Off Limits (2 page)

Completely and totally all alone, and
that’s the thought that kept running through her head as she let her small
frame sink to the ground. As she wrapped her hands around her knees and let her
eyes once again fill with the familiar liquid of her painful tears. It was a
feeling she was all too used to these days, and one she was afraid she would
never be able to get rid of.

***

While Melissa Miller sat in her small
house crying over her lost sister, Mitch Manner was fighting a different battle
across town. A battle, he too, had become all too familiar with. His battle,
however, was not with himself, it was with his mother.

“I heard that this is the year he plans
on striking again. I heard he’s going to do it on the eve of Ashley’s death, to
send the police a message.”

This was the problem with living in such
a small town, word traveled fast. So chances are if you told someone something
that morning, the whole town would know by the time afternoon hit. Of course,
whatever you said was sure to be twister around with a bunch of statements
added to it, it was like one big never ending game of telephone.

Mitch sighed and set his cup of coffee
down on the counter in front of him. He was at the diner his family had owned
for as long as he could remember, passed down from generation to generation.
His father was still convinced Mitch was going to wake up and realize being a
police officer was silly and his real dream was to manage the family business
any day now. Mitch didn’t have the heart to tell him that was never going to
happen.

“Mom, no one’s going to strict again,
okay? Especially not on the eve of anyone’s death. This isn’t a movie, it’s
real life.”

His mother shrugs, reaching over and
filling his coffee cup up with more of the hot liquid, “I’m just saying what I
heard, that’s all.”

She was a small woman with gray hair and
a kind smile. Upon meeting her, people awful had a hard time believing Mitch
was her son. It was tough to process that such a tall and handsome man had come
from little Mrs. Manner. Of course, usually when people saw Mitch’s father,
they understood a little bit better.

Ray Manner was just as tall as his son,
with the same rich dark eyes, the same perfect smile, and the same broad
shoulders. His dark locks framed his naturally tanned skin perfectly, and if
you hadn’t known him his whole life, you would never imagine him to own a place
like a diner, you would think he owned a car dealership, a fine piece of real
estate, or something equally as sophisticated. You also would never imagine
that he was as kind as he was, but he was a gentle and good-hearted man, who
had worked hard to pass those same morals down to his son.

“Well, you heard wrong,” Mitch picks up
the sugar and drops two spoonfuls into his steaming hot cup. “How many times do
I have to tell you to not buy into the gossip that floats around this town?”

“Gossip? What gossip? I don’t buy into
such things. I’m just saying what I heard. Why that nice Melissa was in here
just this morning telling me about some secret paperwork she came across-“

Mitch practically spit the coffee that
was floating around in his mouth out all over the counter. “She was WHAT?”

Of course, of all the people in town,
leave it to his mother to have taken a liking to Melissa Miller. Ever since
high school his mother had been convinced Melissa was some kind of saint. It
was Melissa’s sister Ashley who had been class president and captain of the cheerleading
team, Melissa was always quite, and kind of mousy, easily taking a back seat to
Ashley’s beauty and extra curricular activities. Mrs. Manner, however, had
claimed to see something special in Melissa for years.

The first time she had met her had been
at the local high school one night. The first football game of the season was a
big deal around there, had been for as long as anyone could remember, and it
was an occasion the whole town made the effort to come out for. So there was
Mitch, starting quarterback and captain of his senior class team, ready to lead
his team to its championship season, and as he’s about to step onto the field
he looked up in the stands to find his family, and there was his mother,
sitting right next to Melissa Miller, laughing away.

At first he thought he must have seen
wrong for sure, but after opening and closing his eyes a few times, he realized
he had in fact had it right. Melissa Miller and his mother were up in the
stands chatting away like they had known one another for years, not just
minutes.

Ever since then his mother refused to let
go of the idea that Melissa was some sort of goddess. She even refused to let
her pay for anything when she came into the diner, she could eat there three
times a day if she wanted for the rest of her life and never have to pay a
dime. If you knew Mitch’s mother at all, you would know that free food meant
she loved you more than words could say. It was all kind of ridiculous, and a
notion that Mitch had long ago stopped trying to figure out.

After everything that happened with
Ashley’s death, most people in town had written Melissa off as crazy. Sure,
they were sympathetic at first, she had, after all just endured a horrible tragedy.
A town can only handle so much though, and after a while, they grew tired of
the wild stories that would come into light whenever they associated with her,
one can after all only nod politely for so long. After a while, most people in
the town had walked to the other side of the street when they saw her coming,
not wanting to be seen with her. Not wanting to be wrapped up in the extreme
thoughts that seemed to replay over and over again in her mind.

Not Mitch’s mother though, Mitch’s mother
had stayed loyal to Melissa through it all, listening to her thoughts morning
after morning, day after day, patiently trying to put the puzzles together of what
had happened on that catastrophic morning. Leave it to his mother to buy into
everything that woman said. Mitch had even been called down to the diner on
several occasions because his mother had refused service to Charles Morgan. She
said she would not have “a murderer” eating in a building she owned. The whole
thing was a major inconvenience, and honestly Mitch felt a little bad for Mr.
Morgan. I mean, the majority of people in town knew that he had nothing to do
with Ashley’s murder, but those rare occurrences when he was given a hard time
had to be embarrassing for him.

Now, Mitch’s mother sighed and took a
step back from her son. “It’s your job as a police officer to take all facts
into consideration.”

Mitch grunts softly to himself. It
wouldn’t surprise him if Melissa had called his mother on the way back from the
police station. That was the problem with crazy people; they knew absolutely no
boundaries.

“Oh, I take them into consideration. I’ll
take them into consideration right to the psych ward up at Saint Mary’s.”

Mrs. Manner snatches her son’s coffee cup
out of his hand at the mention of the local hospital and huffs. “I don’t find
your sarcasm humorous, Mitchell, not even a little.”

“Aw, mom, come on,” Mitch whispers,
suddenly feeling like a ten year old boy again fighting for approval from his
mother. Before he could hear her reply his cell phone started to vibrate in his
coat pocket causing their conversation to come to a halt.

“Manner,” Mitch hits the answer button on
his phone and brings it to his ear.

“Mitch, it’s me,” the sound of the
sheriff’s voice comes through the other end of the receiver.

“What’s going on, boss?” Mitch takes a
quick glance around the restaurant. His mom had moved down the counter to an
older woman eating a BLT and fries, she kept glancing over at Mitch though, as
if to make sure he wasn’t planning on “ignoring” anymore “crucial” information.

“Well, I have Dave Morgan down here, it
seems someone broke into his house last night, he wants to file a report about
some missing files from his office.”

Mitch’s mind immediately starts to fly in
eight million directions. He hadn’t even thought to ask Melissa how she knew
about Dave Morgan’s property upstate. Of course she had obtained those
documents illegally, it’s not like Dave would have handed those papers over to
Melissa willingly knowing she was trying to set his brother up for murder.

Shit, shit, shit. This was a whole new
level, even for her. Of course, he couldn’t prove she had actually taken them
from Dave Morgan’s house until he saw them again, but where else would they
have come from?

Mitch glances around the diner quickly,
paranoid that somehow someone might be able to hear what the sheriffs saying to
him now. He meets his mother’s gaze and quickly tears his eyes away from hers.
She was able to read when someone was wrong with him all to well.

“I know you probably would have mentioned
it,” the sheriffs breathing sounds heavy on the other end, almost like he had
just run a marathon, and hadn’t been safely tucked away behind his office door
all day long, “but um, Melissa Miller this morning, those papers she had, they
weren’t anything I should be concerned about, right?”

Clearly, they were something he should be
concerned with; they were something they should all be damned concerned with.
It was almost too much to deal with, the whole damn situation. He was this
close to throwing her right under the bus, it would deserve her right. Running
around town, breaking and entering, acting like she was above the law. This had
been a long time coming, and it was time for her to face the music, time for
her to learn to deal with consequences to her actions. Only, well, techniqually
she hadn’t really hurt anyone. It’s not like she had done it when Dave Morgan
was home or anything. He knew for a fact that Dave had been away for the week
with his family visiting his mother out in California. Surely if he had been
home, Melissa wouldn’t have done what she did. Plus, he hadn’t been paying that
much attention to the papers that morning. Maybe they weren’t Mr. Morgan’s
personal files at all. Maybe she had gotten them off the Internet, or
something. That could definitely be the
case,
he
hadn’t even gotten that good of a look at them anyway.

“No, nothing unusual, just the normal,
some type of statistic she printed offline about how 60 percent of the time
when someone is murdered it’s someone they knew or associated with on a day to
day basis.” The lies out of Mitch’s mouth before he has time to think about
what he just said. It comes almost too easy.

“I figured, just checking, okay, I’ll get
the report going. Will you be back at the office soon then?”

“Oh, yeah.” Mitch grabs his coat off the
back of his chair and heads for the door, “real soon, just have to make one
quick stop.”

Then he ends the call and pushes the door
between him and the outside world open allowing the wind from the exterior to
flow inside sending a chill through the space surrounding the entrance. He
tries to push the lie he just told to his boss out of his mind. Then, he
reminds himself, to push the fact that deep down he has a weak spot for Melissa
Miller out of his mind as well.

Chapter Three

It was time for Melissa to take matters
into her own hands. No more depending on the so-called law enforcement in this
town to spring into action. If no one wanted to do their job around here, she
would just have to do it for them.
 
She looks at the bag laying open on her living room floor and quickly
grabs a sweatshirt out of her laundry basket sitting next to the couch and
pulls it over her head. She was going on a nice little drive all by herself.

A nice little drive right up to Dave
Morgan’s property upstate.
Of course, she wasn’t exactly sure what she was looking for up there. But she
was sure that once she got there, the right information would fall into her
lap. By the time anyone figured out she was there, they would be to impressed
with her evidence to care. It wasn’t like she planned on getting caught anyway;
just look what had happened when she snuck into the Morgan family’s house. One
little tug on the screen of the outside kitchen window and the thing had popped
right open.

Of course, she had put it right back
where it went, and been super careful to not show any other indication that she
had been there. She had been worried the file cabinet in Dave’s office would be
locked, but it was wide open, like a pot of gold in plain sight. She had taken
what she thought to be important then put the rest back exactly as it had been
when she arrived. She was more than positive there was no suggestion of her
ever being inside that house. She was also certain she could do the exact same
thing at the family’s vacation home, which was why she wasn’t the least bit
nervous about her plan.

Melissa was just zipping up her duffle
bag and getting ready to load it into her jeep when she heard the knock on the
door. At first she thought maybe it was her mother, but a quick glance at the
clock on her fireplace told her it couldn’t possibly be. Her mother was a
hairdresser at the only barbershop in town and Friday was their busiest day. So
who could it be, a package maybe? She didn’t remember ordering anything. She
pulled the small white curtain that was on the window next to the door open and
peeked outside.

Gasp. Mitch Manner. And yikes, if the
grimace on his face was any indication he wasn’t to pleased either. She
considered not answering for a second, but her jeep was in the driveway.
Although someone could have always came to pick her up.

He knocked again, this time harder. He
had no way of knowing she was home, she could just tip toe to the kitchen and
wait him out. Eventually he was –

“I know you’re in there! I can see you
peaking out the window!” Mitch huffs from the other side of the door.

Damn. She quickly pushed her duffel bag
under the couch then smoothed down her sweatshirt. She plastered a fake smile
on her face and swung the door open quickly.

“Mitch! Twice in one day! To what do I
owe the pleasure?”

Mitch glowered at her then pushed past
her into her house practically knocking her over as he passed.

“Oh sure! Come right in!” Melissa swung
the door shut behind him allowing the sound to echo throughout the tiny
residence.
 

Mitch looked around the small entranceway
carefully, taking in every inch of the space, hoping that somehow the documents
missing from Dave Morgan’s home would be in plain sight, but no such luck. He
shot Melissa a nasty look then trudged his way into the living room without a word
in her direction.

“So, can I offer you some tea then?”
Melissa calls walking slowly into the living room after Mitch. She wasn’t at
all nervous about him being here, it was always something with him. She had no
idea how he had become a detective in this town, he clearly wasn’t all there.
Like right now, for example, he had opened up the drawer to her coffee table
and was frantically leafing through the old mail she kept in there. An absolute
wacko she had on her hands.

“Tea?” Mitch laughed aloud, never taking
his eyes off the papers he was sorting through, “you don’t drink tea.”

“Sure I do,” what was he looking for
anyway? That mail had been sitting in there for months, he must have had a slow
day at the office, bored again. Making up things in his head, who knows what he
thought he would find in there.

“No you don’t and stop trying to distract
me, it’s not going to work, I know all about your mind games,” he says, shaking
his head to himself

“Look, as fun as this whole cat and mouse
game is, why don’t you just tell me what you want.
”
Melissa says slowly, that’s the thing about loose cannons she thought to
herself, you always have to watch the way you say things to them, you never
know when you could push them right over the edge. And
Mitch,
was clearly on a very thin ledge today, seconds away from taking the leap off.

“What I want,” Mitch tells her, looking
her in the eye for the first time since he arrived minutes earlier, “is the
paperwork you stole from Dave Morgan’s house while him and his family were on
vacation.”

Crap, crap, crap. How? She had been so
careful, so, so careful. Down right cautious even. Melissa quickly retraced her
steps in her head, but she hadn’t missed anything, not a thing. She had
literally double checked everything. Ugh, how could she have been so stupid,
she had assumed Dave wouldn’t notice, that he would just assume he had
misplaced the papers or something. He must have literally noticed right away
that they were missing. This information alone made Melissa feel uneasy. For him
to notice so quickly that they were gone, he must deem them important for some
reason. Some suspicious reason, just as she thought from the start. She was on
to something, she could feel it, and now stupid Mitch had to ride on over to
her house on his horse to save the town from distress. But then something
occurred to her. If he had any real proof she took the paperwork from Dave’s
house, he wouldn’t be here looking for them, he would be too busy toting her
off to jail.

“What paperwork?” Melissa tries her best
to paint an innocent expression on her face as she asks.

Mitch rolls his eyes, “now who’s the one
playing a cat and mouse game?”

“Look,” she walks over to the couch and
pushes her way past him casually stopping in front of her purse that’s laying on
the arm rest, trying her best to block it from Mitch’s sight, “I’m very busy
over here, I don’t have time for false accusations, in fact I was just in the
middle of something.”

“Busy?” Mitch looks skeptical now. “You
aren’t busy, you’re never busy. Do you even still have a job?”

“Of course I still have a job!” Melissa
says crossing her arms over her chest. He really was just so nervy! Did she
have a job? Of course she did! Only well, okay, not techniqually. But they were
expecting her back at the dentist’s office in town any day now. Not that she
had exactly talked to them in a while, actually she couldn’t remember the last
time she had heard from them, but whatever. That was besides the fact, of
course they couldn’t wait for her to come back, it had only been a few months,
or nine, or something like that. Melissa was a very important part of their
business though. She was the only one who knew their new filing and computer
system, and all the personal knowledge about each and every one of the
customers! Although now that she thought about it she could have swore she had
overheard that Missy Cummings talking about her new job at the dentists office
in Mitch’s family diner just the other day. Hmm.

“I thought Missy Cummings worked there
now,” Mitch says smugly from the other side of the couch.

“Well you’re wrong again! Just like
you’re wrong about those papers, now don’t you have a town to protect or
something?”

“Exactly why I’m here,” Mitch glances at
her strangely, “why are you standing like that? Is one of your legs shorter
than the other, or something?” He laughs at his own joke then continues to look
suspiciously around the room.

“You need to leave!” Melissa tries her
best to not sound desperate, but the longer Mitch waits around causing a scene
the harder it’s going to be to get rid of these papers.

This is the wrong thing to say and
Melissa can tell right away that she’s tipped Mitch off to just how bad she
wants him to get out of there.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Mitch says
casually walking over to the couch and sitting down, “in fact I was just about
to settle in for a nice long sit.”

“A nice long sit?”

“Yup,” Mitch takes his phone out of his
coat pocket and pretends to scroll through his text messages, “excuse me one
second, I’m just going to text the sheriff and let him know I’m letting you
enjoy a few more minutes of freedom before I cuff you and bring you in.”

“Bring me in?” Melissa sits down next to
Mitch and pretends his statement isn’t phasing her at all.

“Yeah, you know since I saw those papers
this morning and all, and since Dave Morgan came in with that video from his
security camera with you breaking in and taking those papers and all. I just
figured I’d try to get them back from you, for Mr. Morgan’s benefit, before I
read you your rights.” Mitch finishes his statement, never taking his eyes away
from his phone.

Melissa’s heart sinks a little in her
chest, he’s bluffing; he had to be. There’s no way Dave Morgan had a security
system installed, no one in such a small town did. But suddenly she wasn’t so
sure, she hadn’t exactly made the Morgan’s life easy for the past year, maybe
he had finally had enough. Maybe his brother had installed one too! Maybe the
whole Morgan family had them now! A quick flash of her sneaking around the
outside of Charles and Megan Morgan’s house while they were at work a few weeks
ago pops into her head. And then Melissa does what she always does when she
thinks she’s in trouble; she loses all levelheaded thoughts and goes into full-blown
panic mode.

Without a second thought Melissa jumps up
from the couch, grabs her purse and tugs it open, causing pens, lip gloss, pill
bottles, receipts, coins, and a bunch of other unmentionables to go flying
through the air. Some of which land in Mitch’s lap and come pretty close to almost
hitting him in the eye.

After what feels like forever, Melissa
manages to gather up all the papers she took from Dave Morgan’s house then in
one quick motion she tosses them into the burning fire that’s roaring away in
her fire place.

Mitch jumps up from the couch flapping
his arms around in a wild fashion and practically jumps over the coffee table
to get to the fireplace. “What the hell is wrong with you?” He snatches the
screen away from the outside of the burning red blaze but it’s no use, the documents
are slowly burning away to nothing but a rich black ash.

Mitch slams the screen down hard causing
Melissa to jump a little. “Why did you do that? Why? How in god’s name am I
supposed to put them back now?”

Melissa’s eyes are wild, her heart
thumping like a large rock in her chest. “Put them back? But I thought you said…?”

“Oh, come on, like anyone around here
really has a security system, Melissa, I thought you had better common sense
than that, but clearly you don’t even have that anymore.”

“You mean you were trying to help me?” Her
voice is small now, almost like she’s scared to hear his answer.

Mitch shakes his head and sighs, “wake up
and take a look around, that’s all I ever do, is try to help you, try to save
you from yourself. The truth is that I can’t though; you’re never going to stop
until it’s to late for you. I promise you this is the last time I’ll protect
you.”

Then he turns around and heads for the
door, just as he’s about to turn the knob he stops and turns around. “You
didn’t show anyone the papers, right?”

Melissa shakes her head no.

“Then forget I was ever here.” Then he
walks out of her house closing the door tightly behind him.