The Morelville Mysteries Collection

by Anne Hagan

  “Yes...a little.”

  “And?”

  “It didn’t go well. I’m going to start looking for my own place and move out as soon as I can.”

  Chapter 26 - Confession

  Dana

  8:40 PM, Friday, February 20th

  Morelville, Ohio

  Mel came out and stood on our little side porch as I pulled into the driveway. I’d called her minutes before I reached the village limits and told her I was on the way and that there’d been a problem.

  When she saw me and my blanketed driver’s side window, she went off.

  “What the hell happened? I’ve been worried sick. I had multiple missed calls from you and then, when I tried to call you back, my calls rolled right to voicemail and now this.” She waved a hand at my window. “Are you alright? You’re limping pretty badly.”

  “I’m fine,” it was just...just a comedy of errors today.” Actually, there was nothing funny at all about it but I just want to get into the house, get Boo settled, get out of my filthy clothes and get warm before I got into what really happened.

  As we walked toward the house and Boo spun circles around us, I told her, “I locked my keys in the car with it running. My phone was practically dead. While I went for help, someone broke into the car and shut it off.”

  She didn’t buy it, not even for a second. “Why on earth would someone do that? People leave cars running all the time, this time of year; It’s cold!”

  I sighed. “That’s only part of the story.” I peeled off my coat and hung it on the back of the door where I always did. “Let me get out of these clothes and I’ll explain.”

  She followed me into the bedroom as I peeled and walked. I gave her the shortened version of what really happened leaving out my own little breaking and entering incident.

  “Babe,” she started when I’d finished, “you can’t just make wild assumptions like that. You didn’t get a good look at the guy you followed and you don’t really know anything about the agency either. Besides, we have a guy in custody now that looks good for it.”

  Hearing that took the wind right out of my sails. After pulling on clean boxer briefs, I sank down on the bed and looped fresh socks over my feet.

  Mel rubbed the back of her head absently and just stared at me for several long seconds before speaking. “Not every case we each get ties together. Things just don’t work out that way.”

  She was exasperated; I could tell. “This guy you have, you’re sure he’s the one? Did he tell you where Jef is? What kind of proof do you have?”

  Now she rubbed her face. No, we don’t have Jef or know where he is. In all honesty, the guy fits the description but our witness couldn’t ID him. We’re holding him for our 48 hoping to crack him and then we’re going to turn him over to Columbus PD on an outstanding warrant.”

  “I’ve talked to Hannah on and off today. She’s splitting up with Jamie but, in the process of telling me about that, she told me she saw you at Katie’s funeral; said you were talking to a Jonah somebody there that was a former suitor of Katie’s.”

  Mel nodded. “Yeah, Jonah Gingrich. I’ve actually been trying to track him down for a couple of days.”

  “You think he’s responsible for something...is he the father?”

  “No, and no. He’s a good kid caught in a bad situation. It’s pretty likely that his father Ennis is the one that raped Katie, that’s the rumor, anyway.”

  “Oh my!” I let that thought run around in my head for a minute as I rose from the bed, went to my dresser and dug out sweat pants and a t-shirt.

  Her tone said a lot. “You don’t think he’s the killer though, do you?”

  “No.”

  “How stuck are you on this guy you’ve got in custody as being that guy?”

  “Why?” She eyed me suspiciously as she took a seat in a chair opposite the bed.

  I sat back down on the edge of the bed and faced her and then came clean. “Mel, there’s more than what I’ve told you but the other stuff I know was illegally obtained.”

  “Do I even want to know?”

  “Just hear me out, okay?”

  “Oh, I’m listening.”

  I told her about eavesdropping and what I’d heard.

  “I’m upset that you put yourself in such danger, number one, the crime aside. Secondly, how much detail do you have? Names, numbers, anything that I can use to corroborate the illegally obtained stuff with legit stuff?”

  “I have a phone number, an address and descriptions of vehicles and people. I don’t have any plate numbers or names.”

  “Frankly, it’s more than I have or the FBI has. At least. it’s something to work with.”

  “Work fast babe. Once they get paperwork set up for Jef, he’ll be gone.”

  “It’s out of my hands. Everything you’ve told me is out of my jurisdiction. I’m going to have to go to the feds and I don’t have a clue how I’m going to present this so that my confidential source – you – doesn’t get into a lot of hot water.”

  Chapter 27 – A Word with Mama

  Dana

  Saturday Morning, February 21st

  Morelville, Ohio

  “Oh good, you’re up.”

  “Of course, it’s after 9:00 Mama. Why?”

  “I went by there twice last night and neither one of you two was home. I need some help this morning.”

  “Sure; with what?”

  “Can you come over and work in the store for a couple of hours? Your dad got Jesse to come and help him with something and they’re going to be gone two or three hours or so. Saturdays can get pretty busy in here.”

  “Just let me put shoes on and grab a coat. I’ll be right there.” I was grateful for something productive to do.

  I walked the block to the store wondering all the while what Mel was doing and if she’d spoken to the FBI. I told her before she went out the door to go ahead and reveal me and what I’d done to them and let the chips fall where they may. After the day I’d had Friday, I realized that my body, and specifically my left leg, were not even up to the task of doing private investigations let alone doing the type of stuff I’d done before being medically retired from the Customs Service. Who was I kidding?

  When I was right across the street from the store, waiting to cross, I spotted dad and Jesse, my father-in-law, loading Mama’s pedicure chair into the bed of Jesse’s pickup truck.

  I rushed across the state route and into the store.

  “Mama, what’s wrong with you new chair?”

  “The pedi chair?” Her answer was borderline coy.

  “Yes...and you know what I meant.”

  “Nothing’s wrong with it.” Now she was acting evasive.

  “Then where are they taking it?”

  Finally, she relented. “I was hoping they’d be on the road before you got over here. You really were up and about, weren’t you?”

  “I get up with Mel; you know that. Tell me what’s going on.”

  “Let’s just say, our ‘retirement’, is a lot busier than we planned for. Something had to give. Between the store and the decorating jobs, which I really love, I just don’t have the time to do the nail stuff too, especially during the day. Your dad can’t always handle the flow in here by himself.”

  “You could hire help on either side or both.”

  “It wouldn’t pay to hire help for the store beyond you or Faye coming in once in a while or Beth coming in after school and, as much as women are clamoring for it, I’m doing all of the nails I can on the side but no more. Without certified help, I just can’t work in enough customer appointments to keep everyone happy.”

  “It sounds like your mind is made up.”

  “It is and, don’t you worry, I’m happy with the decision. That chair’s going to a shop down in Newark that needs one that will work with their plumbing set up. They gave me almost what I got in it, for it plus delivery which makes your father happy because he and Jesse, I’m sure will blow that money on steak or
wings somewhere down there.”

  We both grinned at the thought.

  “So missy, what have you been up to? What had you out so late yesterday? I was by there after 7:00, after I had the books done here, and neither one of your cars...er, yours or Mel’s truck were there. She still working on finding that poor baby?”

  I hesitated and then said, “More on finding Katie’s killer. The, um, FBI is working on finding Jef.”

  “What else?”

  “Hmm?”

  “What else Dana Marie? That’s not all of it.”

  Mama was the only woman in the world that could read me like a book. “I can’t really say.” A customer came in wanting sliced deli meat rescuing me for the moment. I went back and checked the coolers and stocked a couple of things while I mulled over what to tell her. I knew she wouldn’t let it go.

  A trickle of customers were in and out, one right after another and so a good 20 minutes had gone by before Mama could turn her bulldog like attention back to me. By that time, with her eyeing me, letting me know I wasn’t off the hook, I decided to just tell her everything.

  “We need to do whatever we can to track that baby down and get him back. He needs to go to his rightful grandparents or to someone else that will love him equally well and maybe even let those grandparents be involved in his life. Your dad met them. He said they seemed like decent people.”

  “We?”

  “Yes, ‘we’. This whole family is in this Dana.”

  I couldn’t help but smile at her automatic linking of herself with the Cranes. Still, I knew there wasn’t much we could do. “Mel’s talking to the FBI now Mama. She can’t personally do anything because all of these people that I found that are probably holding Jef and responsible for Katie’s death are out of her jurisdiction. Besides, if...when the FBI finds the Jef, he’ll likely become a ward of the state, at least temporarily.”

  “Yes, but if we find Jef first, maybe he doesn’t goes into the court system, become a ward of the state, yada, yada. Isn’t that how these things work, after all? Ohio can’t be that different than PA. Remember when your brother had that baby somebody left in his cruiser while he was out on a call?”

  Now I was really torn. I told mama about Hannah and what she wanted to do.

  Hannah knows if she’s ready,” she said when I finished. “It’s not our place to make that decision for her. If anything, that’s between her and the grandparents. They’re older honey; Katie was probably the youngest...she would have probably been the one to take care of any new babies that came along in the family.”

  I looked at her odd but I knew she was right on that point.

  “We have to go and get him back. We can’t wait on the FBI to do whatever they’re going to do.”

  “What? Steal him? We can’t do that.”

  “It’s not stealing. They’re the kidnappers. Think about it: what if we got in there legitimately, got Jef and called in the Calvary?”

  “How on earth would we do that and what makes you think the FBI isn’t already trying to take the place over? Mel has surely given them all that information.”

  “They have to get warrants.”

  “Not with probable cause. Besides, we don’t know that he’s even there.”

  I told her about my car window. “After that, the people that I saw carrying a baby out of the house yesterday evening probably got word they were being watched and they’re laying low.”

  “We have to try.”

  “And do wha...” I stopped and rushed back to the office where I’d laid my coat across a chair. I remembered the paperwork I’d taken and put in my inside coat pocket.

  I pulled out the little stack, unfolded them and scanned through what I had. It was part of an application for adoption by a couple only six months before. There was about ten pages of their background information and a part of their agreement with the agency. One of the forms was signed by a member of the agency. I had a name!

  Chapter 28 – A Slight Deception

  As if she was clairvoyant, Hannah showed up at the store. Mama started babbling out the whole story and I let her then I showed them both the paperwork.

  The three of us pored over it and, against my better judgment, a plan formed.

  I went home to research the man that apparently ran the show, Vasily Arnoff. He was a naturalized U.S. citizen. I got an address for him and a Lucetra Arnoff, his wife that was in Bexley, a swanky, old money Columbus near suburb, just out of downtown. I was trying to dig a little more information up on her when my cell phone rang.

  I glanced at the number – Russ.

  “Hey Dana,” he started right in when I answered, “I haven’t heard from you. I thought you’d give me a call yesterday on Bakula.”

  “I intended to,” I lied, “but some new information on him as come to light. I’m trying to follow up but I won’t know more until later today.”

  “Bad stuff?”

  “Let’s just say that if the client is demanding a report, you might want to tell them to sit tight on renewing his H1B and maybe even consider any other candidate that they have.”

  “Wow, that bad?”

  “Probably criminal, Russ. I’ll know more later.” I was speculating but I was as confident as I ever was in an investigation.

  “Be careful Dana.”

  ###

  11:52 AM

  The Italian Village

  Columbus, Ohio

  I put my hair in a ponytail, put on a ball cap that shaded my eyes and drove my dad’s car into Columbus. Mama left a vague note for my dad then closed the store for a ‘family emergency’ and she and Hannah followed me in her car.

  The plan was for me to break off from them a couple of streets before Hamlett. They’d go on to the adoption agency and, if anyone was even there, try to gain entrance. Hannah was going to pretend to be four months pregnant and upset, wanting to give her future baby up for adoption. Mama was going to pretend to be her supportive grandmother. They were going to use the names of the couple from the paperwork and say they referred them there.

  I thought to myself, what could possibly go wrong?

  Mama told me later, when she and Hannah got there, a man and a woman were taking boxes of paperwork from a side door to a car parked about mid-way up in the driveway. They agreed to give them just a couple of minutes of time after Mama apologized for bringing Hannah by unannounced and on a Saturday to boot.

  She said the man walked down the drive a little way and looked up and down the street, she thought, suspiciously.

  I worked my way quickly over to the alley behind the Victorian on foot. I was still hurting but the weather was a little warmer so I didn’t hurt quite as bad as I might have. I had a mission and I intended to fulfill it.

  I used the root cellar door to sneak into the basement again and then picked my way very slowly and carefully up the rickety stairs to the main floor. Every creak had me pausing for several seconds, worried I’d be heard and discovered.

  When I reached the door at the top of the stairs, I prayed it wasn’t latched and that it wouldn’t squeak when I opened it.

  Taking a hold of the ancient metal knob, I turned it oh so slowly. The catch clicked back and the door started to open.

  The stairs had angled up toward the back of the house from the bigger basement room. Through the crack in the door I could see now that the door opened into what was probably once a formal dining room. Now it held a small conference table and chairs and some book cases. No one was in there and I breathed a sigh of relief.

  I listened closely. I could hear Mama’s voice coming from somewhere at the front of the house. The coast was clear so I opened the door just far enough to squeeze out and left it that way.

  I took a quick peek around. The kitchen was right behind the dining room at the very back of the house as I had suspected before. A hardwood center hall led up toward the front and the stairs going up to the second floor. There was a small water closet style bathroom tucked in along it and
a small room that must have been a den, once upon a time. It was full of filing cabinets. A couple of drawers, one each in the two end cabinets, were hanging open and empty. A banker’s box half full of files sat on the floor in front of one of them.

  Continuing on, I tiptoed up the hallway as quickly as I dared, hugging the wall along the stairs to go up as I went. I knew I’d be exposed if anyone peeked out of the room I could hear them all in at the front end of the hall but I thought I had a better chance of not treading across a squeaky old floorboard by scooting along where I was.

  There was no diaper bag in the large foyer or anything else that looked like it might belong to a baby, just the desk and waiting chairs I’d seen before. Discouraged, I still pressed on. Mama was firing away with questions in the office giving me great cover so I took advantage and worked my way upstairs.

  Up there, the floors were carpeted which had me a little less worried about the sound of my footfall but I still clung to the walls fearful of crossing a place with a bad board underneath that would give me and the whole jig away.

  The door was closed tight to the first room I reached. I skipped it for the moment. The next one was open and in it I found what I would describe as a basic nursery.

  There were two cribs in the room bracketing a changing table to the left and the right. They were made up with linens but were empty otherwise. Some supplies for newborns and very young babies were evident on the shelves under the changing surface; diapers, wipes and cream. At the end of the crib on the right, closest to the door, was a small chest of drawers. It was obvious to me that infants didn’t spend a lot of time here.

  The door to the last room on that side was closed too. I didn’t bother with it either. On the stairs side, at the far end of the hall, there was one room, a bathroom. It made sense that it was there even if it had been added years after the house was built. It would be over the kitchen and probably shared water pipes.

  I felt defeated. I had nothing but confirmation they did bring infants here and I already knew that. Now I had my work cut out for me to get back out of the house undetected.