The Morelville Mysteries Collection

by Anne Hagan

  I had to figure out a way to get both Hannah and I out of this alive. I thought about calling Mel or calling the state patrol but, until I knew where I was going for the meet up, both options would be pointless.

  A thought occurred to me; if Noland Troutman had Hannah, then that meant he’d snagged her at the park today or on her way to work. He might know I’d been with her there. Hell, someone might be watching me now! No matter what, I’d have to go to a bank and make it appear as if I was complying with his request.

  I checked my back-up pistol and also got my service pistol out of Mel’s den closet. I took the extra underwear, shorts and tops out of the little duffle and put only my service weapon in it. Then, I took the medication and toiletries out of the backpack and stuffed a couple of hard back books in. I’d transfer them to the duffle after my stop at some sort of bank and make it look like the duffle held packs of hundred dollar bills.

  Ready, I hobbled back out across the deck and down the stairs into the yard. My skin crawled like there were a hundred eyes on me.

  ###

  Mel watched through the slit in the curtains and waited until Dana was nearly to the barn before she rushed down the stairs and outside. The summer heat hit her full force and a wave of nausea rose from her stomach. She willed it away.

  She wasn’t sure where Dana was going. She didn’t want to follow her in the truck but she didn’t have any other options. She waited and watched until she saw the little SUV pull out onto the main road through town and turn north before she pulled out of the driveway.

  Following along as far back as she could, Mel didn’t see any other pursuers. She realized they were headed into Zanesville when Dana turned west on 146. She couldn’t imagine Troutman, if that’s who it was, holding Hannah inside of the city limits. He had to have her in some remote place well out of town. So where was Dana going?

  Twenty minutes later, Mel had her answer as Dana pulled into the parking lot of a national chain bank. Mel didn’t think she’d gotten any settlement money yet but there Dana went toward the front door like she didn’t even know that money was the last thing Troutman wanted.

  Horns honked behind her. Mel drove the truck forward and rounded the block, coming back alongside the bank again. The Escape was still parked where Dana had left it. Around the block she went again. It was still there.

  Her duty phone buzzed on the seat beside her. It was Holly. She pulled over and answered, “Sheriff Crane.”

  “Sheriff, I’m so sorry to bother you when you’re sick.”

  “It’s okay. I’m miserable but I’m actually in town on a mission of sorts. What did you need?”

  “Patrol just collared Kelly Rice, Mel. She was hanging out at Putnam Hill Park. They’re bringing her in.”

  Mel didn’t say anything.

  “Sheriff? Are you there?”

  “Sorry Holly, I was just thinking. It’s awesome that they got her but it puts me between a rock and a hard place right. I have to take care of something. Have them put her in holding. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”

  “Um, okay. I mean, roger, Sheriff.”

  Mel hung up, pulled out and finished circling the block. The Escape wasn’t parked at the bank anymore.

  “Damn it!” Mel smacked her steering wheel. She looked in every direction but she didn’t see it. She thought about what to do. If she put an APB out for it, anyone apprehending it would find the warrants on Dana. She couldn’t let that happen. She had both Dana and Hannah to think about.

  Mel dialed Dana’s cell number. It rang several times and then rolled to voicemail. She left Dana a message to call her before she did anything to try and save Hannah. She hung up and then texted Dana the same thing. If her phone was on, she’d get one or the other message right away. She sat and waited for several minutes but she got no response.

  Mel called Holly back. When her assistant answered she told her, “I need two things ASAP in this order, one, I need a GPS trace on this cell phone number.” She reeled off Dana’s number to Holly. “Do whatever you have to do to make that happen and let me know as soon as it’s tracking.”

  “Roger Sheriff. Stand by.”

  Moments later, Holly came back on the line, “What else did you need?”

  “Where are they with Kelly Rice right now?”

  “Not here yet Sheriff.”

  “Can you patch me through to the arresting officer or whoever is transporting her?”

  “Cell or radio Sheriff?”

  “Cell first, no broadcast.”

  “Roger Sheriff. Treadway’s doing the transport. Wait one.”

  Joe Treadway was one of Mel’s best Deputies. She had confidence that everything was under control whenever he was involved.

  Holly came back on the line “Sheriff, you’re connected.”

  “Thank you. Please get on that other issue.”

  “In the works Sheriff. Out.”

  “Treadway?” Mel asked.

  “Copy Sheriff.”

  “You’re transporting Kelly Rice?”

  “Affirmative.”

  “What’s her demeanor Joe?” He was quiet.

  “Joe did you copy that?”

  “Affirmative Sheriff. Not all there.”

  “Okay, I’m getting that she’s in a rough mental state and she’s there so you can’t talk.”

  “Affirmative.”

  “What’s your ETA to the station?”

  “Five mikes Sheriff.”

  “Bypass booking Joe. Put her in interview. We have even bigger problems.”

  “Roger. Out.”

  ###

  Dana

  I texted Hannah’s phone:

  Me: I have the money. Send me directions from downtown Zanesville.

  Hannah’s Phone: No cops!

  Me: Agreed. No cops.

  Hannah’s Phone: Head south on I-60 out of Zanesville. Take county road 6A from that onto SR 555.

  Hannah’s Phone: On 555, one mile past the used car lot and the junkyard. Pull in at the Baptist church.

  Hannah’s Phone: Turn your phone off now. No tracking!

  I did a double take at both the thought of Troutman being holed up in or near a church and at him wanting my phone off. This doesn’t bode so well for me... I popped the phone off but not before I noticed that Mel had texted me to call her. She knows I’m out of the box and up to something. I decided to leave the phone on until I passed the car lot and junk yard and I turned it back on but left it down out of view.

  ###

  “We have a problem.” Mel leaned across the interview room table from a standing position and got right in the face of Kelly Rice.

  “We who?”

  “You and I. Don’t play dumb with me. Your fiancé has kidnapped a teenage girl and is holding her for ransom. We all know he doesn’t want for money so you tell me, what’s he up to Kelly?”

  She shrugged a slim shoulder and smiled a shit eating grin. “Your guess is as good as mine. It wasn’t my day to watch him.”

  “Is that right? You seem to make quite a habit of watching people. I’ll bet you know exactly where he is and what he’s doing, don’t you?”

  “No, I don’t. The bastard dumped me.” Mel was taken aback momentarily but Kelly sailed right on and didn’t seem to notice. “I’ve spent all my time trying to help him win an election against you and you mess things up at every turn. The stuff you charged me with?” She leaned right back across the table at Mel, “it was all at his direction. This crap,” she waved her hand in the air, “is the thanks I get!”

  “We know you were watching the girl he’s got at Putnam Hill Park today. Help us to find him before...”

  “That just proves that you don’t know squat! There wasn’t anyone at the park today. Oh, he went by there but he didn’t stay there!”

  Mel sat back in her chair and thought about where to go next. “Kelly, this will go a lot easier for you if you help us to nail him now. Let’s start at the beginning shall we?”

&nb
sp; No response came from the other side of the table.

  “Kelly, did Noland kill Terri Sweeting?”

  “I want my lawyer.”

  “Fine. We’ll stop those sorts of questions and you can call him. Hell, I’ll call him for you but understand this, in the meantime, Noland has the girl and he’s using her as bait to lure Dana Rossi in. He’s going to kill them both Kelly and their blood will be on your hands too.” Mel let that sink in for a minute.

  Kelly looked all around the spare room; everywhere but at Mel. Finally she spoke, “Noland’s great grandfather had an old hunting cabin in the Brush Creek area that’s still there. That’s probably where he took the girl.”

  Mel tried not to seem too anxious, “How do you get there?”

  “I can’t give you specific directions but I was there once,” she shuddered at the memory, “and I know I could find it again.”

  “You worked in dispatch and patrol and you don’t remember street names?” Mel shook her head in disgust.

  “It’s not that! The place is old and deep in the woods off of marked roads. You’ll never be able to find it. You’ll have to take me with you.”

  Mel got up and stepped out of the interrogation room. Treadway was watching and listening at the one way outside. “You heard that right?” The deputy nodded. “Get the hostage team together and gear up for anything. Who knows what we’ll be dealing with out there.” He nodded again and exited the outer room and then Holly entered it.

  “Mel, we traced Dana’s cell to a spot on State Route 555 and then it stopped tracking.”

  “Thanks Holly, that lets me know that at least I’m on the right track with this one.” Mel jerked her thumb toward the interrogation room.

  ###

  Dana

  I reached out and turned off my cell once the car lot came into view. I hoped Mel had thought to track it since she seemed to know I was on the move because, if she hadn’t, I was as good as dead. It wouldn’t take Troutman long to figure out I had no money with me and there was little I could do to defend myself or Hannah in my physical condition.

  I looked around. The junkyard I was passing was massive. It seemed to be a graveyard for state and county vehicles and old school buses in particular. Once by it, I continued on down the road, scanning both sides for a Baptist church. When I found it, I pulled into the lot and parked. I didn’t know if I should sit and wait in the vehicle or get out. No other cars were in view. The church was still and quiet. I opted to stay in the little SUV and wait.

  My wait wasn’t very long. After a couple of minutes, a man stepped out from behind the building. He looked all about and then he came around to the driver’s side window and motioned for me to open my door.

  “You Dana?”

  I swallowed hard and nodded. He was in his low to mid-30s with dark hair – not the Noland Troutman that I knew from pictures. This was someone else entirely. “Get down nice and slow and get back in on the passenger side.” His voice wasn’t familiar to me either.

  “I-I’m injured. I can’t walk without my crutches.”

  “I know, damn it! That’s why I’m here in the first place!”

  Slowly, without the aid of my crutches, I got out of the driver’s seat and onto the ground. I was standing on my good leg. My left foot was touching earth but I was bearing no weight on it.

  The man grabbed me and turned me in one swift motion and then pushed me brusquely into the side of the vehicle. He searched me while I whimpered at the barbs of pain that shot through my left leg. He took my back-up pistol and tucked it into his waist band.

  “Shut up! Work your way around to the other side and get in the truck.”

  While I did as he requested, he got into the driver’s seat, pulled my crutches out from the passenger side and tossed them into the back seat. Once I was in the passenger seat, he reversed out of the parking spot, turned right out onto the main road and, just past the church, turned right again on what was little more than a footpath through the trees.

  A few minutes and what must have been a mile or so of bumping along down a dry but rutted track later, we reached a tiny cabin in a small clearing. We parked next to a very out of place looking light gray Nissan sedan. The man got out of the Escape, grabbed the book bag that I’d forgotten to take the books out of and then he came around and yanked me out of the truck. My service weapon was still in the duffle which was on the floor behind the driver’s seat. I was completely defenseless.

  Chapter 31 – Catching a Kidnapper

  Friday Evening, June 27th, 2014

  Mel

  I was in my County Sheriff’s SUV with Kelly Rice, of all people, riding shotgun with me. I was armed, she wasn’t. She’d get my pistol off of me only over my dead body. I was more likely to strangle her first. A tactical van followed us at a significant distance with Treadway driving himself and three more of my best deputies to the scene.

  Kelly had told me that the cabin was more than a mile overland on a narrow, one way track. I’d go all the way in driving and hope to take Troutman or at least to get him talking. The team would move in on foot and strike, if necessary, when the time was right.

  Kelly didn’t know about the team behind us. Joe was good at the cat and mouse game of following someone and Kelly was completely dumb to it. Even if she paid any attention out of the side view mirror, I doubted she’d pick him up. She’d never been good at any sort of surveillance. My plan, once we got to the scene, was to leave her cuffed in the vehicle like she was now and just let her watch what unfolded from the outside only.

  We were on 6A and 555 passing Kathy’s Used Cars. It was the general area where Dana’s cell phone had stopped tracking so I knew we were getting close.

  “There’s a church just up the road on the right. Slow down when you see it. Just past it, we turn right.” Kelly looked at me smugly like she felt she had a hand up on me because she knew something that I didn’t. I ignored the look.

  I slowed quite a bit and turned onto the dirt and grass track even more slowly. I wanted to make sure Joe picked me up. He had a general idea of where we were going but, since Kelly couldn’t tell me exactly, I couldn’t tell him. He’d likely park at the base of the track or just slightly up it to block any early exits from it. As it was, it was barely wide enough for my Explorer to pass through.

  A quarter mile in, the track started to get pretty rutted. “Should I be in 4 wheel drive?” Rice just shrugged.

  After several minutes of very slow going, I could see color up ahead. The Escape Dana was driving and a small car were both parked in my forward view. The cabin entrance, a single door at ground level with no porch of any kind, was right in front of the two vehicles. There were no front facing windows on the cabin.

  I stopped right where I was. If I went the rest of the way on foot, I might have the element of surprise on my side. With only the two cars there, I figured Troutman was alone with the two women. I turned the vehicle off and then, pocketing the keys, I opened my door and started to dismount.

  “I’m coming with you.”

  I smirked at Kelly, “Your good deed for the day is over. You’re staying right here.” She was cuffed to a shotgun loop mounted on the front dash so she wasn’t going anywhere.

  Closing the door as softly as I could, I ducked low, went across the front of the vehicle and headed for the heavier tree line on the right side of the track After going about 30 yards into the woods, I turned back toward the cabin and took my time picking my way through the deadfall, until I was up parallel with it. There were no windows on the right side either of what was really an even older hunting shack than Kelly had led me to believe it was. There probably weren’t any windows in the building at all.

  I drew my pistol and then moved out of the woods and up to the shack. With my back pressed against the wall, I stood still and listened intently. I couldn’t hear anything at all. It’s now or never Crane!

  Working my way around to the front, I looked quickly at both vehicles. Other tha
n marveling at the fact that the little Nissan sedan made it down the rough track intact, nothing appeared unusual. I glanced back toward my duty truck. I could just make out Kelly sitting in the passenger seat.

  I took a deep breath. The adrenaline started pumping. Go time!

  Grasping the handle of the door with my left hand, I turned it, pushed in hard and, raising my pistol, I stepped into what turned out to be a one room hunting hut.

  “Police! Freeze! Nobody move!”

  My eyes darted about in the dim light. Dana was tied to a straight back kitchen chair and gagged. I felt a pang of guilt as I took in that her expression wasn’t one of surprise at me being there but one of obvious pain.

  My focus quickly shifted to the only other occupant of the room, Noland Troutman. Hannah wasn’t there. Troutman was trying to rise from the bare mattress of an old metal frame cot he’d been laying back on. A 9mm pistol lay on a folding stand beside the cot.

  I aimed at him, “I dare you to move asshole. Just try it!” I moved to the stand and picked up the gun and then ejected the magazine and pocketed it.

  “All by yourself Crane? You’re not going to get out of here alive either!”

  “We’ll see about that.”

  Keeping my pistol trained firmly on him, I pulled out my cuffs. “You make one move and so help me God, I’ll shoot you between your eyes and I won’t think twice about it.”

  I smacked one side of the cuffs locked around the upper support of the bed frame with my left hand then transferred my gun quickly out of my right and grabbed for is wrist in hurried motion. He bucked up and tried to use his shoulder to knock my gun out of my hand but he had no leverage from the creaky old cot, I quickly pinned him and got his right wrist in position to lock on the other cuff. Anything he tried to do now, he’d be dragging the little bed with him.

  I kept an eye on him but moved toward Dana. She’d suffered enough. I was going to untie her before I started questioning Troutman about the location of Hannah Yoder.

  Dana was trying to talk through the gag but she made no sense. Thinking she’d want her legs free first, I stooped to untie her feet and ankles. While I was working the baling twine Troutman had tied her up with loose, a car door creaked out front. I whirled on my knees to face the still open front door only to have a man with a shotgun come in from a door I hadn’t realized was at the back of the cabin.