by M T Stone
“I hardly know where to begin,” I say, running my hands through my hair and letting out a sigh. “It’s all been so crazy. But Mandy and I believe that somehow Tommy Fowler, who is the new CEO of Addison Media is at the heart of all of this.”
“Tommy Fowler, from the TV show?” Agent Mitchell asks furrowing his brow.
“Yes. When Tyler called me on the night he was poisoned, he said that Tommy was a fraud. He also mentioned that he had told Dad, which leads me to believe that’s why they were the first two victims. Even though Tyler lived, he can’t remember anything because Dr. Potaturri fed him a pile of drugs that basically wiped out his memory. And now the doctor is dead as well!” As the words pour from my mouth, I find it hard to believe how much has happened in such a brief amount of time.
“Yes, we were briefed on Dr. Potaturri. Is there a connection between him and Tommy?” Agent Mitchell asks with a glimmer in his eyes.
“There is. Tommy is the one who told Vanessa that he would be able to help Tyler,” I relay as Mandy hangs up the phone and walks toward us. “This is my girlfriend, Mandy,” I tell the two men who are now both completely distracted.
“Hi,” Mandy says, pulling another chair over to the table. “Harris isn’t going to do a thing for us. The SEC doesn’t have any spare resources to devote to it and he doesn’t feel he owes me any favors.” She adds with a snicker.
“What are you looking for?” Detective Kelly asks her directly.
“Anything unusual.” She shrugs. “I’m thinking the best way to get to the truth is by uncovering the money trail. There has to be one somewhere,” she reasons while both men nod their heads in full agreement.
“Well, here is your man,” Detective Kelly says, slapping Agent Mitchell on the shoulder. “If anything over ten grand has moved between two bank accounts, he can track it down.” He grins and motions for him to take over.
“I’m intrigued by what you are telling me,” Agent Mitchell tells us. “But since there is no concrete evidence, I’m hoping there is a clear money trail somewhere.”
“With all that is going on, believe me, there has to be one,” I tell him with the utmost conviction. “That reminds me, there was a shady looking guy talking to Dr. Potaturri the first time we met him.”
“Can you give me a description?” Agent Mitchell asks, ready to jot it down.
“He was about five foot ten, I would guess one hundred and eighty pounds,” I tell him, thinking back to search for more details.
“He had spiky blond hair and crystal blue eyes,” Mandy adds.
“Oh, and a switchblade tattoo on the back of his neck.” I vividly remember.
“Is this him?” Detective Kelly asks, holding up his iPad.
“That’s him!” we both exclaim simultaneously.
“It’s the ghost,” Detective Kelly says to Agent Mitchell. “He occasionally shows up in a random surveillance video or a potential witness sees him, but we have never been able to track him down.”
“Potential witness?” Mandy asks seeking clarification.
“Yeah, they always end up dead,” he replies flatly.
“That’s the kind of guy Tommy would hire to do the heavy lifting,” I add, trying to make sure the investigation stays focused on him. “He’s too smart to take any chances getting caught.”
“You already have him tried and convicted, don’t you?” Detective Kelly smirks at me, shaking his head from side to side.
“If you get a chance to talk to him, you’ll see why,” Mandy adds. “He’s very arrogant about everything. Show him the text message,” she says, nudging me.
I pull out my phone and click to my messages. “He claims he never makes mistakes,” I say, showing both of them the exchange between Tommy and I. The eyes of both men grow dark as they read his reply.
“If he’s behind this, we’ll find a mistake,” Detective Kelly says, shaking his head and staring at Tommy’s words. “Thanks for showing us that.”
“Oh shit, I forgot to call Dad back,” Mandy says with a shudder as her phone begins to buzz. She gets up and scoots across the room before answering. She stands silently, staring at the floor and appears to be listening to whatever Ray has on his mind. She might be there for a while…
“One more thing,” I add as both men rise from their chairs and gather up their things. “Someone in a black sedan was following us earlier and actually rammed our bumper as we turned the corner in front of the hospital.”
“You’re sure it was intentional?” the agent asks with a steely look in his eyes.
“It was definitely intentional. Our limo driver went around the block before stopping and they followed us all the way around. He was making the same corner for the second time when they came up and hit us.” I cross my arms, still feeling uncomfortable with everything.
“It was probably a warning,” Detective Kelly speculates. “Where are you staying tonight?” He asks, with growing concern in his eyes.
“I’m not sure yet. I’m expecting a call from a security guy and I thought we would figure it out after talking to them,” I explain, beginning to wonder why he hasn’t called me yet. “He’s part of the Alpha 9, maybe you’ve heard of them.”
They both laugh and nod their heads. “Yeah, we’ve definitely heard of them,” Agent Mitchell replies. “They are the best money can buy.”
“Trey has a habit of that,” Detective Kelly says with a smirk. “He put Perry Walters on retainer just in case we pursued a case against him.”
“Well, it’s a good thing we have another angle to pursue then.” Agent Mitchell laughs and pulls a business card out of his jacket pocket. “I think we have everything we need for now. You give me a call right away if you don’t hear from your Alpha 9 contact. You and anyone else who is intimately involved could definitely use some protection.” He stares at me intently while Detective Kelly nods his head in full agreement.
“Hey, I totally agree,” I tell him throwing up my hands and reaching over to take the card from him. “I don’t want anyone else to get hurt. If I don’t hear from him within the hour, I’ll give you a call.”
The two men turn and head back into the hospital corridor, so I go over to Mandy who is still on the phone with her dad. She has taken a seat in the corner on the couch and seems to be much more at ease. I bend down to give her a kiss on the forehead. “Tell him everything is under control and I’m sorry about the front page story,” I whisper. “I need to go make a list of people who need protection.”
Just as I turn toward the door, Mom enters the room. “She’s talking to Ray,” I tell her, thinking that she would probably want to know.
“I need to talk to him too,” she replies. “He’s called me a couple of times, but I wanted to wait until we could have a little privacy,” she adds with a sigh.
“I’m sorry again for the newspaper article,” I tell her, shaking my head and throwing an arm around her.
“You know, at this point I don’t really care,” she says with watery eyes. “I just want everyone to be okay. I want our lives to get back to normal.” She lowers her head and leans into my shoulder.
“You and me both,” I reply, giving her a kiss on the top of the head.
CHAPTER 2
M andy
I knew that I was in for an ass chewing when Dad popped up on the screen of my phone. He has gone through a lot with Mom lately, so it’s understandable that he doesn’t want anything bad to happen to me. At this point, I am acutely aware that danger is all around me, but I’ve never felt more alive.
“Either you come home until things cool off or I’m coming out there,” he says after making little progress trying to talk some sense into me.
“Let me know when your flight lands and I’ll be there to meet you,” I reply defiantly. “By the way, your girlfriend just walked in. Do you want to talk to her?”
“Why do you have to be so difficult, Amanda?” he asks seeming exasperated. “Let me talk to Silvia, I’m obviously not going to get an
ywhere with you.”
“Dad wants to talk to you,” I tell Silvia, holding my phone out for her to take. “I’ll go with Trey and give you two some space.”
“How’s life Ray?” she asks with a giggle after taking the phone. “Oh Ray, we might as well have a sense of humor about it.” I hear her say as Trey and I exit and head back toward Tyler’s room.
“Mom is taking everything way better than I ever imagined,” Trey says with an astonished look on his face. “I thought she would completely lose it.”
“I think she’s probably just glad that both you and Tyler are safe for the moment,” I reply, knowing that nothing else truly matters in the end.
“For the moment is right, I’m getting anxious about hearing from that Anthony guy,” Trey replies, checking to make sure his ringer volume is turned up. “I’m giving it a few more minutes and then I’ll have to call Brandon back.”
“What the hell?” I ask as we approach Tyler’s doorway. The voice coming from inside is eerily familiar.
Trey
“You’ve got to be shitting me!” I blurt out upon reaching the doorway. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“I was in the neighborhood, so I thought I would stop up and see for myself how he was doing,” Tommy replies, backing away from Tyler’s bed.
“Tommy says we’ve been friends since high school,” Tyler declares with a big smile crossing his face. The innocent look on his face is almost scary, like he’s had a chemical lobotomy or something.
“Yes, we have both known Tommy since high school,” I affirm, purposely dropping the word friend. I make a snap decision to refrain from making any derogatory comments in front of Tyler. Hopefully now that Tommy sees his mental state, he will simply leave him alone. “Where is Vanessa?” I ask, a little concerned that Tyler was left alone with him.
“I haven’t seen her.” Tommy shrugs. “I literally just walked in and he was here alone.” He comes around the bed and places a hand on my shoulder. “You and I need to have a little talk,” he says squinting his eyes.
“I’ll be right back,” I tell Mandy and Tyler before leading Tommy down the hallway to a quiet area in front of Dr. Novacek’s office. We both move down the corridor in silence, each of us knowing that our conversation is probably not going to be pleasant.
Tommy is the first to break the silence after looking around to ensure our privacy. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he asks; his eyes grow instantly dark and his nostrils even flaring up a bit.
“What the hell am I doing?” I step toward him and give him an equally intense glare. “After all you’ve done, you have the balls to ask me what I’m doing?” I can almost feel the crash of my tightly clenched fist colliding with his arrogant face.
“What have I done?” He steps back with a puzzled look on his face. “That’s the whole thing… I don’t understand what you think I’ve done.”
“Really? You’re going to play innocent with me?” I ask as my phone begins to buzz. “I’m sorry, but I have to take this,” I tell him, stepping back and answering.
“What the fuck?” he yells at me. “You’re not going to just walk away from this, are you?” He looks completely flabbergasted.
“Sorry.” I mouth to him. “I have to take this call.” I point to the screen, turn and begin walking back to the main corridor. “Hello, this is Trey,” I answer, actually feeling a bit of satisfaction from leaving Tommy standing there with a dropped jaw.
“Is this Trey Addison?” a deep voice on the other end of the line asks.
“Yes, it is.” I pick up my pace back to Tyler’s room, not wanting to have this conversation in the hallway.
“Jack Ryker asked me to give you a call,” he explains. “He tells me you need some protection.”
“Yeah, that’s putting it mildly.” I jog the last hundred feet to Tyler’s room. “Let me get to where I have some privacy before I explain things to you.” I pull the door shut behind me. Both Tyler and Mandy look at me with wide eyes, probably wondering if someone is chasing me. “It’s Anthony,” I whisper to her while heading for a chair in the opposite corner of the room.
“Jack tells me that a couple of people have already died, one of them being your father?” he continues in a very business-like manner.
“Yes, that’s correct,” I confirm, still feeling a pang in my heart upon his mention of Dad’s death. “Today they found my brother’s former doctor dead, as well as the chairman of our board. The chairman’s was made to look like a suicide, but I highly doubt it.”
“So there have been three deaths that you know of in addition to your brother being poisoned,” he recaps.
“Correct. And tonight a black sedan followed us on the way to the hospital and when we slowed down to turn the corner they came up on us and rammed us from behind,” I add feeling a flutter of anxiety in my chest. “It scared the shit out of our limo driver.”
“Okay, as of now, I’ll be your new driver,” he says with a lighter tone in his voice. “Are you still at Bellevue?”
“Yes, we are up in the ICU with my brother right now, but they are moving him sometime tonight.” I glance over at Tyler looking for confirmation. Unfortunately, he simply returns a blank stare.
“We have six men out in the field, so three of us will be there in twenty to thirty minutes,” he replies with a strain in his voice. It sounds like he just threw something heavy into the trunk of his car and slammed the lid. “Just hit me back at this number if anything changes.”
“All right, will do…”
Mandy
Tyler and I both watch Trey as he finishes up his call with Anthony. He keeps pacing back and forth, running his fingers through his hair. I feel the same level of nervous energy coursing through my entire body. Even though we are both sleep deprived, there is more than enough adrenaline to make up for it.
“They’ll be here in half an hour,” he says after lowing his phone from his ear. “Anthony will be our new driver, so Tony can take a little time off. He’s bringing two other members with him, so one can stay here and we should probably keep an eye on Becky, the receptionist, as well. She knows too much to be considered safe.”
“You can add Bill’s family to the list as well,” Silvia says as she reenters the room and hands my phone back to me. “I just got a call from Bill’s daughter, Aileen, and she claims to be responsible for his suicide. She wants to talk to you,” she says, handing Trey her phone.
“Hello?” Trey says, putting the phone up to his ear.
“Oh, sorry, I had to hang up in order to finish up with Ray. I told her you would call her back,” Silvia explains. “I just thought you could take her number off my call list.”
“Okay.” Trey goes to her recent calls and sends the contact to his phone. “Why would she be responsible? Becky, the receptionist, told me that Bill and Tommy had a big fight this morning and that Bill stormed out afterward,” he replies with a puzzled look.
“I have no idea,” Silvia replies with a shrug. “I was having a hard time understanding her. She was really upset.”
Trey turns toward me, giving me a look of concern before coming over to me and slips his arm around my waist. “Are you okay?” he asks with a sincere look of compassion in his eyes.
“I’m nervous as hell, but I can handle it,” I lean forward and kiss his lips. “Are you okay?” I ask in return.
“Not really, but I think I’ll feel a little better once we have some protection,” he says with a smirk. “I’m going to see if the family room is empty,” he adds, obviously wanting a little space and privacy.
“I’ll stay here with Tyler and your mom,” I tell him, knowing that he wasn’t happy to find him alone with Tommy earlier. “Where did Vanessa go?”
“She was talking to Tommy when I saw her last,” Silvia says shaking her head.
“Tommy seems like a nice guy,” Tyler says with a smile.
“I think I like this version of you,” Trey tells him with a chuckle bef
ore proceeding out into the hallway.
“You remind me of when you were a little boy,” Silvia tells him as we both smile at Tyler while trying to suppress our giggles. He looks like a bright-eyed child on Christmas day after opening his favorite present. Most of us would probably benefit from having our memories wiped out. It might be nice to dispose of all the mental baggage and move forward with a clean slate. It’s strange how he seems to still have knowledge of the world and what is going on, but no emotional memories. This is crazy stuff.
“I told your dad to wait a few days before coming to town,” she says redirecting her attention toward me. “Since Trey thinks we all need protection, it’s no use bringing anyone else into harms way.”
“I agree.” I nod and shoot her a smile. “I know he wants to be here to protect us, but he’s not exactly qualified. The only thing I’ve seen him shoot is a skunk and that didn’t end well.” I suppress a giggle, thinking about how Mom made him strip down to his underwear before coming in the house.
“I’m going to have to ask him about that,” she snickers. “It’s funny he never mentioned it.”
“It wasn’t exactly one of his prouder moments,” I reply, shaking my head as the whole incident replays in my head.
Trey
My immediate focus is to get ahold of Bill’s daughter, Aileen, to find out what she was talking about. But when I reach the family room I find Vanessa sitting alone on the couch. She looks incredibly tired and distant.
“What did Tommy have to say?” I ask, grabbing a spot at the opposite end of the couch.
“He was trying to convince me that Tyler’s drug overdose wasn’t his doing,” she says coldly. “He keeps blaming everything on your dad’s fiancée, Carly, but I don’t see how that makes any sense. Part of me wanted to believe that Tommy still cared about me, but deep down I know he just uses people.”
“You’ve got that right,” I reply, thinking back Monaco. “He takes what he needs from people and then leaves them behind. Literally. Do you realize he brought Liv to Monaco and then left her there?”