by Anne Hagan
I found Terry where I expected him; on his bench, just inside the store, under one of the front windows. His perch was steps from the cash register and it afforded him a view of everything going on in the store and of everyone coming in and going out. With a quarter turn of his head in either direction, he could also see what was going on outside in the immediate area of the store. No wonder he sees and knows everything!
“Hey Terry, how goes it?”
The older man smiled. “Well hello there Mel! How are you?”
“Great, great. Thanks for asking.”
“All is well here. ‘Been a quiet couple of days since the dustup over there at the pizza shop, and your sister being shot, and all. Hopefully, it stays that way.” He eyed me in appraisal.
“Those guys are all in custody and they’re not going anywhere, I assure you. I’m just checking in with everyone to make sure nothing else seems weird or off.”
“Can’t say that there is anything. Like I said, ‘been pretty quiet the last couple of days. ‘Probably a good thing.”
“Very true.
“Talked to your dad. Says your sister’s getting on okay.” Terry was just a few years older than my dad. They’d known each other a long time.
“Yes, she’s doing well. She should be out and about in no time.”
“Good, good.”
“Now, not to make you work today or anything, but I need a few things.” I smiled at him and then I looked toward Shelia who was putting away a deli meat order. Sheila, would you be so kind as to make me a roast beef and Swiss on wheat? You make the best deli sandwiches in town!”
“I make the only deli sandwiches in town!” It was our running joke.
I moved to the cooler and grabbed milk, juice and diet Pepsi. I knew the fridge at home was empty and I liked variety.
Terry rang me up while Sheila wrapped up my sandwich. I chatted with them for a few more minutes but I didn’t learn anything new. I took my leave and headed down the street for home to show my presence and to put my purchases away.
I drove slowly the block and a half to the house while I took in the rhythms of the town going on around me. Life was moving much as normal in the little village. I pulled into my drive, grabbed my purchases and then entered my own home for the first time in a few days. It was eerily quiet without Kris, the kids or the dog.
I slipped the drinks into the fridge and then stepped into the living room in the center of the lower floor so I could keep an eye on the Post office from the window. The window in the family room at the front of the house would have been a better vantage point but the glass hadn’t been replaced yet. It was still boarded up. I munched my sandwich while I kept my semi-secret vigil.
I didn’t have long to wait. At about 12:35, per her usual schedule, Delores’ Buick pulled through the alley across the street and turned west toward the post office. I grabbed my keys, locked up the house and ambled up the street, on foot.
Chapter 26 – Thwarted
I entered the post office to find Delores standing next to the counter, chatting with the Postmaster, Molly, while she sorted through her daily half of a large tote of mail. In addition to hoarding office supplies, she also hoarded mail. It seems she was on every conceivable catalog mailing list. She probably really was mail ordering all the books Holly had seen before.
“Hello Delores,” I greeted the older woman first and then nodding my head toward the Postmaster, “Molly.”
“Hi yourself, Sheriff. How are you today?” That came from Molly while Delores just stared at me.
I pretended not to notice her staring as I busied myself with the checking my own mailbox. “I’m just fine. Thanks for asking. Isn’t it just a beautiful spring day out there?” Let’s get this party started!
Molly obliged my attempt at a conversation starter with, “That it is. There’s been a little bit of damp and a little bit of warm. It’s the perfect storm for mushroom growing. I should be a great festival this year!”
I needn’t have worried about how to pull Delores into the conversation. Molly’s statement got her all riled up.
“You know, not all the folks around here like that Mushroom Festival! It just brings in too many outsiders and too much trouble!”
Hmm...wonder where this line of thinking is coming from. “Well, it does bring in a lot of people but trouble doesn’t typically follow. I’ve been on duty or at the festival most of the last several years and there haven’t been any real problems. What it does do, is a lot of good for the village coffers and for all of the merchants.”
Delores stared at me intently again. Molly looked back and forth at both of us. I turned to Mol1y, “What do you think of the festival?”
“Oh, I really enjoy it. My kids aren’t fans of all the mushroom food, of course, but the whole family looks forward to it otherwise and, you’re right, it really does do a lot of good for the town.” She turned to Delores, “Those new streetlights that got put up on your road last year were funded from money raised from admission fees.”
I nodded. Molly’s husband is a township trustee. She’s in the know, in more ways than one. “A lot of people have told me they like the security of having all of the side streets lighted now.”
Delores wasn’t done being cranky. “Damn light shines right in my bedroom window. I had to buy blackout drapes so I could get some sleep!”
I started to snort but then I caught myself. Everyone in town knew that Delores was up until the wee hours of the morning, almost daily, watching television. She probably had to buy the blackout drapes so the sun wouldn’t wake her up so early... Instead of a snort, I coughed and then excused myself. Delores started to move toward the door. I need to keep her talking.
Thinking fast, I reached out to touch her arm and slow her. Think, think, think... “I’ve been meaning to ask you, do you, um, do you still collect stamps?” Whew, pulled that one out of my hip pocket!
Molly leaned forward and opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something but then she stepped back away from her side of the counter and busied herself doing something. Curious! I’ll have to ask what she was about to say later.
“No, I quit years ago. Why do you want to know?”
“Ah, that’s too bad!” I shrugged. “I just wondered. Cole is working on a history project for school and I thought something that was a little bit of a throwback to the days before email and texting might be a good choice for him.” Maybe that will set her off on a rant about computers or schools or something!
Delores didn’t take the bait. “Sorry! Can’t help there.” She turned to Molly, “Well, I must be off. I’ll see you tomorrow. With that, she was out the door.
I shook my head and turned back to Molly. “Sometimes she can be the nicest person in the world and sometimes...” I trailed off on purpose. Molly did take the bait.
“Nice? Ha! Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike her but she’s usually in a bad mood.” She began to move a stack of colorful flyers off the counter.
“What are those?”
“These?” She nodded toward the papers. “Delores brings them to me. They’re for coins.”
“Coins?”
“Yes... I probably shouldn’t say anything... but, well, it’s not like she didn’t give these away. She collects old coins now, not stamps. I expressed an interest one time in something she got in the mail that she showed me and that’s all it took. She’s been showing me her most recent coins and bringing me the mail that she’s already opened and looked through from all sorts of different mints and resellers, ever since.”
“What kinds of coins is she buying? Commemorative stuff?”
“Well, there is some of that but mostly she’s collecting actual money like whole series of pennies going back into the 1800s, nickels, old silver, Civil War era stuff; you name it. Most of it is circulated and isn’t the highest quality but some of it is pretty hard to find at all.”
I whistled. “Pretty expensive hobby!”
“Tell me about
it. I mean, I really am interested in coins and it’s nice that she brings me this stuff to look through,” she waved the stack of brochures still in her hand, “but I just can’t afford it. Some of these coins are $50 to $100 or more a pop! I don’t know how she does it.”
I know, from a long ago conversation with her, that Delores has a decent pension and that she also gets Social Security. It’s possible she even gets some money from the farm operations, especially if she’s doing the regular books but, even with her grandfather’s passing, her parents were old but still alive, so it wasn’t likely she was dipping into any sort of a trust fund or an inheritance just yet. She certainly didn’t live the life of a woman of means. Her coin buying money could be legitimate or it could be her way of liquidating ill-gotten funds. My head swam with the possibilities. I needed to talk to Dana.
Back at the house, I did something I almost never do during the day; I shut and locked the door. This sucks! I hate feeling uneasy in my own home!
I shuddered then grabbed a Pepsi, my only addiction, and stepped into my office. While I waited for my laptop to boot up, I dialed Dana’s cell number. She didn’t answer. I got up and paced the floor. What the hell should I do now? I did what I set out to do... I showed my face in town, I even talked to Delores... sorta...I certainly got an interesting piece of information... I think... I just don’t know.
I felt like I was just spinning my wheels and I figured I might as well do that literally. I went back out to my county truck and headed out to the farm to check on my mother and sister.
###
Dana
“Unit One, it’s Unit Two. We might have a little situation on our hands.” Phil whispered over his phone. We weren’t using radios in an area where CB’s that could pick us up easily were still as common to own as televisions.
“What’s up?”
“I’m out here trying to get the first surveillance team into position but it doesn’t look good. Somebody has been here, recently, apparently watching the same things we want to watch in pretty much the same area we chose.”
“Pull out now!” I laced my voice with urgency but I kept it low. I had unarmed men out there; I didn’t need them tangling with whoever else had in interest in operations at the Chappell dairy farm. “Come back here ASAP!”
“Roger, out.”
Out loud, I mused, “What the hell is going on?” I’d just been ready to step out of the station house when Phil’s call came in. I headed back into the bowels of the building and went back upstairs to Mel’s offices.
“Forget something Agent Rossi?” Holly asked when I walked back in two minutes after I’d walked out.
“No. Things went along at a snail’s pace in this investigation before and now, all of a sudden, they want to change at the speed of light.” I shook my head and continued into the conference room. I needed to get a hold of Mel.
“I dialed her county cell. My call went right to voice mail. The same thing happened when I dialed her personal cell. She couldn’t be on two phones at one time, could she? “Uggh!” Who knows with her! I stepped back down the short hallway to Holly’s area.
“Is there any other way to reach Mel besides cell? I can’t raise her and I need her back here ASAP.”
“Cell service is pretty week in the village. She’s in her county SUV, though. I can try to raise her on the radio.”
“Would you please?”
Holly picked up her phone and pushed some buttons and then she began to speak, “Unit One, copy?”
I smiled. We’re both ‘Unit One’. I can feel an argument brewing...!
Holly listened and then spoke again. “Request 10-19.” Seconds later, she cradled the phone and turned to me. “I requested she return to the station. She’s enroute with one stop. Her ETA is 25 minutes.”
“Thanks Holly.”
###
Mel
I didn’t even make it out to the farm when Holly’s radio call came through. She knew I was in Morelville and that I would be doing a little digging. She wouldn’t have called me back to the station if it wasn’t important.
I turned the SUV around and headed back to the house. I decided to pick up some clothes and go back to the station. I’d stay there tonight or with Dana again, if she’d let me. I just couldn’t bring myself to stay in the house.
When I got out of the truck, an eerie sense of foreboding overcame me. I looked all around but nothing looked odd or out of place. Still, my hair was standing up on the back of my neck. Call it intuition, a sixth sense or whatever you want. Something wasn’t quite right.
Instead of entering the house from the driveway side as I typically did, I stepped around to the back and crept up on the deck. I peeked into the kitchen window. I couldn’t see much but the kitchen and the doorway into the living room – what must have originally been intended as a formal dining room.
As I was about to turn for the door, I saw the ghost of a shadow move briefly just past the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. There’s a stairway on the right that goes upstairs to Kris’s room and the kids’ rooms as you pass between the kitchen and the living room. Nothing should have been moving or casting a shadow on or right beside that stairwell.
I looked around me, outside. Nothing! There’s no one out here...
I peered inside again and watched the same area. I saw another flicker of shadow. Someone is in there, lying in wait!
I crept back off the porch and bolted for my SUV and then pulled out of the driveway. “Whoever is in my home, it would be wise for you to take your leave now!” I was shouting, to no one in particular. While I drove around the block to get a vantage point from a distance, I radioed the department and requested back-up. Since no one had been staying at the house the last few nights, I’d called off the surveillance that had been watching the place before. I was sitting where they previously sat and watched.
It took ten minutes for the first deputy to get to me. A few minutes later, another arrived and then another. As a team, we descended on the house. One deputy took the front door, another the side. The third took to the back with me and we entered the house and cleared the first floor quickly.
A window was open in my den from the opposite side of my vantage point up the block. The window screen was on the ground outside. Someone had left in a hurry from a point where he knew I couldn’t see him. To me, that could only mean one thing; I’m being watched from elsewhere inside of town by someone who’s in town themselves, who’s sending these goons out to take me out of commission. I’m going to nail you Delores!
While my deputies cleared the house, I wandered outside. A few neighbors who weren’t off at work had gathered across the street. I walked over to them. “Did anyone here see anybody besides me go into or out of my house in the last half hour or so?”
There were negative nods all around. No one saw anything. I’d known everyone in the little knot of people standing there for years. None of them had any reason at all to lie to me and none of them seemed anything other than concerned for my welfare and their own. Whoever had been in my home had vanished, seemingly into thin air. As I walked back across the street, I looked in the direction of Delores’ home. I couldn’t quite see it but I was fuming and I was pretty sure I knew where my aggressors were coming from.
It had been over an hour since I’d spoken to Holly. Once the house was locked up and I was on the road, I called her and briefly told her what had happened. I asked her not to tell Rossi just yet, only to hear that Dana was standing right there. I asked Holly to tell her that I was on my way in and that we’d talk as soon as I got there. I heard Dana demand the phone from Holly.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine Rossi.” I was trying to be formal and play it low key since Dana was so leery about a relationship right now and I certainly didn’t want our budding one to come to light yet or to get in the way of the investigation.
“Dammit Mel! I knew it was a bad idea letting you go back out there! I can�
��t lose you right now, not when... Well, anyway... not right now!” Her voice was full of concern and emotion.
I can only imagine the look on Holly’s face! “It’s okay.” I tried for soothing.
“It’s not okay!”
“Dana, I’ll be there in 15 minutes. We’ll talk when I get there.”
“You’re damn right we will!” She hung up the phone... hard.
Chapter 27 – Regroup
Dana
Phil had returned with the two deputies he’d taken to place on surveillance. I asked Holly to have the department men returned to their regular duties and then I set Phil about getting a hold of Ron. We were going to have to work out an alternative plan and, for that; I figured I’d need some aerial assistance.
I paced the little conference room while Tim and Jason looked on, silent. We were at a virtual standstill with no observation of the comings and goings at the farm, no word yet from Gene and no idea what had happened in Morelville.
Finally, I heard voices down the hall. I knew Mel had come in from her little adventure in what was fast becoming gangster land in my eyes. When she didn’t come into the conference room right away, I stormed down the hall in search of her.
“Where is she?” My tone to Holly was demanding but I didn’t care.
“She stepped into her office. She’ll be out in a moment but she needs to complete her reports and she usually goes down...”
“Like hell!” I cut her off and marched myself right into Mel’s office. She was sitting at her desk with her head in her hands. She didn’t even look up to acknowledge my presence.
“What are you doing?”
She was quiet for several seconds longer then she rubbed her temples and looked up at me. Her expression was pure anger. “I want to get these guys and I want to get them now!”
I just sat and looked at her. I knew the anger she was feeling but I couldn’t fix it... at least, not quickly.