Fear Has a Name: A Novel (The Crittendon Files)
Page 32
The Demler-Vargus plant on Winchester Boulevard on Trenton City’s east side is the largest of all, churning out dozens of kinds of fiberglass, which is then shipped to manufacturers worldwide and used to produce boats, car parts, buildings, sporting goods, windmills, insulation, fabric, bulletproof vests, and more.
“We hit our stride when we purchased the old Trenton City refinery and its 225 acres,” Bendickson said. “We built the new plant and that was the turning point for Demler-Vargus. We’ve never looked back. We are always exploring new ideas, techniques, and venues for our products.”
Although Demler-Vargus has been the subject of complaints about air pollution from Trenton City neighbors over the years, Bendickson insists the company has worked diligently to comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.
“I love the natural beauty of our land, lakes, rivers, and seas; that’s one of the reasons I studied environmental engineering at Rutgers,” Bendickson said.
“Being a good environmental steward and a leader in green initiatives is one of my passions. When it comes to educating and properly fitting our employees with the safest, most state-of-the-art equipment and resources, we lead the way. And when it comes to reducing overall hazardous air pollutants in our community, Demler-Vargus is at the cutting edge. You won’t find a more conscientious corporation.”
Travis couldn’t take anymore in one sitting. He glanced at the elevators outside the waiting area and noticed a boy in an Ohio State ski cap pushing his gray grandpa in a wheelchair. If LJ saw the story, he would go directly to the moon, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars. But if Demler-Vargus was dirty, wouldn’t OSHA and the EPA have caught on and stopped them? Was Bendickson lying or was he running a clean shop?
Jack was a good writer. Travis wondered if he would really pursue a story about Demler-Vargus. He took the paper and coffee and went back around the nurses’ station.
“Good morning.” A different nurse was behind the counter now, an attractive brunette.
Travis looked behind him and, seeing no one there, concluded she was speaking to him. “Hello. How is the morning treating you?”
“Very well.” Her name tag read Meredith. “Can I help you with anything?”
“Ahh …” Travis wanted to keep the conversation going. “I’m Galen Randall’s son, he’s in room 411. I was wonderin’, is he gonna get to go home today?”
She flipped through pages on a clipboard and paused. “His doctor is supposed to come by this morning and give him a look. He has definitely shown improvement. It shouldn’t be too much longer.”
“Very good, then.” Travis tapped the counter, wishing there was more to talk about. “By the way, my name’s Travis—Travis Randall.”
Meredith lost her pretty smile for a split second. She shot a glance at another nurse seated behind the counter, who made eye contact and then looked back down at his paperwork. Meredith gave Travis a sealed-mouth smile. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Randall. I hope your father gets to go home soon.”
Mr. Randall. See how she immediately shut him down? Slammed the door right in his uneducated, country-bumpkin face.
“Thank you.” Travis headed back toward his father’s room.
He was forty two. His folks had married in their twenties; they were together over fifty years. They’d had their two sons, built a business, taken care of each other and their neighbors—that was living.
Travis was sick and tired of being alone. It frustrated him that his life was half over and he had no one. The problem was, he never had any opportunities to meet nice women. He didn’t hang out in the bars. Most of the clients at the garage were men or housewives. Daddy told him he needed to go to the singles’ class at church, and he was half tempted to try it. What did he have to lose? But he’d probably only embarrass himself there too.
’Course LJ was in the same boat as Travis, but his brother hung out at the Twisted Tavern and the East End Grill now and again, so he had a bigger pool of ladies to draw from—if you wanted to call them that.
LJ had been married once, to Roxanne. They were the proud parents of Bo. When LJ got a tip Roxanne might be seeing somebody on the sly, he went after the fella in the Big Lots parking lot; tore him limb from limb. But then the man sent a posse after LJ one night, and they carved him up so badly he lost his left eye. After the divorce, LJ got shared custody of Bo.
Rounding the corner and walking back down the long hallway, Travis said hey to the nurse Candace, who was typing something at a workstation in the hallway. ’Course she didn’t mention nothing about Daddy’s waffles.
Down the long hallway near his father’s room, Travis suddenly saw the man in the black overcoat pop into the hallway. He glanced both ways, held his eyes on Travis for a second, and whipped off in the opposite direction.
That’s odd.
The man practically ran out of there.
Travis picked up the pace. He’d take a look into the room the man had come from. He walked faster. Then his heart kicked up a notch.
Wait a minute …
It hit him like a bomb.
The man had not been near his father’s room—he’d been in it!
Travis busted through the heavy door, past the bathroom, hoping to turn the corner to see a nurse doting over Daddy, hoping to see his father awake with his glasses on, eating his waffle, looking out the window, complaining about how much longer he would have to stay.
Travis jammed on the brakes at the foot of the bed.
The room was still. Everything was fine.
Daddy slept.
The breakfast tray had been delivered; it sat on the swinging table next to the bed, but the food hadn’t been touched. Nothing was beeping on the monitors. Travis stared at Daddy’s chest until he saw movement.
“Phew-wee.”
Travis hurried back into the hallway, looking for the man in black, but he was long gone. Could he be sure the man had left this room? Perhaps he was mistaken.
He went back in and plunked into the chair, still holding the crumpled newspaper.
He reached over and lifted the silver lid off the main breakfast plate.
Egg.
“Dang.” He dropped back into the chair.
Incompetents.
Travis was worn out already and the day had hardly begun.
He leaned back, folded the newspaper, and found his place.
Bendickson felt so strongly about Demler-Vargus’s green initiative that he appointed his son, Devon Bendickson, 28, as the company’s environmental liaison. Devon has degrees from Furman and Rutgers and is Bendickson’s only child, by his first wife, Patricia.
Enjoying his third marriage, this one to concert pianist Celeste Excelsior, Bendickson resides in a 15,000-square-foot solar-powered mansion in Cool Springs. The glass, metal, and stone architectural award-winning structure has indoor and outdoor pools and spas, tennis and basketball courts, and a professional par-three golf hole designed by golf great and Columbus native Jack Nicklaus.
Although Trenton City residents may see Bendickson cruising around town in a silver Range Rover, his daily vehicle, the fiberglass king also has a collection of automobiles in his seven-car garage, including his prized possession, a 1982 DeLorean. He loves boating, mainly in the Atlantic, on his 32-foot yacht, aptly named Fiberglass Slipper, which he docks at the Sea Pines Resort on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina.
Travis wasn’t interested in finishing the story. He tossed the paper aside and looked at his father. Why was he sleeping so long? The food had to be cold by now, and Daddy detested cold food.
Travis would have them heat it up when his father awoke. Until then, he decided to turn on the TV, real low.
He scanned the room for the remote.
Wait …
The silver IV stand had been moved.
It had been back toward the wall earlier.
He looked from the wheels up the silver pole to the IV bag.
&
nbsp; A pinkish solution floated with the clear liquid in the bag.
With three giant steps, Travis grabbed the pouch and followed the tube leading to Daddy’s right arm.
A sudden, violent cough from his father jolted Travis, drawing his attention away from his task. Daddy’s face was purple as a bruise. His coughing turned to choking, then to a loud, alarming screeching for air.
“Oh dear Lord.” Travis’s hands shook violently.
His father gasped and his arms flailed. His hands moved to his throat. His brown eyes searched Travis in despair.
Travis snatched Daddy’s wrist and pulled it toward him, fumbling for the IV tube and ripping it away.
His father’s body was limp, his head grotesquely twisted to one side, and the color was draining from his face like antifreeze flushing from a radiator.
The monitor next to him pinged and flashed, pinged and flashed.
“No!”
“Mr. Randall?” came a voice from the intercom.
Travis grabbed it with trembling hands and pressed talk. “Hurry! We need a doctor! Emergency!”
Going one way, then another, uncertain what to do, Travis straightened his father’s torso and shifted his head back to a normal position, trying to make him look right. But the older man’s lips were almost as white as his now ashen face.
Travis sprinted into the hallway and yelled as loud as he could toward the nurses’ station. “Emergency. Room 411! Get a doctor!”
Seeing they were scrambling, Travis ran back in and took his father’s face in his hands. “Come on, Daddy. Hang on. Please … ”
Travis put his arms around him and hugged. “Hold on, Daddy. Hold on.” As he rocked him, Travis’s eyes fell to the dangling IV tube, dripping a steady flow of the liquid that, he was certain, had been tainted by the stranger in black.
FEAR HAS A NAME
Published by David C Cook
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Colorado Springs, CO 80918 U.S.A.
David C Cook Distribution Canada
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David C Cook U.K., Kingsway Communications
Eastbourne, East Sussex BN23 6NT, England
The graphic circle C logo is a registered trademark of David C Cook.
All rights reserved. No part of this ebook may be reproduced, scanned, resold, or distributed by or through any print or electronic medium without written permission from the publisher. This ebook is licensed solely for the personal and noncommercial use of the original authorized purchaser, subject to the terms of use under which it was purchased. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.
The website addresses recommended throughout this book are offered as a resource to you. These websites are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement on the part of David C Cook, nor do we vouch for their content.
This story is a work of fiction. Characters and events are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is coincidental.
Epigraph Proverbs 16:4 quotation taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org.); Galatians 6:9 in chapter 10 is taken from the King James Version of the Bible. (Public Domain.); 2 Corinthians 12:10 in chapter 11 and John 14:27 in chapter 30 are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com.
LCCN 2013934366
ISBN 978-0-7814-0816-5
eISBN 978-1-4347-0605-8
© 2013 Creston Mapes, Inc.
Published in association with Natasha Kern Literary Agency, PO Box 1069, White Salmon, WA 98672.
The Team: Don Pape, LB Norton, Nick Lee, Jack Campbell, Caitlyn Carlson, Karen Athen
Cover Design: Amy Konyndyk
Cover Photo: iStockPhoto
First Edition 2013
CRESTON MAPES is the author of Nobody, Dark Star, and Full Tilt. A journalist, copywriter, and editor, he works from his home-office in Atlanta for some of the nation’s top media companies, Christian ministries, and nationally recognized corporations. His early years as a reporter inspire many of his novels.
If you enjoyed this title, visit DCCeBooks.com for more great reads.
What people are saying about …
FEAR HAS A NAME
“It takes a lot for a suspense novel to impress me, but this one definitely did. Anyone who likes my books will love Fear Has a Name. The plot is skillfully woven, and the story has a spiritual depth that will resonate with readers. Creston Mapes is an author to watch in the suspense genre.”
Terri Blackstock, author of Intervention, Vicious Cycle, and Predator
“Fear Has a Name is a fast-paced page-turner that offers not only a great story, but an intriguing view into evil and its place in our society.”
Kristin Billerbeck,
author of The Scent of Rain
“Sometimes you want a comfort read—sometimes you don’t. Mapes has crafted an edgy tale that will grab you from the start and then send you reeling. With a heart-pounding pace, he takes us to some disturbing places but safely delivers us home. Great job, Creston!”
Melody Carlson, author of Deceived and Shattered and Damaged (Secrets series)
“I love novels where I look for any spare moment to keep reading. Fear Has a Name is one of them. Maybe because the tension never lets up. Maybe because Mapes left out all the boring parts. Maybe because of a plot that kept me on edge from the first words till the very end. Well done.”
James L. Rubart, best-selling author of Rooms, Book of Days, The Chair, and Soul’s Gate
“Fear Has a Name is an exceptional treat, a story of unrelenting tension that dares to stare evil in the face. Mapes has a gift. He reveals wickedness and vice yet sprinkles it with something rare that kept me riveted: the hope of redemption.”
Harry Kraus, MD, best-selling author of The Six-Liter Club
“Creston Mapes is one of my favorite authors. Fear Has a Name mesmerized me from the first page. Multiple plot twists and terrific characters kept me glued to the page. I loved it and highly recommend it!”
Colleen Coble, author of the Rock Harbor series and the Lonestar series
“Captivating from breathless start to throat-clenching finish, Fear Has a Name possesses everything a great thriller should, and more. A must-read for fans of Terri Blackstock and Brandilyn Collins.”
Tamera Alexander, USA Today bestselling author of To Whisper Her Name and A Lasting Impression
“A stunning portrayal of redemption and mercy, Fear Has a Name kept me on the edge of my seat. Interwoven with themes of forgiveness, hope, and courage, Creston Mapes’s latest masterpiece is a story readers will not want to miss. The dedication and determination of Jack Crittendon in protecting his wife and being a man of God proved powerful and compelling. This story will leave Mapes’s fans clamoring for more by this master of gritty storytelling! Bravo!! Creston Mapes once again ripped my breath away!”
Ronie Kendig, award-winning author of the Discarded Heroes series
“Creston Mapes does a superb job of instilling real suspense and even fear in this novel, making it un-put-downable. I especially appreciated the way Mapes takes the suspense to a much more thought-provoking level as he handles well the questions we Christians ask ourselves in the midst of the pain, suffering, and evil things that intrude upon our lives. An incredible read!”
Elizabeth Musser, author of the Secrets of the Cross Trilogy: Two Crosses, Two Testaments, Two Destinies
“Fear Has a Name is a powerful, up-all-night story that grabs you from the first page and doesn’t let go until the incredible end. Creston Mapes has spun a tale so real and rich it could have been pulled from today’s headlines. Dynamic characters, pulse-pounding scenes, and the grace of God abound in this remarkable novel. Hi
ghly recommended!”
Mark Mynheir, former homicide detective and author of The Corruptible
“Fear Has a Name gripped me from page 1 and didn’t let go until I closed the cover for the last time. There were moments when it left me breathless. Creston Mapes’s signature blend of heart-pounding suspense, angst, and deep spiritual questions made for a robust, riveting, thought-provoking read!”
Kathy Herman, author of the Sophie Trace Trilogy and Secrets of Roux River Bayou series
“Why endure a story of raw terror that will keep you awake at night, turning pages when you should be sleeping? ‘Perhaps …,’ as author Creston Mapes concludes, ‘to show a man mercy. To show a man Christ on the cross.’ And in that showing, Mapes examines all of the ‘why’ questions we ask God in our more mundane but no less disturbing faith struggles.”
Dave Jackson, author of Lucy Come Home, the Harry Bentley novels, and more
“Fear Has a Name is another page-turning, heart-touching must-read from Creston Mapes. The brilliant intersection of two story lines packed a powerful punch, and I’m not sure I’ve ever felt for a villain so deeply. Another surefire winner in the vein of Nobody.”
Deborah Raney, author of The Face of the Earth and the Hanover Falls novels
“Jaw-dropping suspense. This book should carry a warning: Don’t read if you’re in the house alone.”
Nikki Arana, author of The Next Target
“Mapes is at the head of a new breed of Christian authors, those who write gripping and gritty stories that ring loudly with gospel truths. Fans of Mike Dellosso, Shawn Grady, and Brandilyn Collins will love this powerful thriller. Mapes draws the strands of his plot ever tighter, leaving us short of breath and anxious for answers. And the final answers are not only satisfying but eternal.”