by Haley James
After everything that happened with Ashley’s death, most people in town had written Melissa off as crazy. Sure, they were sympathetic at first, she had, after all just endured a horrible tragedy. A town can only handle so much though, and after a while, they grew tired of the wild stories that would come into light whenever they associated with her, one can after all only nod politely for so long. After a while, most people in the town had walked to the other side of the street when they saw her coming, not wanting to be seen with her. Not wanting to be wrapped up in the extreme thoughts that seemed to replay over and over again in her mind.
Not Mitch’s mother though, Mitch’s mother had stayed loyal to Melissa through it all, listening to her thoughts morning after morning, day after day, patiently trying to put the puzzles together of what had happened on that catastrophic morning. Leave it to his mother to buy into everything that woman said. Mitch had even been called down to the diner on several occasions because his mother had refused service to Charles Morgan. She said she would not have “a murderer” eating in a building she owned. The whole thing was a major inconvenience, and honestly Mitch felt a little bad for Mr. Morgan. I mean, the majority of people in town knew that he had nothing to do with Ashley’s murder, but those rare occurrences when he was given a hard time had to be embarrassing for him.
Now, Mitch’s mother sighed and took a step back from her son. “It’s your job as a police officer to take all facts into consideration.”
Mitch grunts softly to himself. It wouldn’t surprise him if Melissa had called his mother on the way back from the police station. That was the problem with crazy people; they knew absolutely no boundaries.
“Oh, I take them into consideration. I’ll take them into consideration right to the psych ward up at Saint Mary’s.”
Mrs. Manner snatches her son’s coffee cup out of his hand at the mention of the local hospital and huffs. “I don’t find your sarcasm humorous, Mitchell, not even a little.”
“Aw, mom, come on,” Mitch whispers, suddenly feeling like a ten year old boy again fighting for approval from his mother. Before he could hear her reply his cell phone started to vibrate in his coat pocket causing their conversation to come to a halt.
“Manner,” Mitch hits the answer button on his phone and brings it to his ear.
“Mitch, it’s me,” the sound of the sheriff’s voice comes through the other end of the receiver.
“What’s going on, boss?” Mitch takes a quick glance around the restaurant. His mom had moved down the counter to an older woman eating a BLT and fries, she kept glancing over at Mitch though, as if to make sure he wasn’t planning on “ignoring” anymore “crucial” information.
“Well, I have Dave Morgan down here, it seems someone broke into his house last night, he wants to file a report about some missing files from his office.”
Mitch’s mind immediately starts to fly in eight million directions. He hadn’t even thought to ask Melissa how she knew about Dave Morgan’s property upstate. Of course she had obtained those documents illegally, it’s not like Dave would have handed those papers over to Melissa willingly knowing she was trying to set his brother up for murder.
Shit, shit, shit. This was a whole new level, even for her. Of course, he couldn’t prove she had actually taken them from Dave Morgan’s house until he saw them again, but where else would they have come from?
Mitch glances around the diner quickly, paranoid that somehow someone might be able to hear what the sheriffs saying to him now. He meets his mother’s gaze and quickly tears his eyes away from hers. She was able to read when someone was wrong with him all to well.
“I know you probably would have mentioned it,” the sheriffs breathing sounds heavy on the other end, almost like he had just run a marathon, and hadn’t been safely tucked away behind his office door all day long, “but um, Melissa Miller this morning, those papers she had, they weren’t anything I should be concerned about, right?”
Clearly, they were something he should be concerned with; they were something they should all be damned concerned with. It was almost too much to deal with, the whole damn situation. He was this close to throwing her right under the bus, it would deserve her right. Running around town, breaking and entering, acting like she was above the law. This had been a long time coming, and it was time for her to face the music, time for her to learn to deal with consequences to her actions. Only, well, techniqually she hadn’t really hurt anyone. It’s not like she had done it when Dave Morgan was home or anything. He knew for a fact that Dave had been away for the week with his family visiting his mother out in California. Surely if he had been home, Melissa wouldn’t have done what she did. Plus, he hadn’t been paying that much attention to the papers that morning. Maybe they weren’t Mr. Morgan’s personal files at all. Maybe she had gotten them off the Internet, or something. That could definitely be the case, he hadn’t even gotten that good of a look at them anyway.
“No, nothing unusual, just the normal, some type of statistic she printed offline about how 60 percent of the time when someone is murdered it’s someone they knew or associated with on a day to day basis.” The lies out of Mitch’s mouth before he has time to think about what he just said. It comes almost too easy.
“I figured, just checking, okay, I’ll get the report going. Will you be back at the office soon then?”
“Oh, yeah.” Mitch grabs his coat off the back of his chair and heads for the door, “real soon, just have to make one quick stop.”
Then he ends the call and pushes the door between him and the outside world open allowing the wind from the exterior to flow inside sending a chill through the space surrounding the entrance. He tries to push the lie he just told to his boss out of his mind. Then, he reminds himself, to push the fact that deep down he has a weak spot for Melissa Miller out of his mind as well.
Chapter Three
It was time for Melissa to take matters into her own hands. No more depending on the so-called law enforcement in this town to spring into action. If no one wanted to do their job around here, she would just have to do it for them. She looks at the bag laying open on her living room floor and quickly grabs a sweatshirt out of her laundry basket sitting next to the couch and pulls it over her head. She was going on a nice little drive all by herself.
A nice little drive right up to Dave Morgan’s property upstate. Of course, she wasn’t exactly sure what she was looking for up there. But she was sure that once she got there, the right information would fall into her lap. By the time anyone figured out she was there, they would be to impressed with her evidence to care. It wasn’t like she planned on getting caught anyway; just look what had happened when she snuck into the Morgan family’s house. One little tug on the screen of the outside kitchen window and the thing had popped right open.
Of course, she had put it right back where it went, and been super careful to not show any other indication that she had been there. She had been worried the file cabinet in Dave’s office would be locked, but it was wide open, like a pot of gold in plain sight. She had taken what she thought to be important then put the rest back exactly as it had been when she arrived. She was more than positive there was no suggestion of her ever being inside that house. She was also certain she could do the exact same thing at the family’s vacation home, which was why she wasn’t the least bit nervous about her plan.
Melissa was just zipping up her duffle bag and getting ready to load it into her jeep when she heard the knock on the door. At first she thought maybe it was her mother, but a quick glance at the clock on her fireplace told her it couldn’t possibly be. Her mother was a hairdresser at the only barbershop in town and Friday was their busiest day. So who could it be, a package maybe? She didn’t remember ordering anything. She pulled the small white curtain that was on the window next to the door open and peeked outside.
Gasp. Mitch Manner. And yikes, if the grimace on his face was any indication he wasn’t to pleased either. She considered not ans
wering for a second, but her jeep was in the driveway. Although someone could have always came to pick her up.
He knocked again, this time harder. He had no way of knowing she was home, she could just tip toe to the kitchen and wait him out. Eventually he was –
“I know you’re in there! I can see you peaking out the window!” Mitch huffs from the other side of the door.
Damn. She quickly pushed her duffel bag under the couch then smoothed down her sweatshirt. She plastered a fake smile on her face and swung the door open quickly.
“Mitch! Twice in one day! To what do I owe the pleasure?”
Mitch glowered at her then pushed past her into her house practically knocking her over as he passed.
“Oh sure! Come right in!” Melissa swung the door shut behind him allowing the sound to echo throughout the tiny residence.
Mitch looked around the small entranceway carefully, taking in every inch of the space, hoping that somehow the documents missing from Dave Morgan’s home would be in plain sight, but no such luck. He shot Melissa a nasty look then trudged his way into the living room without a word in her direction.
“So, can I offer you some tea then?” Melissa calls walking slowly into the living room after Mitch. She wasn’t at all nervous about him being here, it was always something with him. She had no idea how he had become a detective in this town, he clearly wasn’t all there. Like right now, for example, he had opened up the drawer to her coffee table and was frantically leafing through the old mail she kept in there. An absolute wacko she had on her hands.
“Tea?” Mitch laughed aloud, never taking his eyes off the papers he was sorting through, “you don’t drink tea.”
“Sure I do,” what was he looking for anyway? That mail had been sitting in there for months, he must have had a slow day at the office, bored again. Making up things in his head, who knows what he thought he would find in there.
“No you don’t and stop trying to distract me, it’s not going to work, I know all about your mind games,” he says, shaking his head to himself
“Look, as fun as this whole cat and mouse game is, why don’t you just tell me what you want.” Melissa says slowly, that’s the thing about loose cannons she thought to herself, you always have to watch the way you say things to them, you never know when you could push them right over the edge. And Mitch, was clearly on a very thin ledge today, seconds away from taking the leap off.
“What I want,” Mitch tells her, looking her in the eye for the first time since he arrived minutes earlier, “is the paperwork you stole from Dave Morgan’s house while him and his family were on vacation.”
Crap, crap, crap. How? She had been so careful, so, so careful. Down right cautious even. Melissa quickly retraced her steps in her head, but she hadn’t missed anything, not a thing. She had literally double checked everything. Ugh, how could she have been so stupid, she had assumed Dave wouldn’t notice, that he would just assume he had misplaced the papers or something. He must have literally noticed right away that they were missing. This information alone made Melissa feel uneasy. For him to notice so quickly that they were gone, he must deem them important for some reason. Some suspicious reason, just as she thought from the start. She was on to something, she could feel it, and now stupid Mitch had to ride on over to her house on his horse to save the town from distress. But then something occurred to her. If he had any real proof she took the paperwork from Dave’s house, he wouldn’t be here looking for them, he would be too busy toting her off to jail.
“What paperwork?” Melissa tries her best to paint an innocent expression on her face as she asks.
Mitch rolls his eyes, “now who’s the one playing a cat and mouse game?”
“Look,” she walks over to the couch and pushes her way past him casually stopping in front of her purse that’s laying on the arm rest, trying her best to block it from Mitch’s sight, “I’m very busy over here, I don’t have time for false accusations, in fact I was just in the middle of something.”
“Busy?” Mitch looks skeptical now. “You aren’t busy, you’re never busy. Do you even still have a job?”
“Of course I still have a job!” Melissa says crossing her arms over her chest. He really was just so nervy! Did she have a job? Of course she did! Only well, okay, not techniqually. But they were expecting her back at the dentist’s office in town any day now. Not that she had exactly talked to them in a while, actually she couldn’t remember the last time she had heard from them, but whatever. That was besides the fact, of course they couldn’t wait for her to come back, it had only been a few months, or nine, or something like that. Melissa was a very important part of their business though. She was the only one who knew their new filing and computer system, and all the personal knowledge about each and every one of the customers! Although now that she thought about it she could have swore she had overheard that Missy Cummings talking about her new job at the dentists office in Mitch’s family diner just the other day. Hmm.
“I thought Missy Cummings worked there now,” Mitch says smugly from the other side of the couch.
“Well you’re wrong again! Just like you’re wrong about those papers, now don’t you have a town to protect or something?”
“Exactly why I’m here,” Mitch glances at her strangely, “why are you standing like that? Is one of your legs shorter than the other, or something?” He laughs at his own joke then continues to look suspiciously around the room.
“You need to leave!” Melissa tries her best to not sound desperate, but the longer Mitch waits around causing a scene the harder it’s going to be to get rid of these papers.
This is the wrong thing to say and Melissa can tell right away that she’s tipped Mitch off to just how bad she wants him to get out of there.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Mitch says casually walking over to the couch and sitting down, “in fact I was just about to settle in for a nice long sit.”
“A nice long sit?”
“Yup,” Mitch takes his phone out of his coat pocket and pretends to scroll through his text messages, “excuse me one second, I’m just going to text the sheriff and let him know I’m letting you enjoy a few more minutes of freedom before I cuff you and bring you in.”
“Bring me in?” Melissa sits down next to Mitch and pretends his statement isn’t phasing her at all.
“Yeah, you know since I saw those papers this morning and all, and since Dave Morgan came in with that video from his security camera with you breaking in and taking those papers and all. I just figured I’d try to get them back from you, for Mr. Morgan’s benefit, before I read you your rights.” Mitch finishes his statement, never taking his eyes away from his phone.
Melissa’s heart sinks a little in her chest, he’s bluffing; he had to be. There’s no way Dave Morgan had a security system installed, no one in such a small town did. But suddenly she wasn’t so sure, she hadn’t exactly made the Morgan’s life easy for the past year, maybe he had finally had enough. Maybe his brother had installed one too! Maybe the whole Morgan family had them now! A quick flash of her sneaking around the outside of Charles and Megan Morgan’s house while they were at work a few weeks ago pops into her head. And then Melissa does what she always does when she thinks she’s in trouble; she loses all levelheaded thoughts and goes into full-blown panic mode.
Without a second thought Melissa jumps up from the couch, grabs her purse and tugs it open, causing pens, lip gloss, pill bottles, receipts, coins, and a bunch of other unmentionables to go flying through the air. Some of which land in Mitch’s lap and come pretty close to almost hitting him in the eye.
After what feels like forever, Melissa manages to gather up all the papers she took from Dave Morgan’s house then in one quick motion she tosses them into the burning fire that’s roaring away in her fire place.
Mitch jumps up from the couch flapping his arms around in a wild fashion and practically jumps over the coffee table to get to the fireplace. “What the hell is wrong wi
th you?” He snatches the screen away from the outside of the burning red blaze but it’s no use, the documents are slowly burning away to nothing but a rich black ash.
Mitch slams the screen down hard causing Melissa to jump a little. “Why did you do that? Why? How in god’s name am I supposed to put them back now?”
Melissa’s eyes are wild, her heart thumping like a large rock in her chest. “Put them back? But I thought you said…?”
“Oh, come on, like anyone around here really has a security system, Melissa, I thought you had better common sense than that, but clearly you don’t even have that anymore.”
“You mean you were trying to help me?” Her voice is small now, almost like she’s scared to hear his answer.
Mitch shakes his head and sighs, “wake up and take a look around, that’s all I ever do, is try to help you, try to save you from yourself. The truth is that I can’t though; you’re never going to stop until it’s to late for you. I promise you this is the last time I’ll protect you.”
Then he turns around and heads for the door, just as he’s about to turn the knob he stops and turns around. “You didn’t show anyone the papers, right?”
Melissa shakes her head no.
“Then forget I was ever here.” Then he walks out of her house closing the door tightly behind him.
Chapter Four
With every step toward his squad car Mitch’s anger fades more and more. Melissa Miller wasn’t going to stop until she destroyed herself, and there was nothing left he could do about it. It was all over for her, this was a thought that keep crawling through his mind the whole entire ride back to the police station. He was just about to take the turn into the parking lot when his cell phone started to vibrate in his pocket. Probably the sheriff, but to Mitch’s surprise it wasn’t, it was his mother.
