Fireflies: A Katie Bell Mystery (book 1)

by BG Archer

  She just drifted off into darkness, even though she wanted to ask the man who he was, and what exactly had just happened, her lips were simply too heavy and she was just too tired.

  “Katie! Katie I got you! Wake up!” the voice was warm and familiar, and Katie forced her eyes to open a little. She was being carried, and she recognized that it was Gideon, and there were lights around her, bright lights of a car, but then things began to fade again…

  49

  Tuesday, June 4th

  ]

  “So I just have to ask again, why did you follow Amelia that night?”

  Katie was lying in the hospital bed of Asheville first general hospital, and detectives Levitt and Powell were interviewing her for the third time since she had come to Saturday evening. The question had come from Powell, as the questions often did. Detective Levitt seemed to have more of the listen and wait response to interview questions.

  “I had a suspicion that she was going to meet up with Felipe, and I figured if I could get close enough to get a photo of the backpack, than maybe I could bring it to you guys.”

  Even drugged up Katie had been able to tell a consistent story. At least she hoped that was accurate and it wasn’t just the Vicodin talking.

  A lot of questions had been asked of Katie over the last few days, but in the end it didn’t matter. The real SCU killer had been killed, and the truth, or rather a version of it, was finally in print.

  The detectives had not been happy with her, but they both seemed much happier with the real story, even if it was apparent they would never tell her that.

  The door to her room opened and her father entered the room. He looked like he hadn’t slept in a week, and he regarded the two detectives with a dismissive shake of his head.

  “Three interviews in three days? I would think you two would have all the information that you need from my daughter.”

  The two detectives exchanged a look.

  “Yes, Agent Bell, I believe we do,” Detective Levitt replied.

  Both detectives got up to leave Arthur to be with his daughter. Levitt was just out the door when she thought of something and came back into the room.

  “Officially, I want to let you both know that Katie will not be charged concerning the incidents from this past Friday. In light of her helping complete our investigation, my partner and I would like to thank you for your help.”

  Levitt reached into her pocket and pulled out her card and left it on the bedside table. “I just hope that if for some reason during your time attending SCU, if you find yourself involved with anything, you call us for fuck sake,” she added before leaving the room.

  As the detective closed the door, she could hear Arthur Bell starting to talk. “I still can’t believe after everything I’ve taught you that you would be so stupid as to…”

  It was a lot of that over the next few days. Arthur was at wits’ end, and Katie didn’t blame him. Martin Snow was still at large. Katie was very grateful to be too busy recuperating to really think about that.

  Arthur had stationed a federal agent outside of Katie’s door, for her protection. Katie thought it was unnecessary, but she understood where he was coming from.

  Despite their general awkwardness from the previous few weeks, Gideon was in her room practically every waking moment that the nurses and doctors and other visitors weren’t there.

  Much to Katie’s unease, Arthur had taken a strange liking to the younger man, especially when he had found out Gideon had been the one to bring her into the hospital.

  Technically, it had been Stacy and Gideon that had brought her in, since it had been Stacy without Katie’s knowledge who had planted a bug on her iPhone so they could trace her location, but that didn’t really matter, (except to Stacy, who reminded everyone when it was brought up).

  Tiffany (and Duncan) had brought her flowers and had hugged her tightly and they had cried together. Katie had wanted to ask her about the mysterious man, but in the end she knew it wasn’t the time. Besides, he had saved her. Tiffany asked Katie if she wanted to be roommates the coming fall and teary-eyed Katie agreed.

  SCU campus security did not investigate or report on Katie’s assault of the officers, though their chief had come in to inform Katie in front of her father and Gideon of that fact. Apparently having two of “their best” being taken out by a woman was too embarrassing to make anything official of it.

  Stacy had not visited her as often as the others, but she was there on a regular basis, and had been very pissed that Katie hadn’t managed to get the hard drive.

  “We still don’t have a lot of answers,” Stacy had said to her.

  Katie was silent for a long moment. “Well, there’s always next year.”

  Gideon had been in the room for that conversation too.

  “I really don’t want to hear that.”

  “What? This was only my freshman year. I’ve got three more years to get into plenty of trouble.”

  “Hopefully of a more normal college variety.”

  “Well yeah, of course, I mean murders at colleges don’t exactly happen on a regular basis,” Katie said.

  “I sure hope not,” Gideon said and the three friends looked at each other and started to laugh.

  Katie wasn’t sure what the future had in store for her, but she was grateful to have the people in the room in her life.

  There were a lot of questions still left unanswered. Katie had a feeling that there had been more going on than just the murders. She felt like she had just uncovered the first layer of something vast and dark, she just wasn’t sure what it was. But, she would have to leave that for a later time. Summer was ahead of her, and she had recovering from her injuries and warm weather to look forward to.

  Soon enough it would be fall again. Perhaps then she could begin to explore exactly what the secret society on campus was, and maybe find out exactly who the mysterious man that had saved her was.

  The only thing Katie was really certain of was that there was far more going on at SCU than it appeared, and she was keen on finding out more.

  Still, Katie knew she was getting ahead of herself. For the time being, finally, it was time to rest.

  Coming Soon

  KATIE BELL WILL RETURN THIS FALL IN…

  FROSTBITE!

  Author’s Note

  Firstly, thank you so much for taking time to read Fireflies. I hoped you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I know how busy we all are, and appreciate you taking the time to travel with me through this book. If you are willing to take one more moment, please leave a review. They truly help and I really appreciate it.

  Here’s a link to my mailing list. Sign up and you can get first looks at upcoming works by yours truly, as well a sneak peeks into my ridiculous process, as well as awesome bonus content. (The first short story staring Katie Bell, Smashed, will be out in early September and will be available exclusively to people on my list. All you have to do is write an honest review for Fireflies, sign up for the mailing list and email me a picture of the review). I hate few things in life, but spam is one of them. I will only send you emails letting you know cool things and updates on how books are progressing.

  I’m also on social media, and I love to hear from readers! Here’s my Facebook, and here’s my Twitter.

  Want to read ARC’s? I’m looking for more people! Limited spots though, so sign up!

  Second, this novel would not have been finished without the support of my family, a few of my awesome friends, and an awesome editor, so I want to thank all of them.

  I wrote this novel over the course of four years. (Believe it or not the next three Katie Bell Mysteries are almost done so don’t worry about waiting long!). I wrote Fireflies in Oregon, Washington, California, on a plane to Washington DC, in Arizona, and in Texas. It’s strange to carry characters with you wherever you go, and I hope you enjoyed your time with them as much as I did.

  As for the location of where this all takes place, I named the town
Asheville as a nod towards a town I lived in for a large portion of my life. It’s based loosely on a town I went to school in, but it’s… larger. More spread out. The urban sprawl of LA, but in a more Oregon esque relaxed small-town feel.

  The same goes for the City where Arthur Bell and the dedicated members of the FBI work. It’s a bit of a mishmash of several cities I’ve spent time in, and I’ve taken the liberty of sort of blending them together, like making a breakfast smoothie.

  There are parts that feel like Portland Oregon, others that are supposed to be closer to San Francisco and Seattle, and still others are a bit of the City of Angels itself. As for where the city is, it’s in the Pacific North West.

  Who knows, our hero’s may well yet visit real cities with street names that aren’t duck taped together from actual places… you’ll just have to keep reading to find out.

  Details and facts I got wrong about police and FBI procedure are entirely my fault. I’m friends with some people in law enforcement, and have done a fair amount of research, but sometimes I just get things wrong, and sometimes liberties must be taken for the demands of the story.

  Katie Bell and company will be back soon in FROSTBITE. I thought you might want a quick peek. Here’s a first look at an early chapter from FROSTBITE, (book #2 in The Katie Bell Mysteries).

  Okay Katie. Take it away…

  50

  Frostbite

  Monday, October 21st, 2013

  After work Katie hung out for a while and drank coffee and talked to her boss Nathan Jones. He had seen things, but had a youthful boyish charm that was downright infectious to anyone who came into contact with him.

  Katie had only been on the job for a month but she felt like she was really getting the hang of it. It was the perfect distraction for her outside of schoolwork, and a little extra spending cash didn’t hurt either.

  After an hour Katie realized she really should leave work and get on with her day, but on some level she didn’t want to. At least her classes’ year two weren’t so mind numbly dull, as they had been for year one.

  Katie got into her brand new Mazda 3 hatchback in metallic blue and closed her eyes. She wanted to just take a second and enjoy that new car smell. The car was a little more expensive than she honestly should have gotten, but after the accident and the total destruction of her Camry she hadn’t been able to help herself. Arthur had grumbled about the car, mostly because of the color, but in the end he had co-signed.

  The drive from work to her and Tiffany’s apartment was a total of ten minutes (that was with traffic and hitting the three lights between the shop and her building).

  Katie parked across the street from the cute duplex and found herself feeling particularly buzzed from the cappuccino she had been sipping on while she had talked to Nathan. He really was a fascinating creature. He had graduated with a BS in environmental sciences, and had spent two years in the Peace Corps before returning to the Pacific Northwest.

  She was still daydreaming about how blue his eyes were while she opened the door to the apartment and entered it.

  From the front door it was easy to see the kitchen of the apartment, across the carpeted living room. There was a kitchen table, pine, picked out at one of the local antique shops by both Tiffany and Katie on the weekend before classes had started. Sitting at it was a man Katie had not seen in almost five months.

  Katie still didn’t know his name, but the last time she had seen him, he had killed two people right in front of her. Of course in one of those cases (and arguably in both of them) he had saved Katie’s life in the process. The mystery man. The one who had been clad in a North Face jacket.

  Not today. Today he was wearing a black turtleneck, and a pair of matching black dress pants. He had on black leather wingtips too, and there was a heavy trench coat dropped over the back of his chair. He noticed Katie right away and gestured for her to come to him.

  Katie felt her heart skip a beat as she closed the door behind her and made her way to the kitchen. Tiffany was sitting across from the mysterious man. Katie had never seen her roommate look so angry.

  “This isn’t the time,” Tiffany said to him, but the man ignored her.

  He looked Katie up and down and pointed at the chair between him and Tiffany.

  “Sit,” he said.

  Katie reached into her bag and brought out a small dull black object, slightly bigger than a cigarette case.

  “I prefer to stand,” she said.

  The man looked bemused at the object. “You going to try and use that on me?”

  “Who said anything about try,” she snapped.

  He stared at her for a long moment. Katie felt a chill run down her spine.

  He pointed at the chair again. “Katie Bell, sit.”

  “Why should I?”

  Tiffany, who had been looking back-and-forth between the two of them, slammed her fist down on the kitchen table. “Katie. You should listen to him. Please darling, take a seat.”

  Katie hesitated.

  “You should listen to your friend Katie Bell. It’s time that you and I talk.”