Hitched and Tied (The Morelville Mysteries, #4)

Chapter 3 – Cue it Up-1

Chapter 3 – Cue it Up

Thursday Morning, August 7th, 2014

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While I waited for the Coroner’s initial report, I ran the tags on the SUV JD was driving. He’s a local boy that grew up in Morelville and never strayed far from it. Kris had said she thought the SUV belonged to his boss, the guy who owned the road construction company he’d been working for, Oscar Stiers.

The Escalade had Florida plates on it. I didn’t know much about Stiers other than to know he’d grown up in the Zanesville area too and that he liked to give back by hiring mostly locals to work on the jobs he got. Right now, he was doing some freeway construction work nearby as a sub on another company’s big state supported contract. JD Roberts was a drunk and a small time criminal. He’d been lucky to get hired on to a legitimate outfit to do real work.

When the plates came back as registered to Stiers at a Florida address but with an Ohio contact number I figured the vehicle was probably his snowbird transport south for the winter months. I called the number the system kicked out and got dumped into voicemail on what was likely Stiers’ personal cell phone.

I buzzed my assistant, “Holly, can you get me the name and number of the road construction company that Oscar Stiers owns? It should be Zanesville based.”

“On it Sheriff. It should only take a minute.”

“Thanks.” Holly and I had come up through the ranks together. She’s a Sergeant in her own right and often pulls double duty by manning the intake desk on weekends when she isn’t playing the role of my right hand. She’s a good cop and a good friend.

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Only a few minutes had passed when Holly buzzed me back. “Sheriff the company is Stiers Asphalt Paving.” She gave me the number. “Oscar Stiers works out of a home office in Zanesville some of the time but his garage and shop are near Columbus since he does a lot of sub work, it appears, for Koko Construction.”

“I see. Good to know.” And out of my jurisdiction...

“One more thing Mel; the preliminary findings are in on Roberts. The Coroner’s initial report shows a blood alcohol level of .10.”

“Anything else?”

“Just that so far. I’ll let you know when he’s done with the autopsy.”

“Okay, thanks Holly.” I hung up. So, JD was legally drunk when he died. Frankly, given his long history of alcohol abuse, I wasn’t surprised.

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Stiers Residence, Zanesville, Ohio

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