by Anne Hagan
Love,
Mel
I smiled at her sentiments and thought briefly of our time in Tennessee myself. Her sweet attempts at romance had me blushing so much; I almost missed the P.S. scratched on at the bottom of the page.
P.S. Please meet me for and dinner and dessert at 5:30 tonight at Addornetto’s.
The last bit actually looked like it was added by someone else. I looked at the clock; it was already after 3:00. I better call Mel and confirm that...
To my surprise she was actually in her office and Holly was able to get her right on the phone.
“Dana?”
“Hi sweetie. I got your note and I’m looking forward to our date.”
It was quiet for several seconds.
“Mel?”
“Oh, um yeah, sorry.”
“I’m sorry, you’re probably really busy.”
“Um, no. It actually hasn’t been too bad today.”
“Oh. Well, you seem a little distracted. If you can’t do dinner tonight after all, it’s okay.” I tried to keep my tone light but I’d already been looking forward to us having a night out.
“Dana, I’d love to go out with you tonight. I, um, said 5:30, right?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll be there.”
“I’ll be waiting. Bye Mel; love you.”
“Love you too.”
It wasn’t until we hung up that I thought again about the short deadline on the Brietland job and I realized I really should have cancelled the date and let her off the hook after all.
“Damn it!” I exclaimed out loud startling Boo enough for her to jump into a standing position from her blankie on the floor where she’d been slumbering. I looked at her and then back at my notes and printouts. “We need this night.” She stared at me uneasily then stretched, turned around in a couple of circles and, when I didn’t say anything else, she laid back down.
I’m in a little over my head here. Free databases and social network searches will only take me so far. I mentally kicked myself. I’m not prepared to a full background check until I set up accounts. I need to get my ducks in a row.
The realization that I wasn’t prepared to go out and spy on Ms. Erin Voll yet, plans with Mel or no plans, didn’t sit well.
I knew I could call Young and they’d do the full searches I needed but that was defeating the purpose of them subbing the job out to me in the first place.
Biting the bullet, I pulled up the site of one of the biggest background checking agencies out there, established a corporate unlimited account with them and then plugged all of Voll’s known information in to begin my first search. For good measure, I requested Victor Voll’s background too. If you’re going to do it, do it all the way! Now I was congratulating myself. I’d finally started to act like the professional investigator I’d been pretending to be.
Realizing that it would be at least a couple of hours before I got any return on that little investment so I decided to run Boo outside and then get ready for my date.
Chapter 10 – Tripped Up
Mel
4:30 Wednesday Afternoon, February 11th
I blew out a heavy breath as I closed the last report that had rolled across my desk during the course of the day. At my buzz, Holly appeared in my doorway.
“You rang, boss?” Her smile lightened the tinge of sarcasm in her question.
“Yes I did! I’ve finally gotten through all of these reports. They need to go back to the investigating deputies for my corrections or for follow-up.” I held the stack of files out to her and she took them.
“Bet you’re glad to be done with them.”
“To say the least. Thankfully, it’s been a pretty quiet day and we could all play a little catch up.”
“Mason get anywhere with that drive-by?”
“On that, unfortunately no. If there were any witnesses, they aren’t talking. I hate that...you know?”
“Having another murder case that will probably go unsolved?”
I nodded.
“Not much we can do about it Sheriff; not unless we take gang members down and get people to turn to save their own butts.”
“That’s what I hate even more; the spread of gangs in the county. Policing here is so different now than when we joined the department.”
We chatted for another couple of minutes and then Holly made to leave to return the files. She paused in the hallway and backed herself back into my office, “Don’t forget you have a ribbon cutting in the morning at that new senior center, 9:00.”
“Thanks. I would have forgotten.” I was glad she reminded me. “Look, once you drop those off, why don’t you get out of here? You’ve already put in a lot of hours this week.”
“I could say the same for you, boss lady.”
“Oh, I intend to be on my way shortly. I have a date.”
When I got out to the lot, I debated turning left and getting into my pick-up or turning to my right and getting into my county SUV. Given the unpredictability of the winter weather and the fact that I was performing an official function in the morning, I opted for my SUV and left my truck where it was.
Once I was inside the SUV, out of habit, I turned on the two-way and the computer. I smirked as I checked the time. It wasn’t quite five and the restaurant was only a few minutes away, uptown. I figured I’d probably be there before Dana.
As I crossed over the Muskingum, a 911 dispatch call for all units startled me out of my first near relaxed state in days. “All units, 10-32, 10-46 in progress, corner of McConnell and Maple.
Armed bank robbery a mile ahead! “County Unit One en-route.” I was the first to respond. Two other units immediately followed suit, one of mine and one with the Zanesville PD.
As I sped toward the bank, another call came across, “Suspect leaving the scene. Proceed with caution.” That was followed moments later with a description of the get-away car that dispatch reported was proceeding north on Maple.
I flipped on my lights and my siren and gave the truck a little more gas. I was on Maple so, if I could find it, I planned to give chase.
People were leaving work so the traffic was heavy. Cars got out of my way as quickly as they could; I just hoped the throngs were slowing my quarry down. Sure enough, I spotted the suspected escape car about a block and a half ahead of me. The driver was weaving in and out of traffic where he could.
As I closed the distance, he must have heard me coming. I watched in horror as he cut off and almost hit another vehicle when he took a right into a KFC parking lot from the left hand lane. Moments later, I made the same right myself and sped around behind the restaurant to see him navigating wildly around the restaurants’ drive thru lane and then across berms to get out to Brookover Avenue. He didn’t stop as he crossed traffic on Brookover and headed north up the narrow access road on the other side of it.
“Unit 1, in pursuit. Vehicle just crossed Brookover Avenue,” I radioed.
I slammed on the brakes as the car stopped. The male in the passenger seat jumped out and fled toward a building on foot.
Making a quick decision, I keyed my uniform mike and told dispatch, “Robbery suspect is now on foot. In pursuit.”
As I watched the suspect enter a building from the rear, a PD cruiser screamed into the parking lot on my left. I waved at the getaway car that was now pulling away. They gave chase to the driver while I sprinted for the door of the building.
I was in a busy restaurant kitchen. I realized then that I was at Adornetto’s. What are the odds?
“Where did he go?” I called out to the staff inside.
A dishwasher waved his hand toward the swinging doors into the dining room. I barged on through them into the dimly lit room and immediately tried to see the front door, thinking he had probably just passed through the place but there was no sign of him.
I stopped a server. “Did a man just run through here?”
She shook her head no.
“You didn’t see anybody come from th
e kitchen?”
“I was just taking an order over there.” She pointed to a table not far from the front door.
“Anyone go out the door, there?”
“No; not that I saw. Did you check the restroom?”
I turned and headed toward the hallway where I knew the restrooms were located. Halfway there, after rounding a corner, I stopped dead in my tracks as I saw Dana, following a hostess, being led to a semi-secluded booth.
My jaw went slack. She was stunning in an evening dress my favorite shade of electric blue and wearing her hair up. I’d never seen her with it up before. She’d once told me she’d always hated wearing it on top of her head.
She smiled at me and I smiled back. Forgetting everything else, I moved toward the booth and, once she was seated, took my place across from her.
“You look amazing.”
“Thank you. You don’t look so bad yourself.”
I looked down at my uniform and laughed but then sobered immediately, remembering why I was in the restaurant in the first place. My eyes darted toward the hallway but no one had emerged. I didn’t recall any windows in their ladies room and I hoped there were none in the men’s room.”
“Are you all right?” Dana quizzed me.
“Fine, fine. Busy day, that’s all.”
A server appeared with menus. Once she’d taken our drink orders, I smiled uneasily across the table at my wife. I really did need to let her know what was actually going on.
I didn’t get a chance. My radio did the job for me. The PD officer I’d directed in the parking lot had the getaway driver pinned down and dispatch put out a backup call for him.
“Sorry,” I told Dana. “Had a little incident going on, on the way here.” The words were no sooner out of my mouth than my own quarry bolted from the hallway I’d been headed for and toward the front door.
Chapter 11 – Nabbed
Dana
I was so excited to see Mel already at the restaurant and even more excited by her obviously pleased reaction to my get-up and hairdo. My excitement became anxious though when I could see that Mel’s mind was elsewhere even though she was sitting with me. After her radio went off and she apologized for the intrusion and explained, I started to feel a little better.
“I need to apologize to you too,” I began. “My mother’s been a little out of line. It’s not right for her to be telling you what you should and shouldn’t do and getting involved in our...”
Mel vaulted from her seat and almost knocked the table over in the process. She burst into the aisle way and ran toward the front door. I rose in time to watch as she tackled a man trying to exit and then drug him back into the aisle.
“What’s going on?” I called out to her.
“This guy just robbed a bank,” she told me as I watched her while she cuffed him. After radioing for backup, she began to frisk him. When she stopped, to a horrified server standing dumbstruck nearby she said, “No one goes into those restrooms until I check them.”
A manager came up front and demanded to know what was going on. Mel was polite as she informed him that she was taking a suspect into custody and she’d be out of their way momentarily.
Seconds later, one of her deputies came through the door, weapon drawn. An already horrified older patron screamed in fear and collapsed. As the deputy gauged the situation and holstered his weapon, the manager moved to assist the distressed woman.
Mel pointed at the cuffed man on the floor and addressed her deputy, “Get him to the station. I need to check the restrooms for his gun.”
Once the deputy was gone, Mel turned right for the restrooms. I sank into a chair at a table halfway between ours and the door and waited.
She emerged from the men’s room only seconds later, with something loosely wrapped in paper towels that I could only take to be the weapon she’d gone in to look for.
I stood as she came over to me.
“I’m sorry Dana...really sorry. The robbery went down just down the street as I was on my way here...I’m...I have to go...I’m sorry.”
I watched in stunned silence as she headed toward the kitchen.
###
Chloe
We actually got to Adornetto’s before Dana. I wanted to make sure our tables were far enough apart that she wouldn’t have any reason to know we were there too.
Citing his usual aversion to eating out as a waste of money, Jesse wouldn’t agree to come along with Faye and I and Marco was closing the store. That left Faye and me on our own to do a little matchmaking, if an intervention became necessary.
I half rose from my seat and peaked toward the door at the sound of each entrance until I spied Dana coming in.
“This is silly,” Faye was saying. “We can’t hear anything from here, so why are we...” She trailed off as she looked toward the back of the room.
I turned to see what she was seeing in time to catch a quick glimpse of Mel after she’d come through from the kitchen.
“That’s odd, that she would come in that way,” I whispered to Faye.
She shrugged, “She knows the manager and maybe she wanted to see if Hannah was working tonight.”
“Hannah bakes in the mornings,” I reminded her. “She has classes in the evenings. Surely Mel knows that.” I paused and unrolled my silverware as our server brought our salads.
We were a few bites each into the salad course when a commotion arose on the other side of the half wall that divided the main dining room. Someone called out, “What’s going on?”
“That was Dana who called out just now,” I told Faye. “I’m sure of it.” I stood to see if I could get any sort of a view but all I could see was the top of Dana’s head as she stood in the aisle on the other side.
“Where are you going?” Faye hissed at me as I stepped away from our table.
“To see what’s happening.”
I went over to the kitchen end of the wall and, staying mostly behind the last booth on the opposite side of it, I peered around the end. Mel had a guy on the floor and she was frisking him. I looked back at Faye, who was still seated at the table but watching me and I shook my head. Turning back to the show on the other side, I was just in time to see one of Mel’s men come through the front door with his gun out. A woman up front screamed then and a manager scrambled to the front area.
Scrambling myself, I went back to our table and an anxious Faye and relayed what I’d seen.
“What do we do?” she asked me.
“Mel will have to leave so, obviously, we console Dana. What else can we do?”
Chapter 12 – Interrogation
Mel
Wednesday Evening, February 11th
Muskingum County Sheriff’s Department
My date, my chance at a little redemption in the eyes of my wife, got all messed up. I wasn’t a happy Sheriff and Kenny ‘Pinch’ Ungar was about to feel the brunt of my anger. I wasn’t going to let up on the biker hood I’d nailed at the restaurant until I had some answers.
We had the little ass dead to rights but, for the moment, he wasn’t demanding a lawyer so Mason and I were laying it on thick.
“Why’d you try and knock over the bank, Kenny?” I knew he hated for anyone to use his given name. I was trying to get him wound up.
“Who says I was robbing something?”
“Um, the bank teller can likely ID you for one, the security camera’s probably have your ugly mug for two and, I followed the two of you myself in your getaway boat and then you right into that restaurant and I have the gun you tried to trash in the restroom with, I’m positive, your prints all over it. Maybe you should stop denying the obvious and start talking.”
He scowled. “You already know everything, you’re so smart and all.”
Janet tried a different tack, “The ‘Z’ must be really hurting for cash Sheriff. Maybe the Demons have taken over a little too much of their drug business and they needed some more up front dough to buy supply.” She raised her eyebrows at Pinch, daring him
to explain.
He took the bait and obliged. “That ain’t how it went down, see? The Demons can’t take squat from the Renegades. Not now, not ever!”
“Is that so?” I asked him. “It’s not like the ‘Z’ to try and hit banks though. You must have needed money for something...”
Pinch stared at me defiantly. “Just a little test is all,” he said. “Anyway, I didn’t get nothin’. Dropped the bag when I realized that bitch was takin’ too long. I knew she musta hit that damn button. I got out of there with nothin’ so you’ll never get any charges to stick.”
“Oh, but we will Kenny. You’re a convicted felon who attempted a crime with a gun. You’d going down for a long time just for having the piece on you. Armed robbery – successful or not – is going to get you lots of time. ”
He grew quiet.
Pouncing on his burgeoning discomfort, I continued, “Let’s back up just a little. You said it was a ‘test’. Test for what? Test of what?”
“Did I say that?”
Mason and I both nodded back at him.
“That’s not what I meant to say.”
“What did you mean then Kenny?” Mason asked back.
He glared at her. “I don’t have to say shit.”
“You’re right, you don’t,” I told him. “But, if you don’t, you’re going to the joint and you’ll never see daylight again. The DA will see to that.” I gave him the once over. “Little guy like you, I’ll bet it’s a whole lot of fun for you in prison.”
Ungar looked down at his boots.
“Why don’t you try to help your case a little bit and tell us what you and the ‘Z’ are really up to?”
His head shot up. “You don’t know then I ain’t sayin’!”
He wants to play hardball, eh? I’ll fix him... “Look Pinch,” I used his gang name now to ease the tension just a little, “I know we don’t like each other. I don’t have a problem with sending you up the river for armed robbery. I’m going to have that gun tested though and when I find out it was used in the drive by that got a Demon killed, you’re going to have murder charges rained down on you too. You’ll get gassed for that.”