Opera House Ops: A Morelville Cozies Serial Mystery: Episode 3 - Heir Hassles Read online

  Faye realized Mel hadn’t given Kara the business card Kent had left with her. A call came over her radio and, once she checked that Faye would handle things from there, she lit out of there like her pants were on fire.

  Faye decided honesty was the best policy. “His name is Kent Gross. He’s a local business man and developer. Yes, he’d be interested in buying the property – the land. He doesn’t want the building at all, historical value or not, and he wouldn’t give you a good price on it, given that he’d be tearing the building down.”

  Kara’s forehead wrinkled as she thought. Finally she asked, “I’ve been in the city a long time; rents and properties are expensive there. What could one expect to get for about an acre of land here?”

  “That’s more like a half acre. An acre of empty farm land goes for around $10,000.”

  The other woman’s face fell.

  “You might get a bit more out of him than half of that for that plot since its right in the village and plots are scarce.”

  “Well that’s just not going to work at all! I have $15,000 of my own money to put in already but I need $100,000.” She stuck her lip half way out like a pouting child would do. “Don’t you know anyone else who might want to buy the building and all?”

  “Not for that kind of money, and especially not with the repairs it needs to the roof, I’m sorry to say. It’s too old and out of date to be of much use as anything but a historical landmark or museum and even then, things would need to be brought up to code.”

  “What do you think fixing the roof would cost, roughly. I don’t know anything about that kind of stuff either.”

  Faye opened her car door and stepped out. “Sorry, it’s hot sitting in there…though it’s not much better out here.” She fanned her hand in front of her face and neck.

  Kara stepped out too.

  Faye moved in front of the car and stopped just short of going inside. “Hannah, the owner here is ex-Amish. How much do you know about them?”

  The woman shrugged.

  “I’m here to tell you many of them are excellent carpenters and as honest as the day is long. Hannah and my husband Jesse can steer you to some good ones. If an Amish contractor quotes you a price, you can bank on getting fast, quality work at a fair price.”

  “That’s a really nice sales pitch, but I need to know dollars and cents here.”

  “Oh honey,” Faye said, “it depends on how much damage they find when they get up there to appraise it. If they just have to do the one area, it could be five to ten thousand. If they have to replace the whole roof...” She held a hand up.

  “I don’t need to spend cash, I need to make it! This so-called inheritance is turning into a money pit!”

  Chapter 5 – Gimme!

  Tuesday, August 4th

  Morelville General Store

  Kent Gross strode into the store. Marco stood from his usual spot on a bench under the front windows and smiled.

  “Back again, I see. What can I help you with today?”

  “You can help me find Faye Crane,” he demanded. “I see her car out there. Is she helping in here or in that damn bakery today?”

  Chloe stuck her head out of the office and looked down the aisle. “Is there a problem,” she called out.

  Gross swiped the ball cap off his head and mopped his brow. “Sorry there, Mrs. Rossi. I’m just looking for Faye. I need to talk to her.”

  Faye stepped out behind Chloe. “You got me. We’re trying to get Hannah’s books in order back here. What in heaven’s name is all the fuss?”

  He seemed to boil over at her tone and he became accusing. “You kept your daughter from giving that woman yesterday my contact information, didn’t you?”

  “I don’t control what Mel does or doesn’t do, Mr. Gross, as much as I’d like to. She’s a grown woman and the Sheriff to boot, in case you’ve forgotten.”

  He threw a hand up and started moving closer to the two women. Raising the volume of his speech even more, he blasted, “I didn’t forget I just feel like sometimes she doesn’t always have the best interests of the community in mind.”

  Faye started to take offense but Chloe, now beside her, put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a cautioning look as Marco moved quickly to join them.

  “Everyone calm down, please,” Chloe pleaded. “I’m sure whatever Mel didn’t do was an oversight on her part. The poor woman’s always running here and there all over the county and her mind is going twice as fast. Maybe we can help you.”

  “Who was the woman?” Kent quizzed Faye.

  “She’s the owner of the building, as you suspected, via inheritance.”

  “Does she have a name?”

  Faye sighed, “Kara Bradshaw.”

  “Doesn’t ring a bell. She from around here?”

  “No Mr. Gross, at least not for the last 20 years or so. She lives in New York City.”

  “Do you know how to get a hold of her?”

  Faye shook her head no. “Wouldn’t matter if I did. She might talk to you but she won’t sell it to you.”

  “What did you say to her?” He was getting loud again.

  “Nothing against you, per se. You’re just not going to pay anywhere near what she wants out of that building.”

  “I don’t even want the building.”

  “Exactly.”

  “I don’t know why everyone’s making a big deal out of me wanting it. No one else wants it. It’s just been nothing but trouble. I could tear that down and make that all go away.

  Faye wasn’t so sure.

  ###

  Tuesday Evening, August 4th

  Mel, Dana, Hannah & Jef’s Home

  Mel put her fork down and leaned back in her chair.

  “Not hungry?” Dana asked.

  “Just tired; It was a long, crazy day.” She reached over to Jef and edged his little bowl back over the lip of his high chair. The baby cooed at her and pushed it back toward her until it stopped.

  Smiling then, she said, “It’s always nice to come home to this little guy though.” At the looks she got from Hannah and Dana, she corrected herself, “To all three of you.”

  Everyone laughed.

  “Can you talk about it Mel?” Hannah asked.

  “Only if Dana promises not to use anything I say in her book.”

  “It’s a history of the area from the seamier side, not fiction,” Dana said indignantly.

  “That’s just my point. My day was all Morelville, all day, it seemed and all of it seamy, to borrow your word.”

  Dana’s eyes lit up, “Spill it baby! We want all the juicy stuff.”

  Mel rubbed her temples then picked up her fork again and flipped it between her thumb and index finger while she thought. Finally, after taking a bite and swallowing it down she began, “You know that guy that died?” Both women nodded. “I just can’t help thinking now that there was foul play involved. The Coroner had his own suspicions when he did the autopsy but we had nothing to go on then.”

  “You don’t think Cole had anything to do with that, do you Mel?” Hannah asked, her voice cracking a little.

  “No, no; nothing like that. There are just some things that don’t add up, for one thing and they came crawling home to roost today.” She looked down at her plate and speared another bite.

  “Does it have anything to do with that lady that was here yesterday?”

  “What lady?” Dana asked.

  Mel’s head shot up, “My mother didn’t tell you?” At Dana’s head shake, she said, “Wow, she’s really slipping. The guy that died owned the building because it was willed to him. The woman that was in town yesterday…”

  “From New York,” Hannah threw in.

  “Inherited it from that guy.”

  “She used to be married to him,” Hannah finished.

  Dana looked at the younger woman. “You seem to know all about her.”

  “She came into the bakery looking for the opera house building. I think she thought it would be a muc
h bigger or newer building or something.”

  Dana turned back to Mel. “She roused your suspicions?”

  “Not her, per se. She’s just looking to turn it and make a buck. Like you said though,” Mel glanced at Hannah, “I think she thought she was getting a lot more than she did.”

  “Anyway, while she was over there inspecting the place yesterday, Kent Gross stopped by to stick his nose in.”

  “The guy that wants to buy it and level it?”

  “Yeah,” Mel said.

  Hannah half stood and pulled her son up out of his seat then sat again pulling into her lap. “Faye was pretty upset when she came back to the shop yesterday about him showing up down there while you two were down there with her.”

  “Oh, I know. There’s no love lost between them. She looks at him as the ultimate outsider who wants to come in and change everything.”

  “Outsider?” Dana looked puzzled. “I thought he’d been around a long time. He owns so much property around here.”

  “He’s not originally from here,” Mel said. “He was a poor boy from Coshocton County. He met his wife, who was from a fairly wealthy farming family near here and got in good with her dad. They jointly inherited quite a bit when daddy passed away and he’s parlayed that into his own mini empire…or, at least, he thinks he has.”

  “So what happened today that’s got you thinking something’s off about all of it?”

  “He left in a huff yesterday because I wouldn’t let him talk to – the woman – while she was taking her time looking the place over. I didn’t know her state of mind then or how receptive she’d be to being approached by him. He can be a bulldozer…he is, most of the time.”

  “Anyway, I forgot to give her his contact info and he drove my office crazy all morning trying to find a way to get in touch with her because I was negligent in my duties. All I had for her was her name. I called mom, and mom had her contact info but she informed me that they’d already talked about Kent and the woman, Kara – that’s her name – wasn’t interested in talking to him.”

  “Mom got upset with me when I told her, as politely as I could, that I needed to hear that from Kara and that I’d call her and let her decide. She finally gave in and gave me her number.”

  Mel pushed her plate of now cold food away, obviously no longer interested in it. Dana and Hannah sat silently, Hannah holding Jef, just listening.

  “This Kara,” Mel picked back up, “she’s a real piece of work. She drove all the way down here from New York on Sunday in a little two seater sports car, stayed in Zanesville Sunday night, shows up in town on Monday and doesn’t like what she sees with the building or what she hears about its potential value versus the cost of repairs, drives all the way back to New York and now, as of this morning, she’s trying to lay blame on my department for her ex-husband being ‘violently killed’, her words, in there and for doing nothing to stop it and any subsequent damage to the place or its reputation.”

  “Wow,” Dana said. Hannah just stared wide eyed.

  “Yeah. I finally talked her down enough to tell her there was someone who might be interested in taking the whole thing off her hands but, she really had talked to my mom and she had no interest in hearing from Kent Gross or any proposal from him. She wanted to let me know instead that she was considering a lawyer to sue my department.”

  Dana rolled her eyes. “Sounds like a flat out attempt at a money grab to me.”

  “I’m not sure what you mean by that but Faye told me she wants money to finance some show in New York,” Hannah said.

  “I guess I need to get a little more detail from mom and see if I can’t call this woman’s bluff but, in the meantime, I had Gross to deal with who’s livid that Kara won’t speak to him…that I won’t even give him her contact information.”

  “Where’s the suspected foul play come into the picture?” Dana asked.

  “Two things, really and, please, they’re just between us, got it?” At their answering nods, she went on, “Kara mentioned today, by way of explaining her position that Gregory Sellers was violently killed, that his mother had an independent autopsy done right after she had his body transported to Florida. The examiner there apparently came to similar conclusions about the severity of Sellers’ injuries that Lucas Kreskie came to after the autopsy he did here. I’ve got Kreskie working on trying to get a hold of that report now. That’s what she’s basing this whole lawsuit threat on. I’ll give her the run around until I can lay my hands on that.” Mel paused.

  “What’s the second thing?” Hannah asked her.

  “When all the stuff was going on with the teenagers in town with the old Baptist church and then later with the opera house, my mom went over and talked to Calvin Howe, the old guy that lives next door to the opera house about keeping an eye on it. He called me today and mentioned that he’s seen Kent Gross over there a lot lately, day and night.”

  “I reminded him that Gross owns the vacant shop next door to it that he uses for storage but he was insistent that he’s seen him creeping around the place. I don’t know what to make of that.”

  About the Author

  Anne Hagan is an East Central Ohio based government employee by day and author by night. She and her wife live in a tiny town that's even smaller than the Morelville of her Mystery fiction novels and they wouldn't have it any other way. Anne's wife grew up there and has always considered it home. Though it's an ultra-conservative rural community, they're surrounded there by family, longtime friends and many other wonderful people with open hearts and minds. They enjoy spending time with Anne's son and his wife, with their nieces and nephews and doing many of the things you've read about in her books or that will be 'fictitiously' incorporated into future Morelville Mysteries and Cozies series books. If you've read about a hobby or a sport in either series, they probably enjoy doing it themselves or someone very close to them does.

  Anne and her wife are the co-owners of a haunted house: Hagan's House of Horrors. Much as her dream has always been to write fiction, her spouse's dream has been to create it through the medium of horror. They took their haunt operation fully commercial in 2015. Watch them as they grow!

  Also Written by the Author

  The Morelville Cozies

  The Passed Prop: The Morelville Cozies – Book 1 – The first book in the Morelville Cozies series featuring meddling mother sleuths Faye Crane and Chloe Rossi.

  Chloe Rossi wants to retire with her husband and move away from suburban sprawl to bucolic Morelville; the only trouble is, Morelville is experiencing its worst crime wave ever and Marco Rossi wants no part of a move there. What to do?

  Faye Crane would like nothing more than to have her good friend Chloe move closer to her and to Chloe’s own daughter. She’s got Chloe convinced it’s a smart move but Marco is a tougher nut to crack. A string of brutal crimes around Halloween with no witnesses and little evidence to work with has her own Sheriff daughter and her entire department stymied. Marco is second guessing even taking his retirement since Sheriff Mel can’t get a handle on it all and bring peace and well-being back to the tiny village.

  Someone has to root out a killer. Can Faye and Chloe nose around and figure out what the police can’t to solve the crime? If they do, will Marco still waver or will he consent to move?

  This is the first book in a spin off series from the Morelville Mysteries series by Anne Hagan. The book stands alone but, if you’re interested in getting all of the Crane and Rossi families back story, you should check out the fifth book in the first series, Viva Mama Rossi!.

  The Books of the Morelville Mysteries Series

  Relic: The Morelville Mysteries – Book 1 – The first Dana and Sheriff Mel mystery and the first book in the Morelville saga. It is widely available as a free download wherever eBooks are sold. Please click the link above which will take you to Anne’s website where you can obtain a link to get the book at your retailer of choice.

  Cases collide for two star crossed ladies of law e
nforcement…

  Customs Special Agent Dana Rossi was forced to start her life anew after a bad breakup with her former girlfriend and the loss of job that she loved. These days, she spends life on the road, moving from one case to another until one day when runs run right into the path of Sheriff Mel Crane. The feisty, sexy butch cop is as determined to uncover a counterfeiting ring in her county as Agent Rossi becomes to stop a stalker obsessed with Mel and hot for her company. Dana is under the added pressure of conducting an undercover investigation of her own with a tight deadline: finding and then stopping a ring of smugglers bringing high end designer knock-offs into the states.

  Could their cases be related? When repeated vicious attacks on Mel and on her home accelerate the danger for her and also their attraction to each other, they become desperate to find the truth and solve the two mysteries. Can they find a way to work together to resolve both cases while coming to terms with their growing feelings for one another? Can Dana move beyond her jilted lover past and find true happiness with a small town Sheriff?

  Busy Bees: The Morelville Mysteries – Book 2

  Romance and Murder Mix in the Latest Story Featuring Sheriff Mel Crane and Special Agent Dana Rossi!

  Customs Special Agent Dana Rossi is down but not out after being shot and seriously injured during her previous assignment. Will romance blossom or will sparks fly when she agrees to shack up in Morelville with the beautiful butch Sheriff Melissa ‘Mel’ Crane and her extended family while she recovers?

  Will murder get in the way of love? If murder doesn’t, will life in a house with children or a political campaign keep them apart? Can Mel solve two major crimes and keep her former job on the road loving girlfriend happy in a tiny town?