“You got it?”
“I got it!” he boomed.
She leaned in closer, watching as he grabbed the door’s steel loop. He gave it a yank, but the door didn’t budge.
“I think it might be stuck,” he grunted while continuing to pull at the lever. On the third try, the black panel that blended in perfectly with the floor flew open.
“Yes!” Samantha exclaimed, clapping her hands frantically. She bent down, aiming her cell phone’s flashlight into the opening. The minuscule stream of light didn’t provide much brightness. All she could make out was what appeared to be a dark abyss.
“Can you see anything down there?” she asked Hudson.
“I’m tryin’, but not really.” He sat back on his heels and stared off into space. “I cannot friggin’ believe this, man. I told those dudes on my assembly team that Collin had a secret drug lab hidden somewhere in this place. They just argued me up and down, telling me how wrong I was. Idiots.”
“Hudson,” Samantha said, eager to get moving, “turn on your cell phone’s flashlight so we can get a better look at what’s down there.”
He sluggishly fumbled around inside his puffy neon-green jacket for several seconds before finally pulling out his phone. After tapping the screen for several seconds, he threw his head back and focused on the ceiling.
“Damn,” he wheezed, dumbfounded, his thin, cracked lips hanging open. “What’s my security code?”
“You don’t need to enter your security code to access the flashlight,” Samantha told him, resisting the urge to push him off to the side and make her way down into the opening on her own.
“Got it,” he finally said, pressing more buttons until the flashlight came on.
The pair held their lights down into the darkness. A set of extremely steep black stairs appeared. Before she could say a word, Hudson spun around on his knees and began climbing down steps.
“Be careful,” she told him.
“I will. But I’m hardheaded. So if I fall, I’ll pop right up and keep it moving!” he snorted before emitting an animalistic cackle.
Just get in, get your photos and get out, Samantha told herself.
While he slowly made his way down, she composed a quick text message to Gregory letting him know they’d found what looked to be the drug lab.
There’s a trap door in the floor of the supply room, she quickly typed. We’re heading down now. More soon!
Samantha sent the message, then carefully began descending the stairs behind Hudson.
“Do you see a light down there anywhere?” she called out.
“I think I see one hanging from the ceiling. I’m trying to find a pull string, or maybe there’s a switch somewhere.”
As she waited for him to locate the light, Samantha stood in the middle of the stairway and aimed her phone’s flashlight around the small, filthy room.
She zoned in on two steel tables covered in blenders, scales, glass cookware and pill bottles. When she climbed down a couple more steps to get a better look, a putrid mixture of toxic chemicals and urine invaded her nostrils.
“I knew it,” she said to herself, using her free hand to shield her nose. “I knew Collin was using Westman’s to manufacture drugs. And look at what we’ve found here...”
“We just hit the jackpot, man!” Hudson hollered just as he turned on the light. He glanced around the room while rigorously scratching his face.
Samantha watched as Hudson threw his arms out at his sides and spun around like a kid in a candy shop. She resisted the urge to tell him to calm down and instead focused on sending Gregory an update.
Jackpot! she typed, her fingertips flying over the keypad. The drug lab! About to get pix now...
Before she could pull up her phone’s camera app, Gregory’s response popped up on the screen.
Get what you need then get out ASAP!
Will do.
Samantha closed his message, her hands trembling as she began taking photos of the lab. She zoomed in on the tabletops, large jugs filled with murky liquid and buckets underneath the tables.
Just when Samantha began filming a video, she noticed Hudson shoving several bottles of pills inside his coat pockets.
“Hey, what are you doing?” she asked.
Hudson didn’t look up from the table as he continued grabbing every pill bottle in sight.
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m trying to score some of Collin’s TKO for free. Don’t trip on it, though. He owes me.”
“Isn’t TKO the same stuff that put you in the hospital?”
“Whatever...” Hudson panted, sweating profusely while feverishly stuffing as much product inside his pockets as he could. “That was probably just a bad batch.”
“What a shame,” Samantha muttered underneath her breath.
“Ooh, I’m gonna film a live chat with my boys so they can see all this!” Hudson announced.
“Hudson! No. That is not a good idea. We need to keep this place under wraps and focus on getting all the evidence turned in to the authorities. Your boys do not need to know about it.”
“Aw, come on, man! Let me have a little fun here.”
Samantha’s eyes squinted warily at him. “I thought you brought me here to help get justice for Jacob and the rest of the Westman’s workers. Not steal a bunch of deadly drugs and video chat with your boys for clout. Come on. Get it together. Don’t lose focus on what we’re trying to accomplish here.”
“All right, fine,” Hudson mumbled.
He reluctantly slipped his phone in his back pocket. But as Samantha continued filming her video of the lab, she noticed Hudson lurking around one of the tables and slipping more drugs inside his pockets.
Just let it go and get the rest of your footage, she told herself.
Samantha walked farther into the lab and began taking close-up shots of several propane fuel cylinders. A text message notification from Gregory popped up on the screen. She tapped on it.
You have got to get out of there NOW! it read. Collin and his boys just entered the factory!
Samantha’s stomach dropped down to her knees. “Hudson!” she shrieked. “We’ve gotta go. Collin and his boys just pulled up!”
“Ha-ha, nice joke. They couldn’t be here. Him and his crew are hanging out down at the strip club tonight.”
“Well, obviously they had a change of plans,” Samantha insisted, struggling to make her way up the steep set of stairs. “Detective...a friend...just texted me saying he saw them coming in. Now let’s get the hell out of here before we get busted!”
Hudson casually strutted over to a metal cabinet, his filthy white sneakers screeching loudly across the floor.
“Hey!” Samantha hissed as she watched him rummage through the shelves. “This is not a drill. Let’s go!”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be up in a sec.”
She couldn’t wait. She climbed the stairs, hoping he’d follow. When Samantha reached the top, she froze at the sound of muffled voices coming from beyond the supply room.
“Nah, dude!” someone yelled. “The strippers can wait. They won’t care about us being late once I show up with a few bags of that TKO!”
She immediately recognized that sinister voice. Collin.
Samantha spun around and frantically waved her hand in Hudson’s direction. But he was buried too deep inside the cabinet to notice.
“They already know what’s up!” Collin said, his voice getting closer. “Big Vick is holding our VIP booth at the club, so we’re good. The girls, the bottles...everything will be at our table when we get there.”
Just as Samantha pulled herself out of the drug lab, she heard the door to the supply room fly open. Footsteps thumped loudly toward the back of the room.
Oh nooo, she thought as memories of her near misses with Collin came to mind.
/> “I’ll make it quick,” Collin said. “Just let me grab the product, then we’ll be out.”
“Cool, man. Do your thing,” Samantha heard one of his cronies reply.
She stayed low and darted toward the back wall, then crouched down in a corner behind a shelf stacked with sheet metal.
“Hey!” Collin yelled. “Who the hell left the door to the lab open?”
Samantha cringed at the rage in his tone, swallowing hard as a lump of nausea crept up her throat.
“Not me,” each of his boys quickly replied.
All Samantha could think about was Hudson still being down in the lab and what Collin would do if he found him. She prayed that he’d found a good hiding spot.
“I swear I can’t trust you fools to do anything right!” Collin continued to rant. “What if the wrong person would’ve come up in here and found the lab?”
“There’s only a few of us who have access to the supply room, though,” someone tried to reason. “Only your boys who are closest to you can even get back here.”
“I don’t give a damn about that!” Collin hollered. “I’ve got a couple of assembly team leads who have the door code but don’t know about the lab. I’m telling you man, y’all better wake up. Don’t make me have to unleash my other side. Trust me. You do not wanna meet him.”
Samantha squeezed her phone in her quivering hand. As she heard the men climbing down the stairs, she composed a text to Gregory.
Collin and his boys are heading down into the drug lab and Hudson’s still down there! I’m hiding in the supply room. Should I make a run for it or stay hidden?
While she waited for the detective to respond, Samantha struggled to hear what was happening down in the lab. Just when her phone buzzed, she heard yelling coming from the lab.
“What in the hell are you doing down here?”
She bent down and pressed her ear to the floor.
“Hudson!” she heard Collin bark. “Were you actually dumb enough to creep inside my factory and break into my lab? Wait! Are those my drugs falling out of your pockets? So you’re stealing from me, too?”
Samantha swallowed hard. She checked the phone for Gregory’s reply.
Stay put! Do not try to run. Don’t risk being seen.
The thought of having to stay inside the factory made her shudder. But she knew Gregory was right.
Okay, she wrote back. Collin and his boys are in the lab. They found Hudson.
As soon as Samantha hit the send button, she heard more yelling coming from the lab.
“No, no, no! Please, Collin, don’t!” Hudson pleaded.
“I am not the one to be messed with,” she heard Collin shout. “I can’t believe you had the audacity to try me. But hear me when I tell you that you’ll never get the chance to do it again.”
Samantha clenched her hands together and pressed them against her lips.
“Please, please don’t hurt him,” she whispered just as Collin yelled, “Hand me that pipe!”
“Come on, man,” Hudson begged. “I promise you it’ll never happen—”
He was silenced by the brutal sound of a bone cracking.
Hudson emitted an animalistic howl. Samantha covered her mouth, stifling the scream that almost flew out.
“Why’d you do that, man!” she heard Hudson shout. His words were garbled by pain.
“You know why I did it!” Collin yelled. “And you know why I’m about to do this, too.”
The sound of another cracking bone numbed Samantha’s eardrums. She shook so hard she could barely hold her phone.
“Get him outta here,” Collin commanded.
Samantha scrambled to her feet and repositioned herself farther behind the stack of metal. Jumbled voices echoed up the stairs, followed by heavy, stuttering footsteps. Had Hudson given her up? Or had he been too addled to even remember she was here?
She crossed her arms in front of her tightly, shivering uncontrollably at the thought of being found.
When her cell phone began vibrating like crazy, Samantha silenced it completely then opened a string of text messages from Gregory.
What is all that noise? I’m at the door and coming in!
No! she quickly replied. Don’t! Collin and his boys are on their way out. They just beat Hudson up!
Samantha sent the text, then braced herself as gurgling moans rippling through the supply room.
“Why didn’t you just kill him?” one of Collin’s cronies asked.
“Where’s the fun in that?” Collin snarked. “I like to teach lessons. And you have to be alive to learn them. Hudson needs to know that Collin Wentworth is never, ever to be crossed. These broken bones will be a nice little reminder of that.”
“So does this mean you’re gonna just keep torturing him instead?” another one of the guys chuckled.
Samantha grimaced at the sound of amusement in his deep, gravelly voice.
“I might,” Collin replied. “But I definitely wanna keep him around. Hudson’s a good little lab rat. Let’s me test out any drug on him that I want before putting it out on the street. Now grab him and let’s get out of here.”
Just as Samantha heard the men dragging a whimpering Hudson out of the room, her cell phone rang loudly. She stared down at it in horror.
Instead of silencing it, she’d accidentally turned the volume up full blast.
“Whose phone is that?” Collin asked.
A surge of fear detonated inside Samantha’s chest. She shook uncontrollably while grappling with the button that turned off the ringer.
Her heart palpitated erratically as she leaned to the side and peered out at the men through a crack in between the shelves.
Hudson was sprawled out on the floor and appeared to be unconscious. Two of Collin’s flunkies were standing on either side of him, holding his arms.
“It wasn’t my cell,” both of them muttered, shrugging while looking around the room.
“Did one of you fools leave your phone down in the lab, or is somebody else in here with us?” Collin spewed, his voice rising with each word.
Samantha held her breath. She froze.
The sound of shuffling feet filled the air. Collin’s boys had dropped Hudson’s arms and were scrambling around the room.
“So you weren’t in here alone, were you, ole Huddy boy?” Collin asked, kicking him savagely in the leg. “And you didn’t even bother to tell me?”
Samantha curled up into a tight ball, every muscle in her body tense as she braced herself to face Collin’s wrath. Her jaws clenched together tightly when she heard Hudson emit a heart-wrenching growl.
“It...it was my—my ph-phone,” he sputtered.
“It was your what?” Collin yelled, ruthlessly kicking him again.
“It was my phone,” Hudson repeated before coughing and gagging. A clump of blood gushed from his mouth.
Samantha pressed her teeth into her fist while she waited for Collin to respond. His boys stopped in their tracks one shelving unit away from where she was hiding.
“Dumbass,” Collin muttered. He held his arm in the air, signaling for his boys to come back. “Hey! Let’s get the hell out of here. Mitch, text Big Vick and tell him we’re running late, but we’ll be at the club after we make a quick stop. I need to figure out where to dump this pile of garbage,” he spat before nudging Hudson’s shoulder with the pipe.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Samantha thought, beyond grateful that Hudson had looked out for her but still worried for him.
She glanced down at her phone and saw that Gregory had sent her about ten text messages in a row. She opened the most recent one.
If I don’t hear from you within the next minute, I’m coming in!
Her fingertips raced across the screen as she responded to the message.
No! Don’t!
Send.
They’re coming out now!
Send.
And Hudson’s still alive.
Send.
I’ll be out as soon as they’re gone. Stay low and meet me by the door where I came in. Is the guard still out there?
Samantha sent the last message then peered through the shelves. Hudson’s feet had gotten caught in the doorway. One of Collin’s cronies kicked the door open and yanked the rest of his body out of the room.
She quickly checked her phone for Gregory’s reply.
Collin sent the guard to lunch when he got here. I see everybody coming out now. Start making your way to the door. I’ll let you know when the coast it clear.
On my way! Samantha typed, both shocked and relieved that she was making it out of the factory alive.
When she stood up, her wobbly legs almost caused her to crash to the floor. She gripped a stack of boxes behind her and steadied her gait, then hurried through the supply room.
She peeked through the door before stepping out. The factory was empty. They didn’t have round-the-clock shifts. Just as she crept past several workstations, her cell phone lit up with another text from Gregory.
It’s clear. They just pulled off. I’m at the side door. Meet me there now!
Samantha couldn’t get to the door fast enough. She darted past a row of equipment assembly systems and crashed through the exit so forcefully that she almost stumbled to the ground. Gregory was standing on the other side. He immediately grabbed hold of her.
“It’s okay,” he said, lifting her up and embracing her tightly. “Come on. I got you.”
Samantha finally allowed herself to breathe. She closed her eyes and leaned into the detective, her feet barely touching the ground as he led them to the car.
“Thank you,” she whispered into his chest.
“I’m just glad you’re okay.”
When he planted a soft kiss on her forehead, Samantha wrapped her arms around him and gripped the back of his jacket.
“I swear I didn’t think I’d make it out of there alive.”
“Well, you did. And from this point on, I’m never gonna allow you to get in harm’s way again. Never. Now let’s get out of here.”
Cold Case True Crime Page 17