Opera House Ops: Episode 1 - Breaking In: A Morelville Cozies Serial Mystery Read online

  Chapter 4 – Bum Busted

  6:00 AM, Saturday Morning, June 6th

  “I didn’t wake you did I?”

  “No mom, I’m up; almost ready to head out. What’s going on? Is everything okay? I’m surprised you’re up though…I mean, Hannah didn’t get in until after 2:00.”

  “You always were a light sleeper. I didn’t wake the baby, did I?”

  Mel let out a heavy breath. “No. Hannah came in and got him when she came home.”

  “Oh, that’s good.”

  “Mom! What is it? Tell me what’s going on.” She was getting impatient.

  “Your father’s just heading out to the barn. He forgot something.”

  “Who’s that?” Mel heard her father ask.

  Without covering the phone, her mother lied to him, “It’s Mel. Hannah’s still asleep. She knew I’d be up; she was just calling to see how it went last night.”

  The answer must have satisfied him because soon her mother said, “Sorry dear. He just left again.”

  “You called me. Why did you lie to him?”

  “Because I didn’t want him to worry.”

  “About?”

  “You said you were going to check the opera house this morning, remember?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Well just be careful. I saw a strange man, a bum I guess you’d say, heading that way and then going toward the building while I was outside taking a little break last night. Don’t worry though, I don’t think he saw me.”

  “Did you follow him?” Mel’s tone was accusing.

  “No dear; I didn’t.”

  Her mother’s answer didn’t placate her. “You let me handle it from here. Don’t you and Chloe go nosing around like you always do. One of these days that could get you two into a scrape I can’t get you out of.”

  “I didn’t even tell Chloe. I didn’t want Hannah to hear and have anything else to worry about. The only one I’ve told is you.”

  “Okay, good. I’ll take care of it.”

  “Mel? Be careful. I just hate it when you’re in situations like this. I worry.”

  “I know mom, but I’ll be fine. I’ll call for backup before I even go in if I think it’s warranted.”

  Faye let out a breath like she’d been holding it. “That makes me feel a little better.”

  Mel smiled, catching the implication. “I love you too, mom. I gotta get going.”

  ###

  Mel drove past the opera house intentionally and pulled her pickup truck into the parking area of the old auto body shop next door. It was an empty building, sometimes used for storage, by Kent Gross, the developer that owned it. If the bum was in the opera house, she didn’t want to spook him and flush him out before she could catch him.

  She approached the building carefully on foot. The right side was less than a yard from the left side of the old shop building. She could see down between the two buildings pretty easily, even in the dimness of the early morning. There was nothing and nobody there, just a gravel track separating the two structures where weeds poked through here and there.

  As she passed along the front slowly, she looked at the big sliding door. It was fully closed. A heavy metal slide went from the door through a hole in a metal post attached to the building. A thick padlock, locked up tight, dangled from a hole at the end of the metal slide. The slide wasn’t going back through the hole in the post until the lock was removed.

  Mel turned the corner and edged down along the left side of the building, checking the stained glass windows as she went. A palm sized rock lay on the ground under the second one; the one Marco had reported he’d seen propped open with a wedged rock. The window was closed but Mel was willing to bet it wasn’t locked from the inside. She picked the stone up and chucked it into the culvert nearby where she heard it splash into the thin stream of water that was always running through then she took her keys out of her pocket and, using a thin one, eased it under the edge of the old wood frame. It was loose and the window swung out enough for her to get her fingers under it. She eased it up carefully, stooped and peered inside.

  The extra light the opening let in or seeing her looking in must have alerted whomever was holed up inside. She heard the scurry of feet back away from the concert hall area and her position but she couldn’t see anything in the murky interior.

  Ducking back out quickly, she eased the window down, stood and then jogged in full gear to the back of the building where there was a single exit door.

  Over the years someone had added a household screen door into the framing around the heavy wood back door, probably so they could get a little air circulation in the confined back area behind the stage. That door was closed and latched and it appeared the heavy door was too.

  Mel jumped back to the corner so she could swivel her head and watch the door and the windows. They were the only ways out.

  She didn’t have to wait long. Within moments, someone began fumbling from inside with the back door. She stepped completely around the corner to be hidden until the culprit emerged and waited.

  There was a whoosh as the heavy wood door swung inward and then the metallic click of a thumb lock at the screen door catch was unlocked. She undid the snap catch holding her service pistol in the holster and eased the gun out. When she heard the screen door creak open slowly she raised the weapon, waited until she sensed someone had stepped out, then eased back around the corner.

  “Police!”

  A man of about 35 or so spun as if startled that someone might still be out there and then, seeing the gun trained on him, froze in place.

  He was unarmed or he appeared to be. Mel extended her left arm and held her hand up. “Don’t move.” With her right hand she re-holstered her weapon quickly.

  “I won’t,” he said, his voice trembling.

  “You got a name?”

  “Moody; Douglas Moody.”

  “Do you have an ID Mr. Moody?”

  He shook his head.

  “Any weapons on your person?”

  “I…I have an old pocket knife in my right front pocket.” He had a bit of a southern accent.

  “Any needles or anything else that might stick me when I pat you down?”

  “No ma’am. Am I under arrest?”

  “We’ll see about that. Turn around, face the building, put your hands on the wall over your head, and spread your feet.”

  He did as she instructed and she patted him down, removing the knife he’d told her about and a small amount of change from his pockets. “You can take your arms down now and face me.” She studied his face as he turned.

  “How long have you been holing up inside?” She tipped her chin toward the building.

  “Only last night. It was getting late and…and I knew it would be the last village I came to for a while. I was going to try and find a barn or something like that to crash in but…” He paused.

  “Go on. How’d you get inside?”

  “The window…as I was passing, I could see it was propped open just a little. I could just make it out in the dark last night…thought it might be worth a look.”

  “The window?” Mel’s eyes narrowed as she looked at him. Marco had said he’d made sure it was closed when he found it open.

  Moody nodded.

  “So you’re just passing through?”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  “Leave anything inside?”

  “No.”

  “You’re traveling awful light.”

  He didn’t respond.

  “Where you headed?”

  “Toledo.”

  She was taken aback. “You’re quite a ways from Toledo.”

  “I got a brother there. I lost my job, my apartment. He said he’d do what he could to help me but I had to get there. I was on a bus out of Parkersburg, fell asleep and my wallet got stolen with my ticket in it only I didn’t know it till I got off in McConelsville to have a smoke and couldn’t get back on. They changed drivers.”

  “S
o you’re walking?”

  He nodded. “For the last couple of days, yeah. I was just trying to get to Zanesville to a bigger bus station, see if I could talk them into reissuing my ticket…something…I dunno.”

  Mel stepped over and opened the screen door, reached inside and set the lock on the wood door then pulled it closed and checked that it latched. She moved back over to Moody then and handed him back his knife and his change. “When’s the last time you ate?”

  He shrugged. “I’m okay.”

  “Come on,” she said. “Let’s get you to Zanesville. I’m headed into work that way anyway.”

  “Um, uh thank you, officer…er, deputy. Er, what do I call you?”

  “It’s Sheriff, but you can call me Mel. Now let’s go; I’m hungry, myself and I’ll bet you really are too.”

  He followed along behind her and went around to the passenger side when she indicated her pickup. He almost forgot to take off his top hat when he attempted to enter, knocking it askew before he remembered it.

  “What’s with the hat, anyway?”

  “Found it…thought it was kind of cool.”

  After buying him breakfast and a new bus ticket that would have him in Toledo by sundown and giving him a little meal money she hoped he didn’t spend on cigarettes, she left him at the terminal and went on to the station.

  ###

  10:02 AM Saturday, June 6th

  Muskingum County Sheriff’s Office

  “Yes mother, there was a man in there.”

  “Did you arrest him?”

  “No.”

  “Oh…he didn’t break in?”

  Mel sighed. “Yes but he didn’t hurt anything. He was just a guy down on his luck passing through. I helped him out and sent him on his way.”

  “Good girl!” Faye was quiet after that.

  Mel knew she really needed to get a little work done but she couldn’t help but ask, “How’s Hannah’s opening going?”

  “Great. I’m actually at your house taking a turn with Jef so Dana could go up there. He’s asleep right now. When I left there about 15 minutes ago we were almost sold out of all the bread we baked last night and people are snatching up cupcakes like they’ve never had one before.”

  “She does make those unbelievable red velvet ones and those carrot cake ones that’ll make you forget they have vegetables in them.”

  “I’d hardly call them good for you, Melissa!”

  “I know, I didn’t. I’m just saying they’re good. Now, I’m sorry, but I’ve got to go if I want to get out of here at noon. Call Dana for me please and tell her to set aside a couple of each of those two, if I’m not too late.”

  “Okay dear…and…”

  “And what?”

  “I’m thinking this isn’t over.”

  “What isn’t?”

  “People being in the opera house that shouldn’t be there. If he was just passing through…”

  “I’m one step ahead of you. I told you before, I figure it’s kids. They’re getting in through a window and that’s how he did. Not a lot I can do to lock those up if they’ve found one with a broken lock. Those are old. I’m just going to have to catch them in the act and put a little fear in them.”

  “Well do it soon. I’d hate for any of that beautiful stained glass to get broken down there or anything worse to happen.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m not going to let anything bad happen there.”

  Chapter 5 – Missed

  Mel stopped at the opera house on her way home and parked conspicuously out in front of it. It was only 12:30. People were milling all about the village and Hannah’s little bakery appeared to be buzzing. She was sure word about her activities - that she was out and about, checking things out - would spread quickly in ‘Gossipville’, her secret nickname for Morelville. That’s what she wanted.

  The first window, the one closest to the road, was closed and seemingly latched from inside. She couldn’t budge it by trying to pry at the frame at all.

  She was prepared for the second window. When she opened it easily enough again, as she had in the morning, she got as far up inside of it as her broad shoulders and gun belt would let her to have a better look. There was a thumb latch and it moved but nothing happened with the spring loaded mechanism that was supposed to lock the window frame sides into the framing around the window opening.

  After sliding down the wall and back out from under the bottom-opening window, she closed it as tight as she could and then took a roll of duct tape off her belt that she’d looped around her PR-24. She pulled off a long piece of the sticky tape and ran it all along the bottom edge of the window and along the sill. She repeated the action up both sides of the opening portion of the beautiful window. “Better to do a little paint damage to the frame,” she said aloud, “than to have the stained glass broken by fools.”

  Satisfied with her work there, she moved along to check the other two windows and then she went around to the back of the building and pulled open the screen door to get a closer look at it. It was a standard model with only a thumb lock to secure it from inside. There was no outer lock. She tried the heavy wood door. It was still locked, as she’d left it that morning.

  Wishing she’d have been able to take a quick look inside without the likes of Doug Moody in tow, she chided herself a bit but then closed the screen door, left and went down to the bakery.

  ###

  “Hannah, these are delicious.”

  The younger woman’s eyes sparkled. “These? But you’ve only tasted your red velvet one,” she teased.

  “You know what I mean. I’m pacing myself but it’s a good thing I had mom call down here and have these two held back. I can see you’re almost out of all of your cupcakes.”

  “Aren’t they just divine, Sheriff?” an older woman’s voice questioned her from one of the three tables that took up half the portion of the area of the little shop out in front of the display cases.

  Mel turned to find old Lucy Sharpe, a lifelong resident of the village and the owner of an antique shop studying her, waiting for her response.

  “Well hello Mrs. Sharpe,” she said to her. “That they are. You’re having the chocolate, I see. It’s my third favorite just barely edged out by the red velvet and the carrot cake.”

  “Then you’re not a true chocolate fan, as I am. Red velvet has a cocoa base, you know.”

  Mel’s head shot around and she eyed Hannah at the counter who laughed.

  “It’s true, Mel. That’s how it starts.”

  “I learn something new every day!” Hannah just grinned and began to help another customer.

  Mel turned back to Lucy. “Who’s minding the shop while you’re down here eating treats?”

  “My daughter’s in town. She took the store for me so I could go to the special meeting of our women’s group at the church this morning and, honestly, I was expecting Doris Procter to join me here. She must have got held up by one of the other ladies. We were talking about the community picnic, you know and,” she was about to ramble on but then something outside caught her eye and she changed course. “No wait, here she comes now.”

  Doris, the long-time church secretary, breezed through the door and looked around. “Well isn’t this just quaint; just the cutest thing!”

  Lucy caught her attention and patted the table across from her. “I saved you a seat. Good thing you got here when you did. Everything’s going fast!”

  “I see that,” she said as she moved closer. Rather than sitting, she focused her attention on the display case closest to the cash register. “Give me two of the white chocolate, macadamia cookies to go for a little treat later,” she told Hannah once she’d finished with the customer before her, “and I’ll have one of those lemon with the cream cheese frosting cupcakes and a cup of coffee now,” she said as she pointed at the remaining cupcakes in the middle case. “Don’t you have any bread?”

  “No ma’am, I apologize. It flew out of here today but they might have a loaf or t
wo left up front in the store. Would you like me to check?”

  “Oh, that would be just lovely! Thank you. White, if you’ve got it but whatever you have…except rye, if you don’t. I’m not picky.” She patted her stomach.

  “One moment,” Hannah told her and then she scooted through the swinging door into the kitchen area and presumably through the store room to the store.

  The door hadn’t stopped swinging behind her when Dana stepped through with a mixed tray of cookies and caught site of Mel. “Isn’t this crazy?” she asked. “I hope, for her sake, it slows down a little. She’ll go crazy trying to keep up between this place, school and Jef.”

  Doris jumped in before Mel could reply. “It’s just new, is all. It’ll taper down a bit but, hopefully not much. There’s nothing like this anywhere close to here, after all.”

  Dana started lining up cookies in the case. “This is the last of them,’ she told everyone in hearing distance. “When they’re gone they’re gone.” Focusing back on Mel and lowering her voice she continued, “Good thing she’ll be closed on Sunday’s; she can catch her breath.”

  “I’m surprised you’re still down here,” Mel said. I figured mom would want to come back and be in the middle of all the action.”

  “She’s pretty tired from last night’s marathon baking session and then getting up with your dad as usual this morning Mel. I’m sure she and Jef are having a nice nap.”

  “And how’s Jef doing?” Doris interrupted, listening in.

  “He’s great,” both women responded at once.

  “A real trooper,” Mel said. “He’s adjusting to Hannah and all of us pretty well. She’s got him all settled into a schedule now and…”

  Hannah returned then with a bagged loaf of her homemade white bread in hand. “Last one!” While she rang Procter up, the older woman focused her questions on her.