by Anne Hagan
His tone toward me was more than a little condescending and his son visibly winced a couple of times but I wasn’t about to let his barbs get to me. I’d dealt with worse in my career with the department. As a woman in a traditional man’s role in Southeastern Ohio, it came with the territory. “About ten years or so ago, according to your son,” I tilted my head toward Aiden Jr., “you drilled a well on some land you’d previously acquired from the Brietlands. Do you remember that?”
He looked confused. Aiden Jr., jumped into the conversation. Dad, the well she’s asking about is on the land near the northwest corner of your holdings on this side of 60, just west of the Blue Rock boundary.”
“Ah yes! What about it now?”
“That’s land you acquired in a deal with the Brietlands, correct?”
“Yes, as I recall.”
“Were there any structures on the land when you took ownership of it?”
“Structures?”
“Yes sir, like a cabin, a stable, anything like that...”
“Brietland’s my rival you know? You’re aware of that, right?”
“Yes sir. I know that you’re both in the same business and competing for the same pockets of oil and natural gas reserves.” I spoke to him as if everything were present tense because that was his current line of thinking when it came to his long standing rivalry with the Brietlands. The elder Brietland that everyone referred to as ‘Papa’ had been dead for several years.
“I was mighty suspicious of Brietland wanting to give up that land! Our research back then showed it had good potential for oil.”
“Did he sell it to you?”
“Not a‘tall. He traded me a drilling rig and a pump jack for it.”
“Why would he do that?”
The elder Quinn looked at me like I was less than bright. “Why young lady, he didn’t have a choice. He did it because he was leveraged to the hilt and he needed another pump jack and a better drilling rig than the one he’d run down to worthless, that’s why! We were all buying up land and drilling as fast as we could back then. We had to get to the oil before the damn feds and the state changed up the rules on us again!”
“I see. So when you traded your pump jack and your drilling rig for Brietland’s land, were you aware of any structures on the land?” I hated to keep steering the conversation back to my questions but I had a murderer to catch and we were getting nowhere fast.
“That was more than 30 years ago, you understand. That boy was long gone by then. Brietland took care of that squatter. He never owned that land! Brietland bought it from the state fair and square and our deal was all legal like too!”
“Boy? Squatter? Are you referring to Billy Bob McClarnan?”
“Yes, that McClarnan hoodlum. He didn’t own that land to begin with! Brietland had him removed from it long before he traded me for it.”
I looked at Aiden Jr. He just shook his head. “So did Brietland have the cabin McClarnan was squatting in removed or did you, after you took control of the land?”
The old man just shrugged.
“Have you ever seen a cabin on the property anywhere Mr. Quinn?”
“I don’t recall.”
“You say your trade was 30 years ago, is that right?”
“There about young lady, yes.”
I turned to the younger Quinn. “You told me your father commissioned the drilling of the well on that land about ten years ago, correct?”
He nodded.
“I’m wondering, if you were so intent on drilling before the state or the feds halted you, why you waited 20 years to drill that last well.” I looked between the two men. Aiden Jr. deferred to his father.
“Economics, pure economics. We were already drilling in several areas. I’d just given up a drilling rig and a spare pump jack. The price of crude was dropping...” He trailed off.
His short term memory might be weak but there’s nothing wrong with this guy’s long term memory!
We were riding back to Aiden Jr.’s place to pick up my vehicle. “You know I’m going to have to do some sort of recon of that land, right?”
“That’s hundreds of acres of heavily wooded, rolling terrain. If anyone is out there, they’re up to no good.”
“I’m aware of that. They got to Granger within minutes of me meeting with you out here the last time but the guy that’s most likely out there may well be his murderer. I can’t let him get away with that.”
“What do you need from me?”
“Only access.”
“Of course you can have that. I can’t fathom how you’ll root anything out of there. It could be impossible to find after all these years and they...he...will probably be watching for you.”
“No, I don’t think so. Granger told you he saw smoke. You told me it was likely it was only seen from the access trail. We just need to figure out a way to traverse the trail unobserved...in broad daylight...and see what areas we can see and start with those for an in depth search.”
“I wish you the best of luck Sheriff but, with these clowns, it sounds like you or whoever does your bidding might be taking their life in their hands.”
“I’ll figure it out.”
Chapter 18 – Twofer
Monday afternoon, June 2nd, 2014
Shane Harding was in an interrogation room interviewing Michael Peng privately. He’d picked him up after his shift at The Hive as he was peddling his bike toward home. Why can’t everything be that easy?
I watched through the one way glass and listened as he worked on the boy’s conscience. Even after assurances that he wasn’t under arrest, Peng looked scared. He didn’t know that Shane was a pussycat at heart and I wasn’t about to step in and give him any sort of hope of squirming out of telling us anything this time that could be helpful to our case.
Holly ducked her head into the room. “Sheriff, Commissioner Bell is on line one.”
“Crap!”
Holly gave me a funny look. “Would you like me to tell him that you’re with a witness?”
“Naw, I really gotta take the call.” I turned off the speaker for the room mic and headed back to my office.
I took a deep breath and picked up the phone, “Good morning Commissioner.”
“Crane, I trust you and your deputies are hard at work investigating this murder? Stuff like this is bad for business!”
“Which murder are you referring to Commissioner?”
“What do you mean, ‘which murder’?” He was yelling now.
“Sir, there have been two murders in the county in the past week or so. We’re working on both of them.”
“Two? I wasn’t aware of that!”
“Yes sir; a poisoning and a stabbing. The poisoning wasn’t heavily publicized on purpose but it’s common knowledge around here and among the victims known associates.”
“Listen, is either case anywhere near resolution?”
“We’re working our leads Commissioner. We’ll get to the bottom of both.”
“No one’s in custody?”
“No sir. Not at this time.”
“I’m beginning to think I’m calling on the wrong person!”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Crane, you need to get a campaign going. That’s why I’m calling; to light a fire under you. You need to petition for voter support to get on the August ballot. There’s not a lot of time to play with here and now you’re telling me you’re working two murder investigations and you don’t have diddly squat on either one! Maybe someone with big city experience would be better suited to the job...let you get back out on the street like you wanted.”
I can’t believe what I’m hearing! Of all the nerve! I tried to hold my temper in check. “Commissioner, I completely understand your concerns. These are, however, official investigations and I really can’t talk about them. Rest assured, we’re doing everything we can.” I covered the handset and blew out a hard breath. If I could have reached through the phone and choked him, I would have.
“Commissioner, I’m doing exactly the job that I’m being paid to do. Additionally, I’ve committed to running for Sheriff and I will run. I’ll hire a campaign manager ASAP and handle the campaign the proper way so you don’t have to be involved and we can both tend to the things we need to tend to. How about that?” I was speaking a little louder than necessary but I just couldn’t help myself.
“Fine Crane. Just get these cases solved and get on hiring someone pronto!”
“Good day Commissioner.” I hung up. So much for ‘Todd’ and ‘Mel’! Honestly, where does he get off?
There was a tap on the door. Before I could say anything, Holly let herself in. She stood, arms crossed, giving me a look like I’d been a bad child and she was about to scold me.
“What?” I shook my head. “He’s just so aggravating sometimes!”
“That’s not why I’m here and you know it!”
“I suppose you overheard that I’m running for Sheriff?”
“Yes. The question is; why didn’t you tell me? I thought we were friends.” She smiled to soften the blow of that last bit.
“We are Holly. That’s not the issue at all. It’s a decision I had to make late last week. With these investigations, I just haven’t had time to...”
“Had to make?”
“Yes...I suppose I should explain.”
She took a seat. “I’m all ears!”
As I explained, Holly jumped up and began pacing my small office. When I finished, she was buzzing with excitement.
“This is great Mel!”
“It is?”
“Of course it is. You really should be the officially elected Sheriff. You’re doing a hell of a job. That snot nosed kid has nothing on you!”
“You remember him?” Holly hadn’t been with the department quite as long as I had.
“Troutman? Boy, do I! He’s one of those guys that think he’s a real charmer. I pulled him over a couple of times for speeding, reckless driving,” she waved her hand in the air, “that sort of thing. Because I’m a woman, he always thought he could sweet talk me out of citations. The little dickhead even had the nerve to ask me out once.”
I winced both at her slam and at the thought of the what-for she must have given him when he dared to ask her out. He might be from a wealthy family but Holly has more class in her little finger than he’ll ever have, even though she called him a dickhead...
“It’s going to be a real pleasure helping you kick his ass in an election!”
“Helping me?”
“Mel, please! Who do you think organized everything for Carter’s last go around? I’ll have you a campaign manager by the close of business today and we’ll get this baby rolling!”
“Unfortunately, that’s the last thing I need you to do on department time.” Because that can only come back to bite me in the butt...
“Fine, I’m putting in personal time and taking the rest of the day off!”
I leaned back in my chair and looked at her. She was nothing short of a ball of energy. “You’re serious?”
“Deadly serious!”
“Well, there’s just one problem...”
“What’s that?”
“Money. How much is a campaign manager and a campaign staff going to cost me?”
“Don’t worry Mel. I’ll get a deal for you on the manager. We have such a short lead time to work anyway. As far as your staff goes, they can be all volunteer. You’re going to have to put out for some yard signs and such but we have a little time to do some fundraising in that regard. They can be printed up in a couple of days so as long as they’re out for a couple of weeks...”
“What don’t I know that I need to know right now?”
“Nothing. Your campaign manager can help you get petitions going and then get all the appropriate paperwork filed. You just keep doing what you do.”
“Alright then! Go do whatever it is that you need to do.”
“Aye ma’am. She saluted, turned briskly on her heel and marched out the door.”
I went back down to interrogation. The room Harding had been in with Michael Peng was empty. His desk was vacant too but Rice was sitting on her butt at hers.
“Any idea where Harding went?”
“Said he was taking that kid home.” She stared at me.
What the hell is her problem? “Did he say anything else?”
She shrugged. “Not much...not in front of the kid.”
“Good point. Any progress on the Perez front?”
Rice sighed and then motioned me toward her. She pointed at her computer monitor where she had his rap sheet up on the screen. “He’s got some minor misdemeanors, mostly a couple of years ago...drunk and disorderly, possession of drug paraphernalia and a couple of others. Nothing he did time for.”
“What else do you have?”
Her eyes darted away. “Last known address, some credit info...I’m still, uh, digging.”
“Credit info?”
“Yeah. The Mercedes is leased. The BMV showed the dealer holding the title. I pulled a credit report. He’s making lease payments on it.”
“Does his report show any form of employment?”
“No but they don’t always.”
“Do you have any info on a possible employer?”
“No. I’ve looked a little but nothing so far.”
“Who in their right mind leases a high end vehicle to a guy with no job?”
Rice shrugged.
“That might be something you’ll want to look at closer.” With that, I left her to her doing as little as possible.
Chapter 19 – Pants Down
Late Monday afternoon, June 2nd, 2014
“Sheriff, I think we need to go and talk to Manuel Rojas.”
I looked at Shane Harding. “Did Michael Peng come out with something after all?”
Shane nodded. “He admitted that he’s seen Manny give pills to Ben.”
“Bingo! We sort of knew that though but the confirmation is nice.”
“Oh, but that’s not all.”
“Well, do tell!”
“He states that he overheard Manny telling someone that he called Tab on the phone that the restaurant would all be his someday.”
“That’s Interesting because Manny swears that he doesn’t want the restaurant.”
“Liars lie. The larger point here is that he’s talking to someone named ‘Tab’...possibly short for Estaban?” He drug the name out to emphasis that Tab could be a shortened form of it.
“Listen, we could go out and get Rojas but we can’t hold him on anything unless you’re able to prove he’s dealing.”
“That’s just it; my gut says Perez is the dealer and Rojas just supplied to Tracy and maybe a few others. Nothing about the guy screams dealer.”
“Unfortunately your detective counterpart hasn’t made much progress on the Perez front.” I left any more than that unsaid.
“Where do we go from here then?”
A cold chill ran down my spine. “I just thought of something! How about you and I pay a visit to Liberty Tracy?”
###
Harding and I sat in an unmarked county vehicle just down the street from the home of Liberty Tracy. A silver Mercedes SUV was parked at the curb in front of her house. The plates on it were registered to Estaban Perez.
“What do we do now?”
My mind was running in circles with all sorts of possibilities being thrown into the mix. “I’m not sure. On the one hand, all three of them – those two and Rojas – could have been in cahoots to kill Ben. But, the more I think about that, the less likely that seems. Libby Tracy had nothing to gain by that. On
the other hand, she is hiding something that deals with the DMT she took and who knows what all else and since we’re reasonably certain Rojas was the end supplier for Ben’s Ecstasy habit...”
“We have to assume everything actually rolls downhill from Perez,” he finished my sentence.
“That’s my thought, yes.”
“Sheriff, if they’re all in cahoots, why would Rojas and Perez pretend to not be together at Ben’s funeral? Who besides the widow would be the wiser about their connection to everything?”
“That’s a very good point!”
He was quite for several seconds. Finally, he asked, “Do you think she’s in danger in there?”
“She could be.” I paused and thought for a minute myself. “You know what; I have a couple of hunches. Let’s try and take a peek inside and see what we can see first.”
Harding pulled the vehicle up closer to the residence. The light of the late spring day was fading fast playing heavily into our favor. We got out of the unmarked unit and crept toward the SUV first. I peered through the driver’s side window while Shane looked in from the opposite side. There was nothing of any interest visible in the front seat. The other windows were too heavily tinted to allow any sort of view.
We moved on toward the house. I motioned Shane around the left side while I tiptoed onto the porch. I could hear music coming from inside as I worked my way toward a window to the right that looked out across the porch and over the street from inside the Tracy parlor. The curtains were pulled but there was enough of an opening slit that I could see in a little.
What I saw inside was plenty. There was a bong on the coffee table in front of the couch. A bong...how 1970’s!
Liberty Tracy was on her knees on the floor in between the couch and the table giving head to a younger man who was still in his jeans but shirtless with a 4-pack of abs showing. I couldn’t see his upturned face clearly enough to know if it was Perez she was blowing.
I crept to the left side of the porch and leaned over the rail to look down along the side of the house Harding was exploring. When I realized he was still on that side trying to get a view through different ground floor windows, I clucked my tongue to get his attention. He tiptoed back toward me.