Off Limits Read Free Page A

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