Mad for Mel--The Morelville Mysteries--Book 7

by Anne Hagan

  “When are you taking Victor down? We’re running out of time, babe. When are you going after him?”

  “Listen, I’m pissed that I lost one of my best dealers. That bastard is going to pay for that.”

  “Victor didn’t kill your man, ‘Rat Tail’ did.”

  “I don’t fucking care who did it. He’s gone and someone has to pay for that. Besides, all of those dumbasses are so busy running around like fuckin’ morons trying to be Chief that there’s no one looking after Victor.”

  “Come Saturday, he may skip town.”

  “Don’t you worry; my men have a plan to take his fat ass out and his lieutenants’ real soon, while they’re all still focused on one upping each other and proving who’s the biggest asshole.”

  It got quiet for a minute. I was about to step away from the door when Hoyt spoke again. “Happy?” he asked.

  “I will be when you’ve got the whole city wrapped up.”

  “That reminds me,” he said to her, “where’s my money?”

  “I got it Preacher.”

  It was quiet for several seconds but then she told him, “It’s all there. I collected the last of it this morning. I uh...I was wondering...”

  “What?” His tone was rough.

  “Could I have $200 of it back?”

  “$200? What for? If you need a couple of hits, take them.”

  “No. It’s not that. I wanted some shoes, is all.”

  “Fucking shoes?”

  It was quiet for several seconds.

  “Here. Take it but don’t think this is happening every time.”

  I’d heard enough. I tiptoed away from the connecting door and turned to see the room door swing open. I forgot to lock it...

  I started to panic but then remembered my gun was firmly placed in the small of my back, under my jacket. As I reached quickly to draw it, the maid stepped into the room.

  “I’m going to need some more money if you want to stay in here,” she told me.

  “I was just leaving,” I whispered back to her as a dropped my hand away from my gun and brushed past her.

  I stepped out onto the walkway. Thinking fast, I snapped a couple of quick phone pictures this time of Conal Hoyt’s car, making sure to get the plate number in one of them.

  As I headed east on 70, I tried to call Mel’s personal cell. There was no answer. I decided not to try her duty cell but, as I passed through Zanesville and got on Route 146, I hit traffic so heavy, I knew there must be a problem up ahead so I did try it. There was no answer on her duty cell either.

  We crept along for a few miles. Very little traffic at all came from the other direction. Cars ahead of me kept slipping left of center as their drivers tried to get a view of what was going on ahead of us on the two lane road.

  Twenty minutes later and a couple of miles before The Boar’s Head Bar and the turn off for Morelville, I came to a roadblock where I was diverted down a country road south toward Duncan Falls. I tried to remember the back roads Mel and I had taken from time to time as we had crisscrossed the back country of the county getting from place to place since the GPS on my cell was useless out here in the middle of God’s country.

  Finally rolling into Morelville just after 1:00, I found it virtually locked up tight. Everything was closed; the gas station, the store, the pizza shop; everything. I pulled into my own driveway. As I got out of my car, Mel’s twin Kris, came out of her house just next door and called to me.

  “Dana, come over here. It’s probably better if you don’t stay at your house.”

  “What? Huh? What’s going on?”

  “Come in here first and I’ll tell you.” Kris hustled me into her house.

  Inside, no one was sitting in the front living room. The blinds and drapes were pulled keeping the room very dark, even in the middle of a cold but sunny day.

  In the dining room, my brother-in-law Lance and both of my parents sat around the table, their faces all somber. The blinds and drapes were also pulled in that room but the lights at least were on.

  “We’re not exactly sure what’s happening honey,” my dad answered me. “Some Sheriff’s deputies came through town a little over an hour ago and ordered everyone inside. Everybody sort of panicked. It’s got me rethinking moving here all over again.” He shook his head.

  I swallowed a lump that rose in my throat and put a hand on his shoulder. “Whatever it is,” I told him, “I’m sure it’s not as bad as what was happening back at Halloween. All I can tell you is that whatever’s happening, it’s happening out on 146 or there-about. I got diverted off of it and had to get back into Morelville across country.”

  Dad got up and walked into the bathroom without a word. Mama shot me a look.

  “There was an automated call from the school. They’re going to hold the kids from out this way...not let them come home until they get an all clear,” Kris said.

  Mama jumped in next, “This has to have something to do with all the rioting and such that’s been going on.”

  Given what I’d overheard less than an hour before, I figured she was probably right.

  Chapter 16 – SRT

  Janet Mason

  Early Thursday Afternoon, February 12th

  Morelville, Ohio

  As we drove south, away from the bar, Barb was silent. She sat, half turned in the passenger seat, looking back until The Boar’s Head slipped from view. Finally, she spun back around but she stared straight ahead, not really seeing, just lost inside her own thoughts.

  “Mel will do everything in her power to get it back Barb; get it back today.”

  She didn’t look at me as she responded, “If they leave anything for me to have back.”

  We drove the rest of the way to Morelville in silence. When I reached the edge of the village, I asked, “Can you tell me where we’re going please?”

  Barb pointed ahead. “Turn right at the next block.”

  I did as she said.

  “It’s the colonial half a mile down on the right.”

  Just outside of the village limits, there were no more homes until we came to Barb’s colonial mini-mansion set a few acres back off the road. I tried to keep my surprise in check as I drove along the gravel track back to the house.

  “You’re thinking it’s too big for just one person, aren’t you?”

  “No,” I said. “I’m thinking it’s beautiful.”

  “I shouldn’t have bought it. It’s too much to keep up for just me. Mom and dad are getting up there in years. I thought maybe they’d want to come here but they like the little condo they have in Zanesville.”

  “Do you love it?”

  Barb looked the house over. “I do,” she answered. “I do.”

  “That’s all that matters then.”

  Not knowing what to expect inside, I was surprised by the comfort that was evident even though the place was decorated simply with a mix of antiques and newer pieces designed for a modern country home.

  “This is amazing Barb.”

  “You like it?”

  “Absolutely. I guess I expected a lot of antiques and you do have some but, I don’t know how to say it...I didn’t expect the soft leather couch and chairs and all the wood. It looks so warm and comfortable.”

  “Dana’s mother did most of it. She’s quite talented.”

  “Chloe did this?” I spun around looking at everything again.

  Barb nodded. “She did Mel and Dana’s place and figured out she had a knack for it. I asked her to do mine.”

  “Where are my manners,” she asked herself more than me. Can I get you something to drink?”

  “No thank you. I’m fine.”

  Barb moved toward a sofa facing the fireplace in the great room and sat down heavily. I took a seat in a soft leather armchair a few feet from her and waited for whatever was coming next.

  “Can I ask you a question?” I said to her, when the silence became unsettling.

  She tilted her head to look at me and nodded her consent.


  “Were your parents what brought you back here?” I was certainly curious but, more than that, I wanted to get her mind off what was going on at her business.

  She half smiled. “I grew up in Zanesville...couldn’t wait to get out of town. A couple years after high school, I left. I went to live with an aunt out on the west coast. It was a whole different world, a whole different way of life. I loved it out there and...that’s when I figured a few things out.”

  I just nodded and let her talk.

  There were probably twenty different jobs and almost as many women along the way when I met Lisa and settled down. I’d finally finished college taking classes here and there at night. I had a business degree but no idea what to do with it.

  Lisa had a background in hospitality and restaurant management. She got a little bit of money from an inheritance when we’d been together about seven or eight months. We used it to buy our first bar; a ramshackle old gay bar in a gay ghetto that was being ‘gentrified’. We hung in there and sold it for what we thought then was a small fortune. We spent a little of it but reinvested most of the rest into another place.”

  “Over the years, we just kept moving from place to place rehabbing bars. We sold most of them but kept a few others for income. Everything was good until Lisa got sick...”

  Barb grew quiet. Her eyes became unfocused as she seemed lost in her thoughts. I felt bad about leading her down that track but I didn’t know how to pull back now that she was on it.

  A sob escaped from her throat and her arm shook as she raised her hand to her face and covered her eyes.

  I stood and moved to the sofa where I took a seat beside her. Gently, I placed an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to lean against me as she sobbed.

  “I’m so sorry,” she choked out several long minutes later. “I think I’ve finally gotten a grip on it all and then it just comes back in a wave.”

  “It’s okay Barb, really.”

  “I came back here because I realized I’d already lost everything but my parents that meant anything to me. I just can’t bear to lose any more, you know? Them, this house and that bar are all I have left.” She looked at me intently.

  My thoughts were a jumble as I nodded silently and then sucked in a deep breath. I knew I should get back to the scene and try and lend whatever help I could but I certainly didn’t want to leave Barb alone in her current state.

  I took my arm from around her and started to put a little distance between us on the sofa but she put a hand on my leg and stopped me cold.

  “Thank you,” she said simply, her eyes still rimmed with tears. “It’s hard for me to open up about all of that.”

  “You’re welcome,” I responded back. It was all I could think of to say.

  Barb held my gaze for several seconds and then leaned toward me, closing the distance between us. She brushed my lips with hers in a soft kiss that was completely unexpected. I froze. I didn’t know how to take it or if I should respond. Taking advantage of a woman in a weak moment wasn’t my style.

  Barb’s cell buzzing on the side table where she’d dropped it when we came in saved me.

  She twisted around to grab it and said, “It’s Dana,” before she answered it.

  I stood and stepped away to a window to look out and to give her a little privacy so I only got one side of the conversation but I heard her tell Dana that I was with her and that, yes, it was the bar.

  She hung up after a minute or so and beckoned me back toward her. I moved back toward the center of the room but remained standing and kept a little distance between us.

  “Dana said the local radio stations are all reporting about the bar. She called to see if I was all right. Morelville’s on lockdown and they’re all sitting around at Kris’s house, Mel’s sisters.”

  “Lockdown? Mel just wanted the roads blocked so nobody made it up to the intersection near the bar and got hurt. That’s got to have people all freaked out.”

  Barb looked at me strangely.

  “What?” I asked, when I finally noticed her watching me.

  “You’re antsy all of a sudden. Did I make you uncomfortable?”

  I hadn’t realized that I was bouncing from foot to foot. Self-consciously, I stopped. “No; it’s not you. I’m just really thinking I should be up there helping them do whatever they’re going to do to save your place but there’s no way I’m leaving you by yourself.”

  “I appreciate that,” she said, “but you need to do what you need to do. I’m a big girl.”

  “Nope; I’m not leaving you. I have my orders.”

  Barb nodded and appeared thoughtful. After a pause, she said to me, “How about you run me over to Kris’s place? I know all of them. I’ll just hang there and do whatever they’re doing. You can take my truck back up to the bar.”

  ###

  Mel

  Thursday Evening, February 12th

  The Boar’s Head

  Morelville, Ohio

  We were maintaining a visible presence across the State Route from the bar. I didn’t want the ‘Z’ to think we’d just given up and get too comfortable. Meanwhile, my roadblocks were still in place and, out of their view, on down Salt Creek Drive, I was amassing a takedown team made up of the county’s Strategic Response Team augmented with as many of my own troops as I could spare.

  “Report, Sheriff...” Mason held my two way mike out the window of my SUV to me. I leaned in so I could hear my deputy that was currently on the scene. The SRT squad leader leaned in from the other side.

  “Go six,” I commanded him over the secure channel.

  “Down to one sentry in front. Shotgun. Back is reporting an intermittent sentry. Shotgun.”

  “They’re getting cold,” the squad leader looked across and said to me.

  “They’ve got the front window covered now but it sounds like quite a party going on inside.”

  “Roger, copy.”

  “Out.” The deputy cleared the channel.

  I handed the mike back to Mason.

  “We’ve evened the numbers up and it sounds like they’re almost all inside now. When do you want to move?”

  “In about 15, it’ll be pretty dark. We’ll mount up now and start moving then.”

  My mind flashed quickly to Dana. I hadn’t spoken to her all day but Janet had briefly when she dropped Barb off at my twin’s house. She sent her love and a prayer for the safety of us all.

  I sent some thoughts into the airwaves; I want to be home, in your arms, tonight. Wait up for me.

  Tactical shooters worked their way into position to take out the sentries at the front and back. The bar had an open lot all the way around but there were woods behind the back lot and plenty of cover across the street to one end of the front of the building.

  The two shooters worked in communication with each other. They’d be the ones to give the all clear for the rest of the SRT team to move in.

  I was on pins and needles, waiting for the word from the snipers. The plan was for me to go in right behind the SRT squad. Dana would kill me herself if she knew what I was about to do but I took the position that I couldn’t ask my deputies to do anything I wouldn’t do myself and I defend that stance no matter what.

  Several minutes passed of total radio silence while we sat staged, just out of view of the sentry at the front of the bar, waiting for the signal. I was in my own SUV right behind the SRT tactical van with Mason and Gates who, like me, were now in riot gear and chemical masks.

  Suddenly the call rang out “Go!”

  The running tactical van in front of me pulled off the berm and sped a couple of hundred yards up Salt Creek toward the intersection with 146 and the bar. I followed all of two truck lengths behind it. Several of my cruisers followed me.

  SRT’s vehicle driver navigated the dogleg from Salt Creek into The Boar’s Head lot quickly and expertly and slid to a stop. I stopped 20 feet behind him as planned. From where I was, I could see the dead sentry laying out front.


  The eight man SRT team jumped out of their transport, divided in two, and moved quickly toward the building. I felt like I was watching them in slow motion but, within seconds, The front side team had reached the front door, paused to give the other team time to reach the back door, then they opened the front and tossed in flash bangs and tear gas.

  Out of sheer force of will from years of training, I was on the move, my deputies following behind me or moving toward the back as soon as SRT breeched the structure and started pushing inside.

  People were screaming and lying all over the floor. The flash bangs were enough to make most of them hit the deck thinking they were being shot at and the tear gas was enough to keep them there.

  A single shot rang out from somewhere to my left. The SRT officer in front of me jerked backwards slightly and I almost plowed into him in my forward progress. He stumbled then regained his balance but staggered a little before grabbing the edge of a chair and holding himself up.

  I scanned left for the shooter but I needn’t have bothered. Two of my deputies who’d entered behind me were already standing over the gunman with their semi-automatic rifles trained on him.

  As the smoke started to clear and our inside team of nearly 20 officers gained control, I tried to take stock of the situation. The SRT troop who’d been shot would be a sore puppy for several days but his body armor had stopped the bullet he took.

  I spotted a couple of women in the room. One was giving Gates a real fight but an SRT officer offered lent an assist that got her cuffed and back on the floor. They must have been in here all along, I thought. No women got through our roadblocks to join their men in the men only club.

  Victor Voll wasn’t present and neither was Rat Tail. I spun around in a slow circle as SRT and my deputies started hauling the coughing, cursing bikers to their feet and dragging them outside. I didn’t see the self-appointed leader of the failed takeover, ‘Juice’, anywhere.

  I moved quickly into the empty kitchen and checked the walk-in and Barbs little office. Everything was trashed but Juice wasn’t to be found. The bathrooms...

  Back out of the kitchen I went and turned to the bathroom entrances in a flash. They had entrances right off the back wall not far from the swinging door to the kitchen. One of my deputies was posted right between both doors, rifle at the ready.