by Anne Hagan
“Fine, fine. Busy day, that’s all.”
A server appeared with menus. Once she’d taken our drink orders, I smiled uneasily across the table at my wife. I really did need to let her know what was actually going on.
I didn’t get a chance. My radio did the job for me. The PD officer I’d directed in the parking lot had the getaway driver pinned down and dispatch put out a backup call for him.
“Sorry,” I told Dana. “Had a little incident going on, on the way here.” The words were no sooner out of my mouth than my own quarry bolted from the hallway I’d been headed for and toward the front door.
Chapter 11 – Nabbed
Dana
I was so excited to see Mel already at the restaurant and even more excited by her obviously pleased reaction to my get-up and hairdo. My excitement became anxious though when I could see that Mel’s mind was elsewhere even though she was sitting with me. After her radio went off and she apologized for the intrusion and explained, I started to feel a little better.
“I need to apologize to you too,” I began. “My mother’s been a little out of line. It’s not right for her to be telling you what you should and shouldn’t do and getting involved in our...”
Mel vaulted from her seat and almost knocked the table over in the process. She burst into the aisle way and ran toward the front door. I rose in time to watch as she tackled a man trying to exit and then drug him back into the aisle.
“What’s going on?” I called out to her.
“This guy just robbed a bank,” she told me as I watched her while she cuffed him. After radioing for backup, she began to frisk him. When she stopped, to a horrified server standing dumbstruck nearby she said, “No one goes into those restrooms until I check them.”
A manager came up front and demanded to know what was going on. Mel was polite as she informed him that she was taking a suspect into custody and she’d be out of their way momentarily.
Seconds later, one of her deputies came through the door, weapon drawn. An already horrified older patron screamed in fear and collapsed. As the deputy gauged the situation and holstered his weapon, the manager moved to assist the distressed woman.
Mel pointed at the cuffed man on the floor and addressed her deputy, “Get him to the station. I need to check the restrooms for his gun.”
Once the deputy was gone, Mel turned right for the restrooms. I sank into a chair at a table halfway between ours and the door and waited.
She emerged from the men’s room only seconds later, with something loosely wrapped in paper towels that I could only take to be the weapon she’d gone in to look for.
I stood as she came over to me.
“I’m sorry Dana...really sorry. The robbery went down just down the street as I was on my way here...I’m...I have to go...I’m sorry.”
I watched in stunned silence as she headed toward the kitchen.
###
Chloe
We actually got to Adornetto’s before Dana. I wanted to make sure our tables were far enough apart that she wouldn’t have any reason to know we were there too.
Citing his usual aversion to eating out as a waste of money, Jesse wouldn’t agree to come along with Faye and I and Marco was closing the store. That left Faye and me on our own to do a little matchmaking, if an intervention became necessary.
I half rose from my seat and peaked toward the door at the sound of each entrance until I spied Dana coming in.
“This is silly,” Faye was saying. “We can’t hear anything from here, so why are we...” She trailed off as she looked toward the back of the room.
I turned to see what she was seeing in time to catch a quick glimpse of Mel after she’d come through from the kitchen.
“That’s odd, that she would come in that way,” I whispered to Faye.
She shrugged, “She knows the manager and maybe she wanted to see if Hannah was working tonight.”
“Hannah bakes in the mornings,” I reminded her. “She has classes in the evenings. Surely Mel knows that.” I paused and unrolled my silverware as our server brought our salads.
We were a few bites each into the salad course when a commotion arose on the other side of the half wall that divided the main dining room. Someone called out, “What’s going on?”
“That was Dana who called out just now,” I told Faye. “I’m sure of it.” I stood to see if I could get any sort of a view but all I could see was the top of Dana’s head as she stood in the aisle on the other side.
“Where are you going?” Faye hissed at me as I stepped away from our table.
“To see what’s happening.”
I went over to the kitchen end of the wall and, staying mostly behind the last booth on the opposite side of it, I peered around the end. Mel had a guy on the floor and she was frisking him. I looked back at Faye, who was still seated at the table but watching me and I shook my head. Turning back to the show on the other side, I was just in time to see one of Mel’s men come through the front door with his gun out. A woman up front screamed then and a manager scrambled to the front area.
Scrambling myself, I went back to our table and an anxious Faye and relayed what I’d seen.
“What do we do?” she asked me.
“Mel will have to leave so, obviously, we console Dana. What else can we do?”
Chapter 12 – Interrogation
Mel
Wednesday Evening, February 11th
Muskingum County Sheriff’s Department
My date, my chance at a little redemption in the eyes of my wife, got all messed up. I wasn’t a happy Sheriff and Kenny ‘Pinch’ Ungar was about to feel the brunt of my anger. I wasn’t going to let up on the biker hood I’d nailed at the restaurant until I had some answers.
We had the little ass dead to rights but, for the moment, he wasn’t demanding a lawyer so Mason and I were laying it on thick.
“Why’d you try and knock over the bank, Kenny?” I knew he hated for anyone to use his given name. I was trying to get him wound up.
“Who says I was robbing something?”
“Um, the bank teller can likely ID you for one, the security camera’s probably have your ugly mug for two and I followed the two of you myself in your getaway boat and then you right into that restaurant and I have the gun you tried to trash in the restroom with, I’m positive, your prints all over it. Maybe you should stop denying the obvious and start talking.”
He scowled. “You already know everything, you’re so smart and all.”
Janet tried a different tack, “The ‘Z’ must be really hurting for cash Sheriff. Maybe the Demons have taken over a little too much of their drug business and they needed some more up front dough to buy supply.” She raised her eyebrows at Pinch, daring him to explain.
He took the bait and obliged. “That ain’t how it went down, see? The Demons can’t take squat from the Renegades. Not now, not ever!”
“Is that so?” I asked him. “It’s not like the ‘Z’ to try and hit banks though. You must have needed money for something...”
Pinch stared at me defiantly. “Just a little test is all,” he said. “Anyway, I didn’t get nothin’. Dropped the bag when I realized that bitch was takin’ too long. I knew she musta hit that damn button. I got out of there with nothin’ so you’ll never get any charges to stick.”
“Oh, but we will Kenny. You’re a convicted felon who attempted a crime with a gun. You’d going down for a long time just for having the piece on you. Armed robbery – successful or not – is going to get you lots of time.”
He grew quiet.
Pouncing on his burgeoning discomfort, I continued, “Let’s back up just a little. You said it was a ‘test’. Test for what? Test of what?”
“Did I say that?”
Mason and I both nodded back at him.
“That’s not what I meant to say.”
“What did you mean then Kenny?” Mason asked back.
He glared at her. “I don’t have to say shit.�
�
“You’re right, you don’t,” I told him. “But, if you don’t, you’re going to the joint and you’ll never see daylight again. The DA will see to that.” I gave him the once over. “Little guy like you, I’ll bet it’s a whole lot of fun for you in prison.”
Ungar looked down at his boots.
“Why don’t you try to help your case a little bit and tell us what you and the ‘Z’ are really up to?”
His head shot up. “You don’t know then I ain’t sayin’!”
He wants to play hardball, eh? I’ll fix him... “Look Pinch,” I used his gang name now to ease the tension just a little, “I know we don’t like each other. I don’t have a problem with sending you up the river for armed robbery. I’m going to have that gun tested though and when I find out it was used in the drive by that got a Demon killed, you’re going to have murder charges rained down on you too. You’ll get gassed for that.”
“I didn’t kill nobody! You can’t pin that on me!”
“We’ll just see about that,” Janet said.
“You got it all wrong. It wasn’t me.”
“It was a Z Renegades hit Kenny,” I told him. “There are witnesses.” Not that will come forward but I know people saw it...
His eyes darted back and forth between me and Mason. “Look, maybe I did go into that bank but it’s not me you want for the hit.”
“Who Pinch? I need I name and the whole story.”
“I tell you, what’s in it for me?” he asked me.
“Depends on what you tell me. Right now, the DA wouldn’t sign off on anything but sending you up for a long time.”
He tapped his fingers on the government issued metal table and bounced one leg at the same time as he took several long seconds to think. I had all night, now that my evening was ruined so I waited patiently.
“What if I told you this was all part of a sort of contest, like?”
“Contest?”
“Yeah,” he nodded.
“Go on.”
“Chief says he’s retiring.”
“Chief?” Mason asked.
“The ‘Z’ Chief,” he told her, venom dripping from his voice.
I diverted his gaze away from Janet. “So, your leader is retiring and he’s looking for a replacement? Is that what you’re saying?”
Ungar nodded.
“So you guys are out there trying to prove yourselves worthy to lead the ‘Z’?”
Again, he nodded.
“What?” Mason asked. She looked confused.
“It’s simple,” I told her. “Their leader is leaving the fold. The man that proves his mettle the most steps into the leadership role.”
“So we’re having gang wars on the streets because these assholes all want to be boss?” She spread her hands and looked at Kenny Ungar in total disbelief.
I let it go. I had bigger fish to fry. “So, you want to be Chief so you decide to try and knock over a bank?”
He hung his head and wouldn’t look at me.
“Who were you trying to top? Who wanted it bad enough that they killed a rival gang banger?”
Still staring at the floor, Ungar whispered, “Rat Tail.”
“Rat Tail’s real name is Major Foote,” I told Janet later. “He’s another convicted felon that runs with the ‘Z’.”
“I can see why he’d prefer to be called ‘Rat Tail’.” She cracked a half smile.
“The ‘Z Chief’ is a guy named Victor Voll. Ungar is small time. He got nailed for a drug distribution crime that was enough to send him up for a few years. Having the gun will put him away for a lot longer. Nailing Voll and Foote is going to be a lot harder. Those two are slick.”
“We don’t have a witness that will place Foote at the scene of the shooting.”
“I know,” I nodded at her. “And, it’s a known felon’s word that all of this was set in motion by Voll too. Every cop in the county knows him. If he was seen anywhere in the entire melee the last few days have been, we’d already be after him.” I held my hands up and juggled them about. “He’s always been the lay back and give the orders sort though. He never seems to get directly in the mix. I’ve gone after him before and he manages to weasel out of anything but misdemeanor charges.”
“This time around, since the whole thing is to find his replacement Sheriff, don’t you think he’s purposely gonna stay out of the mix?”
“Yep. That makes it even harder.” I leaned back in my desk chair. “We’ve got to figure out how to get to him somehow.”
“He’s still running a street gang. If we tail him...”
I waved her off. “Tail him how? We have to find him first and, even if we do, there’s nothing illegal about hanging out with known criminals.”
“Where do they hang out now?”
“Damned if I know. I really hoped that we’d seen the last of them, like I told you before.” I looked at my watch. “It’s nearly 10:30,” I said aloud and then shook my head. Looking at Janet as I had looked at Holly earlier in the day, I said to her too, “You’ve put in enough time. Why don’t you go home?”
She sighed. “I’ll finish out the shift. It’s only another half hour and it’s not like I have a life.”
I eyed her critically. “How’s your mom doing?”
“Not so good. She seems to have taken a turn for the worst. She’s back to taking chemo drugs and she’s really struggling this time, even more so than before. She’s barely mobile and she can’t even string two coherent sentences together most days.”
“I feel awful for asking but even more awful to hear that. Is there anything I can do to help? Do you need some time off?”
Janet was quick to respond, “Thank you, no; not now...not yet and no I don’t need any time off either. Not yet. The end is near though Mel...er, Sheriff. I can feel it coming.”
“It’s just you and me. You can call me Mel and, I understand. You just let me know if you need anything at all, okay?”
She nodded. “You seem a little, how should I put this...gruff...tonight yourself. Anything you want to talk about?”
“I’m just frustrated, is all. We’ve been so busy...it just never ends. I need a little down time.”
“Dana getting on you?”
I chuckled softly, flashing back to a time when Barb had hit on me thinking Dana was not important to me. “No, not Dana,” I said. “My mother-in-law on the other hand...she thinks I’m being very neglectful...to married to the job.”
“Isn’t one of her sons a cop?”
“Vince? Yeah. He’s got some sort of detail though. Out of the office at 5:00 every night and rarely works weekends.”
“Must be nice.”
“Just between you and me?” I raised my eyebrows at Janet and waited for her response.
“Yeah?” she nodded.
“Dana and I were supposed to be on a date tonight at Adornetto’s, the restaurant where I nailed Ungar. She was there to meet up with me.”
“Ouch! That’s truly messed up!”
“Tell me about it. I think this time I’m going to catch holy hell from her and not just her mama.”
“Ooo, I’m glad I’m not you! I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes right now.”
“How does Barb take you working all the time and being with your mom when you’re not working?”
“Barb?”
“Aren’t you two seeing each other? I thought...”
Janet shook her head no. “She’s a friend, more or less. I go around to the bar once in a while when I’m off if I’m not on mom duty and we talk a little if she’s not busy. She’s still hung up on losing Lisa and I just can’t focus on another thing besides mom and work right now. Neither one of us is ready for any sort of relationship.”
###
Mel
11:40 PM, Morelville, Ohio
I tiptoed into the house but Boo charged me and met me a couple of yards into the kitchen. I didn’t hear another sound in the house so I hooked her up to a leash and ran her outside be
fore I did anything else. The unexpected diversion gave me time to think about what I would say to Dana when I woke her up getting into bed as I was likely to do.
When I got back inside, I realized the TV in the family room was on. Boo scampered that way and I followed behind sheepishly.
I was stopped in my tracks at the door. Dana had attempted to wait up for me. She was curled up on the couch, still in her blue dress but fast asleep. She had a heart shaped helium filled balloon, the ribbon grasped in one hand, that said 'I love you with all my heart' on it.
I didn’t have the heart to wake her. As gently as I could, I took the balloon from her and tied it to the leg of the coffee table. After I covered her with a blanket, I headed into the bathroom to get my night clothes on. I took my place in my leather recliner across from the couch and eventually drifted off to sleep. If she woke, I wanted her to know immediately that I was there.
Chapter 13 – Try, Try...
Dana
7:00 AM Thursday Morning, February 12th
Bacon was burning somewhere. The smell of it assaulted my nose. I rose from the sofa where I’d apparently spent the night and tried to stretch. My bad leg felt like it was on fire.
Looking around, I spied the balloon I’d gone and bought for Mel the day before after I’d convinced our mothers I was fine and ditched them. A throw blanket was in a ball on her chair.
Limping into the kitchen, I found my seriously overworked wife with one of Faye’s famous aprons on over her uniform, standing at the stove, attempting to flip pancakes.
She spied me when Boo yapped at me and began circling my ankles. Stopping what she was doing, she walked over to me and guided me to a chair. “Baby, I need to apologize to you. I’m so sorry about what happened last night and I want to make it up to you. Please, please forgive me.”
“That pancake is starting to burn.” I pointed back over my shoulder at the griddle. “You deal with that while I pee and get out of this dress and then we’ll see if we can’t rescue some of this food.”
A couple of minutes later, my favorite sweats on and my immediate needs taken care of, I returned to the kitchen to find Mel flipping a cake that looked somewhat more appetizing than the last one had.
