The Morelville Mysteries Collection

by Anne Hagan

  “What’s going on?”

  “Sheriff, I’d like you to meet Tyler St. John. He’s agreed to be your campaign manager.”

  St. John stood and stuck out his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Sheriff. I’ve heard a lot of good things about you.”

  Hmmm, smooth talking like he’s a politician himself...

  “Mel...er...Sheriff, I hope you don’t mind the lack of notice but, well...”

  St. John interrupted, “What Holly is trying to say is that she knows you’re quite busy but we’re facing a really tight deadline. If you intend to run, we need to get going right now.”

  I nodded. “I understand and I do...intend to run, I mean but I’m tied up in two major cases right now and, well, I just don’t know what has to be done let alone do I have the time to do it.”

  I looked at Holly. “I’m really sorry for not getting with you yesterday about this stuff but I thought we might discuss a few things before we, um, hired anyone...Pardon me, Mr. St. John.”

  St. John again took control, “No offense Ms. Crane and, please, don’t blame Holly. No contract has been signed. I’m actually based out of Columbus. This isn’t normally a busy season for me but I’m working a special election in that area right now too. I had an opening this morning to come over here and talk with the two of you and so here I am.”

  “I see.” I blew out a heavy breath. “Can you two give me about five minutes to catch my breath and get my bearings? After that, I can probably give you a half hour or so but...”

  “Of course!” they both said, practically in unison.

  An hour after I’d walked into the office, I had a signed contract with a campaign manager that I’d found to be a salesman on the surface but a likeable guy overall. Tyler St. John had run more than a few campaigns in his time and he really seemed to know his stuff. He left with a signed application for office from me, a check for my $80.00 application filing fee and a petition form with the first two of only 50 registered county voter signatures I needed to get on the ballot – my own and Holly’s. A call to my sister netted me a volunteer to take it around and collect at least another 47 registered voter names after she signed it herself. Tyler would drop it off to her personally. I’d told him, if Kris couldn’t find that many registered voters willing to back me in my hometown of Morelville alone then I had no business running.

  Both Holly and Tyler thought it would be best for me to draft a short letter to the deputies and other staff in the department explaining that there would be a special election in August and about my own intent to run so no one was blindsided by the news of an election or by my pending candidacy. Tyler helped me to word a quick note that imparted this information without implying that their endorsement of me was required or even requested. Humble and matter of fact were best he’d said. It was the last time I’d be humble for a while.

  Once St. John was packed up and on his way to Morelville, it was time for me to get down to business. I wanted at least one suspected murderer in the net today. I started to grab my hat and my gear bag but then I remembered that I needed to try and figure out where Billy Bob was being held. I sat down at my desk and buzzed Holly. I Should’ve asked her before I walked out of her office and back to mine...

  “Yes Sheriff?”

  “Holly, I’m sorry; I just remembered something. I need to find out what prison Ryan McClarnan’s dad is being held in. Can you help me with that?”

  “What’s his full name Mel?”

  “I don’t really know for sure. Everyone refers to him as “Billy Bob” and that might be correct but it could actually be “William Robert McClarnan” too.”

  “You never know in this area...I’ll figure it out.”

  “You always do.” I chuckled. “And hey, thanks for your help this morning and your patience.”

  “Well you’re welcome but, really, I’m the one who should be saying I’m sorry for blindsiding you with that all of that when you came in.”

  “There’s no need to be sorry. I just hope I can get these cases solved and not mess up my chance to get elected and I also hope actually campaigning for Sheriff doesn’t interfere with solving cases.”

  “Roger that!”

  “I’m off to roust my detectives and try to round up some criminals. Call me if you find out anything.”

  ###

  “What’s going on Shane?” I asked him as I approached his desk.

  “Good morning Sheriff. Actually, I’m about ready to head out. Patrol reported that the restaurant was open as usual this morning and the vehicle I saw yesterday that’s registered to Rojas was outside when they went by just after 6:00 AM and again about an hour ago. He’s at work where we hoped he’d be this morning. I’m going to go and bring him in.”

  “Do you want a ride along?”

  “Be my guest, Sheriff. I was going to have patrol assist...”

  “You won’t have to. We can take my SUV if we’re just going to go in and grab him.”

  He nodded.

  I looked around. “Any idea where Rice is?”

  “I haven’t seen her yet boss.”

  “Hmm, okay. Well if you’re ready, let’s go.”

  As he started to get up, his desk phone rang. He smiled and shrugged at me and then grabbed the receiver. After listening for several seconds he turned to me, “Sheriff it’s the desk Sergeant. He’s saying that a man just walked in who wants to file a missing persons report on my collar Estaban Perez.”

  “Is that so? Who’s the man?”

  Shane spoke into the receiver, “Did you get his name?”

  He turned back to me, “Manuel Rojas.” He spoke into the receiver again, “Tell Mr. Rojas that I’ll be right up to take his report. Please have him escorted to an interview room.”

  “Well of all the dumb luck!” I stood there shaking my head.

  “Yeah,” Shane said. “What are the odds of lightning striking twice in two days like that?” He scratched his head. “So how do you want to play this? It’s too late to bring Perez up from holding for our planned little dog and pony show and the word is he’ll be arraigned today.”

  “We need to act fast then. I’ll find out when they’re planning on moving him over to the court house for the arraignment and, if it’s early, I’ll see if I can get his time pushed back a little. You go ahead and sit down with Rojas and start to get his story. That ought to be real interesting. I’ll come up as soon as I can and we’ll start working him.”

  I got Holly on the phone. “I hate to be a pest but I need you to drop what you’re doing for a minute and find out if a man we’re holding, Estaban Perez, will be arraigned today and, if so, what time they’re moving him over to the court house.”

  “Can you hold for a minute Sheriff?”

  “Yes.”

  I stood at Harding’s desk tapping my foot impatiently while I waited on hold. Kelly Rice was still not at her desk. I glanced over there. Against department policy, she left a lot of files and other paperwork laying around in the open. I wasn’t very happy about that. There’s another thing I’m going to have to speak with her about...

  A slim file folder that was tucked under the edge of her keyboard caught my eye. It didn’t seem to be labeled. I reached across Shane’s desk to hers and tugged it free. When I opened it, I was shocked to find news clippings from my recent counterfeiting case and from Dana’s smuggling case, official reports from the counterfeiting case and reports and notes from some other recent cases that I specifically had been involved in. Why would she be collecting this stuff? It doesn’t make any sense...

  “Sheriff?” Holly was back on the line.

  “Yes?” As I answered, I tucked the file folder back where I’d found it.

  “Perez will be arraigned today. He’s scheduled to be moved into the courthouse after the noon recess.”

  “Thanks Holly!” Shane and I had until noon or so to get enough on him and Rojas to charge them with the murder of Ben Tracy and, possibly, the attempted murder of Liber
ty Tracy before he might be set free on bail on the lesser charges and disappear completely.

  Chapter 25 – Just a Friend

  Shane was playing ‘good cop’ to the hilt with Rojas. I watched through the one way glass and listened as he finished stepping him through an actual, honest to goodness missing persons report. Since Rojas already knew me, I was waiting for just the right moment to step into the room in the role of the bad cop and begin turning the interview into an interrogation.

  “Mr. Rojas, just one more question and I’ll let you get back to work; you were a little vague on your relationship to the missing man, Mr. Perez. Can you clarify your relationship for me please?”

  “I told you he’s a, a friend, a good friend. I’m just very worried about him.”

  “You can be honest with me Mr. Rojas. Is he more to you than a good friend?”

  Manuel Rojas started at Shane for a minute and then nodded silently. Harding knew he needed to get a verbal response from the man. “Can you tell me what your actual relationship to him is?”

  Rojas looked down at the table. I couldn’t see his eyes but his response was clearly audible. “He is my fiancé.”

  And there’s my cue! As Shane wrote that on the form or pretended to, I turned the speaker off and then knocked on the interrogation room door. Shane got up and let me into the room.

  Manuel Rojas, with a look of shock on his face, started to stand. “Sheriff...I...I didn’t expect to...to...”

  “To what Manny? To see me here?”

  “No, no, nothing like that! I just...just needed to report something. Now I really need to get back to the restaurant to get ready for lunch. The good officer here has been more than kind.”

  “I see. Why don’t you go ahead and just have a seat?”

  “But I just told you, I need to get back to my...my job.”

  “You were here to file a missing persons report on Estaban Perez, were you not?”

  “Well, yes. I went to the Zanesville police station first and they sent me here. I’m not sure why...”

  I interrupted, “What’s your relationship to Mr. Perez?”

  Rojas looked at Harding. Shane just nodded. He looked back over at me, “Tab is my fiancé Sheriff.”

  It was my turn to nod. “And you don’t know where your fiancé is?”

  “No. As I explained to your officer here, I last heard from him on Monday morning. He does not live with me but it’s unusual that I do not at least hear from him every day.”

  “Has he reported to work?”

  “He...he’s a consultant. He works for...for himself.”

  “Is that right?” I was ready to let the first hammer fall, “It might interest you to know that your fiancé’s consulting business appears to involve distributing illegal drugs. He’s been in our custody since Monday afternoon. Take a seat Mr. Rojas. We’re going to be here for a little while.”

  Manny’s tan like skinned face blanched nearly white. He sat back down in the chair he’d previously occupied with a thud.

  “I’d like to introduce detective Harding, not officer Harding or even Deputy Harding. He and I picked your so called fiancé up on Monday in a rather, shall we say, compromising position.”

  “I, I don’t know what you mean by that Sheriff.”

  I looked at Shane and nodded.

  “Mr. Rojas, ‘Tab’, as you call him, was having sex with a very drugged Liberty Tracy, your current employer and the now widowed wife of your former employer.”

  We both watched Rojas closely for his reaction. What we got was little reaction at all which I found to be more telling than if he had pretended shock or anger or revulsion.

  After several long seconds, Rojas asked, “Is having sex with her somehow illegal?”

  I smiled inwardly. Really, he’d chosen a brilliant response but he didn’t know everything that we knew. The hammers were about to keep falling. “No Mr. Rojas, having sex isn’t illegal but sexual battery is in Ohio when you’re having sex with a person that isn’t able to consent, and Liberty Tracy was in no position to consent.” I prepared my next card as he sat there looking almost smug.

  “Do you want to know what else is against the law?”

  He tipped his head and looked at me with a question in his eyes.

  “Attempted murder.”

  His face drained of color again. “What? What do you mean?”

  “One of the drugs we found in the possession of your fiancé Mr. Rojas was DMT, a highly potent hallucinogenic than can make some people crazy enough to do things that might get them killed. We have reason to believe he was going to administer the drug to Liberty Tracy, not for the first time. What do you know about that?”

  “Me? Why would I know anything about that?”

  “We know Estaban deals drugs Mr. Rojas and we have sworn testimony that you do as well.”

  “Me, no, never. I’m not a drug dealer! You have no evidence of that.” He was out of his chair and moving about like a caged animal. “Look, just go ahead and do whatever you need to do right now with Tab. I’ll get him a lawyer and we’ll prove he’s innocent of whatever you’re charging him with. I need to get back to the restaurant.”

  “You’re not going anywhere until we get some answers.”

  Shane stood up. “It’s best that you sit down Manny. If you really want to help Tab, we need your help.”

  Manny bought Shane’s good cop subterfuge and took his seat again. I nodded to Shane to take over the questioning now that we had Rojas in a submissive position.

  “Manny, how long have you been with Tab?”

  “A couple of years, on and off.”

  “Has he been dealing all of that time.”

  Rojas nodded. “Most of it but mostly small stuff; weed, some LSD...” He trailed off.

  “Ecstasy?”

  “I don’t, don’t know. Ma...maybe.”

  He stutters a little when he’s nervous.

  “Who’s he dealing to?”

  “Mostly guys at the clubs in Columbus and at private um, parties. He, he doesn’t stand on street corners or anything like that...no, no kids.”

  “Who’s his connection Manny? Where does he get the stuff?”

  “I don’t know. I’m not involved. I’m just a chef. Cooking is my life.”

  I jumped in, “You don’t have any idea who his connection is for drugs? So are you saying that he’s big time and he’s importing stuff himself or that he has his own growers?”

  “No! No! Nothing like that! I...Look, I don’t know much but, but there is a guy but Tab only talks about him.” His nervousness was palpable. “I’ve never met him. I don’t know him. I don’t even know his name. Tab calls him ‘Sticks’. That’s all I know, I swear!”

  Harding glanced at me quickly and then scribbled a note on his pad.

  “So Tab gets his stuff from Sticks and he distributes it in gay clubs and at private parties, is that correct?” I leaned back in my chair and studied him closely.

  “Yes, that’s right.” He seemed almost relieved.

  I went in for the kill, “So Tab got the Ecstasy that you later sold for him to Ben Tracy after you added arsenic to it?”

  “No. No! I didn’t add anything to any Ecstasy.”

  “But you do admit that you sold Ecstasy that you got from Tab to Ben Tracy?”

  “I, I didn’t say that either...I never sold drugs.”

  Shane said, “Mr. Rojas, we have sworn testimony that says that you did.”

  Rojas collapsed down in his chair.

  “Read him his rights detective.”

  Chapter 26 – Confessions

  “In a few months, I will have my culinary degree. I will be a chef. Mr. Tracy...he didn’t care about that. He didn’t listen to me. All he cared about was looking young and going to the clubs. He wanted to dance and fuck all night with the young guys and act like he was one of them again. I...I got him the Ecstasy so he could go to the clubs and do his thing and leave me alone.”

  Shane asked
gently, “Did you get it from Tab?”

  “Yes.” He dipped his head and shook it, “I would sell it to Mr. Tracy and then give his money to Tab. I...I didn’t like doing it but, but It made Mr. Tracy hap...happy and he left me alone to run the restaurant.”

  “But you really didn’t run the restaurant did you Mr. Rojas? You ran just the kitchen and only that under the direction of Mr. Tracy; isn’t that what you told me?”

  “Well yes, but...”

  “You also told me that you didn’t like the fact that Mr. Tracy didn’t respect your culinary school background, correct?”

  “Uh yes. I...he.”

  “He what Manny? He didn’t consider you a chef? You called yourself a chef earlier but you’re not one yet are you?”

  “No.”

  “So you resented Mr. Tracy for not treating you as something that you really weren’t yet anyway because he had no culinary degree himself, didn’t you?”

  Rojas nodded.

  “If you don’t mind my asking, Manny,” I was trying to keep a softer tone now, “what was your vision for the restaurant?” He looked directly at me and visibly brightened when he heard my question.

  “I wanted Ben to look toward the future – past the office breakfast and lunch crowds. I thought we could be a full service, fine dining establishment...a nice little bistro even.”

  Time to reel him in! “In downtown Zanesville?” I tried to sound very skeptical.

  “Yes. There is a lot...a lot of potential for that but Ben didn’t understand that. He, he didn’t care. He wanted his nights free on the weekends and sometimes during the week to party and to have a good time.”

  “Why do you think there’s so much potential for a fine dining restaurant in downtown Zanesville?”

  Rojas looked startled. His eyes darted back and forth between me and Shane. He answered slowly, “Because everyone knows there are plans to develop a concert and theatre district down there.”