“Tommy said he had an intense interest in Courtney,” Liam remarked with piqued curiosity.
“Trafford claims he stopped at the house because Roger’s car was in the shop,” added Jenna
“He’s obviously trying to cover his ass,” said Adam brusquely.
“What about McCord. He seems to be the most likely candidate…” Liam remarked.
“He’s got an alibi. He was in jail at the time of the first murder,” Jenna said dismissing Liam’s comment.
“It wasn’t Tommy. You’ve got five people inside that can vouch for his whereabouts.”
“That’s obvious, “admitted Jenna.
“What if it’s someone else? Someone not on our radar?” suggested Adam.
“That’s always a possibility. Let’s keep digging,” Jenna said as they continued to read through the contents of the file.
***
DiNolfo went to sleep around 4 A.M. after combing through Tiffany O’Mara’s case file for hours on end with Adam and Liam. They weren’t any closer to finding the culprit, but they did know that whoever was responsible was likely the same person who committed the murders of Courtney O’Mara and April Dearing. Jenna was nearly able to rule out Jesse Trafford as a suspect. The only thing keeping her from doing so was that no one could vouch for his whereabouts from 6 A.M. – 7 A.M. on the morning of June the seventeenth.
At 6:04 A.M., DiNolfo’s cell phone rang loudly. Joe was in the shower at the time, and wasn’t able to reach the phone in time to silence it. He wanted her to sleep at least until 8 A.M. so that she could function. Two hours of sleep simply would not cut it. Jenna woke up with a start as she reached for her phone. She didn’t recognize the number that was blinking on her screen.
“Who is calling me at this hour…?”
Jenna answered her phone, “Hello?”
“Hi, is this Jenna DiNolfo?”
“This is she. Who is calling?”
“My name is Nurse Mary Wells. I am a nurse at Pittsburgh Medical Center. I am calling because your father Charles is a patient here.”
“A patient?! What is wrong with him?”
“Mr. DiNolfo suffered a heart attack last night. Your mother asked that I call and inform you.”
“Thank you. I will be there soon,” said Jenna as she hung up the phone.
“Who was that?” Joe asked as he stepped out of the bathroom.
“A nurse from Pittsburgh Medical Center. My dad had a heart attack.”
***
Joe didn’t wait for Jenna to say anything further. He put on his shoes, grabbed his wallet and his keys and he was ready to go. Jenna breathed a sigh of relief knowing that she didn’t even have to ask Joe to come along for moral support. He gave it automatically. Jenna pulled on a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt, slid on a pair of sneakers, pulled a brush through her hair and they were off. Joe had staff that could hold down the restaurant for the day. Natalie had a set of master keys to lock everything up, and Cole had offered to pick her and Tristan up when they were done their shift. Joe wanted to be there for Jenna, just as she had been there for his family for the past three years.
***
Cole loaded everyone into his Jeep as he drove to school. Finals started today, and no one was looking forward to the task at hand. Even Tristan was nervous.
“What if they don’t sit me near you?” Shane asked Tristan worriedly from the backseat.
“You didn’t study at all?”
“No. That’s your job.”
Tristan rolled her eyes.
“What if I fail?!” spazzed Natalie.
Now it was Cole’s turn to roll his eyes.
“You’re a junior. It’s not that serious.”
“Dad will kill me…” Natalie insisted.
“No he won’t,” Cole reassured.
“For the love of God, would you all chill out?!” yelled Tommy.
Tristan smiled.
That is a nice change; Tommy telling everyone else to calm down.
***
Edna Harrow stood on her front porch with a nervous look on her face. Her eyes shifted from side to side and she clenched her housecoat as if she was afraid that someone might steal it from her. In reality, no one on earth would want to steal Edna’s ratty housecoat. Adam Morrow stepped onto Mountain Road from behind Monte’s Café and his eyes locked on Edna. He stared at her for a moment as he tried to refrain from laughing at the woman. Edna saw him and waved him down.
“Officer Morrow!”
Oh dear, God.
“Oh, Officer Morrow!”
What now?
“Good Morning, Edna,” said Adam politely.
“Could you help me with something?” Edna begged with an uncomfortable look on her face.
“Uh, sure… It has to be quick though. I’m in the middle of an investigation.”
“It will be so quick.”
Adam followed Edna inside, still wondering what it was that he was supposed to be helping her with.
“More raccoons have gotten into the store, but now there are birds too… I just don’t understand!” Edna squealed dramatically.
“Has anyone checked the basement for holes?”
“No.”
“Well, there’s your problem.”
Adam walked down the rickety wooden staircase that led to the basement of Harrow’s General Store. The stairs creaked and moaned as Adam descended the staircase. When he reached the bottom, he was shocked at what he saw. There were animals everywhere.
“Jesus Christ!” he yelled. “Edna! You have an infestation of animals in your basement!”
“An infestation?! There aren’t mice, are there?!”
“No, not that I can tell, but you do have a basement full of pigeons and raccoons. There’s a couple dead birds on the floor. It looks like the raccoons got to them.”
In one corner of the basement, several raccoons had crowded and were hissing and swiping at the birds. Meanwhile a large flock of pigeons had gathered in the opposite end of the basement and were scuttering about nervously. Adam tried to be careful where he stepped, but there were animals and their leavings everywhere. A raccoon swiped at his foot as he tried to get by. He noticed that there was a board at the end of the basement nearest the gaze of raccoons that appeared to be covering a hole.
“Well here’s your problem, Edna!” Adam yelled up to her through the floor boards.
“This board is loose and all the animals are getting in through here.”
“Can you fix it?!”
“Probably not today, but I can bring some plywood down tomorrow or Friday.”
Adam pulled at the damaged wood panel and immediately noticed that there was a sizable hole in it. On the opposite side of the board appeared to be a tunnel of sorts. Adam grabbed some steel wool that was sitting on a storage rack on the adjacent wall and stuffed some in the hole so that no more critters could climb through. Adam turned to leave the basement but the pigeons had followed behind him, blocking his path.
“Git!” Adam yelled as the pigeons scuttled away neurotically again.
Edna looked almost as crazed as the animals when Adam emerged from the basement.
“Just keep the basement door locked for now. You might want to call animal control to come out. Today. Don’t wait. I’ll come back and fix that hole. I stuffed some steel wool in the space for now.”
“Oh, thank you, Adam!”
“No trouble. I must be going now.”
Adam couldn’t get away fast enough.
How the hell does one basement manage to get so many animals trapped inside?!
Adam was thrilled to be out of Harrow’s when suddenly he looked at his foot. One of the pigeons left him a present.
“Ugh! Bird shit!” He reached down to clean it off with a napkin as a look of disgust formed on his face.
***
Joe drove eighty miles per hour down I-80 West, trying to get to Pittsburgh as quick as possible. Jenna looked nervous beside him and he really couldn
’t blame her. Heart attacks were nothing to play around with. He had only spoken with Chuck DiNolfo a few times on the phone, but he had always thought he was such a nice guy. Joe hoped he would be alright.
***
“Okay students, papers down,” said Mr. Keppler as he eyed his students precariously.
Shane groaned in protest.
“Five more minutes?”
“Pencils down,” Mr. Keppler repeated.
Tristan, who Mr. Keppler had sat on the opposite side of the room, had finished up the final exam twenty minutes earlier. She eyed her cousin warily. Hopefully he at least got a D so that he could still graduate. She glanced back at Tommy who was still scribbling on his test paper. He filled in the final answer as Mr. Keppler snatched the paper from him.
“Good luck ladies and gentlemen. I’ll have the grades for you tomorrow.”
***
Joe and Jenna arrived at Pittsburgh Medical Center just after 1:00 P.M. They made a beeline for the front desk which had a line of people waiting. Within five minutes, they had reached the front of the line where a woman with short red hair and gentle brown eyes was waiting to assist them.
“Hi there… Are you visiting a patient?” the woman asked Joe and Jenna.
“I am,” replied Jenna nervously.
“What is the patient’s name?”
“Charles DiNolfo.”
“Can you spell that for me?”
Jenna proceeded to spell her last name for the clerk.
“Hmm…”
“Yes?” said Jenna with a worried look on her face.
“We don’t seem to have a patient here by that name.”
Joe’s stomach lurched. Jenna pressed the matter at hand.
“I received a call from a nurse here. Her name is Mary Wells.”
“I’m sorry, but there are no nurses here by that name. Are you sure you have the right hospital?”
“I’m positive.”
Suddenly, it struck her. What if someone just wanted to get her out of town. What if they saw that Jenna was getting close to figuring them out, and they just wanted to get her out of their hair? What if there was another murder about to go down? The hair on Jenna’s arm stood on end. Joe noticed the alarmed expression on her face.
“Hun… what’s wrong?”
“I have to check their house. I have to make sure they are okay.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
DiNolfo jumped in the driver seat, waited for Joe to get in and slammed on the gas. She weaved in and out of some of Pittsburgh’s tiniest streets until she finally came to a halt outside of 351 Evergreen Court.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Joe asked in concern, but Jenna waved him off.
Jenna grabbed her keys from the ignition and searched for the key that would open her parent’s one-floor rancher. Within a moment she was in her parent’s living room. She called up stairs, but no one answered.
“It doesn’t look like anyone is home…” said Jenna to Joe, growing increasingly alarmed.
Joe walked around the living room to see if he could find any note left behind or any clue as to where they might be. He didn’t find anything in the living room so he wandered into the kitchen.
“Hey hun…” Joe called from the kitchen.
“Yeah?”
“There’s some hotel reservation for Atlantic City out here on the table.”
“What?!”
Jenna stormed into the kitchen to see what Joe was talking about. Sure enough. A one week stay at the Sands Casino. Jenna raced to the telephone and dialed her mother’s cell phone number. It rang six times before she picked up.
“Hello?!” Anita DiNolfo yelled loudly into the receiver.
“Mom… It’s Jenna.”
“Oh, Jenna! Hi honey!” said Anita in a high pitched voice.
“Where are you?” asked Jenna with a perplexed look on her face. This did not sound like a woman with a sick husband.
“Uh… I’m on the beach in AC. Where are you?”
You’ve got to be kidding me.
“I’m at your house!” Jenna said in an exasperated voice.
“Why on earth are you there?!” said Anita, her voice getting louder and louder.
“Is Dad alright? I got a call saying…” Jenna stopped herself. She didn’t want to make her mother more paranoid than what she already was.
“Is Dad okay?” Jenna asked calmly. She thought she knew the answer.
“He’s fine. He’s right next to me getting a tan. We’re going to do some shopping and gambling later!”
“Oh, thank God.”
“What, honey? I can’t hear you. You’re breaking up!” Anita yelled into the phone. She knew two octaves, loud and louder. Anita was now at her loudest and her voice hurt Jenna’s ear drum.
“Nothing, Mom. I’m glad you’re having a good time. Enjoy your vacation!”
Jenna hung up the phone as relief and dread both flooded her system. She was relieved beyond measure to know that her father was well and not in the hospital. Unfortunately, her relief was short lived because there was the very real problem of someone calling her out of town. It was someone who knew her father’s name, where her parents lived, and it was someone who wanted to get her out of town.
“Is he okay?!” asked Joe nervously.
“Yeah! They are on the beach in AC!”
“What the hell was that call about this morning, then…” said Joe with a serious tone of voice. Jenna didn’t blink. She knew without a doubt that someone had tried to purposely get her out of town.
“We need to get back to Elkhart. ASAP.”
Chapter 20
June 20, 2000
Morrow Manor
Fox Hollow, PA
11 A.M.
Storm clouds churned in the gray sky above Morrow Manor as Frank and Bridgette Kilpatrick rode on horseback through the orchard. The heavy hooves of Frank’s thoroughbred clopped against the dirt as it sped ahead. The horse seemed spooked.
“Easy girl…” Frank said as he stroked his calloused hand against the horse’s neck. The horse seemed to calm in response to his touch.
Tumultuous clouds warning of an impending storm blocked out the sunlight, leaving Bridgette and Frank standing in a strange late morning dim. The wind kicked up and whipped Bridgette’s long red hair across her face. Frank’s brow furrowed as his eyes teemed to the sky above.
“A storm is brewing…” said Frank with a weary expression. He spoke on more levels than one.
Frank and Bridgette continued to survey the apple crop that had flourished remarkably well this year. They would have plenty to bring to the farmer’s market next week.
“I think we’re about done back here,” mentioned Bridgette to Frank. “I think Jack will be pleased with the result.”
Bridgette continued speaking but Frank did not respond.
“Frank?”
Frank was staring up at the manor house with a grave look on his face.
“Were we expecting company?” Frank asked in a strange tone of voice.
“No. Unless its Joe and Jenna back already.”
“It’s definitely not Joe or Jenna.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Bridgette with a perplexed tone of voice as her horse galloped to where Frank’s horse was standing.
“I’m trying to figure out who the hell that is, and why they are standing on our porch,” Frank said in an angry voice as he pointed to the figure that stood on the porch of the Morrow Manor. The figure was dressed plainly in a pair of jeans, a black t-shirt and a black hat and it appeared to be staring right at Frank and Bridgette. Bridgette’s blood ran cold.
“Giddyup, girl. C’mon!” yelled Frank as he nudged his horse into a full gallop towards the house. Bridgette followed behind but she couldn’t keep up with Frank’s horse.
As fast as the figure appeared, it was gone again. Whoever it was slid off of the side of the porch and ran into the tree line that bordered the manor house. Frank sped after th
e intruder, hell bent upon determining their identity. Bridgette watched as Frank barreled through the tree line on his horse with his gun drawn. Suddenly, Bridgette noticed something odd sitting on the porch. A simple brown box with no markings or address was waiting for her. Her stomach lurched as she took in the sight of it. Bridgette dismounted her horse and tied his reins to the wooden railing of the porch as she continued to eye the box. Slowly, she climbed the steps of the manor house. Whoever was just on the porch must have left it. It certainly wasn’t delivered by regular post. Ted, the mailman, usually didn’t arrive until about 1 P.M.
Stolen Innocents (The Shadow Series Book 2) Page 19
