Tuesday, June 3rd, 2014
Somewhere over Quinn land...
Kelly Rice managed to convince the Ohio BCI to do a helicopter flyover of the Quinn property I wanted to get a look at and to let us join them. The situation wasn’t ideal; I didn’t want the Bureau sticking its collective nose into my investigation but Muskingum County lacks the aerial resources to do overhead recon. Beggars can’t be choosers.
We were in the air a little after noon. I was up front with the pilot, Max Sherry. Rice was in a jump seat behind him so we’d have eyes on both sides of the bird. The three of us were all helmeted and mic’d up so we could talk to each other over the noise of the helo.
“We’ll be over the area you want to get a look at in just a few more minutes Sheriff. It’s pretty heavily wooded there and the trees are in full leaf. I’ll get as close as I can so you can get a better look but I can’t promise a lot.”
I’d brought along binoculars so I got them out and got them adjusted while we flew towards the Blue Rock State Forest.
“Okay ladies, heads up. Here we are.” He began a slow descent over the open field areas of Quinn land and then began to fly a long loop around all of the heavily wooded area. “I’ll do a wide circle first and then we’ll close it in further.”
With my first overview I looked for anything that would indicate steam or smoke from a cabin, from a still...anything. There was nothing like that. I was looking hard down through the trees with my naked eyes but we were still too high up for me to make out much through the canopy. I started alternating in the binoculars whenever anything looked a little darker or a little lighter than what surrounded it but I had no luck.
Max waved off of his first big loop and then he flew the chopper in tighter and just a little lower. We all scanned the area in silence for a couple of minutes. Other than the pump jacks that Dallas Granger had serviced, there was nothing to see but endless trees.
“Max, can we do one more loop getting a little tighter in on the coordinates that mark the edges of the Quinn/Blue Rock boundaries north of that last pump jack we flew over?”
“Yes ma’am.”
After a minute of peering down through the trees, Kelly’s voice came through my helmet. “There’s a tiny clearing I can see off of my side but I can’t see into it very well from this angle.”
We were less than a half a mile north of the northernmost pump jack. Max leaned his head against his window and peered down. “I see it. Let me get us spun around Sheriff so you can get a good look at it with the binoculars.”
Once we were in position just over the edge of it, I looked at it with my bare eyes first. Again, I saw nothing. There was no still, no cabin...nothing. I was beginning to feel like we’d struck out completely but I went ahead and raised the binoculars to examine the edges of the clearing anyway as Max hovered the craft. I moved the spyglasses slowly along the tree line. I scanned right over something and then jumped back to it. Rather than the universal white, it was a bee hive stained a wood color to let it blend in with the forest behind it.
“I have a visual on a bee hive!” I kept looking along the same tree line, opposite our hover position. They were really tough to see but I picked out a couple of more.
“Max, can you circle around please and hover over the opposite edge of the clearing?”
“Roger Sheriff.”
Once he’d maneuvered the helo around, I resumed my scan of the tree line and picked out several more hives on the opposite side of the clearing. We’d found what was likely the crux of McClarnan’s honey producing operation.
“Kelly I can confirm at least seven hives. There are possibly more. They blend in well. Wherever his bees are, he can’t be too far away.”
“Whose land are they on though Sheriff? Is it Quinn’s or is it part of Blue Rock?”
I looked at Max. He shrugged and checked his GPS reading. “It’s real close Sheriff but I’d say that little clearing is at the very edge of Quinn’s land.”
I voiced the thought in my head out loud, “It makes me wonder if it was always a clearing or if McClarnan cleared it quietly over time? Bet in the summer we see lots of stuff worthy of peak season pollination and honey production down there.”
We spent a couple of more minutes examining the forest around the clearing. If anything was down there, it was well camouflaged. To find anything else, we were going to have to recon on foot.
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2014
2:00 PM
My duty cell rang as Rice and I were headed back into the station. It was Shane Harding.
“Where are you Shane?”
“I’m near The Hive. Sheriff, you’re never going to believe this; a vehicle registered to Rojas is parked behind the building. They just closed for the day so I’m sitting here watching it, waiting for him to leave so I can nail him. Your hunches about what Liberty Tracy knows and doesn’t know seem to be correct.”
“Okay.” I was confused. “What’s wrong? Do you need backup?”
“Well that’s just it; another vehicle, a capped camo painted pick-up truck just pulled up and two guys jumped out, grabbed some boxes from the bed and went into the restaurant with them. One of them is McClarnan.”
“Holy shit!”
“Exactly! What should I do?”
I started to think fast. Both men were suddenly in easy reach and we needed to nail them both but Shane couldn’t do that alone, especially since there was a third man present. I was too far away to get there quickly enough to do a bust and radioing patrol could alert the men if they were listening to our radio traffic and put Shane in a very tight spot. “I’ll tell you what, forget Rojas for now. We know where to find him. Wait for those other two to come out and tail that truck. I’m on my way to assist so we can switch off.”
“Roger boss.”
“Do you have a plate number?”
“I can’t read the front one. It’s covered in mud. I’ll call you when I get a look at the back one.”
“I’m headed your way. Be careful!”
I grabbed the keys for an unmarked from the Desk Sergeant and high-tailed it back out the door. I was easily five minutes away from Shane on a good day. Traffic downtown was rarely good on a weekday afternoon.
As I was pulling out of the lot, my cell rang again. It was Shane. I put him on speaker and rolled out headed in his general direction.
“Sheriff, they’ve left the Hive but they’re still in the downtown area.”
“Where are they now?”
“They’re headed south on 7th toward Market.”
“So you aren’t far but that’s one way going south and I’m already south of you.” I was thinking on the fly. “Tell you what, I just came out of the back lot with an unmarked. I’m going to cut across Fountain to 6th and come north and then work my way east toward 7th. Keep this line open and keep me posted.”
“They just turned west on California and they’re pulling into a lot.” He was quiet for a minute. “They both got out again. Sheriff, it looks like they’re just making routine deliveries...”
Of all the dumb luck! “You know what, let’s let them do that. Once I get there, I’ll take over and tail them around. We really need to get to McClarnan’s operation. I didn’t have a whole ton of luck this morning. Maybe this guy that’s hauling his ass around will take him back there and solve our problem for us.”
“Damn, wouldn’t that be nice?”
“Amen! Anyway, once I’m in position, you can go track down Rojas and bring him in. Use patrol help if you need to. I’m betting he doesn’t know we have Perez. We have to work on our original plan. We don’t know when Perez will be arraigned for what we have on him so far but it will probably be soon and a judge could grant him bail when he is.”
“Roger that.” He was silent again.
A couple of minutes later he reported, “Okay, they’re back now and pulling through the lot. I’ve got a partial plate number for you. Sorry; the back is only slightly better than the front.” He gave me what he had and I committed it to memory. I’d call it in from my cell once I was in position.
“I’m on Market now. Which way did they turn onto California?”
“They’re headed back toward 7th. I’m a couple of cars behind them.”
“Roger.” I took my time picking my way over to 7th. If they were coming all the way back to it, California ends. They would have to turn south. A minute later, as I sat in the right turn lane at the corner of Market and 7th, the muddy, camo painted pickup went by me. I pretended to fiddle with the radio to keep my head down in case they looked my way.
“I’ve got them Shane.” A couple of more cars went by and then he approached the intersection himself. His light was still green but he let me turn out in front of him and fall in behind the cover cars. Once I was in position, he turned off.
The two men continued past Fountain Square toward Main and then made another stop. I continued past them, did a quick loop and pulled off to the side at the corner of 7th and Fountain to watch for them. It was a good thing I was quick. Only McClarnan had gone in and he was back within a couple of minutes.
The bed of the truck wasn’t that full. I figured the two men had to be close to being finished and I was right. After two more stops along 7th, the truck was empty.
After they pulled out of their last stop, they continued down 7th to its junction with State Route 146, turned East on it and followed it out of town. The State Route would take them to Route 196 which ran a few miles short of the northwestern edge of the Blue Rock State Forest, the area that I suspected they were headed toward. The road was a familiar one. I’d driven it thousands of times to get to and from home.
Traffic was heavy at first affording me some good cover but as we got further out of town it melted away. I hung back as far as I could while trying to keep a visual on the camo painted truck. I didn’t recognize it at all but then lots of guys in the area over-painted older vehicles in flat camo. Most were hunters but some were outlaws and some were just ‘different’.
The driver who was helping McClarnan with his honey deliveries was quite a bit younger than his passenger, a man in his forties. The twenty something year old looked vaguely familiar but he was a little scruffy and in need of a good haircut and a shave. All of his hairiness detracted from his face. I didn’t recognize him any more than I recognized the old GMC pickup he was driving.
I went ahead and called in the make, model and the partial license plate number that I had since I couldn’t see the plate any better than Shane had. I’d just have to wait on a response from dispatch who would have to do a little more digging than usual since I couldn’t give them a full plate number.
After nearly thirty minutes of driving, the truck turned onto 196. The two men would be in wide open farm country for a couple of miles that was mostly Brietland owned on the west side of the road and, as they moved further south, Quinn owned on the eastern side. I slowed. I didn’t want them to notice me turn onto 196 behind them. They’d have a hard time losing me out here. They were in my stomping grounds.
Near a copse of trees before State Route 196 turns into SR 385, the truck slowed and pulled off the road. I was about a half mile and 40 seconds or so back with nowhere I could legitimately pull off too and not tip them off that I was following them. I was stuck driving by them as McClarnan exited the vehicle and headed into the stand of trees. In case I was recognized, I turned south down Burnt Mill Road and ignored the pickup truck, it’s driver and McClarnan. If they came to realize it was the Sheriff who had been behind them for the last several miles, I wanted them to think that I was just taking a back route to go home.
The pickup didn’t follow me. He either turned around to go back the way he came or he continued onto SR 385. I thought I glimpsed a quad crossing the road behind me as I watched my rearview mirror. If it was McClarnan on a four wheeler and he was headed into the woods toward the clearing we’d spotted while we were up in the helo this morning, he’d be trespassing on Quinn land.
I attempted to call Quinn on his business line, the only number I had for him. The voicemail recording came on. I left a brief message that he should get in touch with me as soon as possible and then I hung up. It was nearly 4:00 and I was minutes from home so I decided to keep going. Once I was within the village limits, I pulled over and called Shane.
“Hey buddy, where are you?”
“I went back to the restaurant to sit on Rojas again but his car was already gone. I figured he’d go home but, so far, no luck. I’m down the street keeping an eye on his place.”
“Do you think he might have gone to Perez’s place? After all, we’re assuming he doesn’t know we’ve picked up Perez.”
“It’s possible but I don’t want to drive in circles. What do you think I should do?”
“I’d just sit tight there for a little bit. If he did go looking for Perez, he’ll probably head home when he doesn’t find him.”
“So, how did it go for you?”
“I tailed them all the way onto 196. The driver of the truck pulled over and let McClarnan out at 196 and 385. I had to keep going but I thought I saw McClarnan on a quad headed toward where I think his hideout is.”
“So you found something when you went up earlier?”
“Well, not exactly.” I gave him a brief overview of what we had been able to see. “Since we couldn’t catch him while he was out and about, we’ll probably have to go in after him.”
“Ouch...”
“We’ll figure it out.” My phone showed a call coming through from Dispatch. “Hang on Shane. I’m about to get an update on the pickup driver.” I put Shane on hold and answered the second call.