by Anne Hagan
“Nice? Ha! Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike her but she’s usually in a bad mood.” She began to move a stack of colorful flyers off the counter.
“What are those?”
“These?” She nodded toward the papers. “Delores brings them to me. They’re for coins.”
“Coins?”
“Yes… I probably shouldn’t say anything… but, well, it’s not like she didn’t give these away. She collects old coins now, not stamps. I expressed an interest one time in something she got in the mail that she showed me and that’s all it took. She’s been showing me her most recent coins and bringing me the mail that she’s already opened and looked through from all sorts of different mints and resellers, ever since.”
“What kinds of coins is she buying? Commemorative stuff?”
“Well, there is some of that but mostly she’s collecting actual money like whole series of pennies going back into the 1800s, nickels, old silver, Civil War era stuff; you name it. Most of it is circulated and isn’t the highest quality but some of it is pretty hard to find at all.”
I whistled. “Pretty expensive hobby!”
“Tell me about it. I mean, I really am interested in coins and it’s nice that she brings me this stuff to look through,” she waved the stack of brochures still in her hand, “but I just can’t afford it. Some of these coins are $50 to $100 or more a pop! I don’t know how she does it.”
I know, from a long ago conversation with her, that Delores has a decent pension and that she also gets Social Security. It’s possible she even gets some money from the farm operations, especially if she’s doing the regular books but, even with her grandfather’s passing, her parents were old but still alive, so it wasn’t likely she was dipping into any sort of a trust fund or an inheritance just yet. She certainly didn’t live the life of a woman of means. Her coin buying money could be legitimate or it could be her way of liquidating ill-gotten funds. My head swam with the possibilities. I needed to talk to Dana.
Back at the house, I did something I almost never do during the day; I shut and locked the door. This sucks! I hate feeling uneasy in my own home!
I shuddered then grabbed a Pepsi, my only addiction, and stepped into my office. While I waited for my laptop to boot up, I dialed Dana’s cell number. She didn’t answer. I got up and paced the floor. What the hell should I do now? I did what I set out to do… I showed my face in town, I even talked to Delores… sorta…I certainly got an interesting piece of information… I think… I just don’t know.
I felt like I was just spinning my wheels and I figured I might as well do that literally. I went back out to my county truck and headed out to the farm to check on my mother and sister.
###
Dana
“Unit One, it’s Unit Two. We might have a little situation on our hands.” Phil whispered over his phone. We weren’t using radios in an area where CB’s that could pick us up easily were still as common to own as televisions.
“What’s up?”
“I’m out here trying to get the first surveillance team into position but it doesn’t look good. Somebody has been here, recently, apparently watching the same things we want to watch in pretty much the same area we chose.”
“Pull out now!” I laced my voice with urgency but I kept it low. I had unarmed men out there; I didn’t need them tangling with whoever else had in interest in operations at the Chappell dairy farm. “Come back here ASAP!”
“Roger, out.”
Out loud, I mused, “What the hell is going on?” I’d just been ready to step out of the station house when Phil’s call came in. I headed back into the bowels of the building and went back upstairs to Mel’s offices.
“Forget something Agent Rossi?” Holly asked when I walked back in two minutes after I’d walked out.
“No. Things went along at a snail’s pace in this investigation before and now, all of a sudden, they want to change at the speed of light.” I shook my head and continued into the conference room. I needed to get a hold of Mel.
“I dialed her county cell. My call went right to voice mail. The same thing happened when I dialed her personal cell. She couldn’t be on two phones at one time, could she? “Uggh!” Who knows with her! I stepped back down the short hallway to Holly’s area.
“Is there any other way to reach Mel besides cell? I can’t raise her and I need her back here ASAP.”
“Cell service is pretty week in the village. She’s in her county SUV, though. I can try to raise her on the radio.”
“Would you please?”
Holly picked up her phone and pushed some buttons and then she began to speak, “Unit One, copy?”
I smiled. We’re both ‘Unit One’. I can feel an argument brewing…!
Holly listened and then spoke again. “Request 10-19.” Seconds later, she cradled the phone and turned to me. “I requested she return to the station. She’s Enroute with one stop. Her ETA is 25 minutes.”
“Thanks Holly.”
###
Mel
I didn’t even make it out to the farm when Holly’s radio call came through. She knew I was in Morelville and that I would be doing a little digging. She wouldn’t have called me back to the station if it wasn’t important.
I turned the SUV around and headed back to the house. I decided to pick up some clothes and go back to the station. I’d stay there tonight or with Dana again, if she’d let me. I just couldn’t bring myself to stay in the house.
When I got out of the truck, an eerie sense of foreboding overcame me. I looked all around but nothing looked odd or out of place. Still, my hair was standing up on the back of my neck. Call it intuition, a sixth sense or whatever you want. Something wasn’t quite right.
Instead of entering the house from the driveway side as I typically did, I stepped around to the back and crept up on the deck. I peeked into the kitchen window. I couldn’t see much but the kitchen and the doorway into the living room – what must have originally been intended as a formal dining room.
As I was about to turn for the door, I saw the ghost of a shadow move briefly just past the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. There’s a stairway on the right that goes upstairs to Kris’s room and the kids’ rooms as you pass between the kitchen and the living room. Nothing should have been moving or casting a shadow on or right beside that stairwell.
I looked around me, outside. Nothing! There’s no one out here…
I peered inside again and watched the same area. I saw another flicker of shadow. Someone is in there, lying in wait!
I crept back off the porch and bolted for my SUV and then pulled out of the driveway. “Whoever is in my home, it would be wise for you to take your leave now!” I was shouting, to no one in particular. While I drove around the block to get a vantage point from a distance, I radioed the department and requested back-up. Since no one had been staying at the house the last few nights, I’d called off the surveillance that had been watching the place before. I was sitting where they previously sat and watched.
It took ten minutes for the first deputy to get to me. A few minutes later, another arrived and then another. As a team, we descended on the house. One deputy took the front door, another the side. The third took to the back with me and we entered the house and cleared the first floor quickly.
A window was open in my den from the opposite side of my vantage point up the block. The window screen was on the ground outside. Someone had left in a hurry from a point where he knew I couldn’t see him. To me, that could only mean one thing; I’m being watched from elsewhere inside of town by someone who’s in town themselves, who’s sending these goons out to take me out of commission. I’m going to nail you Delores!
While my deputies cleared the house, I wandered outside. A few neighb
ors who weren’t off at work had gathered across the street. I walked over to them. “Did anyone here see anybody besides me go into or out of my house in the last half hour or so?”
There were negative nods all around. No one saw anything. I’d known everyone in the little knot of people standing there for years. None of them had any reason at all to lie to me and none of them seemed anything other than concerned for my welfare and their own. Whoever had been in my home had vanished, seemingly into thin air. As I walked back across the street, I looked in the direction of Delores’ home. I couldn’t quite see it but I was fuming and I was pretty sure I knew where my aggressors were coming from.
It had been over an hour since I’d spoken to Holly. Once the house was locked up and I was on the road, I called her and briefly told her what had happened. I asked her not to tell Rossi just yet, only to hear that Dana was standing right there. I asked Holly to tell her that I was on my way in and that we’d talk as soon as I got there. I heard Dana demand the phone from Holly.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine Rossi.” I was trying to be formal and play it low key since Dana was so leery about a relationship right now and I certainly didn’t want our budding one to come to light yet or to get in the way of the investigation.
“Dammit Mel! I knew it was a bad idea letting you go back out there! I can’t lose you right now, not when… Well, anyway… not right now!” Her voice was full of concern and emotion.
I can only imagine the look on Holly’s face! “It’s okay.” I tried for soothing.
“It’s not okay!”
“Dana, I’ll be there in 15 minutes. We’ll talk when I get there.”
“You’re damn right we will!” She hung up the phone… hard.
Chapter 27 – Regroup
Dana
Phil had returned with the two deputies he’d taken to place on surveillance. I asked Holly to have the department men returned to their regular duties and then I set Phil about getting a hold of Ron. We were going to have to work out an alternative plan and, for that; I figured I’d need some aerial assistance.
I paced the little conference room while Tim and Jason looked on, silent. We were at a virtual standstill with no observation of the comings and goings at the farm, no word yet from Gene and no idea what had happened in Morelville.
Finally, I heard voices down the hall. I knew Mel had come in from her little adventure in what was fast becoming gangster land in my eyes. When she didn’t come into the conference room right away, I stormed down the hall in search of her.
“Where is she?” My tone to Holly was demanding but I didn’t care.
“She stepped into her office. She’ll be out in a moment but she needs to complete her reports and she usually goes down…”
“Like hell!” I cut her off and marched myself right into Mel’s office. She was sitting at her desk with her head in her hands. She didn’t even look up to acknowledge my presence.
“What are you doing?”
She was quiet for several seconds longer then she rubbed her temples and looked up at me. Her expression was pure anger. “I want to get these guys and I want to get them now!”
I just sat and looked at her. I knew the anger she was feeling but I couldn’t fix it… at least, not quickly.
“Will you tell me what happened out there?”
She stared at me hard. I didn’t waver and I wasn’t going to let her off the hook. “Mel, please?”
“I did what I said I was going to do. I got some information that may even be helpful. The bad thing is I got the heebie-jeebies’ just being inside my own house and, as it turns out, with good reason. I stopped there in between parts of my plan. Sometime after I left there, someone entered and laid in wait for me. When I went back, some sort of sixth sense told me something was wrong, someone was there, so I did a little covert looking, saw movement and got the hell out of there without entering. I didn’t go in until I had backup but, by then, whoever was there was gone.”
“Oh Mel; I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault Dana. I’m a big girl. I’m a cop, for God’s sake. I knew the risks when I set out. It’s just a blow to my mind that I was so wrong about their intentions. I really thought they would lay low now!”
“I know. I sort of did too. Regardless, you can’t go back there.”
“No, you’re right.”
“You can stay with me…”
“And how do I do that? Do I have an armored escort?” Her frustration was palpable.
“We’ll figure something out.”
She sat back in her chair and then, abruptly, leaned forward. “Why did you want me back here?”
It was my turn to be frustrated and angry. “We ran into a major snag trying to set up surveillance. Someone beat us to the punch and had been using the same land we intended to use!”
“Who?”
“Dammed if I know! You tell me; did the Amish farmer say anything about anyone else being there?”
“No…”
“Did you ask?”
“Well no…but…”
“Look, Mel…” I paused and took a deep breath. It’s not her fault. I can’t pin this on her. “I know it’s not your fault. Whoever was there, the farmer probably knew nothing about. We just need to find out who else is watching the Chappell farm and take them out of the mix.”
“What a bloomin’ mess!”
“Tell me about it! Anyway, the guys are waiting in the conference room for a discussion of Plan B. Will you be joining us?”
“Yes, of course, but not right away. I have to file a report on today’s incident. I’ll go down to the squad room and do that now. There’s not much to tell. I’ll be up in about a half hour.”
“Aye, Chief!” Dana snapped off a half salute.
“Cute, but it’s ‘Sheriff’!”
“Whatever…”
Ron was in the conference room when I stepped back in there. I didn’t relish working a plan of only aerial surveillance because choppers going back and forth overhead were bound to draw attention but I couldn’t risk putting any men on Chappell land – especially if someone else was there watching the same things we were.
“Sheriff Crane will be joining us in just a bit gentlemen. She has some new info to share but I’ll wait for her on that.” Because I forgot to ask her what she found out in my concern and my anger… “The bigger news is that she’s still being targeted. Someone entered her home and laid in wait for her. The unsub escaped before he could be captured.”
Tim whistled low. “So, should we be putting surveillance on her house?”
“No. It’s too risky for her to go back there or to travel anywhere in that area.”
“Probably too risky for her to be outside of this building too,” Jason chimed in.
“Yes. Exactly. It is. We still need her knowledge so we need to have her here but there is one thing to consider; this building isn’t set up as housing for anyone but detainees. She can stay at the hotel with us but we have to figure out how to get her back and forth, unobserved.”
“I’m flying in and out of the muni airport that’s across town now, but there are several helipads nearby here,” Ron offered. If you can sneak her out daily and get her to one close by that we can get use of, I can fly her back to Cambridge with me. I can bring her back in the morning to the same pad, if necessary, too.”
“Good thinking. One of her deputies can take her in a squad leaving from right inside this building. No one will ever know she’s leaving and they can’t get to her in the air. Let’s work on that.”
“I’ll get on it when we’re finished here boss.”
“Thanks Phil.”
“Now, as for the surveillance, what are you guys thinki
ng?”
“Dana, we have to get men on the ground.” Tim spoke and everyone else nodded. “We have to get a good look at what’s going on, on that farm. We’ve got to build our case.”
Jason asked, “Speaking of maybe building our case; any word from Gene?”
“No. I don’t have any idea how the interrogation is going at this point and we can’t count on this lawyer knowing much or, even if he does, spilling the beans.” I took a sip of water and continued. “My concern, from what Phil has seen, is that we’re not alone out there. The problem is, we don’t know who else is out there watching and when and, given that it’s not local law enforcement – obviously – that it’s probably a rival gang or locals looking to move in on the action. Hell, for all we know, Mel’s predicament might be the result of a rival gang not wanting her to find what they’re trying to take!”
“There isn’t really any indication of that… of a rival gang, is there?” The question came from Tim. I shot him a look and shrugged.
“That’s just it. We don’t even know what we don’t know.” I shook my head. As I was about to speak again, my cell vibrated on the table in front of me. I looked at the number and looked up in astonishment. I raised my finger to my lips cautioning the men gathered in the room to be quiet. “It’s my informant.”
Tim got up and stepped to the door in case Holly or Mel should appear. I answered the phone and, simultaneously, bumped my volume way up. I didn’t want to put him on speaker and spook him but I was hoping the team would be able to hear him.
“Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Brice.”
“What’s up?”
“Hey, I uh… well, I got an extra job today.”
“Yeah?” I was trying not to sound too eager.
“Unloading a truck and breaking down pallet loads for other trucks.”
“Hot merchandise?”
“Probably. ‘Dunno.”
“Any idea where it came from?”
“Nope. Didn’t get to see no paperwork. Truck what come in had Michigan plates.”
“Any more coming?”
