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“I see.” What do you see? That Baldy will hunt you down and kill you? And enjoy it? The hysteria I’d managed to keep hidden began to crawl up my body like a swarm of particularly angry red ants, and I wanted to scream until my voice gave out.
“What do you want to do, Courtney?” Turner asked the question as if the decision was so glaringly obvious that he didn’t even know why we were having this discussion.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
I stared at Detective Turner, my thoughts going in several directions at once. “I . . . I need to talk to my mom.” Mom. “What about my mom? Will she be safe? And my friend Shelby? What about her?” The pitch of my voice rose. “What about Tyler? What if they want to finish him off? You know, to send me a message?”
“We’ll make sure Tyler’s safe.”
“How?”
“We’re in the process of stationing an officer outside his room.”
“And my mom?”
“Where is your mother? Does she live in the area?”
I told him where she lived—a thousand miles away.
“She’s so far away that it wouldn’t make sense to relocate her.”
I glanced at my car with the shattered window and saw a man dusting for fingerprints. “Would I be able to talk to her? If I have to keep my location a secret, I mean?”
“Yes. You’ll just need to make sure she doesn’t tell your location to anyone else, particularly on social media.” He smiled. “Which obviously would go for you too.”
“Okay.” That didn’t sound too bad. “What about Shelby?”
Turner tilted his head. “Who’s Shelby?”
“My roommate.”
“Why do you believe she’s in danger?”
I explained how she’d been at the park with me, and how I feared that Baldy had been watching our house. “If he was willing to hurt Tyler, he might hurt Shelby.”
“I should be able to include her in the relocation program.”
There was no way I would leave Shelby behind. Imagining her in Baldy’s hands made me sick. I wouldn’t chance that. “I won’t go without her.”
“I understand.” His eyebrows rose. “So you’ll testify?”
Had I already made my decision? It sure sounded like it. You don’t have a choice, Courtney. “Yes. I’ll testify.”
Turner smiled and nodded. “Very good.”
I didn’t know about that, but I did feel a sense of relief that I’d made a decision. I just hoped it was the right one. “Now what?”
“Now we’ll go to the station as we’d originally planned and we’ll see if you can ID this Baldy person.”
“Okay.”
An hour and a half later I’d picked out the photo of Baldy and given a statement as to what had happened.
“How certain are you that this is him?” Detective Turner asked.
I stared at the picture and shuddered, then looked at Turner. “I’m absolutely positive.” There was no way I would forget that face.
He nodded. “His name is Aaron Bellingham, but he goes by Big Dog.”
It was strange to realize he had an actual name. In my mind he’d always been Baldy—and he probably always would be. “Why Big Dog?”
“He’s not the leader of the gang, but he’s high up in the hierarchy.”
Great. “What’s going to happen now?”
“Now we’ll put out an APB for Mr. Bellingham and get him off the streets asap.”
That sounded good to me. Very good.
“Then,” Turner said, “we’ll put you in a hotel while you find a new place to live.”
“So I get to decide where I live?”
He smiled. “Of course. The state will cover your first and last month’s rent, as well as the security deposit, but it’s up to you where you want to go.”
I liked that idea. They would help me get started, but I had more control over the process than I’d realized. Of course I would still have to face Dylan and Baldy in court, but I would be safe.
“Okay,” I said, feeling a little better about the whole thing. “I want to call my mom. She’s probably freaking out by now since I haven’t talked to her in a couple of hours.”
“I’ll leave you alone then.”
I watched Turner leave, then called Mom’s cell.
“How are you, Courtney? Are you in a safe place?”
I told her what had happened. “But I’m safe now, and since I agreed to testify, Detective Turner’s going to help me relocate so that Baldy won’t be able to find me.”
“Oh, honey.” Mom’s voice hitched. “Oh, baby.”
I waited while she gathered herself, her reaction making everything seem so much more serious. Up until that moment I’d been focused on the mechanics of it—how the program worked, what I would have to do. But hearing the emotion in her voice—the fear and the worry—made the gravity of my situation slam down on me like a pallet loaded with sheets of steel.
What have I agreed to? I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. You have no choice. The other option is to live in fear of Baldy coming after you. That’s no way to live. You’ve proved that over the last few weeks.
“Courtney?” Mom said as if she could read my mind. “We’ll get through this.”
I tried to imagine how she must be feeling. Her only child shot at by a known gang member—a man who now wanted her dead. Yeah, that would be pretty horrific. Especially from so far away. I swallowed hard, wanting to reassure her, even if I didn’t totally believe the words myself. “It’s okay Mom. I’ll be safe. No one will know where I am.”
“All I can think about is you huddling next to the car with bullets flying all around you.”
Maybe I shouldn’t have told her all the details. “There were only two bullets, actually.”
“I’ve seen gunshot victims.” Her voice had become stern. “It only takes one to do serious damage. Or to . . .” Her voice hitched again. “Or to kill you.”
I didn’t need the reminder of how close I’d come to being shot. I’d lived it. “I know.”
“I can’t think about that anymore.” She dragged in a breath. “What’s going to happen now?”
“The police are going to find the bad guy and arrest him.”
“What about you, honey? What’s going to happen to you?” Tears filled her voice. “Can you just come here and live with me?”
I knew that was an option, but it wasn’t my first choice. That felt too much like leading Baldy and his buddies right to Mom’s doorstep. “Where I’m going to live is still up in the air.”
“But they’re going to keep you safe? They’re going to put you somewhere the bad guys won’t find you?”
“Yes. They do this all the time.”
“Will I be able to talk to you when you’re, you know, in hiding?”
“Yes. We just have to keep my location a secret.”
“Of course.”
“Mom, I need to call Shelby. She’s going to come with me.” If she agrees. Which she’d better.
“You won’t be alone in your new location? That makes me feel better.”
“Good.”
“I love you, sweetheart. Call me when you can, okay?”
“I will. I love you too.” We disconnected, and I stared at my phone.
As the reality of my situation fully seeped into my consciousness, I became overwhelmed and I wanted to run out of the police station and hide. But hide where? I knew I would be less safe on my own than I would be if I let the police help me.
Calm down, Court. Everything will be okay. Everything will work out.
I had no idea if that was true, and I knew I was deluding myself by thinking it. It could all go wrong, so very wrong. I had to be vigilant, on my guard, constantly aware of my surroundings. My life had gone from vague terror to waking nightmare. Until Baldy was caught, he and his gang would be a threat to me, to my very life.
He had tried to kill me only hours earlier. He wanted me dead.
At the deep realization
, a tremor began in my head and spread throughout my body. Will I ever be safe?
Chapter Forty
I texted Shelby and told her to call me the moment she could. My phone rang minutes later.
“What’s going on?” Shelby asked. “How’s Tyler?”
I wondered if he’d gained consciousness yet. “He’s in bad shape.”
“Oh no.”
“There’s more.”
“More? Like what?”
I told her everything that had happened since she’d dropped me off at my car, ending with the police showing up.
“I can’t believe he tried to kill you, Courtney.” She sighed. “No, I can believe it. That guy is just plain evil. What are we going to do? Do you think he’ll try again?”
“I’ve worked something out with the detective. To keep us safe.”
“What do you mean?”
I glanced around the small room where I sat alone. “I don’t want to talk about it over the phone.”
“Okay.”
“You should leave work now and come to the police station.” I thought about being ambushed by Baldy and his friends. “On second thought, let me see if the police can escort you here.”
“Escort me?” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Do you think Baldy would try to attack me too?”
I had no idea, but I didn’t want to take the chance. “We should just take precautions.”
“That’s fine for tonight, but what about tomorrow? And the day after that? The police can’t follow us around for the rest of our lives.”
“They won’t have to.”
“Why not?”
I shook my head, not about to tell her my secret plans over the phone. “I need to talk to you face to face.”
She laughed nervously. “Maybe we should meet in that dressing room.”
Despite myself, I smiled. “Let me see if Detective Turner will send someone to escort you here.”
“Okay. That sounds good.”
We disconnected a few moments later, and I stared at the wall as my thoughts raced.
“I’m here,” Shelby announced when she walked into the room where I’d been waiting. Detective Turner had agreed to have an officer escort her to the police station, much to my relief, and he had brought her right to me.
I jumped up from my seat and pulled her into a hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“I’ll leave you alone to talk,” Turner said with a smile, then he left the room.
Shelby and I sat across the table from each other, and she looked at me with concern. “What’s going on? Why were you so hush-hush on the phone?”
Now that she was sitting there in front of me, I hesitated to tell her that she was about to be uprooted and sworn to secrecy.
Her eyebrows bunched and she leaned toward me. “What is it, Courtney?”
“I’m going to testify against Dylan. And Baldy.”
A grimace formed on her mouth. “Oh.”
“You don’t seem surprised to know Dylan is the murderer.”
Her head tilted in a Come on, Courtney angle. “You practically said his name earlier today, and when I called you on it, you didn’t deny it.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“But why do you want to testify? Won’t that just make them come after you harder?”
This is where it gets dicey. “Agreeing to testify was the only way I could get into their Witness Relocation Program.”
“Witness Relocation Program?” Her voice held a note of alarm. “Are you going to disappear forever?”
I shook my head. “It’s a program where they’ll move me someplace far away from here. Just until the trial’s over.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Move? Away?”
“Yes. To keep Baldy and his gang from finding me.”
“Wow.”
I gazed at her a moment. “You can come too.”
Several emotions chased each other across Shelby’s face—confusion, fear, dawning understanding, worry. “Wait a second. You want me to move away from here?”
“You don’t have to, of course. But after what happened to Tyler, well, I’m scared they’ll come after you next.”
“Come after me? But why? I don’t have anything to do with this.”
I could see she was barreling down Denial Drive, and I would need to drag her back to Reality Road. “Do you think Tyler had something to do with it? He knew a lot less than you did. I’d barely told him about the murder I witnessed, and he wasn’t the one who saw Baldy talking to me at the park.”
Bleak reality filled her eyes and her body seemed to sink deeper into the chair. “What about my family? What will I tell them?” Distress radiated off of her in waves. “Will I ever be able to see them again?”
“Of course you will. It’s not like we’ll be cut off from them. You’ll just have to make sure they don’t tell anyone where you are. And once the bad guys are in prison, we can go back to our lives.”
“Oh.” Her face brightened, and I knew exactly how she felt. I’d felt the same thing when my worries had been alleviated. “That doesn’t seem so bad then.” She straightened in her chair. “Where would we go?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t gotten that far.”
“You know, this might actually be fun, Court.”
“Fun? How so?” I didn’t see how being in hiding from men who wanted me dead had any element of fun, but I was willing to listen.
“You know. It will be an adventure.”
“An adventure?” Just like I suggested earlier. But now it seemed more real than just an idea I’d impulsively suggested while hiding in a dressing room.
“Sure,” she said. “We can reinvent ourselves.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Where would we live?”
“That’s completely up to us. But we should get started on finding our place right away.” I stared at her a moment. “You’re taking this really well.”
She burst into tears. “I don’t know if I can do this, Courtney. I’ve always lived in L.A.”
Her distress was contagious. Tears filled my eyes and my voice shook. “I know, but if we go together, it won’t be so bad.” I tried not to think about the other half of this—testifying. “We’ll go somewhere completely new.” I paused as I got my emotions under control. “It will be great.” My enthusiasm sounded forced, even to me.
Shelby stared at me as she wiped away her tears. “Do you really think so?”
I guess I was more convincing than I thought. I put on a bright smile. “Sure. We’ll pick someplace with a university, someplace warm, someplace not too far away.” My smile grew, and this time it was almost genuine. “We can go wherever we want.”
Her despair seemed to slowly evaporate. “Yeah, okay. Where should we go? Any suggestions?”
We tossed around ideas of places to live until Detective Turner returned.
“She said she’d come with me,” I said the moment he entered the room. It wasn’t until Shelby had agreed that I’d realized how relieved I was that she was coming with me. Going to some unknown place all by myself would have made the whole thing ten times worse.
“Okay,” he said. “Good.”
“Now what?” Shelby asked.
“I’m going to escort you to the hotel where you’ll stay while you decide where to live.”
“How long do we have?” I asked as I stood.
“Up to thirty days.”
I nodded. I didn’t want to take that long, but it was good to know I had a little bit of time.
“What about our things?”
“In the morning we’ll escort you to your house so you can pick up what you need. After that, we’ll have a moving company load up the rest of your belongings and bring them to wherever you decide to go.”
“Okay.” Shelby and I followed him from the room as I thought about the crazy way my day was ending.
Chapter Forty-One
That night at the hotel, after I touched base with Mom, Shelby and I staye
d up late discussing where we should go.
“There has to be a college or university,” I said as we used our phones to look at different locations. “I wouldn’t mind being closer to my mom, although I don’t want to live in the snow.”
“What about St. George, Utah?” Shelby asked as she held out her phone to show me a map of where it was. “I went camping around there once,” Shelby said. “It’s really pretty, with red rocks and stuff. Plus there’s a university there.”
We looked up more information about St. George, and after further discussion, we decided it was a strong possibility.
“Let’s sleep on it,” I said. “It’s not like we have to decide right away.”
The next morning we woke to a text from Mitch telling us that Tyler had regained consciousness during the night.
“That’s great news,” I said when Shelby told me. “I wonder how he’s doing. Do you think we can find out?”
“I don’t think the hospital will tell anyone outside the family anything, but maybe Detective Turner can find out for us.”
“Good idea.”
I called Turner and left a message. He called back a while later and let me know that Tyler was on the mend, and that he’d personally talked to him about what had happened.
“From what Tyler told me,” Turner said, “it seems highly likely the people behind the attack belong to the same gang Aaron Bellingham does. When Tyler’s up to it, I’ll have him look at a photo array just like you did, and we’ll see if we can make a positive ID.”
I was just glad to know he was going to be okay, and I hoped he didn’t hold me responsible for what had happened. Although if he did, I couldn’t blame him.
“Did you tell him what’s going on?” I asked. “About me and Shelby moving and everything?”
“I couldn’t tell him very much about the investigation, as it’s ongoing, but I gave him enough information to explain why he was targeted. And I did tell him you’ll be gone for a while.”
Sadness swept over me. I really liked Tyler and I knew he liked me. Was our relationship over before it ever had a chance to blossom into anything more. “Okay. Have you caught Baldy, I mean Aaron Bellingham, yet?”