Broken Women

by Anne Hagan

  A protest rose up from the table and I chuckled as Barb sidled back over to us.

  “Ladies,” she said, her back to the other table, “you almost had a round of drinks on them but right now they're over there playing a game of 'who's not the cop.”

  “Technically,” Dana put in, “two of us aren't.”

  “Oh honey,” Barb replied, “you may not be serving right now but everything about you screams cop.”

  Mel tipped her head just slightly toward Holly who was between the two of us and said to Barb, “Maybe they should be playing a game of who's the only one who’s both straight and single.”

  “Is that right?” Barb asked, her eyes on me rather than on Holly.

  “Look who's getting cozy over at the bar,” Holly said.

  Mel turned that way in time to see Barb walking away from the end where Janet sat, laughing at something that had transpired between them. She smiled.

  Dana moved up beside her wife and nudged her, “What's got you grinning over here?” She looked in the direction Mel was looking.

  The couple watched as Barb handed a beer across to a customer, took his money and put it in the till and then moved right back to Janet.

  “That could work,” Mel said. “They both need somebody new in their lives.”

  “I'll be surprised if it goes beyond a night of casual conversation,” Dana replied. “Barb is still grieving badly over Lisa's death.”

  “And Janet is living her grieving in advance over the loss of what her mother once was and will never be again. They could help each other through their grief.”

  ###

  Janet

  At the bar

  “So, what were you doing before you took this place over?”

  “The same thing, more or less. This is what I’ve been doing…we were doing, for the past dozen years, give or take; buying crappy bars and turning them into places where people want to go and hang out.” She sort of half smiled like she was remembering something.

  I picked up on the word ‘we’ and I remembered her remark about using the name ‘Wysocki’ now that she was back in town so, being the nosy detective that I was becoming, I zeroed in on that.

  “So, I take it you’re divorced now and you came back here to get away from him?”

  “Way off the mark, detective.” She smiled just a little bigger at me.

  “Oh, sorry. I do that – jump to conclusions – sometimes; bad in my line of work, I know. I’m still learning all of the ins and outs of the investigative side of the job.”

  “You haven’t done many interrogations, have you?”

  I shook my head no. “Not yet, in all honesty. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of those ahead of me in my career.”

  She laughed at that. “If that isn’t the God’s truth working with Mel!” At that, a customer got her attention and she moved away to serve him.

  I took the time to study her features a little more closely while she was otherwise occupied. When she finished getting his order, no one else needed her attention so she pulled another draught and returned to the end of the bar where she placed it in front of me and picked up the almost empty glass I’d been sipping on since I’d arrived an hour before.

  “I’m driving, you know.”

  “Been in this business a long time Janet Mason. Two beers in two hours with your build isn’t going to have you staggering out of here drunk.”

  Before I could frame a response above and beyond a rueful grin, she told me, “Don’t think I didn’t know you were watching me a minute ago. I could feel your eyes.”

  “Another trick of the trade?” I teased her.

  “Something like that.”

  “I just have the gut feeling we’ve met somewhere before, is all. Where were you before you came back to Ohio…if you don’t mind my asking, that is?”

  “Colorado, for far longer than I should have been.”

  “Oh. It didn’t go so well?”

  She leaned into the bar, toward me a little. “The bar business there was fine. We were in a resort area…can’t for the life of me figure out why the previous owner of the place was failing miserably and had to sell.”

  She trailed off, seemingly lost in thought. I stayed quiet and sipped on the fresh draught.

  “I lost my wife out there…complications from surgery. There wasn’t any reason for me to stay there after that.”

  “Barb, I’m so sorry.” The revelation that she’d been married to another woman was muted by her obvious grief.

  “Don’t be,” she told me. “It was more than a year and a half ago. A big nasty mess it all was but it’s done. I’m doing my best to try and move on, now. My…my parents are all I have left and my dad’s health is bad. They need me. That’s why I came back here.”

  “We have that in common. I mean, my father is long gone…not dead…just gone. I never really knew him but my mom has cancer. I don’t think she has much longer. I came back to be here with her.”

  “That’s sad. She can’t be very old.”

  “Fifty-four.”

  “So where were you before you moved home?”

  “Lovely Hancock County Indiana, with the Sheriff’s Department there. I lived in Indy.”

  Recognition dawned in her eyes. “And I…we…Lisa and I, that is, owned a bar in Indy. Actually, a dance club. That’s where we met!” she wagged a finger at me.

  I studied her face for a split second and pointed back at her, incredulous, “The attempted rape case!”

  She nodded vigorously. “Yes. Lisa and I took over that place and closed it down to remodel it completely. We’d been re-opened maybe two months with mostly new staff when that happened.” She shuddered visibly. “That guy was a real dirt bag but now I remember meeting you. You were the cop that was there.” She studied me now. Your hair was long then but shorter than it is now.”

  “And yours is longer now than it was then. You wore it pretty short.”

  We were both quiet but then a question niggled at me. “Whatever happened to that guy?”

  “You don’t know?”

  “Nope. Marion County took over after I got the victims statement. I was never called in to court or anything.”

  “The deputies hauled him away in cuffs that night. He had the nerve to ask me to bail him out of jail or help him get a lawyer since he was being accused of something during his time on the clock. He tried to make it like it was our responsibility for him being scum.”

  “What did he get?”

  “She didn’t want to face him in court, Janet; she was so young. He pled out. I never saw him after I was subpoenaed to appear for the hearing and he was there.”

  “He didn’t come back to work until his plea hearing?”

  “Hell no,” she told me half under her breath. “I fired him as they were hauling him out of the bar that night and made sure he heard me. That’s why it was such a surprise that he wanted us to bail him out originally and pay for a lawyer.”

  Chapter 21

  Janet

  December 25th, 2014

  The Crane Family Farm

  Mel opened the door to find Barb standing there and offered by way of greeting, “Come on in! Glad you could make it.” I didn’t think she saw me standing off to one side.

  “I hope it’s okay;” Barb asked her, “I brought a friend?”

  She stepped aside and I moved into view. Mel’s pleased expression tightened just a little.

  “If it’s going to be a problem,” I began.

  “No, no; no problem for me anyway.” Her smile spread again and I felt a little relief.

  She stepped aside so we could enter and she took our jackets.

  “I know where the kitchen is,” Barb told her. “We come bearing gifts of food and wine.” She wandered away leaving me standing there with my boss.

  “I apologize,” I stated quietly. “I knew this would be awkward for you.”

  “Not for the reason you think.” As she responded, Dana joined us.

&nb
sp; “Janet, what a surprise,” she said and then turned and gave Mel a lopsided grin.

  “Mom actually wanted Shane to come today too,” Mel continued to me, mentioning the other department detective, “but he was going to see his family. I’m kind of surprised you’re not with your mother.” Her statement was more of a question.

  “Since I’m on call, I can’t really wander too far. Mom went with Aunt Leslie to their other sister’s house which is on the other side of Columbus and, because of my chosen ‘lifestyle’ I’m not exactly welcome there anyway.”

  “Oh,” Dana said, “that’s a tough one but we sort of know how that goes. It’s too bad you don’t get to be with your mom today though.”

  “It’s okay, we celebrated together last night.”

  “So, are you and Barb seeing each other?” Mel blurted out.

  “Not in so many words,” I responded carefully. “Not yet. We’re just getting to know each other, I’d say.”

  “Barb’s a friend,” Mel told me. “She's had it pretty rough.”

  Dana shot her a look.

  “What?” she asked her in return. “I'm just saying.”

  “It's okay, really,” I replied. We're just friends for now. One day at a time.”

  Barb rejoined us. “So, she asked, “Are we cool? We're not stepping on any toes?”

  “We're all cool,” Mel told her as Dana nodded.

  “What was your remark earlier?” Barb quizzed Mel, not quite ready to let it go. “You said it isn't a problem for me.”

  Dana rescued her, “Mel's mom still has a little trouble with the whole lesbian couple thing. She's coming around though.”

  “Yeah,” Mel nodded as she spoke. “Dana's mother and her open mindedness are a big part of that. Those two have become fast friends. Chloe's easy going style seems to be rubbing off a little.”

  “So no PDA's or after dinner sex, got it,” Barb joked just loud enough for the little group of us to hear. As we all laughed, another knock sounded at the door.

  An older woman, who was just entering the room, called out, “I'll get it,” and then, under her breath but just loud enough for the four of us to hear as she walked by us, “since no one else ever hears the door.”

  “Whoever you are, I hope you're hungry,” she called in greeting as she pulled the door open and then stopped short.

  Her face drained of color as she stepped back to reveal a cute, beaming young woman holding the hand of another pretty young woman.

  Must be mother Crane, I thought to myself, as the older woman stood shell shocked.

  Not noticing their hosts obvious distress, “Merry Christmas!” both women called out.

  The four of us moved toward the door in a group to welcome the unsuspecting newcomers.

  “That was quite an interesting afternoon,” Barb said as we drove away from the party back toward her bar where I’d parked my own car.

  “You’re not kidding there. I thought Mrs. Crane was going to have heart failure.” I smiled nervously and glanced at my pseudo date as she drove.

  When she only shook her head in response, we fell into an uneasy silence but, fortunately, the trip was short.

  As we pulled into the lot outside the Boar’s Head, Barb finally spoke again. “Would you like a drink?”

  “Here?” I was confused.

  “Yes…I mean, it’s just after 7:00. I planned to open at 8:00.”

  “Oh. I see. I guess I thought you’d be closed today.”

  She shrugged and replied, “I didn’t expect to get into much today or to stay at Mel’s folks as long as we did. I had Christmas with my parents last night and I took them over food this morning. I figured after the party today I’d be at loose ends and I could just open for anyone else that needed to get away from all of their own holiday hullabaloo too.”

  “I’m technically on duty…I’m on call.”

  “Coffee then?” Her new offer seemed a little halfhearted.

  “No, not today,” I said. “How about a rain check though some afternoon or evening when you don’t need to be here?”

  Barb nodded. “It’s a deal. I’ll give you a call.” Her tone said otherwise.

  We got out of her SUV and hugged briefly. I watched her as she walked toward the front door and let herself in. She sketched a slight wave at me as she closed the door behind her.

  I didn’t know what I felt and I didn’t want to examine my feelings any closer.

  Chapter 22

  February 12th, 2015

  I was just coming on shift when Mel beckoned to me. “You’re with me,” she said. “Let’s go.”

  As we made our way to her vehicle she told me there was some sort of biker ruckus going on at the Boar’s Head.

  Her personal cell rang as we were climbing into her vehicle. “Barb,” she said glancing at it before she answered it.

  “I just got the call,” she answered her without preamble. “I’m enroute. Where are you?”

  Barb’s voice came through loud and clear as Mel’s Bluetooth picked her up. “On my way there too. Almost there in fact; the alarm company called me.”

  “Turn around and go home. It’s probably nothing.”

  “No way, Mel.”

  “I promise,” she said back, “I’ll call you as soon as I assess the situation.”

  Barb hung up without saying another word.

  We arrived at the scene 15 minutes later to find more than a dozen motorcycles tearing around in the parking lot in the late winter cold and driving across the now broken up remnants of what had been the front entry porch. The door was standing wide open and the dark tinted glass front window was shattered. Inside we could see that there were more bikes and bikers.

  Outside, one biker fired a shotgun into the air and hollered something but I couldn’t make out what he was saying above the roar of all of his marauding fellow gangbangers on Harleys.

  Three cruisers were already on the scene, amassed across the road. Barb’s own SUV was over there too, several yards behind the three cruisers, but I couldn’t see her inside.

  Mel pulled in alongside the car of the Patrol Sergeant, Joe Treadway, and parked then got on her two way and ordered traffic diversions to be set up immediately in both directions and coming North out of Morelville.

  After that, we both dismounted. Using our doors as shields, we worked our way around the back of the SUV and up behind Treadway’s cruiser. He was back behind it, keeping it between him and the bikers across the way. He had his shotgun at the ready and a look of pure determination in his eyes.

  “What the hell, now?” Mel questioned him.

  “Other than they’re all Z Renegades over there, no idea Sheriff. Been here about 10 minutes. Gates and McDonald both got here just before me. They said it was already like this when they got here.”

  Mel tossed her head backwards. “That’s the owner’s SUV back there. Where’s she?”

  “I told her to get back in it and get out of here. She’s in there; won’t leave.”

  She moved back over to her SUV, popped the rear lift gate and got out her own shotgun and handed it to me. Then she took out a portable bullhorn and a pair of binoculars. Moving back alongside Treadway, she raised the optics to her eyes and peered across at the bar.

  A man across the street mounted a bike, fired it up and, holding a shotgun aloft, drove to the edge of the lot where he faced us. He idled the bike and hollered something across the road. I couldn’t hear what he said.

  Treadway raised his shotgun but Mel put out a hand to stay him as the biker turned and, still holding the gun, waved his arms at the other men on bikes. ‘Juice’ was stitched across the back of his jacket.

  In ones and twos, the other bikers pulled up alongside him and idled their bikes too.

  When it was quieter, Mel got on the bullhorn. “You must cease and desist now!”

  Laughter peeled from the other side of the road. ‘Juice’ waved a hand for quiet. When his posse quieted down, he screamed across the divide, “Y
ou’re outmanned and outgunned pigs; fall back! We’re taking back our old hang out. I rule this turf now!”

  He fired his bike back up and the others followed suit then. Driving out onto the road, he circled back to the bar. The other men all pulled or backed their rides away too and resumed the craziness of just a couple of minutes before.

  “He’s right,” Mel said to those of us in earshot. “We are outmanned and outgunned, for now. We’re sitting ducks over here if they decide to rush us.”

  The driver’s side door to the SUV behind us swung open. We both turned to watch as Barb stepped down.

  “Get back in your truck!” Mel yelled.

  She didn’t listen to her. Marching right up to her, she screamed too, “My bar! Do something!” She grabbed Mel by the shoulders. Treadway and I both moved from opposite sides to pry her hands away from our boss.

  “Don’t hurt her,” Mel cautioned us.

  “Mel, you have to save my bar. My life…everything I have left…that’s all of it. Besides my house, there isn’t any more after fighting for Lisa’s life and battling that damn hospital!”

  It seemed like Mel zoned out for several long seconds, as if she was lost in a memory. Abruptly, she shook her head and stared hard across the street at the bar.

  Still holding onto one of Barb’s arms with one hand, I started to follow her gaze but she turned to me then, plucked the shotgun from my other hand and told me, “Take her truck and get her home.”

  I nodded.

  “I’m not leaving!” Barb cried out.

  “We’ve got this,” Mel asserted back to her, “but it’s not safe for you to be here right now. I can’t do what I need to do if I’m worried about you.” She stared into Barb’s eyes and waited for her response.