Finding Sheila, Page 2

  The woman shook her head no, as the male driver leaned across her and said, “She didn’t see nothin’ and she ain’t getting involved.” Dana peered into their tiny car. Two small overnight bags and a coat were all that were there.

  The driver sat upright and gunned the engine. “She’s a prisoner,” Dana yelled, over the noise. “If you saw something and don’t report it, you could be charged for obstructing justice or…” She had to jump back as he put the car in gear and pulled away.

  The first trooper with the Kentucky State Police was on the scene within minutes of her radioed distress call. He immediately called in reinforcements, then had a local Sheriff’s deputy block the main exit so no one could leave.

  More State Troopers responded from several miles around and began a canvass of the area around the rest stop.

  Dana continued trying to question people. Most, she found, had arrived at the rest stop after they did, and no one claimed to have seen anything. Exasperated, she walked toward the last 18-wheeler in a long row, one she hadn’t yet seen a Trooper approach.

  A man opened the cab door on the driver’s side and climbed down. “Saw you coming. What’s going on? Why is everyone being held here?”

  Dana pointed toward the ambulance more than a hundred yards away. “We were transporting a prisoner from Tennessee to Ohio, a woman in her fifties in an orange prison jumpsuit. She’s gone missing from the back of the ambulance. Have you seen anyone come out of it besides me and the driver?”

  The truck driver stared off at the squad for several seconds and slowly shook his head. “Driver a woman?”

  “No, male.”

  “I saw a woman over that way in dark pants, light shirt with a jacket on that was navy blue…pretty dark blue.” He flung a hand in the general direction of the squad. “Thought she came out of the Pilot building though.”

  Dana rubbed the tender spot at the back of her head. She had a sketchy memory of someone she passed as she went into the Pilot Center that was dressed like that. The woman had smiled at Dana but didn’t speak. “What did she look like?”

  “A little overweight, I’d guess you’d say. Short hair, from what I could tell at this distance. Not very tall. Couldn’t tell you her age, though.”

  Dana controlled another shudder. “Did you see where she went?”

  “Up the row here, toward another semi. Dark blue cab, silver trailer.”

  “She got in?”

  He nodded. “On the passenger side, I’m pretty sure.”

  “Any markings at all on it?”

  “Sorry. Not that I noticed and, before you ask, I didn’t catch any kind of a plate number on it either.”

  She glanced out toward the freeway. She could see the northbound ramp but not the southbound one. She pointed toward the ramp that was in view. “Did you see if they went north?”

  “Nope. Didn’t watch them that long.”

  Dana glanced around. Troopers were starting to mill about, out of places to search. She worried what he’d told her was a dead end, but since it was her only lead, she hustled back to the squad.

  Caleb stood by the driver’s side door, using a cell phone to talk to his dispatcher. She reached around him and yanked the door open then commanded him to give her the keys.

  He lowered the phone and pulled the keys out of his pocket as he asked, “What for?”

  “I’m going after Sheila!”

  “You can’t drive this ma’am.”

  “Watch me!” She snatched the keys away. “If you’re coming along, you better get in.”

  Moments later, as the squad rumbled to life and he was only half way in on the passenger side, she told him, “Give me lights and sirens so I can get past the local yokel blocking the exit up there.”

  “Won’t he know that we’re the ones that lost the lady and…”

  “Just do it!”

  Caleb did as he was told. His phone was still in his hand. He realized he’d never hung up with his dispatcher and raised it to his ear. ‘What’s going on? Are you rolling? Who’s that talking to you?’ she was asking. Scared, he disconnected the call and dropped the phone into the center console.

  Dana squeezed the ambulance through the space behind the patrol car blocking most of the exit from the travel center. She was a couple of feet into the grass and prayed that the ground was firm.

  She took a wild stab and turned down the northbound on ramp. On the highway, she laid on the gas. The sound in the cab with the siren screaming overhead was deafening. “You can turn that thing off now!”

  When it was quiet, she told him, “Radio your dispatcher if you feel like you need to, and tell her whatever you want to tell her.”

  He reached toward it but then drew his hand back again. “I don’t know what to say to her that won’t get me in any more trouble than I already am.”

  Dana sped around a car that wasn’t paying attention to her lights.

  Caleb grabbed one of the ‘Oh Shit’ handles. “Slow down. You’re breaking the law, driving this thing over the speed limit!”

  She shot him a look. “Seriously? We’re in pursuit of an escaped felon.”

  He gave in. “Maybe we need to turn the siren back on then, so people just get out of the way.”

  Chapter 4 - Gone

  “I’m ordering you to stop your pursuit and stand down,” a lieutenant with the Kentucky State Police called out over the radio. “We have officers northbound and southbound looking for the truck Thomas Harrington gave a description of.”

  Harrington? Must be the truck driver. It took them another fifteen minutes to get to him? “She’s my prisoner Lieutenant. What would you do, in my situation?”

  “I’d do as I’m told Deputy, so stand down. Go back to the Pilot Center and let us handle the manhunt. I have a forensics team on the way there to go over that vehicle you’re in with a fine-tooth comb. Do I have to remind you that it’s a crime scene?”

  “Something just doesn’t add up, Caleb. Help me out here.” Dana said to the EMT as she got off at an exit, went across the bridge, and waited to make the turn for the ramp to the southbound lanes.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You seem nervous.”

  “You…you…we lost Ms. Ford, and now you’re driving when you’re not supposed to be and…”

  Dana waved him off. “That’s not what I mean. Let’s talk about the chain of events.”

  He wrinkled his nose and gave her an odd look.

  “You locked the back door, right? And then you went to the restroom, right?”

  “Yes…yes ma’am.”

  “What happened after that?”

  “You know what happened. I was waiting for you in the hallway and you said…”

  She shook her head. “No, before that?”

  “I…I went back to the squad, but you weren’t back there yet.”

  “So, what did you do?”

  “I…I waited for you.”

  “Where?”

  “I was in the front seat, at first.”

  “And then where?”

  “You…you were gone so long, I got out and checked the back.”

  “Did you unlock it?”

  “No…I…I tried to look in, but you can’t see in that window too well when the lights aren’t on back there. I rapped on the glass, thinking maybe you were back in there.”

  But you locked it… She decided not to pursue that line of attack just then. “And then what did you do?”

  “I uh, I tried the door. It was unlocked. It was. And, when I looked in there, you and Ms. Ford were both gone.”

  “Can the door be unlocked from inside Caleb?”

  “By Ms. Ford?”

  “Yes, by Sheila Ford, or by anyone else back there!”

  “No…you have to have a key from inside and outside. It’s for safety.” He braced his hands against the dashboard. “You’re going too fast in this thing again. Please slow down. You’re going to get me in so much trouble.”

  “I hate
to break it to you pal, but you’re already in a world of trouble here.”

  “I didn’t do anything! I swear to you!”

  “A convicted felon got up out of a locked ambulance and walked away. You had the only key.”

  “I…I didn’t open it; I swear!” He glanced at her and then looked quickly away. “I thought you came back and she had to use the restroom or something and you took her, that’s all. I waited around, like ten minutes. When you didn’t come back, I got worried.”

  But I had no key. “And you came looking for me?”

  “Both of you.”

  But you insist that Ford pulled a Houdini…

  Dana spotted the Petro Center at the next exit, slowed and got off the freeway. The Sheriff’s deputy that had been blocking the main entry and exit was gone. A couple of State Police cruisers remained, parked in front of the station but she could see none in the larger lot that extended out behind it for trucks, the lot where they had parked. In a half hour, everything completely changed.

  She pulled up next to one of the cruisers and handed the keys to the squad to the first trooper to approach her.

  “What are you doing?” Caleb demanded. “Those are mine.”

  She pointed at the trooper. “You heard his lieutenant. The vehicle is a crime scene.”

  Caleb’s eyes grew wide. “They’re going to take it?”

  Trooper Michalchuk nodded. “Tow truck’s on the way.” He turned to Dana, “You shouldn’t have taken off with it.”

  “I know…I know. Heat of the moment.” She changed the subject. “Find any other witnesses here?”

  “No. We’ve got some blockades out, a chopper is up and we’ve got the locals turning Sonora upside down. It’s mostly farm fields around here. If she’s on foot, we’ll find her.”

  “Are we going back to your post, with you?” Dana asked him.

  The trooper nodded. “We’ll need your statements.”

  “Statement?” Caleb asked in a tone that bordered on panic to Dana’s ear.

  The trooper caught it too and gave him the eye, but he didn’t respond to his question.

  Dana thought about Mel, waiting back at the station in Ohio for the first time. “I’m going to have to call my…my Sheriff.”

  Michalchuk spotted the tow truck coming off the freeway ramp. “Go ahead but make it quick.”

  Chapter 5 - Mel

  Muskingum County Sheriff’s Department

  Zanesville, Ohio

  Holly poked her head around the door frame. “I’m heading out Sheriff, unless you really need me to stay?”

  “No. You go on home. I’ve got it.”

  Her assistant gave her a thumbs up. “I set line one to roll to you, just in case Dana calls. Everything else will go to the duty officer.”

  Andrea Anderson, the Deputy DA, raised an eyebrow but waited until Holly disappeared to say anything. When she was sure the Sergeant was gone, she turned to Mel, “I thought you told me you had to be around for a prisoner transfer?”

  “I did. I do.” She didn’t want to say anything else, but Andrea didn’t budge. “It’s…it’s a long story.”

  “I have all night.”

  “It doesn’t really concern the DA’s office…” Her line buzzed. Saved by the bell!

  She punched the button for line one. “Sheriff Crane.”

  “Mel, it’s Dana. We have a problem.”

  “Now what? Flat tire?”

  “I wish! No Mel, Sheila’s gone.”

  “What do you mean, gone?” Mel tried to whisper into the phone. She shot a look at Andrea who stood stock still, taking in every word.

  “Not here. Gone. Disappeared! We stopped at a rest stop near Elizabethtown Kentucky about an hour or so ago, so we could use the restroom and the driver, Caleb, could stretch his legs. We left Sheila locked in the back, and I know what you’re going to say…I shouldn’t have left her. I know.”

  Mel was silent, just trying to wrap her head around what she was hearing.

  “Mel? Are you still there?”

  “I’m here. Go on…how could that happen? How’d she get out?”

  “Someone knocked me out in the restroom, Mel. When I came too and came out of there, Caleb was waiting for me.”

  “Let me guess? He got cold-cocked or something too, and when the two of you got back, she was gone?”

  “No, no. It’s a little more complicated than that. He thought I came back for her…long story.”

  “Dana, first of all, are you okay?”

  “Fine…fine…a little goose egg on the head but I’m fine.” Anyway, we don’t see a trace of her anywhere around here.”

  “Call the Kentucky State Police. I’ll start alerting the Ohio Highway Patrol.”

  “Both are already done…as soon as we realized she was gone. The Tennessee Patrol was alerted too. Everybody I could think of. They’ve got all the troopers from the local post out, searching, a chopper up…everything they could think of. Oh Mel, I’m so sorry!”

  “If you got knocked in the head, she had help Dana. This was planned. She’s not on foot somewhere. She’s long gone. Were you followed?”

  “Not that I could tell.”

  “Where’s your driver?”

  “Outside with the troopers. They’re towing the squad as evidence and they’re going to run us both to their post for statements.”

  “The hell with that. Have him…this Caleb guy, have him arrested. This all smacks of a set up to me. Get the FBI on the line as soon as you get to that post. It’s their jurisdiction now. They can deal with…with…”

  “Caleb Lighty,” Dana supplied.

  “Whoever! He’s the key to this on that end. Him and probably that damn daughter of Sheila’s, Jennifer Coventry. Once you’re sitting down with the FBI, you’re probably going to have to patch me in, so I can fill them in from my end.”

  Chapter 6 - Arrested

  “You’re under arrest.” The trooper took Dana’s arm and turned her to cuff her.

  “Me? What the hell?”

  “You have the right to remain silent…”

  “Listen to me!” She jerked in his hold, trying to twist around to face him.

  He bent her arm back further and tightened his grip, holding her in place.

  “Ouch! That hurts! Easy pal! We’re on the same team here.” He ignored her and finished reciting her Miranda rights then turned her to face him.

  “Are you done?” When he nodded, Dana went on, “Good. You’ve got this all fouled up but we’ll get it sorted. These,” she half twisted sideways and wiggled her cuffed hands, “are completely unnecessary.” She glanced around then, realizing something was amiss.

  “Where’s Caleb? Caleb Lighty, the EMT that was the driver?”

  “He’s already been taken to the post ma’am.”

  “In cuffs?”

  “There’s an escaped con on the loose. You two were the last ones to have contact. What do you think?” The trooper clammed up after that, no doubt thinking he’d already said too much.

  “Look, do what you think you have to do, but get with your powers that be and get an APB out for an escaped convict and clue the FBI in ASAP. The longer we wait, the worse it’s going to be for all of us.”

  His look was smug. “Not for me.”

  Dana scoffed at him. “Why not you? What if she’s been kidnapped in some grand plan or conspiracy and she’s out there, left for dead somewhere over some prison transgression or something while you’re messing around me instead of trying to trail her?”

  Dana stewed, steaming mad, in an interview room at the Elizabethtown Post. She hadn’t caught so much as a glimpse of Caleb. If he was here, they were keeping them separated.

  She flashed back to the last time she’d been in an interrogation room; the day she met Mel.

  After cooling my heels but not my temper for half an hour, Sheriff ‘Walks On Water’ herself appeared. She was now in full uniform and she was all business.

  She sat down carefully opposi
te of me and then sized me up. I looked her square in the eye. I wasn’t about to give an inch.

  “So why are you hanging out in Morelville Ms. Rossi?”

  “I told you. I work special investigations for Customs.”

  “And the designer knockoff stuff in your trunk is…”

  “Part of a case.”

  I watched her closely too. The smile was long gone. She now looked stressed beyond anything that I might be doing in her jurisdiction. Still, I wasn’t inclined to help her, and she’d just have to deal with that.

  “How long have you been coming around?”

  “Today was my first and last day in the village.”

  She wasn’t amused. “Not staying around for the Mushroom Festival then?” She got up and leaned against the wall near me.

  I didn’t favor her with a response to her sarcasm. I slumped back in my chair, tilted my chin in what I hoped was a way that signified my boredom with her questions and said again, “You need to let me make a phone call.”

  I never saw her move. She went from ‘good cop’ to ‘bad cop’ in the blink of an eye as she uncoiled and hauled me by the shirt collar out of my chair. She quickly pinned me face first to the wall she'd been leaning against only a split second before. She had me by nearly eight inches of height and a solid 50 pounds at least, as she leaned into me. I was no match for her and she knew it.

  “We don’t play in Hardin County,” Michalchuk was saying later. “The feds don’t either. This post area includes Fort Knox and the Gold Repository, both federal installations, yes, but we certainly assist in keeping an eye on things. If there’s an escaped con on the loose…”

  “Or kidnapped,” Dana put in.

  “Fine. Or kidnapped, we’ll find her.”

  She rolled her eyes at him. “Not sitting here with me, you won’t. I hope to God that someone more competent than you is questioning that EMT…if he even is an EMT. In fact, I hope you’ve just put him on ice until the FBI gets here, because you guys obviously are in way over your heads.”