by Anne Hagan
“No problem ma'am. We do this all the time.” He excused himself, “Let me grab my help and start getting the stuff inside.”
“Adornetto's, mama?” I questioned when he was out of earshot. “What are we doing; serving the customers lunch later?”
Hands on her hips she told me, “It can be a real pain to visit Zanesville all the time so I'm trying to bring a little of the best stuff you can get there, to Morelville. They're going to work with me to provide breads and other fresh baked goods. Hopefully, it will do really well for both of us.”
The driver came back in carrying three stacked trays of bread and rolls but, to my surprise, Hannah Yoder followed him in with a tray of her own of baked goodies on the sweeter side. Seeing her instantly brightened my mood.
“Hannah! What a surprise.” I waited until she put the tray down on the counter and then I pulled her into a hug.
“When I heard where this order was going, I had to come,” she smiled.
“It’s good to see you.”
Mama beamed at the two of us. “You’re just what she needed to cheer her up,” she told Hannah.
“Cheer you up? What’s wrong?”
“She’s heartbroken, Hannah,” Mama replied for me. “Boo ran away yesterday.”
“The Boston Terrier you got her from my pa?” They were talking around me like I wasn’t even there.
I jumped in, “Mama, you better show your guy where to put all that stuff.” The driver was standing at the counter waiting patiently.
To Hannah I said, “Yes, Boo is the one she got from your family. I spent all day yesterday looking for her. My sister-in-law helped and Mama helped and lots of the neighbors said they’d keep an eye out but I’m afraid she’s actually been taken.”
“She could have wandered into the woods around here and be lost Dana. I’d keep looking. What makes you think someone took her down here? One of the things I like about this town is how tight knit it is...kind of like a big Amish family is.” She sounded a little wistful.
“Ah, you’re missing home a bit, aren’t you? Do you get back down this way to see your family at all...is that allowed?” I didn’t know how to phrase it so I just came right out with it.
“I see them from time to time. In fact, I was there last Saturday. My mama is still having a hard time with it but she’s let me show her some of the things I ‘ve been learning in culinary school. My pa is always happy when I’m there and so are my brothers and sisters.”
“Have you told them everything yet?”
“They accept my decision to leave the order, even Mama. Her problem is just me not being there.”
“And?”
Hannah looked sheepish, “No, I haven’t told them the rest yet. Maybe in time. I don’t think they’d understand.”
“You might be surprised.”
“We’ll see about that. You didn’t answer my question,” she pointed out. “Why do you think someone took your dog?”
I explained to Hannah about the florist van that Rhonda had seen and about Boo being near it.
“That is one thing I miss from home, caring for the dogs and pa’s kennels. I still love dogs...” Her face took on a faraway look.
“Reminiscing?” I asked her.
“No, remembering. That means something different, right?”
“It depends, what were you remembering?”
“Something that might be helpful to you if Pa’s memory is as good as it used to be. There was a guy out there last week when I was there that was trying to get Pa to buy older dogs from him. My pa refused. I don’t think he trusted what the man was telling him.”
“Did you see any dogs that he had?”
Hannah shook her head no.
The driver came back in with the rest of his load. She apologized to him for not helping but he waved her off saying he knew why she’d tagged along on her day off anyway.
“If it’s okay with both of you,” she said looking between me and the driver, “I’ll just stay here...that is, if you don’t mind running me back into town later?” she directed that last bit at me.
“No problem,” I told her.
The driver said his goodbyes and was off. He was no sooner out the door than people started coming in, anxious to see what Mama and dad had done with the place.
I helped as needed for the first hour or so while Hannah sat on the bench and enjoyed the show but Mama was in her element and dad was catching on quick and enjoying meeting his new neighbors.
After begging off until it was time to relieve them for lunch, Hannah and I headed out to see her pa.
###
Silas Yoder was happy to see his daughter; that was plain. His face fell though when she told him why we were there.
“I remember your mother,” he told me. “She comes in from time to time, usually with Mrs. Crane.”
“Yes, that’s her. It was me she bought the dog for.”
“And now it’s gone missing, you say?” He pushed his wide brimmed hat back a bit revealing his curly hair.
“Yes and I believe a florist or someone pretending to be a florist took her.”
“Ah, the false florist.”
“Pardon sir?”
“That’s why Hannah brought you to me, right?”
We both nodded.
“There was a man here who wanted to sell me dogs for resale. I wouldn’t deal with him because he wasn’t an honest man. He was driving a flower van that was full of dogs. I could hear them barking.”
I was excited. Finally, we’re on the right track!
“What can you remember about him Pa?” Hannah asked him.
Silas Yoder bent down below his desk and brought out a waste basket only half full with paper trash. After digging through the little container for a minute, he pulled out an order pad form with just a first name, Wayne, and a phone number written on it and handed it to me.
“Didn’t need that,” he said. “I wouldn’t do what he was asking for and I don’t have a phone.”
Chapter 17 – Two and Two
Dana
Saturday Afternoon, December 20th, 2014
Morelville, Ohio
“Damn it! This is hopeless.” I shut down my laptop in disgust.
I wasn’t sure what else I could do. Even if I’d have had a license plate number for the van, I no longer had any way personally of tracing it to its owner.
I'd spent a half hour trying different ways of searching the telephone number Silas had for Wayne and the name 'Wayne' but all that was revealed to me was that the number was for a cell phone. Without paying a fee to an online company, I couldn't get the full name of the person or business it was assigned to and there was no guarantee, with anything that I could find, that if I did pay a fee, I'd actually get the information I needed.
“Makes me wish I was back at Customs,” I said to the wall. My only other options were to call the number or enlist some official help. I tossed out the idea of calling. I was likely to go off on whoever answered and ruin all chances of catching the guy and maybe getting my dog back...if he even still has her.
Given everything that had happened, Mel was working yet another Saturday. I decided to just go and pay her a visit at the station. I knew she'd at least be able to get somewhere with the phone number and it wouldn't take up a whole lot of her time. She did say something last week at the farm about dog-napping going on in...
###
Mel
Late Saturday afternoon, December 20th, 2014
Muskingum County Sheriff's Department
“Can it possibly be the same people?” I was thinking out loud now.
“Can who be?”
“Listen, have Holly let you into the conference room. I’ll be right back.”
I practically jogged down to the squad room looking for Shane. Lucky for me, he was sitting at his desk. “You aren't going to believe what you're going to hear in a couple of minutes,” I told him.
“Good news? I could sure use some of that Sheriff.”
He tossed down the file he was holding.
“Helpful news; let's put it that way.” I turned to Janet's desk and then back to him, “Help me out here, will ya? We need to find her files on the burglaries and her stuff on the dog-nappings.”
We dug through the stack of stuff Janet had left on her desk for Shane to find when I put her on leave only the day before.
Once we had all the files, Shane and I headed to the conference room. I pulled Holly in too. While Dana outlined everything she knew for them, I started pinning locations of burglaries, the attempted burglary that resulted in the murder of Lorene Jarvis and all of the known dog-nappings to the wall map of the county laid out by streets.
“If it's the same guys, that's just incredible,” Shane was saying.
“Okay everybody, take a look at what we've got here. The red pins are all burglaries. The black one is the murder of Jarvis and all of the blue pins are missing dogs.”
“Everything is to the north and northwest of town,” Holly said.
I nodded, “And some pretty nice neighborhoods to boot. If we throw in the siting by the hand from the Samuels farm too,” I pushed a green pin in, “Coming to Morelville and taking Dana’s dog is the only outlier. These guys are working an area that's less than 10 square miles.”
“So, we have a name and phone number; have you run it?” Shane asked.
“Not yet. Holly, would you run it please?”
Holly stepped out to check it out while the other three of us stared at the board. I was looking for something...anything to jump out at me.
“We're good with the name 'Wayne',” Holly said. “Verizon has it assigned to a “Wayne Emery.”
“The dumb shit gave the Amish guy his real name?” Shane said, incredulous.
Dana laughed, “If you can't trust an Amish guy, who can you trust?”
“The name doesn’t ring a bell to me,” I said. “Any of you familiar with him?” Shane and Holly both shook their heads.
“Verizon gave me an address. It's a rental property just off of Route 60, south of Dresden.” Holly got up and walked over to the map to try and pinpoint it. “It would be about here,” she said.
I looked at the map. “That's an easy drive to all of these places,” I swept my hand over all the pins except the one in Morelville, “but far enough away that, once he's out of his target area, nobody would be the wiser.”
Shane said, “The question is, how's he getting the info to be so effective in that area knowing when people are out, disarming alarms, all that?”
“Maybe this guy works or worked previously doing something in the North Zanesville area if he’s living up that way?” Holly asked, more than stated. “He had to have some way of getting to know these houses and the comings and goings of the homeowners.”
Shane shrugged. “Could be. If he’s our guy, it sure makes sense why all the burglaries are concentrated on the north side...I mean, there are nice areas south of town too, is all, but everything we’re looking at is focused up there.” He waved his hand at the wall map.
“Yes but,” I told them, “he's hitting when they're out for a long evening or away for days. That's not 'normal' comings and goings, as you put it. That's him casing and knowing people are gone which leads me to, how's he bypassing different alarm systems?”
Dana cleared her throat, “If I could put my two cents in,” she paused and waited until I nodded before continuing, “on a different tack entirely, how likely is it that this is one guy, this Wayne guy, working alone? Think about it, casing places like you said, driving, gaining entry, picking through stuff and carting it out, fencing it or doing whatever they’re doing with it...that’s a lot.”
We all nodded. “You’re right,” I told her, “but he’s all we’ve got to work with right now. We’ll have to watch him and see if there’s someone else he’s working with.”
“He’d almost have to be, Sheriff,” Holly put in. “Dana's right. I mean, just think about trying to coral a dog, load it into a vehicle unseen and then controlling it while you drive if it’s not crated. There has to be at least two people.”
Dana looked around at the group of us, “But why take my dog? That’s the part that doesn’t fit.”
“This Emery guy may have cased your neighborhood when he was hitting up the Amish breeder. That would be my guess,” Shane supplied.
“I don't think so, Shane,” I told him. “The terrier is a purebred but this guy has been taking big money dogs and show dogs. She doesn't fit either of those two groups. Nope, my guess is that he or he and his crew probably took it to shove it in my face. They think they’re so transparent, they can move about and do whatever they want. They watched for an opportunity to do something to me or to my family and, when they got it, they took it.”
Holly laughed.
I shot her a look and she put her hands up in mock defense.
“Hold the phone Mel! What these guys don’t know is by hitting you where they think it hurts, they broke our case wide open. We went from nothing to something here.”
“Shane may be right Mel. I mean, Boo’s never run away before now. She’s always stayed in the yard unless I was walking her on a leash. But the Amish breeder is just a mile out of the village.”
“Either way, I say it’s time to stick it to them boss,” Shane said. All three sets of eyes watched me.
They’re right! “Shane, get a move on to put eyes on Emery’s place. Use whoever you need. Holly, start working on the warrants we’ll need.”
“What about Mason, Sheriff?” Shane asked me.
“What about her?”
“She’s been working this with you...I thought maybe...”
I shook myself. “I know, I know. She’s temporarily suspended but we really could use her eyes and ears and her hands too, especially with the warrants; if she’s sticking around, she really does need to learn our processes but...” I trailed off, lost in thought.
Holly, who’d only gotten as far as the door, interrupted my train of thought, “But what, Mel?”
“But, we need to nail these guys before they strike again with robberies. We don’t have time to coddle her. There will be lots of people leaving town all this weekend and by mid-week next week when the schools all let out and lots more holiday parties cranking up too. We may already be too late to stop anything they do tonight.”
Dana reached out and touched my wrist from her seat to my right. Gently, she told me, “Mel that’s all the more reason to bring her back. You need all of your trained investigators. She is trained. Who knows how many people you’re really dealing with?”
I looked back at Holly, “Okay, Have HR get a hold of her and have her come in here; plain clothes, weapon, ASAP.”
“On it Sheriff.”
Shane and Holly both left the room. Dana sat back in her chair and dropped her head, her chin almost touching her chest.
“What’s wrong babe? You're not worried...about Mason coming back, are you?”
“I wouldn't have suggested it if I was worried about it. I trust you. It's just...I know they won’t have Boo anymore. She’s probably long gone. It’s already been almost 36 hours.”
“We won’t know until we get in there. We’ll do our best to get in quick, I promise.”
Dana was quiet, thinking for several long seconds. After letting out a heavy breath, she told me, “I’d like to go...when you go. I want to be there.”
“Hon, you know I can’t do that. These people are dangerous. They’ve already killed someone who got in their way. I don’t know what we’re going to be walking into there.”
“I’ll wait in the vehicle; I don’t care! I have to be there.”
I stared at her for several long seconds while I tried to form the words in my mind to tell her no. My brain knew what I should say but my heart wouldn’t let the words come out of my mouth. Instead, I nodded at her.
“Okay.”
Chapter 18 – Making a Case
Sunday, December 20th, 2014
&n
bsp; Shane spent Saturday night on a stakeout, watching Emery's house in the modest suburb where he lived. He had his work cut out for him. Wayne Emery wasn't crashing a party; he was having one. People came and went at his home for hours, well into the night.
I spent the night in the squad bay getting updates from him and from patrol. As reported by Shane, he had to lay low for a half hour just after midnight when the Dresden PD showed up at the scene after receiving a disturbing the peace call. That, said Shane, barely slowed things down.
He finally reported that the last of the party goers it seemed, were stumbling to their cars well after 3:00 AM on Sunday morning. Emery wasn't going anywhere at that hour. I ordered Shane home to get some shuteye and, after calling Dana and letting her know I was on the way, I cruised home to grab a little sleep myself.
###
“It's December 21st, do you think he's called it quits for the holidays?” Mason asked me when we all convened in the conference room early on Sunday afternoon including a bleary eyed but ready for anything Shane.
“I hope so but my gut tells me no. There's too much out there that's tempting for him with so many houses being empty over Christmas.”
Looking around at the handful of people gathered in the conference room, I said, “Last night was a boon to us, in hindsight.” I smiled at my number one detective, “Shane, between you and patrol, great work getting a couple of dozen plate numbers. That was no kiddie party, no family gathering. His associates are a rough lot. Some of these people could well be working with him including a well-known local criminal, George Pearson. Pearson's actually living very close to Emery right now too.”
Shane brushed off the praise and groaned at the same time. He was very familiar with Pearson. “Who's on watch right now, boss?”
“Treadway came in today. Said his wife's family is already in for the holiday...” Everybody was in on the joke but Mason and they all laughed but her. Joe Treadway is a rock on the department but we all knew his wife ruled the roost at home.