The Morelville Mysteries Collection
Page 53
“I dunno Sheriff. Do you want me to set up a watch on the place?”
Mel scratched her head and appeared to think for several seconds, “No,” she told him. “You go ahead with your normal patrol routine. I’m going to try and get her attorney on the phone.”
“Roger Sheriff.”
Mel returned to her office and placed a call to the Cleveland based offices of Boswell Bates. To her surprise, she was put right through to the man himself.
“Sheriff Crane, to what do I owe the honor of your call?”
“No honors Bates. I have a warrant for the arrest of your client, Kelly Rice. Might you know where I can find her?”
“At her home, I presume.”
“She’s not there.”
“Have you checked with that fine young man she’s engaged to Sheriff?”
“Very funny Bates.”
“Oh, a little touchy are we Sheriff? You do know that this is just a trumped up charge against my client, don’t you? You don’t have a prayer with this one. Why don’t you just concede defeat already, hmm?”
“Not a chance Bates. Are you going to tell me where to find her or do I have to start breaking down doors?”
“Now, now Sheriff, let’s don’t be hasty. I’ll conference with my client and we’ll respond to your warrant expeditiously.”
“You can use all the two dollar words you want Bates but I want Kelly Rice in here in the bargain.”
“We’ll be in touch Sheriff. You have a pleasant day.”
“I hate that man!” Mel said aloud, after hanging up on her end.
“What man?” Holly asked, as she stepped into Mel’s office.
“Boswell Bates.”
Holly pulled a face but, before she could say anything, her desk phone rang and she stepped back out of Mel’s office to answer it.
“Sheriff?” Holly buzzed Mel.
“Yes?”
“The front desk Sergeant says a Lieutenant Nichols from the Highway Patrol is here to see you.”
“Great...that’s just great...just what I needed.”
“Should I tell him you’re out?”
“No. Whatever it is, it probably has to do with Dana. Have them send him up. I’ll speak with him.”
Nichols glanced around Mel’s Spartan office as Holly led him in. “This isn’t what I expected for a county Sheriff.”
Mel didn’t rise to the bait. She indicated he should take a seat in her only visitor’s chair and asked, “How can I help you today Lieutenant?”
Holly stepped out and closed the door softly behind her.
Nichols glanced behind himself at the closed door and then took the offered seat. “You can tell me where I can find your partner, Dana Rossi.”
“I’m sorry Lieutenant, is this an interrogation? Do I need to have a witness present or a lawyer?”
Nichols bristled. “Let me start over. I’ve done my homework Crane. I know you’re a stand up individual. It’s not you we’re after. It’s Rossi.”
“If you had really ‘done your homework’, you would realize that there’s no way Dana could have committed the crime that you seem to think that she did. You’d know she isn’t physically capable of doing what I understand was done and that she had no motive. You should be out looking for the real killer instead of questioning me.”
“How long have you known Dana Rossi, Sheriff?”
“A couple of months, why? What does that have to do with it?”
“How well would you say that you know her?”
“Well enough. Do you want to tell me where this is going?”
“You’re pretty defensive about her but I guess I can understand why. She’s fooled a lot of people. You’re probably just the latest in a long line.”
“What are you talking about?” Mel’s neck and cheeks flushed red with her mounting anger.
“Are you aware that Rossi was fired from a security consulting position and left another one in haste that she held prior to taking her current position with the U.S. Customs Service?”
Mel’s eyes flickered but she simply nodded and replied, “Yes, I was aware of that...or, I was aware that she was fired from one, at least.”
“There were two different jobs Sheriff. Do you know why she was fired from the first one?”
“Why don’t you tell me your version of the events surrounding her leaving both jobs?” Mel gripped the armrests of her chair.
“We have a character witness that will testify that Rossi was sleeping her way to the top with other guys wives at the first security company she worked for, all while keeping Sweeting happy at home. When that company sent her packing, she got on with another company and she and Sweeting started plotting to steal from the customers she consulted with for them.”
Mel shook her head vigorously, “What? Steal from them how?”
“They plotted multiple operations against different targets. When Rossi’s employer started to catch on, Sweeting ordered a stop to their little games and Dana quit the job and went into hiding just like she’s doing now. She’s becoming very good at that, it would seem.”
“I think you need to go back and do some more digging.”
“Look, I don’t know what your feelings are for this woman but it appears to me that you’re letting your heart rule your head. You’re not looking at this logically.”
“And you’re not even attempting to conduct a legitimate investigation! Even if half of that was true, you still aren’t taking into consideration Dana’s medical condition or what possible motive she would have had to kill Sweeting.”
“I don’t believe Rossi’s injury is as severe as she’s leading so many people to believe.”
“Are you a doctor too Lieutenant?”
“No ma’am but I have eyewitnesses that will testify to Ms. Rossi getting around just fine without the aid of her crutches.”
Mel shrank back into her chair.
“As for motive, think about it; Sweeting pulls her out of their little racket and sends her off to hide. While she’s gone she replaces her personally and she starts working new cons. Rossi was cut out, cut off and she wanted revenge. She bided her time and then tried to get a cut of Sweeting’s new action only Sweeting wouldn’t bite so she killed her.”
Mel was silent staring through the Lieutenant. Her face was now ashen and her knuckles where white as she tightly gripped the ends of the chair arms.
“I’m right Crane and you’re starting to see that, aren’t you?”
Mel looked at the Lieutenant but she didn’t reply.
Nichols leaned forward and spoke softly. “The Attorney General indicted Rossi early this morning. It’s over Sheriff. I need to know where to find her.”
Mel shook her head. “I honestly don’t know. I believe she’s left the state.”
###
Mel put her head into her hands and wept. Holly returned from picking up a late lunch for the two of them and found her crying. She left the office phones on auto answer and locked herself in the office with her friend.
“Mel, baby,” she said kneeling beside her chair, “what on earth is wrong? What’s happened?” She reached for Mel’s tissue box, took a couple and handed them to the woman that she’d never seen shed a tear in more than 12 years together on the force.
After dabbing at her nose and eyes, the normally totally under control Sheriff shook as she said, “I thought I knew her but I didn’t really know her at all. How could I have been such a bad judge of character?”
“Are we talking about Dana?”
“Mel nodded.”
“Mel, Dana is amazing and you’re the happiest I’ve ever seen you because of her.”
“She isn’t what we thought...what I thought she was Holly.”
“How can you be sure of that?”
“Nichols has information and witnesses and, and...”
“Oh Mel, baby...” Holly stood and gave her Sheriff friend a quick hug and then leaned against the desk beside her.
“I don’t
know what I’m going to do.”
“Look, don’t go making any rash judgments or any rash decisions. I don’t know what all you’ve heard but you really need to hear Dana’s side of the story first and then think everything through.”
“Dana’s gone Holly. She’s not responding to calls or texts. She hasn’t tried to get in touch since Friday night. She’s not coming back unless they bring her back in handcuffs. It’s over for us and my career is probably over too. I’m probably going to have to step down after all.”
Chapter 23 – Aggie
Monday Morning, June 23rd, 2014
Since Aggie Fero was never a casino employee, I was able to convince Michael Roan to give me her last known address from his case file. I spent most of the afternoon on Sunday learning that the address he had for her had put her stated home of residence squarely in the Cabrini-Green housing project that had been mostly demolished in 2011. Where she had supposedly once lived was now actual green space with ball fields and a sparkling new parks and recreation complex. I was back to square one.
By my calculation, Aggie Fero had probably been out of the county jail for a couple of weeks. That was a short enough time that she might still be staying in the same place, wherever that was, but long enough that she could have called in a gang chit on Terri in the last week or so or she knew who was after her for messing up whatever their plan had been. I just can’t figure that out...what could the Demons possibly have been up to?
Whatever the plan was, I hoped I could find Aggie and get her to tell me.
“Dana, I really don’t know that I should be helping you with this. What happens if you find this woman? Do you think she’s just going to just spill her guts and tell you everything you want to know because you asked her to and then let you hobble on out of there?”
I looked at my lawyer ex-husband and grinned. He has a good point. I haven’t really given this a lot of thought. I decided to play it off, “Nate, I’m a Federal Agent. I think I can handle an interrogation and handle myself too.”
I leaned back as nonchalantly as I could in one of the fancy chairs facing his desk in his even fancier office. If this was what junior partners got, I was curious to know how the senior partners lived.
Nate wasn’t done railing at me; “Dana, look at yourself! You’re an invalid who’s been set up for murder. It’s possible this woman or someone she knows did that. I’m not prepared to send you to your doom by obtaining information for you that could do that!”
“Nathan, either way, my ass is on the line. If I don’t find her, I have zip to take back to Ohio to save my own neck. It’s one or the other. If you don’t help me, I’ll go a couple of blocks over to the Customs Field Office and plead my case with one of my former associates to get me the address.” I hated arguing with him but he was my best chance to get what I needed quickly.
Two hours later I was sitting in a molded plastic chair beside the desk of Augustine Fero’s Parole Officer and waiting patiently while she searched her computer files for the current exact location of her charge. My patience was rewarded when I learned that, because of her receiving stolen property conviction, Aggie Fero had violated the terms of her probation for her previous felony offense. She was now back behind bars at the Cook County Jail while she waited for an empty bed in a women’s cell block at the penitentiary.
###
Monday afternoon, June 23rd, 2014
I really lucked out. I wasn’t able to get into the Cook County Department of Corrections facility to interview Aggie as a member of law enforcement without a prior appointment but, as it happened, she was being housed in a block on Unit 3 that had visitation privileges on Monday afternoon beginning at 3:30 PM.
I was waiting in line with prisoner family members and friends, hoping Aggie would agree to see me. While I waited, I debated how I wanted to play my visit here.
My turn to sign in and be searched came all too quickly. I checked down the sign in roster as I filled in my information. So far, with only 3 more people behind me waiting to sign in, I was the only one there to see Fero specifically. I was feeling even luckier.
Aggie Fero didn’t stand out for me among the other prisoners that filed into the visitation room where we’d all been directed to take seats. I’d only seen a basic mug shot photo of her on her P.O.’s computer. As the other prisoners quickly found their friends and family members, one woman was left standing alone. She was shorter than I had expected her to be; even shorter than Terri who I, at only 5’6”, had in height by a couple of inches.
I waved to the lone woman as she turned in my direction searching for the person that was the reason she’d been brought out of her cell. She ambled over slowly, assessing me from head to toe. She stopped her inspection with my crutches and then returned her eyes to my face and looked at me narrowly.
“Do I know you?”
“We’ve never met. I’m Dana Rossi.” I extended my hand to her.
There was no light of recognition in her eyes at the sound of my name. She didn’t take my offered hand either. “I can’t touch you.”
“Oh. Right. Sorry. Force of habit.”
“You a cop?’
“Sort of.”
She raised an eyebrow. “I don’t like talking to cops but...” she looked at my crutches again. “I want to know what “sort of” means and why you’re here.”
I held out my hand toward the seat opposite of me. She took it but sat sideways off the edge of it like she didn’t intend to stay in it long.
“Augustine, I’m a...”
She interrupted me, “Don’t call me that. It’s Aggie. Period.”
“Right. Okay, Aggie, I’m an agent with the U.S. Customs Service.” At her puzzled expression, I said, “That’s why I said I’m ‘sort of’ a cop. The Customs Service isn’t why I’m here though. It’s for personal reasons.”
“Lady, I’m sure I don’t even know you.”
“True, but you do know Terri Sweeting.”
Aggie started at the name and then she moved to get up.
“Please don’t leave. What I need to talk to you about deals more with me personally than with Terri.”
She whispered, “I don’t want to talk about that dumb bitch! I’m going back to prison because she’s so stupid.”
The criminal mind kills me. Everything that happens to them is someone else’s fault... I realized Aggie was speaking about Terri in the present tense and it didn’t seem like it was forced. That, and the fact that she had no idea who I was, gave me a moment’s pause.
“Aggie, Terri Sweeting is dead.”
She dropped her head and shook it and then looked me right in the eye. Perhaps a second had passed as she said, “Did the dumb bitch walk in front of a bus?” There was nothing in her eyes but morbid curiosity. She didn’t kill her or order it, I’m almost positive...
“No, it was nothing so poetic as that.”
“Huh?”
“Look, there was no love lost between me and Terri either. We had our differences a few years back and we went our separate ways. She showed up in Ohio out of the blue last week and told me a story that involved you and some people she works with and something you all were involved in together.” I eyed Aggie closely but she didn’t respond.
“Terri wanted me to help her because,” I whispered, “she said someone was threatening to kill her over the whole deal.” Aggie pursed her lips and tossed her head in a ‘yeah, right’ sort of like she didn’t believe me but she continued to remain silent.
“There wasn’t anything I could do to help her and I really didn’t believe her. I told her to get lost.” That drew a smirk from my tablemate. “She contacted me a day later and told me that her life was in danger and so was mine. She demanded we meet again and I went only, when I got to the meeting location, she wasn’t there. She was later found murdered.”
Aggie appeared genuinely startled by that statement but she quickly found her composure, “Is that why you’re here? You think I did it?”
“Why do you care? Let the real cops figure it out.”
I drew a deep breath, “I care because whoever killed Terri framed me for it and the real cops quit looking for them.”
The puzzled expression returned to her face but she was again silent.
“Who gave you the money for Terri?”
“Lady, maybe you did do it. I don’t know. I sure don’t know who did.”
“No, I didn’t do it. I couldn’t physically do what they said I did and I had no motive. Eventually, I’ll be able to prove that. For now, there’s a warrant out for my arrest in Ohio and I’m trying to find out all I can to help save my own ass before I turn myself in.”
Aggie looked at me with what I sensed was a little more respect. I thought I’d better press the advantage while I had it. In a low voice, I asked, “Were you fronting for the Demons?”
She shrugged one shoulder and tossed her head to the side which I took as ‘yes’.
“What were they going to do with the cards?”
Aggie turned full around in her chair now and shook her head no.
“You don’t know or you won’t say?”
“It’s...it’s hard to explain.”
“Just do the best you can.”
She thought for several long seconds then she began to speak in a very low voice, “The cards, they ‘got a magnetic strip on the back...”
I nodded, “Yes, so they can be read by machines.”
“Well, they wanted them for something like that but not that...you know what I mean?”
“What, like a chip inside the card?”
“Yeah.” She nodded vigorously.
“They were going to do something with the chips in the cards?”
She shrugged both shoulders this time, “Far as I know. Maybe they were doing it, I don’t know...”
“Did Terri know that?”
Aggie gave me the ‘bitch please’ chicken neck look. “I can’t even explain it. I sure didn’t tell that dumb bitch nothin’ ‘bout it.”