by Anne Hagan
“Don’t move!” He peered at me, “Well, looky here! We can have us a nice little party now can’t we?” He looked at Troutman, “We got us the sheriff too for our little deal.”
“You don’t have shit!” Kelly rice stepped into the doorway, raised a pistol and fired into the surprised second man’s chest. He dropped to the floor, dead.
“How did you get...” I was incredulous.
“Free of your cuffs Sheriff? Just a little trick he taught me about always hiding a spare cuff key in a hemline.” She tossed her head toward Troutman. Focusing back on me she declared, “And you thought I was the dumb one!”
Kelly pointed the pistol she was holding at my pistol. “Slide that over here.”
I slid my pistol gently toward her and raised my hands. I knew the hostage team had to be close. The shot she fired would bring them in quick.
“Kelly, don’t do anything stupid.”
Troutman spoke up from the cot, “Yeah, Kelly...baby. Don’t do anything dumb. We can get out of all of this.”
She whirled on him, “Shut up Noland. You’re going to die just like your asshole pal over there did and just like that dumb dyke Terri did. I’m going to prison for the crimes I committed trying to help you but you’re going to hell!”
I shook my head at the sudden revelation but there was no time to dwell on it. Where is my team? Trying to buy some time I pleaded, “Kelly wait! You can’t kill him yet! We don’t know where the girl is.”
Dana started to make noise again through the gag drawing Kelly’s attention for the split second that it took for my tactical team to enter in pairs from the front and back and take control of the entire situation.”
With Troutman and Rice both cuffed and shackled and Dana freed from her bonds but barely coherent, it was time to find Hannah Yoder. Other than to snipe at each other, neither prisoner would talk about Hannah.
After much back and forth with Troutman, all he would say was that Hannah had been schooled and he didn’t know where she was now.
I had the two former love birds separated and transported from the scene. Paramedics had arrived and they were tending to Dana. I began to rally the troops to do an all-out search for Hannah while we still had daylight left.
One of the paramedics approached me, “Sheriff, a word?”
“Yes?”
“The victim won’t leave the scene until she talks to you. She’s not very intelligible because she nearly asphyxiated on the rag that you pulled out of her mouth.”
I nodded and moved to Dana’s side by the gurney she was now on. She tried to talk but I couldn’t make out the words. I bent low, my ear hovering over her mouth.
“Schoooool...”
“Are you trying to say school?” I looked into Dana’s eyes. She shook her head no, almost imperceptibly.
“Bussssses.”
“School busses?” I was confused but Dana nodded.
“Hannah’s on a school bus?”
“Junk...”
“School bus junk? Dana, honey, I’m really sorry but that doesn’t make any sense.”
She shook her head no more noticeably. “Junk...yard!”
“School busses in the junkyard?”
She nodded yes as hard as she could muster.
Chapter 32 – Denouement
7:10 PM, August 5th, 2014
Adornetto’s Italian Restaurant, Zanesville
Mel had brought me out to what she declared was Zanesville’s best Italian restaurant to celebrate her election night victory.
It wasn’t a hard fought election. Once Noland Troutman was arrested and charged, he dropped out of the race to concentrate on his defense. The county commissioners had his name removed from all electronic voting machines. Some fools voting on punch card ballots in a couple of the county’s less voter rich precincts might still punch his name but Mel would be the evenings’ undisputed victor.
She beamed at me from across the table. “It’s so great to see you getting around without your crutches. How do you feel?”
I’d seen Doctor Welle in the afternoon while Mel was in court. “I feel pretty good. All the therapy this past month has certainly helped but I’ll still be pretty weak for a while until I’m used to bearing my own weight all the time again but, really, I’m not doing too badly.”
“Baby, that’s great! I’m so happy for you.”
“Mel, it’s your big night. Hell, you’ve had a big day! We’re here to celebrate you, not to talk about me.” I smiled at her in the candlelight across the table. “So, I’m dying to know; how’d it go in court today?”
Mel picked up my hand from the table and played with my fingers. I knew she was stalling.
“Mel, come on! Spill it!”
She grinned and finally gave in. “Kelly looks hideous in orange prison scrubs.”
I smiled at that too.
“She showed up and pled Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity, as I suspected she would.”
“I don’t buy it.”
“Nor do I and she’ll have an even tougher time proving it than most.”
“Why is that?”
“Boswell Bates showed up for the preliminary hearing and, right after her plea, he recused himself as her lawyer. He told the judge he couldn’t in good conscious defend someone accused of election tampering and crimes against federal officials.”
“Didn’t you once tell me that Bates would defend anyone who could write him a big check?”
“That’s just it, Kelly is broke and there’s no one else to write any checks on her behalf.”
I sat back in my chair, stuffed. “Mel, that lasagna was amazing!”
“Oh, it’s not your Grandma Rossi’s but, in a pinch, it will do.” She smiled that beautiful grin that I love. “I hope you saved room for dessert?”
“I couldn’t possibly eat another bite!”
“But Dana, you’ll miss out on the new house specialty made and named just for you.”
I raised an eyebrow, “For me?”
A young woman in kitchen whites approached the table and placed a dish in front of each of us and then stood back. I looked at the plate. There was a rather largish version of what looked like a glazed Hostess pie that was also drizzled with chocolate. Fresh raspberries and mint adorned the plate.
“What is this?”
“It’s the Dana Rossi Fry Pie.” The young woman said as she stepped forward again.
My head shot up to her face. “Hannah! Oh my God, Hannah!” I tried to get up to hug her but, of course, at that moment, my leg failed me and I all but tumbled back into my chair.
Once she was sure I was okay, Hannah bent to hug me instead. “How are you Dana? I’ve missed you!”
“I’ve missed you too. We’ve both been so busy since...since...”
“Hannah shook her head. Let’s not even talk about that. It’s your big night.”
I smiled. “It’s not my big night. It’s Mel’s.”
Hannah pointed to the opposite side of my chair. Mel was down on one knee on the floor holding out a box with a huge, sparkling rock.
She smiled again so bright it lit up the room, “Dana, will you marry me?”
Hitched & Tied
The Morelville Mysteries – Book 4
Anne Hagan
To the United States Supreme Court
PUBLISHED BY:
Jug Run Press, USA
Copyright © 2015
https://annehaganauthor.com/
All rights reserved: No part of this publication may be replicated, redistributed or given away in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without prior written consent of the author or the publisher except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages for review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are actual places used in an entirely fictitious manner and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, organizations,
or persons, living or deceased, is entirely coincidental.
Prologue
Sunday, August 3rd, 2014
Family Fun Day – Crane Family Farm
“Cole, Grandpa said you need to get that calf in the head chute now! We’re wasting daylight!”
The 15 year old sneered at his younger sister but he hustled to the fence line to get his show calf. He untied the skittish animal and started to walk him toward the chute where his grandfather was waiting, electric trimmer in hand.
“What are they going to do?” Dana looked at me with curiosity.
“They’re just going to buzz off some ear hair and tufts on top of his head and the ridge of his back...make him look handsome for the judges.”
Dana shrugged and started to ask another question but her attention was diverted away when a black Cadillac Escalade skidded to a near stop at the end of the dirt driveway and then turned and started up it. A cloud of dust rose behind the fast moving SUV as it plowed toward the farm house at the top of the drive.
The calf, scared, started to buck and kick. It was all Cole could do to hang on to the lead rope. He yelped in pain as the tightly woven braid of it tore at his hands. I rushed over and took the rope from him and then pulled the calf in close to try and calm it. Beth’s calf, which was tied to the fence rail waiting for its own turn with the shears, strained and pulled at its rope.
“Kris, get over there and try to settle that calf!” I yelled. She started toward it as the Escalade rolled to a stop inches from moms hillside rock garden at the end of the driveway. I didn’t know who the driver was. All I could see from my vantage point out in the pasture was an out of state license plate that appeared to be from Florida. I didn’t know anyone who drove a Cadillac Escalade with Florida plates.
“The calf is fine,” my father yelled. He waved his hand toward the offending SUV, “Find out who the hell that is!”
Kris turned instead toward the gate in the fence and started to walk to it. The driver’s side door to the Escalade opened away from us and, before Kris could even mount the gate to climb over it, Jeremey David Roberts stepped around to the end of the vehicle.
“Dad! It’s dad!” Cole yelled. He forgot all about his calf and the task at hand and, instead, turned to run to the fence.
“Cole!” I called to him as loudly as I dared while hanging onto his still trembling calf, “Get back here!”
He turned to me, “But I want to see my dad.”
“That can wait boy,” his grandfather told him. “You need to take care of your animal first.”
“JD, you know I have a restraining order against you. You can’t be within 500 feet of me.”
“I ain’t here to see you anyway. I heard in town that my kids were out here getting their animals ready for fair. I’m here to see them.”
“Like hell you are,” Kris growled back at him. “Since when have you ever given a damn about those kids?” She pointed back toward Beth and Cole still standing out in the pasture.
“Kinda’ hard to show I care, ain’t it, when I don’t never get to see them, isn’t it?”
“That was your choice JD. If you made a support payment once in a while, maybe the judge would be a little bit more lenient on you.”
Faye Crane came out of the farmhouse, “JD Roberts you get on out of here right now! You can’t be coming around here!”
He looked up the hill at her, “What are you going to do to me you old bat? Are you gonna call the Sheriff on me? Oh wait, she’s standin’ right out there in your damn field with her finger up her ass!”
Kris got in his face, “Don’t you talk to my mother that way JD! You have no right to be here and you’re breaking the law. Not only that, but you’ll get Cole’s hopes up sky high again and then leave him hanging like you always do. Just leave now before you do too much damage!”
“I ain’t going nowhere until I get a look at this guy who thinks he’s going to take my place with my kids and play daddy to them. Now, where is he?”
“So you really aren’t here about your kids after all are you? You’re just being nosy!” Kris was indignant.
“A man has a right to know who’s spending time with his children!”
Mom jumped back in, “You don’t have any rights at all JD; besides, the man Kris is dating isn’t even here, as you can plainly see, so you’re wasting everyone’s time. Now get movin’ and get on out of here.”
“I hear its way more than dating!”
“That’s my business JD, not yours. Now beat it.”
Chapter 1 – Yes
Tuesday Evening, August 5th, 2014
Adornetto’s Italian Restaurant, Zanesville, Ohio
“Yes Mel, I’ll marry you!”
I slipped the ring I’d picked out onto Dana’s finger and then stood and tugged her from her chair and into my arms as Hannah beamed at the two of us. “I love you Dana.”
Her eyes sparkled with excited tears, “I love you too!”
I kissed her softly but quickly and then pulled her in for a long hug. Time just seemed to stand still while I held her.
All too soon, I had to let her go. Once we were settled back at the table, Hannah discreetly disappeared back into the kitchen.
Dana looked down at her dessert plate, “I don’t know what to say or even where to start...”
“You said the most important thing; yes.”
“When...how long have you been planning this?”
I smiled at her and caressed her hand, “Oh, since I walked out of a motel room back in June and I had to leave you there by yourself waiting and wondering what was going on.”
“That long ago huh?” Dana laughed.
“Yeah. Pretty much.” I took a little bite of my dessert and sighed. Our young friend Hannah was going to do great in culinary school. She already exhibited some serious talent.
Dana was eating her dessert too but she had a faraway look in her eyes. After a long minute of silence, I asked her, “Penny for your thoughts?”
She tilted her head and peered at me in the dimmed light, “I’m just wondering how...where...when you would want to...” She paused, obviously not sure exactly what she wanted to ask.
“Hun, I want to do this for real. We can’t legally get married in Ohio right now but there are lots of places where we can. We’ll go somewhere to do it officially and then, when we come back here, I want to have a big party and invite everyone: your family, mine, friends, co-workers...everybody.”
Dana drew in a deep breath and smiled, “Okay then. So, uh, when?”
“Well, let’s talk about it and try and get it all hammered out early the week after next. I have got to help to get Kris’s kids through fair week first!” I hung my head down low.
“Baby, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. We’ll get through that together. I don’t know a lot about showing animals but I’ll do whatever I can to help.”
“Trust me; you’re going to regret saying that.”
“Mel, I don’t regret anything about meeting you or our connection to those kids. I wouldn’t trade a minute of the last few months away...well, not a minute with them anyway,” she laughed ruefully.
I knew she was thinking about being shot, kidnapped – not once but twice – framed for murder and about being tied up and left for dead once. Since Dana had come into my life, her own life had become very dangerous. I hoped to change all of that for her but, right now, I needed to get her mind off of it. “There is something else we need to start talking about right away.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
I leaned toward her and whispered conspiratorially, “Getting a place of our own.”
“True,” she smiled back.
“I have a gut feeling Lance is going to propose to my sister real soon. He’s already hinting that he wants to move in with her or have her and the kids move in with him.”
“Well, it’s only logical that you and I move out of there and he move in. There’s no sense in uprooting the kids and your sis
ter really does love living in your grandparent’s family home.”
“Yeah, she does.”
“Where would we go?”
“Well, I’d want to stay pretty close to both the kids and mom and dad for now. I don’t know if you’ve noticed it but my dad seems to be struggling a little lately with things he’s always done and that he still should be able to do. He’s only 57. Stuff shouldn’t be this hard for him...not yet.”
“Has he seen a doctor?”
“Don’t even get me started on that!” I shook my head, “He has an all hate relationship with doctors. Anyway, there are a few houses in and right around Morelville that are up for sale which would keep us close to the kids and to the farm. Would you be willing to take a look at some of those?”
“Of course babe.”
“I was thinking that maybe eventually, we’d put our heads together and buy a piece of property somewhere to build what we really want so this wouldn’t be forever...”
Dana reached across the table and took my hand in hers. “Mel, I just want to settle down and be with you. Wherever that is, is fine.”
Chapter 2 – Falling
Wednesday Evening, August 6th, 2014
Kris looked up at the clock; 8:50. Ten more minutes and she could lock up.
She checked the list of all of the things she still needed to get packed up and ready to go for county fair camper move in on Friday night and the animal move in on Saturday morning. She jumped, seemingly caught off guard by the black Escalade pulling up to the pumps.
She shook her head and said out loud to the empty station, “I hope JD’s boss is driving his own vehicle this time instead of letting that ass borrow it again.”