shall I say, prominent families. He and people like him didn’t mingle with the rank and file much. Why all the questions about him?”

  “I need to know what you really know about him because something you might be able to put your finger on could be the key that unlocks this case.”

  I sat back in my arm chair and stared at her for a minute. “Tell me what’s really going on.”

  “I’ll get to that, I promise. Just a few more questions?”

  I drew in a deep breath. I was getting nervous for reasons I couldn’t explain. If what she was about to tell me involved my department, I didn’t know what I would do. I blew the breath out. “Okay. Go on.”

  “Did it seem like Sheriff Carter lived above his means?”

  I thought about that for a minute. “I mean, don’t we all, to some extent?”

  Dana shrugged.

  “Sheriffs don’t make a fortune but he was from a, quote, “good” family. They had a little money. It’s always been a mystery to me why he chose law enforcement over practicing law or over going into politics, outright. I’ve wondered what his family thought about his choice.”

  “Did they financially back his political campaigns for Sheriff?”

  “I can’t answer that with anything but speculation. I’m just not into local politics. Too much backstabbing. I’m sorry.”

  “Mel, do you think he was corrupt?”

  That question didn’t surprise me. There’d been rumors for a few years. “I don’t honestly know. I’m aware that there were rumors th
at he was on the take, that he was being paid off to turn a blind eye to certain things, but I never saw evidence of that and I was never a party to anything underhanded.”

  “Please don’t get defensive.”

  “I’m not. I’m trying to objectively answer your questions but you’re not telling me the whole story here. So, let me just ask; are you trying to say that Sheriff Carter was involved in the smuggling operation you’re investigating?”

  Dana’s eyes met mine. “He was. We’re always intercepting shipments of things coming across our borders that are illegal or illegal to ship, distribute or sell here in the states even though they might be legal elsewhere. We seize a lot of things on the spot. Other times, with shipments which aren’t harmful, when we have prior intelligence...” She trailed off.

  “You let them pass through and you follow them.”

  “Exactly. We want to find out where they’re going and who’s paying the freight. We want to find all the connections and stem the tide between those players whenever we can.”

  “So you think he was giving goods safe passage through Muskingum County for a payoff? It’s not like we’re on the border here...”

  “You’re right. There wouldn’t be any reason for him to stop trucks for anything on a normal basis. We think it’s more involved than that. We watched him for a while. Stuff would come into this county and disappear. It’s not being sold here but it’s not leaving the county on the same trucks it entered on, either. It’s getting split for distribution here somewhere that we weren’t able to pinpoint and then it’s leaving somehow.”

  “How was Carter involved in that?”

  “There’s nothing that was overtly obvious but we had informants that fingered him early on. We know he was a local boss or an area boss in the smuggling ring. When we started looking at him, a lot of things came to light.”

  “Wow. I had no idea.”

  “I know. I didn’t confide this information after you spoke with my area supervisor, Gene, because I...we... couldn’t be sure if you or anyone else in the department was complicit in the operation of the ring.”

  “I understand.” I got up and walked to the window. I stared out at the vehicles in the drive but I didn’t really see them.

  I’d worked for Caden Carter for a dozen or so years. We’d never been friends but I certainly didn’t hate the man. I’d chosen to ignore the rumors about him over the last couple of years. Now it was all coming back to bite me in the butt.

  “Are you okay?”

  I turned and looked at Dana. “Yes... no... I don’t know. I guess what I need to know is what happens now?”

  “I don’t believe there’s anything that involves your department, Mel. What I do completely believe is that our two investigations are related somehow.”

  I walked over and took a seat near her on the couch so we could speak more quietly. “Little ears.”

  She nodded. “We have intel that says a major goods shipment is moving in about two weeks of very high quality, high end designer knock-offs which will have at least one major European designer screaming bloody murder if the stuff hits the street. We know it’s made in China. We’re pretty sure it gets passed through Canada and we have reason to believe it’s either crossing the border into Wisconsin somewhere in trucks or it’s coming across the Great Lakes and entering somewhere. We’ve been working both approaches. We have to pick it up when it enters to have any hope of following it, stopping it and making any arrests.

  “What does this particular shipment have to do with Carter or Muskingum County, or my counterfeiters”...

  “We got our intel from an informant in the local area. He did dirty work for Carter, from time to time. Says Carter had something to do with the organization of this one. He told our informant that he was taking in a load of goods that was going to make him rich.”

  “So it’s coming through here?”

  “We don’t know. With Carter gone, our source has lost his information source. He’s digging around but he hasn’t turned up anything.”

  “How do you think this all ties together?”

  “Well, let’s see; the counterfeit money and the knock off goods could all be coming courtesy of the same organization, the Gangster Demons. They’re passing bad bills around here and they own a trucking company that does long haul shipping using gang members as at least some of their drivers. A driver that’s in jail and a gangbanger that’s been passing bad bills and shooting up your county are related. An inmate, at the same jail as the driver, got killed after volunteering to pass information on about the workings of a smuggling ring for revenge to another one of our informants, a rival gangbanger, who was down with him at the time who would, in turn, pass it on to one of his lieutenants.”

  Dana paused and thought for a minute. “All of that is a pretty clear indication that this is somehow all tied together. Makes me wish your Secret Service friend didn’t have those other two in custody. We might have to work a deal to loosen up on the driver until we can solve the smuggling case.”

  She took a deep breath. “Mel, I hate to say this but something else comes to mind.”

  “What?” I waited a beat or two but Dana seemed hesitant to say what she was thinking. “Dana, please, just tell me.”

  “The night Sheriff Carter was killed”... She paused, looked at me and then looked away again. Finally she said what she was thinking. “My gut feeling is the whole drug raid might have been setup to take him out of the picture. Someone yanked on his chain a little bit to get him to go out there in harm’s way. I mean, really, what’s the Sheriff doing going out on an actual drug raid?”

  I mentally kicked myself for not putting that together. “And now, because I’ve been doing my job, chasing down counterfeit bills they’re after me...”

  Dana just looked at me. I just seethed. I wanted to take these bastards down but I couldn’t take down a whole gang. Realizing that brought another thought to mind. “Dana, why is Muskingum County involved in the first place? How does a Sheriff here get mixed up with a Chicago street gang? You’re still holding something back! What is it?”

  Chapter 15 – Relic

  Dana sighed and shook her head. “Can we take a walk? I need some air.” She looked at me with deep, pleading, brown eyes.

  I stared back at her for a minute, taking her in completely. I was a mix of emotions. One minute, I wanted her, really felt connected to her and the next... well, I just wanted to knock some sense into her. I broke my reverie and stood up. I offered my hand to her and pulled her up when she took it. We were standing inches apart. Despite myself, I could feel the heat of attraction between us.

  The sound of kids arguing snapped me back to reality. I dropped Dana’s hand. “Let’s see what they’ve gotten themselves into and then I’ll take you for a ride.” I picked up our sandwich plates and turned for the door.

  “A ride? Like, on a horse?”

  I laughed. When I looked back at her though, she had a look of pure terror on her face. “No! Not a horse. You’ll see, city girl!”

  Her slap to the back of my shoulder as I headed for the stairs released light years of tension in my still tightly coiled body and my conflicted brain.

  Kris’s kids were upstairs arguing over something. They should have been doing homework. “What’s going on?” I yelled, from the foot of the stairs.

  “Nothing!” came the tandem reply.

  “That’s what I thought!”

  Dana shot me a quizzical look. “Shouldn’t you go up there and check on them?”

  “It’s better not to.” I headed back into the kitchen. Dana hesitated and then followed. “Just let me rinse these and then I’ll show you some of the farm and get you that air that you’re asking for.” I grinned my most devious grin. I looked at her shoes. She had on a calf high boots. At least she dresses sensibly!

  I led her out to the barn where I pulled out my dad’s Polaris quad and fired it up. “Hop on!”

  She backed up a couple of feet from
me and yelled – louder than she needed to, “Is that thing even safe?”

  I grinned. “Just get on! I promise I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

  “First dirt bikes, now this!”

  “The dirt bike is Beth’s. This is my dad’s.” I didn’t see any point in telling her right now that I was a real quad enthusiast with racing quads in a shed behind the barn. My niece got her love of racing from me.

  She tried to climb on without grabbing hold of me to do it and almost toppled off as she attempted to get a leg over the big machine. I reached behind me and hooked her around the waist and then pushed her across the seat.

  “Put your arms around my waist. I won’t go real fast but it could get bumpy in spots.”

  Dana gingerly placed her hands at my sides. I pulled her arms firmly around me. I didn’t want her learning the hard way and hating quads and me forever. I pulled out slowly and gave it just enough gas that I had to shift into second gear. I figured that wouldn’t scare her and the bike would be quiet enough that we could talk a bit. As we rolled across the yard toward the upper pasture gate, mom’s fancy chickens skittered this way and that. We rolled by the hen house where we kept laying hens and I pointed it out.

  “Are those colorful ones running around the roosters, then?”

  I did my best not to laugh out loud. “No. Those are called fancies. They’re sort of pet chickens. Mom likes them.” I could feel Dana shaking her head behind me.

  I stopped the bike and hopped off to open the pasture gate. Someday maybe Dana would know how to move the bike through but today wasn’t that day. I got back on, drove it through and then got off and reclosed the gate. When I remounted, she rewrapped her arms around my waist without any prodding from me. We headed across the low part of the upper pasture to the fence at the property boundary. The hill going further up into the pasture wasn’t as steep on that side. I shifted and turned the bike up it.