by Anne Hagan
“Helen, thank you! You're a doll!” Mama hugged her. “I'm so glad you agreed to help out...for however long you're willing to help.”
I turned from my task toward them to see Helen eying me. “It'll be a while,” she said. “I won't leave and leave you in a bind.”
Rolling my eyes, I turned away and looked out the front window. “Hey, check it out, it's snowing!”
Mama moved up beside me. “Why I'll just bet this little village looks adorable covered in snow.”
“Oh, it's cute all right,” Helen called to us, “until you're stuck out there somewhere. I hope you have a 4 wheel drive vehicle to get in here in Chloe, if you're going to keep staying out there at the Crane farm for a while.”
“That isn't really a problem, Helen,” I told her. “Mamma can always stay right here in the village with Mel and me until her and my dad find a place.”
“Speaking of Mel,” Helen said to me, “I might as well ask you directly; how's she doing? I mean, is everything okay with her?” Her tone was odd, practically accusatory.
I was confused and I'm sure it showed in my face, “She's fine...certainly overworked but fine, thank you for asking.” I just wasn't sure what she was driving at.
“Oh, dear, I'm sure it's nothing, it's just that people see things, people talk...they've seen her over in Zanesville out and about in the evenings with some woman. If you say everything's okay, then I'm sure everything's okay.”
Her tone is anything but sure; in fact, it's downright smug.
My mama, bless her, was having none of it. “Now Helen, I like you but don't you be taking advantage of my good nature and spreading rumors about my family or about anyone's for heaven’s sake. My daughter-in-law is the model of decorum. She's doing her job and nothing more, no matter what you see or anybody else sees or hears.”
“But, I haven't said a word to anyone; I was just telling you what I heard.”
“You know darn well you were digging for information and trying to stir up a little trouble. I've been around the block a lot of times too.”
Helen's face reddened. “Maybe you don't need me here so much after all since it seems like you know everything.” Helen threw down the towel she was holding and, turning on her heel, she headed toward the back of the store. “I'll just get my things and be gone,” she tossed over her shoulder.
I recovered from my shock and prodded my mother, “Mama, go after I her! I'm not worried about what people say...they talk about Mel and me no matter what anyway. You need Helen's help.”
“No Dana sweetie, I really don't. I've got this...we've got this!”
That's exactly what I'm afraid of...
###
Mama wouldn't leave me alone for even a minute after Helen stormed out. She even went home with me after she locked up for the day and talked shop some more for the next hour. She was nervous about the opening but, more than that, I think she could sense that I really had been struck by what Helen had said.
I wasn't suspicious of Mel so much. No, I knew how much she loved me. She was, however, spending an awful lot of time in close quarters with Janet and I just wasn't sure how much I could trust the woman. I mean, I didn't even know her. Mel hadn't even introduced us, she'd simply pointed the beautiful blonde out at the Mayor's party and, after spying us at the same time, the woman avoided us like the plague.
###
Boo heard Mel's truck before it even turned into the driveway. She ran into the kitchen and took up her usual position at the door. Mel was barely inside before she was all over her.
My wife bent down and picked her up and proceeded to talk directly to her, “Well hello to you too! You always give me such and amazing welcome home greeting.”
I grimaced from my seat in the next room at her words. She says that almost every time she comes home...
My wife proceeded to cuddle and love on my dog as I watched. Spying me in the family room finally, she came toward me still carrying the dog. She put Boo down, bent down and kissed me on the cheek and, without even speaking to me, collapsed into the opposite chair. Boo jumped right up in her lap and rolled over to be scratched and Mel obliged her. I'd had enough.
“Melissa Crane, put the dog down!”
My tone started her and she nearly dropped my dog as she jumped up.
“Dana, why, what's wrong?”
“Do you love me or the dog?”
“What? Where is that coming from?” She moved toward my chair.
“The dog gets non-stop attention; I get a quick buss on the cheek.”
“Babe, I'm sorry...she just attacks when I come through the door...I...what's going on?”
I took a deep breath and then took the plunge, “Is there something going on between you and your new detective?”
“What? Why would you think that?” She stopped a couple of feet from me and she was yelling now.
“People are talking, Mel.”
“About me and Mason?”
I nodded. I was having trouble speaking.
“Dana, baby, when I say I'm working, I'm working; I swear.” She came fully to me then and knelt beside my chair.
Her eyes searched mine for several long seconds then she told me, “I'm sad that you don't trust me...that...that you would believe something like that without even asking me first.” She hung her head then and rested her forehead on my armrest.
I was at a loss. I felt bad for accusing her of anything and for not having faith in her. Reaching out to her in my disgust with myself, I stroked her hair gently. “Mel, honey...I...I don't know why I let the gossip get to me. I should have thicker skin...I'm just...I'm so sorry.”
She picked up her head and looked me in the eye and reminded me, “You worked undercover a lot, yourself, babe. You know how this stuff goes. Janet’s new. I want to make sure she’s doing things the way I want them done and not the way she might want to do them. I've had to make some corrections here and there over the last week or so. Yeah, I've spent a lot of time with her, all completely above board and professional.”
I could feel the tears forming at the corners of my eyes. I shouldn't have doubted her.
Before I could say anything else, Mel was climbing to her feet. She pulled me up out of the chair and right into a hug. Then, gently pressing her lips to my ear, she told me, “I love you Dana. It’s you and only you.”
Taking comfort in her strong embrace, I thought to myself, I'll never doubt you again. That woman though, I don't trust her. I just don't...
Chapter 14 – Boo to You
Dana
Friday, December 19th, 2014
Morelville, Ohio
I was trying, unsuccessfully, to break Boo of needing to go outside the minute Mel walked out the door in the morning which was usually just after 6:00 AM. She’d lie at the foot of our bed and mope while Mel was getting dressed for work and then, as soon as she was gone, she’d want to go out and roam the yard.
It was cold and it was still dark and even a little foggy but here we were, yet again, outside. “You have a fur coat; of course you don’t mind that it’s chilly out here,” I said to her. She didn’t even bother to look back at me. Instead, she scampered into the back yard and then went on a diagonal bee line toward the barn behind Kris’s house next door.
“Boo! Get back here! You stay away from those cats!” I called to her. She ignored me. We’d been overrun by stray cats in the village over the summer and now, the ones that hadn’t been prey for wolves and other people’s crazed dogs, were looking for warm places to ride out the cold days of winter. The old barn my sister-in-law had on her property was proving popular for them and Boo had tangled with a couple of Toms there that were bigger and stronger than she was.
“Boo!” I lost sight of her and so I trudged toward the barn, pulling my coat tight around me to ward off the chill.
When I reached the old wood structure, I peered inside the big bay opening. Damn! I know better than to come out without a flashlight...I couldn’t see a thing. “Boo
! Come Boo, come!” I saw a flash of white but I was sure it was a cat and not my dog.
“I can’t hear her,” I said out loud to the cats and to the light wind playing through the nearby trees outside. I would have thought I’d have been able to hear her nosing around. She certainly wasn’t quiet like a cat.
Guess I better go get a light...
Back in the house, I quickly stripped off my pajama bottoms and put jeans on so I'd be a little warmer and then I grabbed a flashlight and headed back outside. I’d hoped Boo would wander back while I was inside but no such luck.
Back down to the barn I went and all around it. When it was obvious she wasn’t there, I worked my way up around Kris’s house. The lights were on because the kids were up getting ready for school, so I knocked.
Beth answered and told me, “We heard you out there calling Boo. We haven’t seen her Aunt Dana but we’ll come and help you look.”
“No, no. I don’t want you and Cole to be late for school. You know how that inconveniences your mom when you guys miss the bus and she has to drive you up there.” Out here in the middle of nowhere, the school bus came well before 7:00 AM.
Kris herself walked into the kitchen in sweats and picked up her shoes from the mat beside the door. “You guys get up to the bus stop,” she told Cole and Beth. “Holler if you see Boo on the way or while you’re up there. I’ll help Dana look.”
Kris and I headed out. It was still somewhat dark making a small, mostly black puppy hard to see, so it was slow going. We walked all over town and we called and we called for Boo but we never found her.
Disheartened, I headed home to warm up and pray that she wasn’t hurt and would make her own way home. As soon as it was daylight, I vowed to try again.
###
Boo still wasn’t home when it was finally light around 8:00 AM. I went back out, this time with the car, and drove and stopped to get out and look and call and then I’d get back in and drive a little further and stop and look and call some more. No Boo.
I saw my mother’s Lincoln pulling up at the store as I was about to head home so I stopped there instead. The instant my mother saw me, she knew something wasn’t right.
“Dana, what’s wrong?” she asked me.
“Boo ran off this morning and I haven’t been able to find her since. I’ve been all over town.”
“This morning? How long ago?”
“Just after six.”
“Baby that was more than two hours ago. She could be half way through that Blue Rock forest by now.”
I rubbed my temples, “I really hope not. I hope someone got a hold of her and took her inside for a bit to warm up or something. Most people in town have seen me out walking her and everyone in town’s had to hear me out here calling for her by now.”
“Listen, I’ve got a couple of last minute things to do inside before the opening tomorrow. Go on home and wait for her there. Hopefully she’ll find her way back or someone will bring her back. If not, once I’m done here, I’ll go out with you and help you look again.”
###
It was after 11:00 when Mama was finally able to get away. We started out on the main road at the far end of the village and worked our way back toward the town center, checking down all the little side streets and alley ways as we went. Soon, we'd passed my house and then the store in the very center of town and we began working the streets were the homes were a little closer together.
I stopped and talked to everyone I saw that was out and about and Mama did the same as we worked opposite sides of the street. No one had seen her but most promised to keep an eye out.
I was working the left side of the main road into town. As I passed the store on the opposite side, I came up on 2nd Street running off to my left. Mama didn't have a corresponding street to go down on the right. I waved her on to continue on the main road and I turned down 2nd.
After calling out a few times, Rhonda Ellis, one of Faye's close friends came out on her porch a few houses up on the opposite side and beckoned me over.
Mentally, I crossed my fingers as I approached her.
“Are you looking for your dog dear?”
“Yes Mrs. Ellis; my Boston Terrier.”
“That's the little black and white dog I see you walking sometimes, right?”
I nodded. “Have you seen her.”
“I think so but, what time is it?”
“It's after 11:30.”
“Oh child, this won't be much help then.”
“Why's that?”
“It was maybe a little after after ten when she went through here. I'd come outside to grab the paper; that man from Zanesville that delivers them out here these days was late or I probably wouldn't have seen her at all. As it is, I'm sorry to tell you this, but I think someone might have taken her...can't be sure but maybe so.”
“Wha...Who...Who do you think took her?”
I saw a florist van just up the street there. When it stopped, Boo ran toward it. Anyway, I walked down to the end of the driveway to pick up my paper. I looked at the headlines for a minute maybe and then started walking back. The sound of a van door sliding closed got me to look that way again.” She pointed up the road.
“Right after that, the van pulled away. I didn’t see the dog anywhere after it left.”
“Where exactly did you see the van?” I asked her.
“Why, just a few houses up, just past Ginny Brown’s old place.” The other woman pointed in that direction. “Never saw anybody get out of the van though but then, I was really only focused on getting my paper. I'm sorry. I probably should have tried to catch your dog.”
“It's not your fault. She's fast and she can be a handful.”
I looked up the street toward the house Rhonda indicated. Tipping my head toward it, I asked her“Do you suppose anyone’s there right now?”
The other woman looked toward the house again, herself and shrugged. “Doesn’t look like they’re home. They both work in Zanesville on weekdays.”
“What florist was it? A Zanesville place?”
“Sorry,” Rhonda shook her head. “I couldn't tell you.”
I thanked Rhonda and then called Mama and told her what I’d heard. Once she joined me, we went together to the house on the other side of the old Brown place.
Mama shivered visibly as we passed the Brown house and shot me a look. “I hope she’s not in there,” she said.
“No, I don’t think so. That’s still all sealed up after Mel’s investigation into Ginny’s death.” Dana looked around, “I just can’t believe Boo would have wandered this far all on her own.”
“If you walk her through this area, she was probably drawn back here by a scent she picked up or something...Ginny had all of those cats, remember?”
Dana tilted her head and looked at her mother. “The cats have been gone for weeks. They were removed right after Ginny died. On the other hand, I do a loop with her a lot of the time that takes me past here, down the alley up there and right back to the house. Most of the time though, we go up the other side of the street. The last couple of days, she’s tugged me across.”
Mama nodded knowingly, “She was on the scent of something sweetie.”
At the next house, I mounted the front porch steps and knocked on the front door. I waited a few moments and then knocked again but still, no one answered.
“No one’s home and there are no flowers up here on the porch anywhere.”
“I think we should check with the other neighbors around here...see if anyone else got flowers or accepted them for these folks.”
Chapter 15 – Done ‘Fer
Mel
Friday Afternoon December 19th, 2014
Harper Family Farm, Morelville, Ohio
“Sheriff Crane.”
“Mel, it's me.”
“What's wrong? You sound upset.”
“Boo's missing.”
“Are you sure?”'
“We've been searching for her on and off since you left this
morning. I don't know what to do.”
I was silent. I was on my way to an emergency call, I wasn't alone in the vehicle and I didn't have the first clue how to respond to her in her obviously upset state.
“Are you there, Mel?”
“Yes, I'm sorry. I'm en-route to a call. I'm not sure what I'll be getting into when I get there. I'll try and get there and help as soon as I can.”
“Okay...I guess.”
“I'm so sorry.”
I was in my county SUV. Shane was riding shotgun and Janet was in the back seat. We were headed to the Harper farm.
Noah Harper, Nevil Jr.’s 15 year old younger brother, called 911 when he found his father, Nevil Sr., swinging from the rafters in their barn in a homemade noose.
A million thoughts were running through my mind as we raced to the Harper's. Shane, meanwhile was thinking his out loud.
“Did he leave a note? A confession maybe?”
“Dispatch didn't say. I gathered the boy that called it in didn't say much except that his father was dead.”
“Suicide...man...” Shane shook his head. “I just can't believe it. It sure makes him look guilty for the Stiers case, doesn't it?”
I just shrugged. At this point, I wasn't going to speculate. We could find out anything when we got to the Harper farm.
Shane half turned in his seat and looked back at Janet, “Maybe it was the guilt that did him in, huh?”
Janet didn't respond verbally but she must have shrugged or something because Shane turned back around, seemingly satisfied with her response.
Once we were on site, a clearly distraught Elizabeth Harper came outside to meet us. She led us over to the main equipment pole barn but she stopped short of the door and all but broke down. I called for Noah who was hovering on the farmhouse porch straight across from us and he came to her.
When she was out of sight and earshot, I told Mason and Harding, “Just photos of the scene for now. The Coroner's been notified and he should be en-route.”
Shane nodded and moved forward into the unlit barn carefully.
I looked back at Janet, standing a step or so behind me, “Slide that door open just a little more, will you? We need a bit more light.”