The Morelville Mysteries Collection

by Anne Hagan

  Dana poked her head into the living room from the front porch. “The bus is here.”

  “Bus?” Dad looked confused.

  “She means ‘ambulance’,” Chloe explained from across the room.

  ###

  By 1:00 AM I’d convinced Dad to take Cole and Beth out to the farm for the rest of the night on a school night where they wouldn’t be up for hours watching all of the goings on in the village. Now a half dozen of us, including myself and Mason, were out banging on doors, rousting people out of slumber. So far, I personally was batting zero. Anyone that had been up didn’t claim to have seen or heard anything but I pressed on.

  The pizza shop had closed at 10:00 since it was a weeknight but I could see that lights were still on in the kitchen. Kasey’s SUV was parked outside and so was the car one of her evening cooks drove. Janet and I both converged on the little eatery at the same time from opposite directions.

  I tossed my head to the right and she followed me as we moved from the front of the building down the side where I rapped loudly on the aluminum screen door to the kitchen and then waited.

  Kasey answered it herself. If she was surprised to see me there, she didn’t let it show.

  “We’ve had a little trouble in the village tonight, lady,” I told my longtime friend. “I sure hope you can help me out.”

  “What kind of trouble?”

  “My sister was watching a baby tonight and it was kidnapped from her by two men she doesn’t think she knows.”

  Kasey’s hand flew to her mouth and she staggered back a little from the door.

  “Can we come in there and ask you two a few questions?”

  “Sure, sure,” she told us when she’d regained her composure. “Wow...I just can’t believe it...what’s this little village coming to and all?” She turned and called out to her helper, Nancy, to join us.

  “You’re both here awful late,” I said, ignoring her implied opinion as Mason and I followed her through to the dining room.

  We all took seats around one of the tables.

  “Yeah, unfortunately. It was busy tonight so it was all we could do to keep up.”

  Nancy rolled her eyes at that. “Crazy busy,” she offered.

  “I have a lunch meeting I’m catering for tomorrow at the township building and I didn’t have any of the bread baked for the subs or the salads done for sides and such. Nancy stayed behind to help clean up out here and then get that stuff made.”

  After introducing Janet to them, I let her take control of the interview.

  She started with, “When did you come in today?” which she directed at both women.

  Kasey answered, “I opened up for the lunch crew this morning about 10:30 and then went home once everyone got going. I hadn’t intended to come back until after 1:00 when it slows down after the lunch rush. I was going to start my baking then.”

  “You came back sooner?” Mason asked.

  “Had to. They were getting slammed and needed help. Tax money’s commin’ in. Everyone’s feelin’ a little flush, ya know?”

  “What time did you return?”

  “11:40, 11:45 maybe.”

  “Did you see anyone lingering around the village that isn’t usually here, anything that looked odd, anything out of place? Did anyone come in here that you hadn’t seen before?” Janet raised a hand and waved it around to indicate the dining and take out counter areas.

  “That’s just it, people pass through the village and stop here all the time for a sandwich, pizza, for pop, beer...whatever. Some days I feel like I don’t know anybody in here.”

  Nancy chimed in, “I came in about an hour early, around four and, I’m with her. A lot of the locals say it seems like there are always plenty of strangers in town now, no matter the weather.” She shook her head ruefully, “Things just aren’t like they used to be.”

  After five more minutes or so of picking their brains, we were still batting zero.

  Chapter 12 – Stunned

  Dana

  Wednesday morning, February 18th

  I put Boo in her kennel and headed out the door shortly after the sun finally showed up outside. Mel and the FBI were on the case to find Jef. There was nothing I could do there but I had finally realized I’d done next to nothing on the assignment Russ had given me on Monday. I knew I needed to go to Columbus, track Roman Bakula down and watch him for a while.

  The stuff Rosita sent me showed a home address in Whitehall so I tried it first. It turned out to be a townhouse in the middle of a grouping of three set in about the center of a large complex of apartments and townhomes. Bakula had a one car garage included with his unit and a small driveway fronting that. There was no car in the driveway.

  I put on a hard hat I’d kept from my old Customs gear, grabbed a clipboard with some official looking nonsense forms on it and I went to each of the three doors in succession. No one answered at his townhouse as I suspected might be the case or at either one of his neighbors’ homes. I couldn’t see into his garage but I didn’t need to. It was obvious he was gone, probably to work for the day.

  Going around to the back of the grouping, I was surprised to find small, fenced in yards behind them. I hadn’t expected that with townhomes. Instead, I figured there would be more units or just a roadway between units like back in Chicago where I’d spent much of the past several years.

  While I was contemplating just letting myself in through Bakula’s little chain link gate and seeing what I could see through his lower story windows, a maintenance worker slowed as he drove by in a dump truck and sketched a wave at me.

  I waved back and feigned intense interest in my fake paperwork until he was out of sight and then I returned to my car parked a couple of rows away. I took off the hard hat and stowed it in the trunk and put on a toboggan instead.

  After taking up the clipboard again, I walked back to Bakula’s row and started knocking on the front doors of the group of four units across the street from his.

  Only one door was answered. A young LPN working with a much older lady let me in to talk to her patient. I pretended I was a government worker doing a census canvass before the official surveys went out. I asked a few basic questions about her and scribbled her answers on my clipboard. After that, I mentioned that I had the information I needed from most of her neighbors but I wondered if she knew anything about the man across the way. All she could tell me was that she saw him out and about from time to time when the weather was nicer. She said he was very polite but, other than that, she really didn’t know anything about him.

  So far, Roman Bakula was living up to his clean-cut billing.

  ###

  Mel

  10:30 AM, Wednesday, February 18th

  The Hershberger’s little bent and dent store was closed. I followed behind as Samuel carrying a pick and two other men and the teenage boy I’d seen shoveling coal, each carrying spades crusted with winter hardened Ohio clay, approached the barn closest to the house. Stopping short, I waited and listened while Samuel thanked the two men for their help and then the three of us watched as they climbed into a buggy and left.

  “Sheriff,” he said, acknowledging me.

  “Mr. Hershberger,” I have some news, I began.

  “I figured. Did you find out how she died?”

  “Uh no, not yet. I expect the Coroner’s report sometime today. That’s not why I’m here. I’d like to talk to you and your wife.”

  He said something to the young man I assumed was his son in German and then he wheeled around and started for the front of the house while signaling for me to follow him.

  Inside, we found Rebecca Hershberger preparing the room where Katie’s viewing and funeral would be held. She was still dressed all in black and she seemed to move about in a slight daze as she moved furniture to the side walls, leaving the center of the room bare.

  “Can we sit for a minute?” I asked. “I know there’s a lot of prep work to be done but you both need to know what’s happened.”r />
  Without a word they took seats and I did the same. I already felt awkward and felt an intense guilt over what had happened right under my own nose and now we sat, three in a row on little hard chairs while I attempted to explain it all to them.

  “Jef was in the care of my sister last night,” I told them. “He wasn’t at my home when you were there. I’d been in touch with children’s services and the plan was to turn him over to them today.”

  Samuel occupied the chair between Rebecca and me. She half turned in her own seat to face me as I had done from my end to face the two of them. “Has something happened to the child?”

  “I’m afraid so.” I drew in a deep breath. “He was kidnapped last night,” I told them as I let it out slowly. Both of their faces registered shock and neither spoke at first so I pressed on.

  “We think – we being my department and the FBI who is now involved since it’s a kidnapping – that whoever killed your daughter came back for Jef.”

  After a lot of back and forth with the Hershbergers, I went again to the Gingrich farm. I’d had no luck trying to find out exactly who Jonah worked for or where I could find him the day before. My plan now was to talk to his father or mother and see if they could give me better information than their daughter had. I didn’t have time to waste anymore. Every hour that went by put Jef and his mother’s killer that much further out of reach.

  This time I made it out of my county SUV and all the way to the door and, when I knocked, it was Jonah who answered.

  “Good morning,” I said. “No work today?”

  Before he could answer an older man came into the kitchen behind him and said something to him that not only got his attention but sent him skulking away from the door.

  If I’m going to keep doing this job, I thought to myself, I’m going to have to learn German.

  “Can I help you?” the man asked me in English as he took up a position in the doorframe blocking my view into the house.

  “I’m Sheriff Crane. You’re Mr. Gingrich, I presume?”

  He didn’t answer and only barely nodded. I heard more than saw the ruffling of his full beard against his blue work shirt.

  “I’m investigating the death of your neighbor’s daughter just up the road here, and I’d like to ask Jonah a few questions.”

  “The girl was shunned. He hasn’t seen her.” His eyes narrowed and he stared at me in a way that sent a chill up my spine.

  “Yes; I am aware that she was shunned and I didn’t mean to imply that Jonah has done anything at all improper. I’m talking to everyone I can, just trying to get to the bottom of it.”

  His expression didn’t seem to soften at all and he didn’t bother to favor me with a response.

  “Mr. Gingrich,” I tried again, “Could I please just have a minute of Jonah’s time?”

  “Not today. Today is a special day of prayer. Your business will have to wait until Thursday.” With that, he stepped back and started to close the door.

  I held a hand out. “I wasn’t aware of that.” I knew he was lying because Katie’s family and those other men had been doing chores in preparation for her funeral and burial but I played along. “I beg your pardon sir, but I don’t have a lot of time to waste. There are other issues at stake in my investigation. Your son is over 18 and able to make his own decisions.”

  My attempt to coercing his cooperation was met with disdain.

  “You don’t understand our ways.”

  I was getting nowhere and I feared that Jonah would be working again on Thursday and unreachable so I did the only thing I could. I explained the urgency of my need. “Katie Hershberger had her baby before she was killed, a boy she named Jef,” I told him. “He was kidnapped last night. Every minute that goes by makes him that much harder to find. I need to talk to everyone I possibly can. Surely you can understand your neighbor’s pain. Jonah and Katie were close once; he may know something, however small, that can help me find their grandson.”

  Now his expression softened, but only slightly. I hoped I’d broken through but my hopes were dashed.

  “I will add prayers for the safety of the child to my prayers, however, I feel no obligation to interfere into matters of English law.

  He watched out the window as I left.

  ###

  Dana

  I spent nearly five hours sitting in a far corner of the vast parking lot at Jov-Tech, the networking company in Gahanna where Bakula worked. When I finally saw him coming out of the building with another man before they split apart and went to their separate cars, I could hardly contain my relief. It was just after 4:00 PM.

  Easing forward, I waited until he was exiting the lot before taking up a position behind another car to try and follow him undetected. I needn’t have bothered.

  He drove straight home with hardly a glance in his rearview mirror. I watched as his garage door opened, he drove in and then as the door closed behind him. No other cars were in the drive or parked nearby.

  No one appeared to be at home to greet him when he got there. For all intents and purposes, he really did seem to lead a dull, boring life.

  Chapter 13 – Amiss

  Mel

  Early Thursday Morning, February 19th

  Gingrich Farm,

  Morelville, Ohio

  I pulled up in my pickup outside the Gingrich farm just before 6:30 AM. A Yoder Toter was already there, presumably for Jonah. The driver beeped the horn but, after several long seconds waiting where no one appeared at the door, I got out of my pick-up and walked up to the oversized passenger van.

  The driver rolled the window down barely a crack when I stopped by his door.

  “You here for Jonah?”

  He looked me up and down in my uniform, now realizing as I stood before him that I was a law officer. “Yes Miss. Just given’ these boys a ride to work, is all.” There were two Amish boys about Jonah’s age sprawled on the seats behind the driver. One looked familiar but he had his hat shading his eyes and I couldn’t get a good look at him.

  I figured this guy was probably another one of the many who worked off the books to service the needs of the Amish.

  “You come out here every day to get him?”

  “Look, officer, I don’t want no kind of trouble.”

  “It’s Sheriff, and you’re not in any trouble and neither is he. I just need to speak with him briefly and I haven’t been able to pin him down.”

  He pressed the button and put the window down a little further then. “I pick them all up most days and take them right to the jobsite, wherever it is. Lately they’ve been working on a house remodel up Dresden way.”

  “Dresden? Where about?”

  “Right off Dresden Road.”

  That was close to where Katie had been found.

  The driver beeped again but still, no one came to the door.

  “Why don’t you go ahead and get going,” I told him. “We wouldn’t want these two to be late. If Jonah’s going in today, I’ll give him a ride to the job.”

  “Alright then, uh, Sheriff.”

  Once he was gone, I went to the door and rapped on it. Just as I started to lower my hand, Jonah’s sister answered it.

  “I was beginning to think no one was here.”

  “I’m sorry ma’am. Mama is out doing the morning milking and I was upstairs doing the beds.”

  “You didn’t hear the horn?”

  “That was you?”

  “No, it was the driver for your brother.”

  “That’s why I came down; to tell him Jonah wouldn’t be working today.”

  “Is something wrong?” My mind was running through all sorts of possible reasons why he might be skipping work again, most of them involving his controlling father who didn’t seem to be present this morning.

  “He’s gone ma’am.”

  “Gone where?”

  “I don’t know. He left in the night.” She shifted from one foot to the other in the door frame.

  I could tell she k
new something but she wasn’t sure she should tell me.

  “It’s pretty important that I speak to your brother. You’re sure you don’t know where he went?”

  “You were here before and you were here again yesterday too?”

  “Yes.”

  “I heard you talking to father yesterday and so did Jonah. He seemed upset after that. His room is next to mine. He left in the middle of the night; I heard him but I just thought he was going to the outhouse. He said at dinner he wasn’t feeling well and he didn’t eat much.”

  “What time did he leave?”

  “I don’t know ma’am but he’s been gone many hours.”

  “Does your father know he left?”

  She nodded. “Jonah wasn’t back for breakfast. Mother tends to them both before they leave for work.”

  “Your father went to work then?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where’s that?”

  “At the buggy shop up the road.”

  I knew the one she meant. “He wasn’t worried about Jonah being missing?”

  “No ma’am but Mother is upset.”

  “Did he take a buggy?”

  She looked out the door toward the barn. “Father took ours and I see Jonah’s horse poking his head out of his stall so he didn’t take him or the wagon.”

  The boy was out there on foot somewhere. Leaving in the middle of the night, from out here in the middle of nowhere, with no access to a phone, he couldn’t have gotten far, I figured.

  “Can you answer one more question for me?”

  “All right.”

  “Why do you think he left?”

  The young woman squirmed again in the doorway and her face flushed. “I...I think he may be scared.”

  She paused then but I just stood patiently eyeing her, waiting for more.

  “He was, I think...I know very taken with Miss Katie and, I don’t want to speak out of turn, but it wouldn’t surprise me if maybe he lost control one night and he got her pregnant. They were courting you know and...well, I heard it said she was raped and she was shunned for that but, just...just maybe it wasn’t rape.”