The Morelville Mysteries Collection

Chapter 15 – Relic

Chapter 15 – RelicDana sighed and shook her head. “Can we take a walk? I need some air.” She looked at me with deep, pleading, brown eyes.

I stared back at her for a minute, taking her in completely. I was a mix of emotions. One minute, I wanted her, really felt connected to her and the next... well, I just wanted to knock some sense into her. I broke my reverie and stood up. I offered my hand to her and pulled her up when she took it. We were standing inches apart. Despite myself, I could feel the heat of attraction between us.

The sound of kids arguing snapped me back to reality. I dropped Dana’s hand. “Let’s see what they’ve gotten themselves into and then I’ll take you for a ride.” I picked up our sandwich plates and turned for the door.

“A ride? Like, on a horse?”

I laughed. When I looked back at her though, she had a look of pure terror on her face. “No! Not a horse. You’ll see, city girl!”

Her slap to the back of my shoulder as I headed for the stairs released light years of tension in my still tightly coiled body and my conflicted brain.

Kris’s kids were upstairs arguing over something. They should have been doing homework. “What’s going on?” I yelled, from the foot of the stairs.

“Nothing!” came the tandem reply.

“That’s what I thought!”

Dana shot me a quizzical look. “Shouldn’t you go up there and check on them?”

“It’s better not to.” I headed back into the kitchen. Dana hesitated and then followed. “Just let me rinse these and then I’ll show you some of the farm and get you that air that you’re asking for.” I grinned my most devious grin. I looked at her shoes. She had on a calf high boots. At least she dresses sensibly!

I led her out to the barn where I pulled out my dad’s Polaris quad and fired it up. “Hop on!”

She backed up a couple of feet from me and yelled – louder than she needed to, “Is that thing even safe?”

I grinned. “Just get on! I promise I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

“First dirt bikes, now this!”

“The dirt bike is Beth’s. This is my dad’s.” I didn’t see any point in telling her right now that I was a real quad enthusiast with racing quads in a shed behind the barn. My niece got her love of racing from me.

She tried to climb on without grabbing hold of me to do it and almost toppled off as she attempted to get a leg over the big machine. I reached behind me and hooked her around the waist and then pushed her across the seat.

“Put your arms around my waist. I won’t go real fast but it could get bumpy in spots.”

Dana gingerly placed her hands at my sides. I pulled her arms firmly around me. I didn’t want her learning the hard way and hating quads and me forever. I pulled out slowly and gave it just enough gas that I had to shift into second gear. I figured that wouldn’t scare her and the bike would be quiet enough that we could talk a bit. As we rolled across the yard toward the upper pasture gate, mom’s fancy chickens skittered this way and that. We rolled by the hen house where we kept laying hens and I pointed it out.

“Are those colorful ones running around the roosters, then?”

I did my best not to laugh out loud. “No. Those are called fancies. They’re sort of pet chickens. Mom likes them.” I could feel Dana shaking her head behind me.

I stopped the bike and hopped off to open the pasture gate. Someday maybe Dana would know how to move the bike through but today wasn’t that day. I got back on, drove it through and then got off and reclosed the gate. When I remounted, she rewrapped her arms around my waist without any prodding from me. We headed across the low part of the upper pasture to the fence at the property boundary. The hill going further up into the pasture wasn’t as steep on that side. I shifted and turned the bike up it.

When I’m alone, on one of my own bikes, I like to stand on the pegs and race up the hill to the top. I don’t do that with a passenger and, besides, I was looking for the longhorns. They weren’t in the lower pasture that I could see, so they had to be in the upper pasture somewhere.

We crested the hill, going north. I could see far out in front of me. There were no cows around. I angled the bike northwest and shifted through the gears going that direction.

The family land consisted of about 5 acres immediately around the house and barn. There was about a 40 acre lower east pasture that was situated out in front of and along one side of the house and yard. It was the reason the house wasn’t visible from the road. The rest of our land consisted of just over 200 acres of upper pasture with a small part of that wrapping down around the west side of the house and yard. The upper pasture was a steep climb to either side of the family homestead. It leveled out for long expanses broken up with a few lesser rolling hills. It was fun to ride on and it gave our small herd of longhorn cattle plenty of grazing room.

After a few minutes cruising along, getting a feel for the bike, Dana relaxed her hold a bit. She leaned in and started to say something when we came over a small rise and spotted a large group of the longhorns about 100 yards ahead. I slowed down and turned the bike up a little knoll then shut it down facing them.

I turned to Dana. Her eyes were wide brown circles as she gaped out at about 40 head of cattle of a type most people in Ohio have never seen other than on television or in movies.

“Those are longhorns...” She stated the obvious.

“Yep.”

“Why do you have those? I thought those were a Texas thing?”

“Texas made them famous. You can raise them anywhere. My niece and my nephew have always raised dairy feeders and steers for FFA and for 4H to show at the county fair. Cole’s a big fan of Texas Longhorns football. He thought raising a few longhorns would be fun and talked dad into it.”

“That’s more than a few!”

“Yeah, the project grew a little.”

“A little! Can you at least eat them?”

“Of course you can eat them, but not these ones.”

“Oh. So these are like pets then?”

“No, they’re not pets. They’re cows!”

“Clearly. I can see that!”

“Clearly, you can’t. A cow is a breeding female.”

“Your mom keeps chicken as pets, besides, cows are cows.”

“No, they really aren’t, city girl.” I was exasperated with the whole failed conversation.

“Quit calling me that!”

Okay, this isn’t the way I planned this. I shifted on the seat a little and I turned toward her. “I’m sorry. I grew up here. It’s a way of life for me. Sometimes I forget myself and I say things without thinking.”

A few moments passed and then I saw the sliver of a smile. “I’m sorry too for being so sensitive. Everything’s just getting to me with this case. I need to get this thing figured out.”

“Dana. I don’t want to pry but, well, there just seems to be something else...”

“You’re not prying. There is. I just don’t know how it fits.”

“Maybe it will mean something to me.”

Dana looked at the sky and blew out a breath then she looked back at me, our faces only inches apart. “Early on, in our investigation, our informant told us that Sheriff Carter was the local boss for the smuggling ring but that he wasn’t the “big” boss. Carter answered to someone that he only referred to as Relic. We – the team - figured Relic was a code name but now I realize it’s probably a gang name. We thought the ring was likely gang affiliated but, because we don’t have anyone inside either the ring or the gang, obviously, and because Carter was killed, we’ve never been able to get close enough to figure out what gang or who Relic is or where he is.”

“So what are you thinking now?”

“It has to be someone in the gang hierarchy who has control of the smuggling op and, possibly, the counterfeiting op.”

“Looks like you’re going to have to go back to Chicago.”

“Yes, I do, but that’s not the reason why. We’ll liaise with the gang task force there and see what they know about the gang hierarchy. I need to go back to Chicago again because I need to talk to that lawyer and rule him out. I also need to talk to that prisoner, though I don’t think I’ll get as far with him as Secret Service probably thinks I will.”

She sighed. “Freakin’ Relic could be anywhere. The Demons have reach far into Ohio, among many other places. Given what’s gone on in Morelville, he might very well be in this area. He may have been tied to Carter somehow. We’re going to have to have the GTF and local officers hit the streets in Chicago and here in Ohio and roust GD members with warrants to see if anyone can finger Relic and is willing to for some sort of a deal.”

“Maybe the truck driver at Stateville will give him up.”

“I’m not getting my hopes up at all on any of this. This guy’s reach goes far into Stateville. One inmate is already dead. Guys already inside that do know anything are probably going to keep their mouths shut and guys outside might prefer going inside over talking to get a deal and winding up iced too.”

“When you put it that way, I suppose you’re right.”

“So, let me ask, does the code name or gang name Relic mean anything at all to you?”

“Naw, not off the top of my head, unfortunately. Do you want me to poke around – discreetly, of course – and see if I can come up with anything?”

“Really, what I want is for you to take a vacation for about two more weeks and stay as far away from this case and out of personal danger as possible. I know you won’t do that though and that you’re in it to win it.”

“Ah, the lady begins to catch on!”

“Right. Just be careful. Please?”

“Madame, I didn’t know you cared.”

“You know I do Mel but that’s a conversation for another time.”

“Okay.” I leaned forward and pecked a kiss onto the tip of her nose. Before she could say a word of protest, I turned around and fired the quad back up.