The Passed Prop--The Morelville Cozies--Book 1 Read online

  “I’ll take all the help I can get.”

  ###

  We were in our familiar positions at the sink, washing up after dinner and chatting. Once Jesse headed down to the barn to do his evening rounds, the conversation turned to the latest attempt at murder by stake.

  “I’m at a complete loss Chloe,” I told her. “We were totally on the wrong track.”

  “Do you really think so? The witness told Mel he saw three men leaving the scene; if Frank was the fourth one, then we could still be onto something. Don’t you think we ought to talk to Mel now?”

  “One and one doesn’t make two here sweetie. We still have nothing.” I sighed. “We were wrong, plain and simple.”

  “This woman they...they...you know...who is she? Everyone’s talking about her but no one’s saying much that’s of any use.”

  “Kimber...Kimberly, but everyone calls her Kimber, is a Brietland; or rather, she married into the Brietland family. They’re old money around here. Kimber takes it all to heart. She fancies herself a real social climber.” I rolled my eyes without really giving the action any thought but Chloe caught it and latched on.

  “So she’s another annoying person in town, I take it?”

  “No, I wouldn’t go that far. She’s perfectly nice; she just doesn’t have a lot of time for people or events that don’t...how can I put it? That don’t make her look good, if you know what I mean?”

  Chloe picked up a stack of dried plates and, moving over to the china cabinet, placed them inside. Turning, she leaned back against it and, arms folded, eyed me until I felt her gaze and turned from my task at the sink to face her.

  “What are you thinking?”

  “I don’t know all the players,” Chloe said carefully, “but I’ve got to think that somehow the three victims are all tied together by a common thread that the killers see but we don’t right now.”

  “I got nothin’, honest,” I said. “They’re all as different as night and day, in most ways. Blake fit the mold we had and I’m pretty sure it was Frank Lee hanging out in the alley last night near his place. Kimber however doesn’t fit the mold at all. The woman’s a socialite and a high school cheerleading coach and nothing more. She’s not even on the radar of most people around here, good or bad.”

  “Where does she live?”

  “All of the Brietland clan that’s still in the area live on rolling farmland the family owns just outside of the village. As each boy married and then each grandson, they got some acreage deeded over as a wedding present.”

  “Very generous.”

  “The most senior Brietland, Warren, can afford to give land away to kin to keep them close. He owns thousands of acres.”

  “And she’s a coach?”

  “Yeah, I guess. She’s been working with the cheerleaders at the high school for the last few years. The school is about half way between here and Zanesville. You pass right by it if you’re running into Zanesville for anything.”

  Chloe nodded and then stepped over and resumed her position at the sink. “No raising a stink at community events or anything?”

  “Nope. The Brietland’s are supportive of the community.”

  “But, is she?”

  “On the surface, yes. Privately, who knows? Chloe, I know you’re trying but there really isn’t anything there to tie her into any of this. We might as well admit that we’re done; there’s nothing else we can do.”

  Chloe Rossi

  Monday afternoon, November 10th, 2014

  “Marco, Jennifer Coventry just called me.”

  “And; did Sheila take the offer?” he asked.

  “She countered at $25,000.”

  It was quiet on the other end of the line as Marco let that soak in. Finally, he asked, “What did you tell her?”

  “I told her I had to talk to you.”

  “That’s pretty steep Chloe, for what we’d be getting...”

  “It is and it isn’t. It’s worth that to her and, truthfully, we’d make that back in the first year, just on the store sales.”

  “Barely. What about the other stuff? The crime stuff; what’s going on there?”

  “There was another attempt,” she told him honestly. “They were seen...three men and a vehicle were seen. Mel’s department is working around the clock on it.”

  “Hmm, I just don’t know. Between the price and the local problems...Well, I’ll just have to think on it. When does she need to know?”

  “There are no other offers Marco. I think she’ll wait a while but I’m sure the bills are piling up for her and every day that goes by makes it that much harder to get that place reopened for us.”

  “Right, I know.” He blew out a breath and made low sounds over the phone like he was thinking fast.

  “What do you say, Marco?”

  “You know what? Let me take a day; I’m going to let my brain work on it overnight. What’s a few more hours in the scheme of things, after all? How about you call me tomorrow when you’re done at Barb’s place for the day?”

  “Okay, I guess. I just want to say, I understand your concerns, really I do. I really do think the price is good and I don’t think what’s going on here right now is going to be an issue for us. Everyone’s guard is up now and those guys are likely running scared. Mel’s after them. She’ll nail them; you just watch. Just consider all of that, okay?”

  “I will,” he promised.

  “I love you.”

  “Love you too.”

  Faye Crane

  Monday Evening, November 10th, 2014

  Morelville Jr-Sr High School

  I was waiting outside the school for Beth. The girl didn’t have an athletic bone in her body but someone had convinced her it’d be fun for her to play 8th grade basketball.

  Girls started to stream outside from the seventh and eighth grade joint practice session. Beth came out chatting with two other girls but, when she spotted my car in the waiting line instead of her mother’s, she appeared to bid them a hasty goodbye and then she jogged right over.

  After flopping into the front seat, she declared, “I’m hungry Grandma. What are you making for dinner?”

  “Actually, your grandpa and I ate spaghetti tonight but there’s some left, if you want it. I don’t know what your mom made. She got called into the station to work until close because Trina’s son got sick.”

  “Oh. Spaghetti’s fine. Mom probably didn’t cook much of anything anyway. Lance does most of the cooking now but he went out on the road this morning, I guess.”

  I nodded to confirm that. “So, how was practice?”

  Beth half shrugged and started fiddling with the radio. Okay”, I guess. Coach says I’m improving.”

  “Improving what? What have you been working on?”

  “I dunno what exactly. Today we worked on dribbling and moving with the ball a lot so that must be what he meant.”

  As I was pulling out of the lot, I noticed some cheerleaders getting ready to get on a bus. “Where are they going?” I asked Beth.

  She glanced over at them. “The boys must have an away basketball game somewhere.”

  “Who’s coaching them, I wonder?” Oops, maybe I shouldn’t have brought that up...

  It was too late; it was already out there. Beth stopped fiddling with the radio controls and shot me a look. “You know what happened to Kimber Brietland, don’t you?”

  “I do. I’m surprised you know about that.”

  “How could I not, it’s all over school. Besides the 7th and 8th grade cheer ‘hos’ always practice when we practice.”

  “Beth! Watch your mouth! That’s a terrible thing to say!”

  “Grandma that’s what they call themselves!”

  “That’s disgusting.”

  She shrugged again. “Whatever.”

  “A lot of the kids are saying that Kimber had it coming.”

  My ears perked up. “What? Why?”

  “There was a lot of trouble with the football cheerleaders this year.
A bunch of girls that were 7th and 8th grade cheerleaders didn’t even make the JV squad for football this year. Kimber told them she might use them for basketball though so they should keep their grades up and stay on top of their nails and stuff.”

  “That doesn’t really seem fair; I mean to not put them on the squad but then expect them to maintain themselves like they did make it.”

  “That’s not all Grandma; Kimber’s youngest daughter Paige is a freshman. Kimber put her on the JV squad. During football season, she let her cheer with the varsity a lot but none of the other JV cheerleaders got to do it.”

  “Now that isn’t fair. If the varsity is shorthanded, they should take turns using the JV girls in their routines.” So, she was showing a little favoritism for her own daughter...that’s not cool but it’s not a crime either.

  “My friend Emily who’s on the JV squad told me that Tiffany Brietland is the Captain of the varsity squad even though there are seniors on the squad. She says Kimber has been really tough on them all, all year. They get punished for things like not having their hair bow in when they get to the school for a home game even though there’s prep time allowed before the game.”

  “Coaches have to be strict, you know Beth. Being a disciplined team is important.”

  “I know. My coach always says that, but at least he doesn’t give demerits and threaten to kick us off the team for stupid stuff like she does. Emily says a lot of the parents are really fed up with Kimber, not just the girls.”

  Our conversation made me think more about Kimber as a part of the pattern of the killings. I shook my head hard to clear it.

  Come on Faye! Stop! While annoying a bunch of teenage girls and their helicopter parents isn’t necessarily right, it’s life and pretty commonplace for high school athletes.

  I sent up a little prayer in the hopes that Kimber Brietland overcame her injuries, that the killings stopped and that the killers were brought to justice.

  Chapter 26 – A Chance Meeting

  Faye Crane

  Wednesday, November 12th, 2014

  Crane Family Farm

  “What are you getting into today?”

  Chloe put down her coffee cup with a sigh. “I talked to Marco last night. He wanted a day to think about it but, it turns out, he’s still undecided about the store. He wanted me to call Jennifer and see if I could squeeze a little more out of them. I told him no. We’d do it at twenty-five, or we wouldn’t do it.”

  Oh dear... “What did he say?”

  “He said he’d give me his decision later today. I have to be at Barb’s to take a sofa delivery at 10:30. After that, I’m at loose ends and on pins and needles, so to speak, until he gets off work at 4:00.” She got up and rinsed her cup. “Tell me something to cheer me up; what are you getting yourself into today?”

  “Nothing exciting; I’ve got to go to the grocery store this morning. We’re running low on everything that isn’t canned or frozen.”

  Chloe smiled. I don’t envy you that trip but, if you time it right, I’ll be back here to help you put it all away.”

  It was my turn to smile. I walked over and gave her a quick hug too. “Sweetie, for your sake, I hope that these guys almost getting caught ends their activities and that life gets back to normal around here. You need to turn your full attention back to Barb’s house and get that done and then we need to both work on convincing Marco that Morelville is a great place to semi-retire.”

  “Amen!”

  ###

  The Zanesville Kroger store loomed before me just after 9:00. After I gathered my purse and my list and locked up the car, I took a deep breath of the cool morning air before heading in. Let’s get this over with...

  Most people don’t mind grocery shopping. I despise it. We grow or raise a lot of what we eat and we buy other stuff to freeze and can from other local farmers. I relied on the Morelville General Store for most of the things I couldn’t produce myself or procure from others. I was missing it and feeling the pain of driving nearly 40 minutes each way to buy things like toilet paper and shampoo.

  Sometimes you could get the little necessities at the Amish run bent and dent stores scattered around but you couldn’t count on them to have exactly what you needed when you needed it.

  I trudged inside and grabbed a cart. Wheeling quickly past all of the produce, I stopped and took a peek at the seafood. My girls and I are partial to shrimp but there were no deals to be had on it so I moved on.

  I was loading cans of coffee into my cart when someone called out, “Faye? Faye Crane, is that you?”

  I turned to see an old high school friend, Nancy Simpson, coming toward me.

  “Nancy, how long has it been?” I moved forward to meet her and we hugged like the old friends that we were.

  “At least ten years but, wow, do you look good! Are you still living in the village Faye?”

  “Yes...er, no, not in the village; we still have our farm. Mom and dad are both gone now. My daughter Kris, her kids and her new husband Lance live in the house I grew up in.”

  “That’s so nice, keeping it in the family like that.”

  “How about you? What have you been up to?”

  “Hugh finally retired from the Army. We came back here to see his dad a few months ago, he’s over at Cedar Hill, and we’ve been hanging around ever since. He’s in pretty bad shape so we’ve been looking after the house and his dogs.”

  “Are you going to stay on here?”

  “I can’t answer that for sure. We’ve certainly talked about it. The kids are spread out all over. Only Hugh Jr. is here in Ohio but his ex-wife is living with the kids in Atlanta.”

  I winced. “I’m sorry to hear that Hugh’s dad is doing so poorly and, well, about Hugh Junior’s split. That has to be tough.”

  “Oh, they’re making it work for now. We’ll see what happens when the kids get tired of shuttling back and forth for summers and holidays. Look, I hate to sound nosy but, I have to know, is it your daughter Melissa who’s the County Sheriff?” Her tone was kindly and pride filled my chest.

  “Yes, that’s our Mel.”

  “I don’t know how you do it then! I’d be worried sick about her all the time.”

  “You don’t know the half of it. I support her, of course, but I was not for her going into police work and leery about her running for Sheriff. She loves the job though...er, most of the time.”

  “Oh, you mean with all the stuff that’s going on that’s been all over the news?”

  “Well yes, there’s that but that’s an expected part of the job for her – not welcome, but expected. I meant all the political hoo-ha and such. She doesn’t care for that aspect of being Sheriff.”

  A woman attempted to squeeze around me to get to the Folgers. I shifted my cart to the other side of the aisle, blocking Nancy’s way, and squeezed over behind it to allow the other woman through. Nancy and I both fell silent until she was out of earshot.

  Watching her retreating back, Nancy said, “That’s a nasty business that she’s caught up in right now, isn’t it?”

  I pursed my lips but nodded affirmatively.

  “That poor Brietland woman...I mean say what you want about her, but I certainly hope she recovers and makes it out of what she went through alive. Say what you want about her but no one deserves that.”

  “What do you mean by that? Did you know her?”

  “It’s more like, I knew of her. She’s a strict one and the kids don’t care for her at all. Now, I was a cheerleader back in the day,” she paused and shook her head ruefully, “and I remember our coaches being strict back then but we took it in stride it was all a part of it if you wanted to be on the squad or if you wanted to play a sport.”

  “You’re right about that. These kids don’t realize how easy they have it these days. Their parents coddle them, even in a rural area like Morelville, and hand them everything.”

  “Agreed but, sometimes, there are exceptions. Do you remember Julie McDonald...um, used to be K
ing?”

  “That we went to school with? Yes.”

  “Her granddaughter Ashley is a senior on the squad. She’s the girl I really feel for. She really should have been the captain but she was supposedly beaten out in a secret vote of the squad by the coach’s daughter Tiffany. Julie told me that Ashley believes some girls certainly did vote for Tiffany but, she’s sure she got most of the senior votes and several others. Kimber Brietland was the only one who saw the votes and she forbid the girls to talk about who they voted for as something that would be bad for team moral. She told them, ‘The captain is the captain and whoever that is, they are to work with her as a team’.”

  ###

  The miles flew by on the way home from Zanesville. All I could think about was Julie McDonald and her granddaughter Ashley.

  When I got back, Chloe was just getting out of her car. I accosted her in the driveway with, “Perfect timing because, oh, do I have something to tell you!”

  I popped the trunk open and we both started lifting bags out while I jumped right into my story about running into Nancy and what she told me. By the time we were headed back outside for a second load, I was saying to Chloe, “Julie was a ‘King’ prior to her marriage. Her brother Pierce is one of the Quadvillians.”

  “Her brother? That would make this Ashley girl, what to him?”

  “If she’s his sister Julie’s granddaughter, it would make Pierce her great uncle.”

  “Okay, I see the family connection but we had so little to go on before and this really doesn’t add anything to it. Do you honestly think he’d rally his buddies and try to kill the cheerleading coach because she was a little hard on the girls or because she rigged the captain election?”

  “It does seem a little farfetched when you put it that way...” I put down my bags and started rooting through them while I gave it all a little more thought. Chloe was quiet too.

  “All I can think of,” I started the conversation back up again, “is that maybe Pierce took a little pity on his great niece and he convinced two of the guys to go after the coach as an easier target first. I’m pretty sure it was Frank Lee watching Blake’s house the other night, but Blake’s a gunsmith. He’s always got potential weapons around to use.”