by Anne Hagan
Once I was inside the vintage but well maintained structure, I realized that it was lined all the way around with built in bench seats. There were two far less vintage, movable picnic tables in the middle of it as well. I could just picture those being removed on warm summer evenings and the gazebo being used for concerts in the park or for weddings.
I debated sitting on a bench and having back support or sitting at a table and being able to lay my book down in front of me. After a minute of thought over the options, I opted to carefully pull one of the tables closer to the benches. I sat down on a built in bench and propped my legs on the picnic table seat. It was comfortable for me and I could hold my book in my lap and have an easy look around every so often.
It was just after 9:00 AM when I settled into my vantage point. There was no way of knowing how long my wait would be. Hannah might come to read again before her shift or she might just wander through on her way to work later in the afternoon. I hoped she made a habit of coming to read in the gazebo.
I was having a lively conversation about all of the uses of crutches with a pair of five year old twin boys and their mother when Hannah showed up just before 11:00 AM. The two little guys lost all interest in me when Hannah came up the steps. From the way they greeted her with hugs around her legs, it was obvious they’d met her here before. It was equally obvious that they shy girl had a way with children.
She bent to them and listened as they talked over each other to tell her their little boy stories. One pointed to me and my crutches and that’s when she seemed to notice that I was sitting there.
I smiled, “It’s Hannah, right?”
“Yes. We met the other day. You are Dana, correct?” Her English was very formal when she spoke in full sentences.
“You’re right.” I smiled again and then I continued to watch the antics of the children. I didn’t want to spook her.
The boys’ mother spoke up, “Let’s let these two ladies have a little peace guys. It’s time to head home and make our lunch.”
Once the twin boys said their goodbyes to her and they were on their way, Hannah looked about the gazebo. She seemed to be a bit disoriented.
“I’m sorry. I’ve made myself comfortable.” I waved a hand at my legs propped on the table’s bench seat. Did you want to use this table?” I started to lower my legs from the seat in a gesture I hoped looked accommodating and friendly.
“No, no. It’s fine. I usually sit on a bench to read a book unless I have school work.”
“School work? You mean for college?”
“No, for high school.”
“High school?” I raised an eyebrow. “I thought you were older than that. You look like you’re about 20 or so.”
Hannah blushed. “Thank you Dana. I am 18. I’m studying for my equivalency diploma. Sometimes I bring text books and work here where it’s quiet.”
She seemed willing to talk and I wanted to keep the conversation going but I didn’t want her to feel threatened. I needed her to trust me. I put an apologetic look on my face, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”
She nodded but she didn’t actually say anything so I continued, “Don’t you need to study today? No big test tomorrow or anything?”
She took a seat on the same side of the gazebo as me but several spaces away. “No, nothing like that. The studies all lead up to one single test to get the equivalency diploma.”
I knew the answer to my next question but I wanted to see how much she was willing to tell me this early on, “You seem like a pretty bright young lady. Why didn’t you finish high school?”
She looked down but she answered the question, “I was raised in an Amish order. We only go to school through what the English would call 8th grade.”
“That explains the hint of a German accent I hear in your speech then and now I understand about the schooling. I admire you for wanting to finish.”
Hannah blushed again but lighter this time.
I knew that one of the things that the Amish teach their children is ‘speak only when spoken to’. Amish kids rarely speak out of turn but they also feel obligated to answer direct questions because of their training. I decided to press my advantage, “Does your order allow you to finish school then?”
“No, not if you remain in the order.”
“So you’ve left it?”
She nodded.
“Honestly, I should have figured as much since you’re not wearing one of those lovely Amish dresses.”
That made her smile and then laugh just a little. Her quiet but pretty laugh lit up her face which was devoid of any sort of makeup. Even completely natural, she was a lovely girl with long sandy blonde hair and expressive brown eyes. In an emotional sense, she couldn’t have been gone from her Amish roots long; she hadn’t been jaded by what she called the “English” world yet.
I smiled at her and asked, as gently as I could, “What made you leave everything that you know behind?”
She glanced down at the floor again but then she looked back up to my face, shook her head and said simply, “I’m not like them.”
“You don’t believe the things that they believe?”
“With some things I do.”
“But not everything?”
“No. Not everything.”
“I don’t know a lot about the Amish but I know that once you join the church, you’re professing your faith and agreeing to follow the doctrine. Was that what you had a problem with; the church?
“No. Not the church. I would have joined. Those are the things that I do believe...most of them.”
I nodded. “I see. So you must have had a very tough choice to make about something else to make you leave your family and your church?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Oh, call me Dana, please.” Sensing that her real reason for leaving wasn’t something she was willing to divulge just yet, I decided to take another approach, “Are you all right? Do you have a place to stay and the things that you need?”
“Yes. I’m staying with a friend I met during my Rum..., during a previous time away from home. She has two other roommates and we all split the cost of everything. I have a job.” She smiled.
“That’s wonderful! What do you do?”
Her face lit up, “I’m cooking at the café over there on the river.” She pointed in the general direction of Muddy Misers.
“Really?” I played dumb and let excitement into my voice. “I’ve eaten there a couple of times. The food is wonderful,” I said as I nodded my head vigorously to show my appreciation for it. “From the way that you’re smiling, I take it that you like cooking there?”
“Yes, very much. That’s why I’m studying for my equivalency diploma. Once I have that, I can go to culinary school.”
“So, you want to be a chef, do you?”
“I want to be a pastry chef.”
“Ah! A woman after my own heart...stomach!” I laughed and Hannah did too.
“We’ll have to keep in touch Hannah. I’m more than willing to be your taste tester and, if you ever open your own shop, I’ll be first in line!”
“I’d like to do that someday. My mother and I, we used to bake bread and make fry pies and...”
I interrupted, “Fry pies? What are those?”
“They’re pocket pies that are glazed like a doughnut. You can hold them in your hand and eat them.”
She grinned at my expression of excitement, “Like Hostess?”
“Better than Hostess!”
Without thinking, I said, “Ooh, I know I’ll love those and I’ll bet Mel will too. She loves pie and doughnuts!”
“Who is Mel?” she asked, laughing.
A thought occurred to me and I decided to be honest with her, “Mel is my girlfriend Hannah.”
Hannah looked at me hard for a minute. “I’d like to meet Mel. Is she as nice as you?”
“She’s very nice but she can be a little scary for some people.” Especially young Amish girls not used to women i
n any sort of position of authority other than their own mothers!
“Why do you say that?”
“She’s a police officer.”
“Oh. That’s okay.”
“That doesn’t scare you?”
“No.”
“It doesn’t bother you that I’m dating another woman?”
She blushed. “No.”
“Can I ask you a personal question?”
Hannah looked away almost as though she knew what was coming but she did answer, “Yes.”
“Did you leave because you’re gay?”
Her simple one word answer was softly spoken but said with more conviction than doubt, “Yes.” She looked at the floor of the gazebo.
“Hannah, look at me.” When she finally raised her eyes to mine, I said, “It’s okay to be who you are and, if you’re not ready to tell people that just yet, that’s okay too. You have all the time in the world to figure it all out.”
“Only my roommates know...and now you.”
“You’re secret is safe with me.” There’s no way I could ever betray the confidence of this girl back to her family...There’s just no way! “Are you in a relationship with one of your roommates?”
“No, nothing like that. They are all friends sharing housing while they’re in school. They were looking for another roommate when another girl left and the one I knew invited me to stay with them as well when she found out I was leaving the...well, everything.”
“I don’t know if I will ever be able to date a girl Dana. Right now, I just want to concentrate on school.”
“I understand. It’s hard to date anyone whether they’re the same sex or the opposite sex but especially the same sex. I can only imagine coming from the perspective that you do what you must be going through.”
She nodded.
“If you ever need someone to talk to, you can talk to me.”
“What about your ‘Mel’?”
“You can talk to her too,” I smiled.
“You think that would be all right?”
“I know it would. Do you have access to a phone?” She reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a cell phone. I gave her my number to enter. “Call me or text me any time.”
Hannah got up and walked over to me. She bent down and gave me a quick hug. Her eyes glistened with just the hint of tears. “Thank you so much Dana.”
“You’re welcome!” Shortly after that exchange, I decided I should leave Hannah to her thoughts for a while. She needed time to pull herself together before she went on shift at Misers. She helped me carry my stuff to my car and then I went on my merry way home.
Once I reached home and the wonders of a decent wireless network again, since there are so many dead zones when you’re driving through the middle of nowhere, a few texts came through. Two were from Hannah.
Hannah: Thank you for listening today and for being a friend.
I replied to her before I even read the 2nd text, ‘You’re so very welcome.’
Hannah: There was a man that was watching us today from a pickup truck as you were leaving. He kept staring at me even after I went back to the gazebo. He scares me.
Me: Did he talk to you?
Hannah: No. After a few minutes, he left.
Me: Can you describe him and his truck to me?
Hannah: He had light brown hair and sun glasses. It was a pickup truck.
Me: I need a little more information, please.
Hannah: I’ll have to call you during my break. I have to go.
Chapter 15 – Witnesses
Early Afternoon, Thursday, June 19th, 2014
“You got your money. You know what you need to do so go do it.” Noland Troutman clicked off the call in disgust.
He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel of his Audi as he trained his eyes the gazebo. The pretty young girl was sitting there again today but she was reading this time instead of talking to the dumb Customs bitch he was trying to frame for murder. Rossi wasn’t around.
He thought the younger girl had made him yesterday when he was watching them from his grandfather’s pick-up. She’d given him a long look. He’d had to change up vehicles and affect a bit more of a disguise than just wearing sunglasses to stake the park out today.
Bored and still annoyed, he picked up his phone again and he punched the preset for his fiancé.
“Hey babe, where are you? I’ve been trying to reach you,” she answered.
“Kelly, where the hell did you find this witness and why the fuck did you give him my cell phone number?”
“Which witness Noland?” Her voice tremored.
“The dude that was supposedly fishing the spillway the day Rossi was at the dam.”
“He’s a guy that always fishes the spillway baby.”
“What’s his deal? Why’s he calling me acting like a nervous Nellie?”
“He’s a real witness Noland...he...he just didn’t know what he was seeing that day.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You don’t have to yell. I’m saying that he really was there fishing the day that Dana Rossi was there and that he really did see her there, at least, when I described her to him, he’s pretty sure he did.”
“So, again, what’s the problem and why are we paying a so-called ‘real witness’?”
“We’re paying him to say he felt that she was acting strangely and to give a partial plate number to the state guys; that’s what we’re paying him for.”
“That must be pretty fucking hard that he needs to call me! I told you, I’m the finance end only. You know I can’t be directly involved in any of this!”
“Noland, you don’t need to swear and you don’t need to be such a jerk to me! I’m doing the best I can out here to help you win this election! I’m not stupid; he didn’t have your name!”
Noland watched from the east lot as Hannah rose in the gazebo and shot a look at the north lot where he’d been parked yesterday. He slunk low in the Audi as she prepared to leave to go to work. He didn’t want her to make him again today.
She saw him in the park on Wednesday but he didn’t think she saw him again when he’d staked out the outskirts of it after he realized she’d made him in the park and he’d pulled out. He watched her enter Muddy Misers. He waited a while but when she didn’t come out, he went in and had a quick look around. When he didn’t find her, he realized she must work in the kitchen.
He knew the girl was probably headed to work now. At least Kelly did something right tailing Rossi that first day and tipping him about this little hangout place. Now he just needed to figure out who the girl was and what her tie was to Rossi.
“Babe? Babe, are you there?”
He’d forgotten Kelly was still on the line. “I’ll call you back.” He hung up the phone and slid even lower in his seat.
Noland didn’t think the girl noticed him as she passed about 30 yards in front of his car but he couldn’t be sure. When he thought he’d given her enough time to go by, he sat back up. He started to call Kelly again but then decided not to. The way he saw it, she was expendable too. He’d keep her around until after the election and then he’d cut her loose.
###
Late Thursday afternoon, June 19th, 2014
Lieutenant Nichols watched as the witness signed off on his sworn statement. It was the second one of the day for the Sweeting murder case and it too pointed straight at Dana Rossi.
Nichols silently congratulated himself. His gut had told him Rossi wasn’t being completely truthful with him. Now he not only had fingerprint and blood splatter analysis of the crutch that struck a disabling blow and finger prints and a hand print on Sweeting’s car that all pointed to Rossi, he also had two strong witnesses who attested to some of Rossi’s actions and her demeanor that day.
Neither witness to come forward so far could put the two women together but what he did have he figured should be enough to get a warrant for her arrest and a search warrant that would allow
him to confiscate her personal firearms. The way Nichols figured it, Rossi had enticed Sweeting into the wood near the launch ramps, hit her with the crutch to stun her and then shot Sweeting with a small caliber pistol that she probably kept as her back-up weapon.
The more Nichols thought about it, the more he thought that the story he’d put together was the only story that made sense. Neither of the witnesses who’d come forward had seen anyone but Rossi that day that acted strangely. Both said Rossi was the only one around the dam or the ramps that was alone that didn’t appear to be there for recreational purposes. One witness actually placed Rossi with Sweeting’s car. He said she’d been handling it and hobbling around without crutches in a half crazed huff.
Nichols thought to himself, it’s time to nail Dana Rossi. He put in requests for the necessary warrants. Everything needed to be by the book to nab a federal cop.
While he waited, Nichols decided to see if he could get her to come in voluntarily to answer a few more questions. He’d made the rookie mistake before of not getting a current address from her. All he had was her phone contact information.
Crane probably knows where Rossi lives, he thought but he wasn’t sure it was a good idea to get the local Sheriff involved. He sensed that like Rossi, the Crane woman was a dyke too. Hell, for all he knew, the two women were a couple. Crane sure knew a hell of a lot for being a local yokel involved in something that was state jurisdiction. He decided to keep her out of it. He’d figure out how to get Dana Rossi in without her help.
Chapter 16 – Crane is a Drain
Friday morning, June 20th, 2014
“Tip line call LT.” The Jr. Trooper held up his phone receiver and pointed it toward Nichols. “I think you better take this one yourself.”
Nichols nodded, “Transfer it to line two. I’ll take it in my cube.” He hustled into the semi-private cubicle that he used as an office when he wasn’t out on an investigation. He picked up his handset and punched the blinking line.
“Lieutenant Nichols; May I ask who’s calling?”
A woman’s voice said, “I prefer to remain anonymous Lieutenant as I told the other trooper.” At his swift intake of breath she continued, “Relax there chief, we’re playing for the same team. I think you’ll find what I have to tell you very interesting.”
