Finding Sheila

by Anne Hagan

  Finding Sheila

  The Morelville Mysteries – Book 11

  Anne Hagan

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  PUBLISHED BY:

  Jug Run Press, USA

  Copyright © 2018

  https://annehaganauthor.com/

  All rights reserved: No part of this publication may be replicated, redistributed or given away in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without prior written consent of the author or the publisher except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages for review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are actual places used in an entirely fictitious manner and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, organizations, or persons, living or deceased, is entirely coincidental.

  Chapter 1 - Taking a Prisoner

  Thursday morning, November 19th

  Tennessee Prison for Women

  Nashville, Tennessee

  Dana shuddered. It had been a long time since she’d been inside the gates of a prison and so deep in its bowels.

  “Any weapons Deputy?” the CO in front of her asked, his voice deep and no nonsense.

  “Of course. My service weapon.” She patted the pistol strapped to her side, a remnant from her days with Customs and Border Protection. “Do you need to see it? The guards at the gate already had me take it off once and let them look it over.”

  He ignored her tone and eyed her up and down. “Anything else?”

  “Like a back-up? No, not this trip.” She was already frustrated with their process. She wanted to pick up her charge and be on her way.

  “Initial here and sign here,” the warden said as he pointed at the transfer form. He handed Dana the clipboard.

  She skimmed down through the transfer instructions and then initialed and signed where he’d told her too. As she handed the clipboard back, she asked, “How much longer is it going to be?”

  “We were expecting you. We’ve already moved her into pre-release holding and the transport squad was on standby at their station about ten minutes away. We called them when you were processing through, so they should be enroute. You can be on the road within a half hour.”

  “Great. Can you point me to where this ambulance will arrive? I want to check things over before you bring her out.”

  “No can do,” the Warden said. “Once she’s brought in here, you’re responsible for her. If you go out there, we can’t let you back in here without transporting you half way around the building and going through all of the entry procedures again.”

  “Okay, fine,” Dana said. I don’t feel fine. Not comfortable with this at all…

  Fifteen minutes later, Sheila Ford was wheeled into the release area in a prison wheelchair.

  The warden pointed at the chair, “That stays here,” he informed both of them, before Dana could even address the woman sitting in it.

  “Can you wheel me out in it, at least?” Sheila pleaded, looking between the man who’d been her jailer for nearly a year and Dana. “I’m too weak to walk more than a few steps at a time.”

  “Can the ambulance crew bring a gurney in here?” Dana asked.

  “No, that would require all of the same processing you had to go through, but,” he conceded, “I’ll let you take the chair outside as long as you agree to leave it.” He waved a hand toward the monitors a corrections officer was keeping an eye on. “We’ll be watching. I’ll have the maintenance staff retrieve it as soon as we ascertain that you’ve passed through the gates.”

  All this fuss over a cheap wheelchair, Dana thought. You’d think the damn thing was made of gold.

  She introduced herself to Sheila Ford. “I’m Dana Rossi, Ms. Ford. You may remember me.”

  With the question of the wheelchair settled, Ford took the time to look her up and down, like everyone else she’d encountered since entering the prison walls had. “I remember you all right, but I thought your name was ‘Crane’ now?”

  Her body may be breaking down but there’s nothing wrong with her mind or her mouth. “It’s Rossi-Crane. Professionally, I use Rossi.”

  “I see. And what profession are you in, these days? Still snooping around in other people’s business?”

  Dana bristled at that, but before she could frame a response, the warden interrupted. “Ladies, I hate to break this up but, I have other matters to attend to. How about you get going and continue your discussion on the way to Ohio?”

  “Sure,” Dana replied. She really wanted to smack the arrogance right out of the man.

  “We’ll express her files up there today so you don’t have to take those with you,” he went on, oblivious to her irritation.

  She gave him a nod then, to Sheila, she asked, “Ready?” Without waiting for an answer, Dana scooted around behind the wheelchair to push her out of the release area.

  They were buzzed through two sets of steel doors. After the second, they entered a small courtyard. An ambulance moved toward them, through a series of sally port gates in the perimeter fencing.

  Perfect timing. Dana smiled to herself.

  As the last gate slid back and the vehicle came closer, she stopped smiling and became concerned. She could see a driver but no one else. There better be an EMT or a paramedic in the back!

  Both women watched as the driver got out and approached them. No one else did. He looks barely legal, Dana thought.

  “Officer Rossi? Mrs. Ford?” the young man read their names off a form and then nodded toward them. “I’m Caleb Lighty. I’ll be your driver today.” He glanced over Sheila in her orange prison jumpsuit and then looked quickly away from her.

  “And who else is with you Caleb?” Dana asked. “Tell them to show themselves.”

  He shook his head and toed the dirt a little. “No one ma’am. We are, uh…shorthanded, I guess you could say, today. Theo, the paramedic that was supposed to go with us, called in sick, then there was a big pileup out on I-24. Our units were the closest so everyone available responded to that.”

  What the hell? “You’re not even a paramedic?”

  “EMT ma’am. I’m working on getting my fire card and I’m going to school for my paramedic too, so I can get on full-time with Nashville.”

  Fat lot of good it does us right now. “Look, Caleb, this isn’t going to work. Ms. Ford needs attended to all along the way. I’m just the escort. I have no medical training other than basic first aid. Your company needs to get a trained paramedic, an RN…someone licensed, over here pronto.”

  His eyes grew wide. “Here?”

  “No, down the street a half mile! Of course, here!”

  “I’m sorry ma’am but it’s…it’s a bit of work to get through all the security and such here. I don’t think they’re going to let anyone else through there.” He jerked a finger over his shoulder toward the gates he’d passed through. “Not without a whole lotta’ paperwork.”

  “It’ll be fine,” Sheila interrupted. “You two can just help me up in there and then strap me to a gurney. I’ll probably sleep the whole way, anyway.”

  Ignoring the suggestion for the moment, Dana turned back toward the building and looked up along the walls until she spotted a camera. With both arms raised over her head, she waved at it and called out, “We need some assistance out here.” After a couple of long minutes of silence, she tried again and then waited a few more minutes. There was still no response. She thought about taking out her cell phone and calling Mel but then she remembered they’d made her turn her phone off and they’d said calls would be jammed from inside the prison compound.

  “It’s chilly out here,” Sheila complained, despite the sixty-five-degree temperature.
It hadn’t been much warmer in the building. “Can we at least get in the ambulance?”

  Dana gave in and began to wheel Sheila toward the back of the vehicle. Caleb rushed ahead of them to unlock and open the doors.

  “Once we’re through these gates,” Dana told him, “I want you on your radio to your dispatcher. Tell them we’re coming in to pick up a paramedic. This,” she waggled a finger between the two of them, “isn’t going to work.”

  Chapter 2 - All Fouled Up

  “What do I do, Mel? They’re insisting they’ve got no one else available today that can go on a long trip,” Dana whispered into her cell from just outside the ambulance. “And, because she’s a prisoner, they won’t even let me bring her inside.”

  “That’s B.S.”

  “Tell me about it!”

  “And that warden just let her go?”

  “Well, that’s the thing. He didn’t exactly know the way they had it set up, or,” Dana started thinking out loud, “maybe he did know, and he wanted to be done with her so bad, he set me up.”

  Mel sighed and rubbed at her temples. “It sounds like she’s our problem now. Man, it’s going to be a hell of a day.”

  “What else is going on?”

  “They’re arraigning Dale Walters this afternoon, but we just got an avalanche of phone records in that may…well, you know.”

  “Prove something different?” Dana asked and then answered her own question. “Yeah, I get that.”

  “Do you want me to try and make some calls? Maybe the Tennessee Department of Corrections will step up.”

  Dana tried to stifle a scoffing sound and ended up coughing into her phone. “I don’t know what to do. This Caleb guy says he’s authorized to drive, stay overnight in Ohio and then drive back down here tomorrow but he isn’t even a paramedic; he’s just an EMT. What if something happens to her on the way up there, Mel? What did they tell you was really wrong with her? I mean, I was under the impression it wasn’t just a mobility issue.”

  “I admit, I didn’t ask for details. I’m sorry.”

  Dana couldn’t be mad. She knew Mel had a lot on her plate.

  Mel continued, “It’s your call. I can call Tennessee and ask them where they want you to drop her off or you can go ahead and bring her up here with just the driver. If you do that, just make sure you take the Interstates, so you can get to hospitals quickly and so State Patrol in Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio can get to you as fast as possible.”

  “Yeah. You’re right. We’re not going to get anywhere with the Tennessee folks. That chance passed us by when we rolled through the last sally port.”

  “Well, now that that’s settled, I hate to cut you short, but I want to help my folks go through this stuff and then get over to the courthouse. I’ll stay here tonight until you get here with her, so I can see her settled in. Please be careful.”

  “I will.”

  “I love you.”

  “I love you too Mel.” With that, she hung up, walked around to the driver’s side door and said to Caleb, “Let’s get a move on. We’re wasting daylight.” It was something her father-in-law Jesse said all the time. She smiled to herself and climbed in the back.

  At least I can sit in the chair the paramedic would have used…

  Chapter 3 - Break Time

  Dana felt the squad slowing. She looked through the window between the back and the cab, at Caleb. He was headed down a ramp, off the interstate. She figured they were in Kentucky, but she didn’t know where.

  She glanced at her watch. 1:55. They’d been on the road for nearly three hours. Caleb probably needs a break.

  She looked over at Sheila as she stretched her own legs out in front of her. The older woman was still asleep. She had been for at least an hour. Once they were on their way, she hadn’t needed any assistance or made any demands. She’d said, before she drifted off, “First decent bed I’ve had in eight months.” Her lack of medical need was a relief to Dana.

  When the vehicle lurched to a stop, she peeked up front again. They were at the bottom of a ramp.

  Caleb’s voice came over the intercom. “I need a quick break…use the facilities.”

  She pressed the button and replied. “No problem. Me too.”

  “The Pilot Center up here will have handicapped access. Do you think she’ll need to…ah, to go?”

  “Just a minute.”

  Dana let go of the button and called softly to Sheila. “Rest stop, Ms. Ford.” There was no response. She touched her shoulder lightly and called to her again, “Ms. Ford? We’re stopping at a rest stop.”

  Sheila stirred and muttered she was fine then seemed to settle right back into slumber.

  As Caleb turned off the ramp and then into the travel center lot, Dana thought about what to do. She was glad Ford didn’t need to exit the vehicle, but she wasn’t sure if she should leave her either. She felt for her cuffs at the small of her back.

  “Hate to do this, but nature calls,” she said in a low tone, close to the other woman’s ear. She picked up Sheila’s left wrist and snapped a cuff around it then snapped the other around the frame of the gurney. Sheila tugged lightly at the restraint once and then stopped. She didn’t bother to open her eyes.

  “Where are we?” Dana asked Caleb.

  He ran a hand through his high and tight haircut. “Just off of I-65; the Sonora Exit is what the sign said. We’re just south of Elizabethtown, according to the map on the GPS.”

  Dana wrinkled her nose. “We lost a lot of time working out around the back-up from that pile-up in Nashville.” Mel’s not going to be happy.

  “I…I was hoping to get north of Louisville before…well, before I needed to stop. That’s about half way. Sorry. Couldn’t…ah, wait.”

  Dana realized what he meant. “Go…go. I’m sorry. I’ll wait back here with her and go myself when you get back.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yes. Go.”

  Caleb tipped his head in her direction then locked the back of the ambulance. “We can both go. She can’t get out of there.” He turned and went on his way.

  Dana debated what to do, but now that she was up and moving around, she realized she really did need to use the facilities herself. She tested the door. Locked. Nodding to herself she set off to find the ladies room.

  Dana regained consciousness on the floor, in a handicapped stall. Her head throbbed. A goose egg had already formed at the back, above the nape of her neck.

  She felt for her pistol. It was still in the holster.

  She tried to stand but couldn’t. The floor was wet, and she was still weak from her fall. Shuddering at the thought, she put her hands down on the toilet seat and levered herself off the floor. She reached out for the handrail on the other side of the commode and hung onto it until the dizziness passed.

  She took a couple of deep breaths and instantly regretted it. The smells of industrial strength sanitizer mixed with the expected scents of a public bathroom overwhelmed her in her barely functioning state. A wave of nausea washed over her.

  After pulling the collar of her shirt up over her nose, she took a few more shallow breaths. Feeling a bit steadier, she lowered the shirt again, drew her pistol and exited the stall, being careful to look around before stepping out into the open.

  The restroom appeared vacant. She checked the other stalls to be sure and then went as quickly as she could manage, to the door.

  When she stepped out into the hallway, she found Caleb standing there, waiting for her.

  “Where’s Ms. Ford?”

  “What do you mean? She’s in the back of the ambulance.”

  “No.” He shook his head. “She’s not. I thought maybe she had to go after all and you…”

  Dana’s head spun. She brushed past him and staggered toward the lot and the vehicle.

  “Are you all right? What about Ms. Ford?” He called after her. “She’s really not in the restroom?”

  Dana reached the back of the ambulance and pulled the doo
r handle. The door opened. She shuddered as she looked inside. The gurney was empty. One cuff was still attached to the side rail. The other, previously around Sheila’s left wrist, hung empty.

  Whirling, almost losing her balance in her still addled state, she called to Caleb who was still several yards away, “Who unlocked this?”

  He stopped and spread his hands and called back, “I thought you did.”

  “I don’t have a key. You locked it once I was out!” She moved away from the ambulance toward him, leaving the door hanging open.

  The driver stopped walking and leaned back away from her as she drew closer to him, fuming. “We have to find her! We have to find her now!”

  Other people were stopping and staring.

  Caleb’s face was ashen. His lip trembled as he asked, “She escaped?”

  . Dana stepped away from him and scanned the lot and all that she could see beyond it. “Go back in the building and find the Pilot manager. Get him or her to call 911 and then get him out here now!”

  “What…what are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to get on your radio up there and get the highway patrol out here, the State Police…whatever Kentucky has. Hell, the FBI. Everybody.” She waved an arm around. “We have to block off this lot. We can’t let any of these people leave. Someone here had to see something!”

  The words were no sooner out than Dana realized the near impossibility of that task. A car pulled into the empty slot to the right of the ambulance and two people climbed into the one parked on the other side at the same time. She jumped out toward the passenger side of the car when she heard it start and called to the woman sitting on that side and the man in the driver’s seat, begging them not to leave.

  “Please,” she began, when the woman cracked open her window, “did you see a woman dressed in orange scrubs around here? She would have gotten out of this ambulance.”