Friday afternoon, June 13th, 2014
“Why are you here?”
“Why am I here? Let’s see: my girlfriend, who’s already managed to tick a few people off in the area in the few weeks she’s been around, calls me and leaves me a message that says she’s headed here and that she thinks she’s being followed. There’s no logical reason why she would be coming here and she doesn’t bother to say why so I get worried. Why do you think I’m here?” Mel drew a deep breath and blew it out slowly.
I tried to look sheepish.
“Who was that?” She tossed her head toward the now vacant slot in the parking lot.
“That was Terri, my ex-girlfriend from a few years back and a lifetime ago in Chicago. She came all the way down here to talk to me because she thinks I can help her with her problem.”
At Mel’s puzzled expression, I continued, “She’s gotten herself into some trouble for stealing from her employer and she thinks someone she was stealing for or whoever that woman was fronting for is out to kill her now for giving them up to save her own ass.”
“And what is it that she thinks you can do for her that the authorities there can’t?”
I spread my hands and shook my head. “I don’t have a clue and I really don’t want to know.”
“Do you have any idea who you think was following you?”
“No but I’m pretty sure now that I was being followed.” I pointed toward the north lot, “A silver car pulled out over there and followed Terri out of here.”
An odd expression crossed Mel’s face, “Should I put deputies on it?”
I shrugged, “I just don’t know. What’s puzzling is why they were following me if they’re after her. I haven’t seen or heard from her in a few years. I got the first indication she was even in Ohio less than two hours ago. I mean, do they have her phone tapped? How did they triangulate to me that fast?” I sighed. “Maybe I’m just imaging all of that because that’s the frame of mind she put me in!”
Mel shrugged. “Okay. Let’s just leave this one alone for now but the next time you decide to go traipsing off after some halfcocked loser, how about cluing me in, okay?”
“Didn’t you want me to go into the security and investigations business?”
“Um, yeah, in a manner of speaking, but this isn’t quite what I had in mind...”
I interrupted her, “Oh, sorry! I almost forgot; speaking of investigations, when I got here the girl you think is the missing Amish girl was sitting over there in that gazebo reading.” I pointed toward it. “About the same time we saw her passing through on Monday, she got up, walked by me and went out that way,” I pointed toward the trees.
“Well now, there’s a little mystery you can work on!”
“I suppose but I really don’t know if I should go stick my nose into all of that. I’ll have to think about it.”
It was Mel’s turn to shrug, “I have a mystery too.”
“What’s that?”
“Where are your crutches?”
I attempted my sheepish look again. “Um, they’re in the trunk. Don’t worry, I was very careful hobbling to the table and I’m never going to go without them again until Dr. Welle says I can.”
“Let me just get them for you and then we both need to get home so we can have a chat about something in a place that’s a little more private than it is here.”
###
Friday evening, June 13th, 2014
I was sitting in the living room back at the house. Mel was pacing the floor in front of me.
“I ran into the Mayor today. He told me that Noland Troutman made a speech to the City Club on Wednesday. Most of the big shots and the big money families in the area belong to the club. He said a lot of the city’s movers and shakers were in attendance.”
“So?” I shrugged. “Why don’t you just go and speak to them too?”
“It’s not about that, about making speeches. It’s about what Troutman said...what he alluded to in his speech and what he said to certain individuals afterwards.” Her expression was pained.
I leaned forward and asked quietly, “Mel, what did he say?”
She threw her hands up in the air, “You know, I said I didn’t care but that was before this. I didn’t expect it to be used against me like this!”
“What Mel, what’s he said?”
Whirling toward me she replied, “He basically said that I don’t represent family values in the area and then...then he told people that I moved my same sex girlfriend in with me and gave them the impression that we’re having sex in front of the kids...”
I was shocked. “Mel...I, I...I’m so sorry.” I honestly didn’t know what to say. I sat back and thought for a minute. She went back to pacing a path on the floor.
Finally I asked her, “Are you going to try and rebut it?”
“How? What the hell would I say in response to that?” She ran her hands through her hair in a gesture of frustration. “I knew I shouldn’t have run!”
“Don’t say that!” I held my hands up, “You and I both know that you’re a much better option for the Sheriff of this county than Noland Troutman III is!”
“Maybe so, but with stuff like this out there now, that’s all the voters are going to hear about.”
“What if I move out?”
“That would just be stupid Dana. You’re in no physical condition to do that.”
“Well you have to counter his crap somehow.”
“I don’t want to get into a mudslinging contest with him.”
“So, don’t sling mud. Get a hold of your campaign manager and have him start doing damage control. That’s what he gets paid for.”
She looked at me with her own expression of shock, “I’m so new to all of this, I hadn’t even thought about that.”
Ideas started running through my head, “You should ask him to set up a series of speeches for you at places like the Rotary Club and community meetings and anywhere else he can and alert the media about them. You can get out there and put the word out about your experience and your real values.” I shuddered, “Don’t let a snot nosed kid have the last word, Mel!”
“I know that you’re right but honestly, I’ve never been much of a speech person...I don’t know how it would work. I’m not good at that sort of stuff.”
“Mel, just get in front of people and be you. Be upfront and honest with them and talk to them like you’re talking person to person. People are tired of dirty campaigns and a law enforcement campaign shouldn’t even come close to being dirty. They’ll be happy that you’re open and candid with them and that you have their best interests at heart.”
“I hear what you’re saying and I agree with it on principal but, in a conservative place like Muskingum County, there are still a lot of folks who will side with Troutman just because I’m gay, no matter what I have to say in my own defense or what my level of experience is.”
“That may be a little true, granted, but there are also more people out there than you think whose hearts and minds are open.”