The Morelville Mysteries Collection

by Anne Hagan

  Mel was silent for a beat herself and then she asked, “So when’s your flight?”

  “I’m on standby for one in about an hour and a half. If I can’t get on that, I’ll be on one that leaves two hours after that. Either way, I’ll be in late tonight. If I get the earlier flight, I’m going by the office first to get started strategizing with the team.”

  “Watch your back Dana, please?”

  “I will. You do likewise.”

  “Mel I don’t know what time...”

  “I don’t care what time it is. You call me!”

  “Is that an order?”

  “It’s concern. Please, call me tonight.”

  “Yes ma’am!”

  Chapter 20 – Finding Relic

  Mel

  I paced my office, thinking, for several minutes. There was plenty of spare room in this building to let a small task force work out of here. Some offices in the facility where my office is have been empty for years. Budget cutbacks had eliminated jobs and left parts of the building to be taken over by dust mites with some areas used only for storage. Housing and hiding the existence of Dana’s team shouldn’t be a problem.

  My mind skipped ahead to other things. Still pacing, I began to think more closely about Delores Chappell. She lives literally around the corner from Kris and I and the kids. We’ve known her, forever and a day, as my mom likes to say. She’s an eccentric older lady who has her good days and her bad days. One day, she’ll be pleasant enough but, the next, get her on the subject of local property taxes or some such thing, and it’s off to the races. She isn’t a fan of anything that costs her money that she doesn’t want to spend!

  When I think of her as eccentric, I mean it in an affectionate way. She’s very well known as one of the towns several packrats. These days, they call them hoarders, but the newfangled term doesn’t fit Delores. She’s a highly organized pack rat. Everything has a place and everything in its place. She buys out clear plastic container sales at Wally World in Zanesville.

  Given my current status as persona non-grata due to this case, if Delores is in fact tied into this whole mess, I couldn’t very well go marching over to her house and pay her a visit; though I’d done it many times in the past. I had to figure something else out. I honestly doubt she’s running any sort of operation out of her tiny little house right in Morelville! If she’s got anything going on that’s off kilter, it’s happening on one of the family farms or on other family property out around the area. Dana didn’t give me any details about the “line” she had on where these trucks might be going. Damn it all! What a mess!

  The more I pondered it, the harder it really was to believe that Delores or the Chappell family businesses might be involved in something illicit. The family was very well known in the area and squeaky clean. Still, they did have a lot of land and some commercial holdings and they really kept to themselves. Could there really be something going on that I just don’t want to believe?

  As for Delores herself, well, her home is ideally located to have at least a partial view of mine and of the state route going past my home. The two hoods driving the van could have staked out my place from hers and kept an eye on the main road too. My deputy never would have known they were there. People do talk and gossip in town but it’s likely no one paid any attention to a non-descript white work van, even with the Illinois plates. They look similar enough to plates available in Ohio that it’s likely few of my fellow denizens of the little village – if anyone – noticed. If they did, no one had, as yet, commented. Word spread so fast about my adventure in the creek that you would have thought someone would have already called the department and blabbed about anything else that was unusual that wasn’t part of what was reported by witnesses right there at the scene of my near demise!

  I heard a tap on the door and then Holly popped her head in. “It’s almost dinner time Sheriff. I’m running out. Do you want me to bring you back something?”

  “Aren’t you working a little late today? Or, maybe you just think I need a baby sitter?”

  A guilty look crossed her face. “It’s not that Sheriff but I am worried about you... as your assistant and as your friend. Is there anything at all I can do to help?”

  A thought occurred to me. “Have you ever met my neighbor Delores Chappell?”

  “Chappell? I can’t say that I have. You know that other than to visit with you once in a while, I don’t hang around in your little, happening village over there very much!” She grinned.

  I chuckled. Morelville was usually, certainly anything but “happening” until lately. A little of my tension was released in the exchange.

  “Thanks, I needed the laugh. Actually, I may be able to use your help for something. Let’s talk about in just a bit, if you don’t mind. Why don’t you go ahead and run out and grab us some sandwiches. While you’re gone, I’ll work out a few details. I promise not to keep you here late and to be on my best behavior and stay in hiding once you’re gone.”

  “Roger, Sheriff!” With that, Holly smiled again and then turned smartly on the heels of her uniform issued shoes and strode out of my office. I just laughed. It really did feel good to do that.

  I sat down at my desk and pulled the county auditor’s website up on my computer. I started researching properties owned by Delores Chappell and the Chappell family. Delores owned her little house in Morelville outright. A family trust held most of the rest of the Chappell properties which were spread out around the area near the village. They consisted of the family homestead and horse farm, a feed corn and soybean production farm, a dairy farming and milk hauling operation, and several adjacent parcels consisting of hundreds of acres of undeveloped land. Parceled out from some of that same land were a few homes that were deeded out to Chappel descendants.

  Address information for the family trust went to trustees Delores Chappell and her younger brother, Heath Chappell Jr. I was personally aware that Heath Jr. lived at the homestead and that he managed the small horse farm there and the crop and dairy farming operations at the ground level. I was quite surprised to find that he and his sister were in charge of the entire family trust.

  Though Gramps Chappell, as everyone in the area had called him, and his wife June had long since passed on, a daughter and two of his sons were still living but they were well up in years. Delores and Heath were the children of his eldest son Heath Sr. who was also no longer living. I would have thought estate management would have passed on to Gramps and June’s surviving children but it didn’t in this case. The family dynamics completely escaped me. At least though, I had a starting point.

  I pulled up the auditor’s aerial maps and Google Earth for all three of the main properties. The county did an aerial survey ever couple of years so the maps tended to be a bit more updated than Google and Google Earth in some instances and not in others. I usually cross referenced both to get as close as possible to current realities. I zoomed in and out on each property to see what I could see.

  Nothing that I was looking at struck me as odd in any way. The farms had the expected farm buildings and the dairy farm had a few milk trucks in the most recent aerial view. I started checking the other properties too. They had a home or two scattered here and there and the usual assortment of out buildings for the area like sheds, horse stables, small barns and the like. Nothing was jumping up though to bite me and say “look at me!” This little adventure is going nowhere fast!

  ###

  Delores Chappell is a notary public. She advertises her services by putting up business cards on the bulletin boards of the businesses around the village. Everyone in the area uses her to notarize things because she does it for nothing and she has better hours than any bank.

  Holly and I created a ruse where she absolutely had to get something notarized and, as she was happening through the village and stopped to buy some snacks, she spied a business card Delores had placed at the store. That would be her ticket into ‘Relic’s Lair’, as we had laughingly dubbed it. I
t was such a simple plan, it would probably work. She would stop by – undercover – in the morning.

  Once Holly left for the evening, I locked myself into my office then I changed out of my uniform into some sweats and sat down to do more research. By 9:00 PM I still hadn’t heard from Dana and I was getting very tired. My body ached from my vehicular tumble into the creek. My office, unfortunately, offered me little in the way of creature comforts. Since it was temporary, I’d left it pretty spartan. I’d never intended to live out of it. I was regretting not doing more with it now.

  An hour later, I gave up on accomplishing anything else. I curled up, aches and all, on the floor and I was attempting to use my gun belt for a pillow when my cell phone rang. It was Dana.

  “Finally!”

  “I’m in Cleveland Mel, on the way to my apartment now. Where are you?”

  “Still in my office at the station.”

  “I’ll bet that’s comfy!”

  I wasn’t about to let her know the extent of my pain. “What’s the scoop?”

  “We’ll have a small team on site there tomorrow afternoon to work out of your location...”

  I interrupted. “Define small.”

  “Me and three others. There will be an aerial recon component to the op but the pilot will locate elsewhere most of the time. How did your research go?”

  “Honestly? Not well. I’ve pulled up some possible target areas. Maybe something will jump out for one of you. I do have one more trick up my sleeve though. I’ll know more by the time your team is on site tomorrow.”

  “Until tomorrow then. ‘Hate to cut this short but I’ve got to get some sleep, Mel.”

  You’re telling me! “Good night Dana. See you tomorrow.”

  Chapter 21 – Ops

  Mel

  Somewhere around 1:00 AM I remembered we had holding cells in the building. Though we don’t give our temporary ‘guests’ much to snuggle with, they at least get a blanket and a pillow. After smacking myself in the forehead for not thinking of it before, I had the graveyard shift desk sergeant round up a few pillows and blankets for me. I don’t remember much after that until my cell phone alarm went off at 5:00 AM. I wanted to get showered and changed into a fresh uniform in the locker room, before the morning shift change.

  Though I really didn’t want to, at 7:00 AM I called out to the farm. I’d talked to my folks the day before to let them know I was all right before they heard about my misfortune from someone else. My mother had subjected me to another tirade then about the dangers of my work. That wasn’t something I needed again just now but there was personal stuff I did need and it made sense to have someone gather it up and then have Holly pick it up as she went through the area on her way to see Delores.

  “Mom? It’s Mel.”

  “Where are you? Are you okay? What’s going on? Melissa, I swear...”

  I cut her off. “Mom! Mom! I’m fine. I’m at the station. I’ll be staying here today. Nothing’s going to happen to me here.”

  “We’re just so worried about you honey!” She let out a sob.

  “Mom, please don’t cry. I’m fine. Everything is going to be fine. Now please; I need a little help.”

  She sniffled. “What could I do? I don’t know anything about what you do!”

  “There’s a patrol officer that’s still watching my house. I need a couple more uniforms, and some other clothes. Please ask dad to run your key for the place to the officer and have him go in and get me some things.”

  “I’ll just go myself. Those men won’t know what to get Melissa!”

  “Mom, I don’t want you going into town and I don’t want anyone going into or anywhere near the house but the officer. I’ll call him and let him know what to get. It will be fine!”

  “I’ll just get your father on the phone. Just hang on a minute.”

  “Just let him know mom. I have what I need for now. I love you. Bye.” I hung up before she could say anything else then I called my deputy on the scene and gave him my list. I instructed him to run the items out to the farm after he’d collected them then I called dispatch to have another officer replace him. Once that little chore was crossed off my mental checklist, I called Holly and asked her to swing by the farm first, before her covert mission, to pick up my uniforms then I was off and running to get a room set up for Dana’s team.

  Holly arrived at the station just after 10:00 AM. She came bearing clothes, extra toiletries and, courtesy of both my mom and her planned stop at the Morelville General Store, food. My mind was swirling but I was also famished. We both tucked in hungrily while Holly gave her report of her morning recon.

  “Your mom’s really worried about you Sheriff.”

  “I know but there’s really nothing I can do about that. She’s just going to have to find a way to cope with the dangers of my job.”

  “Please take this in the spirit that it’s meant... I’m speaking as your friend...”

  I glared at her.

  “Mel, we’re friends, right?”

  I sighed. “Yes. Of course we are.” I knew I was about to get a lecture.

  “I don’t know about your dad but this is definitely hard for your mom. Hell, it’s hard for my mom to deal with me being a deputy even though, since I started working up here for you, I’m usually well out of harm’s way. You’re out there on the front line. Bad, stupid shit happens to you.

  “She loves you Mel. She worries. Any mother would. I don’t mean to tell you what to do, but I think you should try and cut her just a little bit of slack, hon. Show a bit of understanding for her position.”

  “Okay! Okay! I get it. I’ll try. For right now though, I need as much intel as I can get because there’s a Customs investigative team on the way here to set up operations and I’ve got next to nothin’ to give them.”

  “I don’t know how much help what I have for you is going to be. I went to the store like we talked about and checked out the bulletin board. Sure enough, her business card was posted. I called her, told her I was standing at the store and asked her if she was available to do notary service right then. She said yes, ‘come ahead’ and she directed me to her house.”

  “Her place is just like you said it would be. She’s a packrat but she’s a neat and organized one. She had everything she was hoarding sorted into clear plastic boxes. You could see exactly what was in everything. In the room she does her notary stuff in, the kitchen and her apparent lounge area as well, what I could see was mostly office supplies in the totes.” There was absolutely no computer in evidence and, in fact, I noticed an IBM style electric typewriter on a stand and one tote with several bottles of white out in it.”

  “Did you ask her about using computers like we talked about?”

  “Yes, of course. That set her off on a tirade. She talked to me like she’d always known me. Said that she’d had a computer back in such and such day and it got a virus and caused her nothing but grief, blah, blah, blah, and that she would never have one again. You owe me for that one! She’s a feisty old broad!”

  “That she is. Did you see anything that piqued your suspicions at all?”

  “Nothing suspicious, per se; just things that seemed a bit odd given her dislike of computers and her personality.”

  “Like what?”

  “She had stacks of new books laying around...neatly, but still all around the room. Mostly non-fiction stuff like genealogy and biography. There are no bookstores around so where’s she getting all the books? Is she ordering them? If so, how? Also, she had a cell phone; not a touch screen smart phone mind you, but more like a knock off Blackberry. Maybe it was a Blackberry. I couldn’t get a good look. For someone that doesn’t like computers, what’s she doing with more than a basic ‘old person’ phone? Wouldn’t she be happier with a Jitterbug or something similar?”

  “You’re right; that’s a little out of character for her but, she’s pretty tight with a dollar. Maybe she got a deal for the phone. That’s not enough for me to say there’s anyt
hing there. Anything else?”

  Holly kept to the same track. “We could subpoena her phone records.”

  “Based on what? We have nothing to give a judge to warrant one. What else do you have? Think!”

  She leaned back and stared at the ceiling for several seconds. “She has a massive flat screen TV and it’s hooked to cable. It was playing a FOX News cast while I was there.” Holly paused. “Which could mean her old TV finally took a crap,” I said.

  “Or it could mean she has money to burn. Think about it; she’s retired on a small pension and social security. She despises computers and yet she has a Blackberry and an expensive, high tech TV.”

  “That’s a reach Holly and we both know it.” I thought about Dana’s case. “Was there anything that looked designer or designer knock off?”

  “Nope, not unless the TV and the phone were. No purses or other accessories in view and she was in basic old woman clothes...”

  “Define “old woman clothes.” I was mystified at that one.

  “Mel, you know what I’m talking about; knit pants with a stretch waist and a pullover top. Functional and a step up from jeans and a tee but nothing special.”

  “We still got nothin’.”

  Holly raised her eyebrows. “Sheriff, my gut tells me there’s something there. I just can’t put my finger on it yet.”

  “Could your gut be telling you that because you want to believe there’s really something there?” I was frustrated and I was letting it show.

  “Look, maybe. But, I really don’t think so. Let me mull it all a bit longer. What time’s the team coming in from Customs?”

  “Dana Rossi, the Agent that was here before, is the agent leading this case. She said they’d be here in the afternoon. My guess is they’re all coming from the Cleveland or Columbus areas and they’ll be here any time now. They have a short time window to wrap this all up.”