BLOODY BELL

by Jeremy Waldron

  Susan supposed no news was good news, but she still couldn’t go without sending Allison a quick message. Even if all she wanted to say was that she was thinking of her, it would be worth having Allison know she wasn’t alone.

  After the message had been sent, Susan rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling.

  She knew Allison was hiding her fears. She couldn’t blame her friend for pretending like her hospital stay was nothing more than an annual checkup. But an overnight stay was nothing short of concerning.

  The bare-chested man next to her reached for her hand. Susan smiled without looking. A warm bloom spread across her chest. The toe-curling sensations she experienced last night buzzed among the leftover scents of romance lingering in the air.

  Susan stayed with Allison until Benjamin went home after his shift last night. She felt guilty for leaving her alone while she trotted off to spend a night wrapped in Benjamin’s arms but Allison knew that was what she was doing—all the girls knew it—and encouraged her to do it, too.

  Benjamin offered to go back to his place, but Susan wanted to be home. Benjamin didn’t argue, knowing they would be playing the same games no matter where they ended up.

  Susan faced Benjamin and nuzzled her face into the curve of his neck. He lifted his head, threaded his fingers through her hair, and pulled her to his lips. Susan closed her eyes and felt the electricity spark.

  “Everything all right?” Benjamin asked her. “You seem a little tense.”

  Susan let her eyes sway inside of his. “I’m just thinking about Allison.”

  “She was kept for further evaluation. It’s standard procedure in cases like this.” Benjamin smiled and tugged on Susan’s bottom lip with his thumb. “Her doctors only want to make sure that nothing serious is hiding beneath the surface.”

  Susan dropped her gaze, retreating inside her head, hoping he was right.

  Benjamin hooked a strand of Susan’s hair behind her ear and added, “With your friend experiencing blurry vision and passing out, it’s possible she’s a diabetic.”

  Susan hoped not. But she knew it was better this way. It was still hard to see a friend having to confront such challenges with so many unknowns.

  She slid out from under the covers, pushed her feet through a pair of fleece sweats lying on the floor, and moved to the closet, reaching for a t-shirt. Flipping through her clothes, she knew Allison wouldn’t want to see her mope.

  “Are we still planning to be out the door by 10?”

  Benjamin was still in bed, appreciating the rare chance of having a late, lazy morning. “Maybe a little before, if possible. I’d hate to arrive too late.”

  Susan turned back to her clothes, thinking about the conference Benjamin had invited her to attend with him. She hemmed and hawed, unable to make a decision on what to wear. “I know nothing about this conference other than you booked an expensive suite with an incredible view for us to stay in tonight.”

  “And you need my opinion on what to wear.” His voice was playful, if not flirtatious.

  Susan glanced over her shoulder toward Benjamin. “That would be most helpful.”

  Benjamin’s eyes hooded. “Something sexy.”

  Susan rolled her eyes. “Let me rephrase. What can I expect from this conference? Is it a black-tie event, or business casual? And would it be appropriate of me to drum up business, or am I only allowed to hang off your arm to make you look good?”

  Benjamin laughed. “You’re thinking much too hard about this. The mood is laidback, educational, but you should dress however makes you comfortable and if you can snag a few clients along the way, more power to you.”

  Susan loved how loose Benjamin made her feel. Unable to make a decision, Susan chose to pack two options and make the final decision once they arrived at the hotel.

  “Tell me again, who are you looking forward to hear speak?” Susan asked as she packed, quietly asking herself again if maybe she’d be better off skipping.

  “His name is Dr. Glenn Wu and he is a leading scientist in the biotech industry.”

  Susan gave him a questioning look. “Are you sure this conference is something I’ll enjoy?”

  Benjamin left the bed in only his boxer shorts and padded across the carpeted floor with intention in his eye. “You’ll be blown away by the advances you’ll both hear and see today.” Benjamin wrapped Susan in his arms and peppered kisses down her neck. “I promise there will never be a dull moment.”

  Susan reached behind her and touched Benjamin. “I don’t doubt that.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Find who?”

  Heather’s voice surprised me. She came out from the back of the house, dressed in jeans and a sky-blue hooded sweatshirt, combing her wet hair. I barely looked in her direction out of fear of wondering how much of my conversation with King she’d heard before making herself known.

  King stared into my eyes before standing.

  I wasn’t entirely sure if he was subtly asking me to write a story for the paper to help lure in Tracey Brown, or if he truly thought she would show up on her own. We hadn’t gotten that far in our conversation and I wasn’t about to ask now. Not in front of my sister.

  King was at the sink washing his coffee mug, thanking me for the quick pick-me-up, when Heather flipped her gaze back and forth between King and me. “Hello?”

  My sister’s call fell on deaf ears.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to stay?” I asked King. “You can keep my sister company, make sure she doesn’t get herself into any trouble.”

  “Hardy har har.” Heather moved to the stove and plucked the crumbs of leftover egg from the pan and tossed them into her hungry mouth. “We all know that you’re the one who travels down troublesome gulch, Samantha.”

  “Thanks,” King said, “but I’m in desperate need of a hot shower and a quick nap.” He glanced down his front. “Not to mention a change of clothes.”

  I knew King wanted to catch at least a couple hours of sleep before going back to work, but I thought I’d offer anyway. I stood and walked him to the door. He took my hand and leaned in for a small kiss goodbye. I closed my eyes to soak in his sunshine, holding onto his hand for as long as I could, uncertain when we would see each other again with our crazy work hours. Something told me it wouldn’t be long, but I never knew for sure.

  “I’ll call you later,” he said as he reached for the doorknob.

  I could feel Heather’s eagle eyes staring from the kitchen as I nodded. “And will you look into that thing we discussed?”

  “If I find anything, I’ll let you know.” He squeezed my hand and let go. “And tell Mason I still want to take him for a hike in the mountains this weekend.”

  “You may need to remind him. Spring break has him sleeping until noon and staying up past midnight.”

  King gave a slight smile of nostalgia. “I remember the days.”

  Cooper trotted to the door with his tail wagging. He nudged his head against King’s thigh, needing a quick pat before he left. Then he was out the door, leaving Cooper and me in the window to watch him drive away.

  “You know you don’t need to protect me,” Heather said.

  I pushed Cooper down and retrieved my cell phone from the charging cable. “I know that,” I said, dialing Erin. Heather held my gaze as I pressed my phone to my ear.

  “Then why do you insist on keeping secrets from me.”

  “We were just discussing work.” Heather crossed her arms over her chest and gave me a look of disappointment. “It’s nothing really.”

  She didn’t believe me. I could see it in her eyes. She wasn’t entirely wrong, either, in her thinking. Cameron’s story had the potential to be the biggest one I worked in quite a while, and I didn’t want to let it go to waste.

  “How long have you two been dating?”

  I wasn’t surprised at the question. She knew that I’d been keeping our relationship from her as soon as he walked in. King and I didn’t hide our affectio
n this morning, but this really wasn’t the conversation I wanted to be having.

  “Not long,” I said, wishing Erin would pick up the phone.

  “And you didn’t bother to tell me before things got awkward?”

  “What is there to tell?” Heather stared and I stared back. “Besides, it looked like you two were having fun getting reacquainted.”

  The line clicked over and I felt the excitement of not having to tell Heather any more than I already had rush through my opened veins.

  “Sorry, Sam,” Erin answered. “I had my headphones on, working the podcast. This story has my skin crawling.” I thought back to what Erin shared with me last night in the car and found myself shivering with disgust.

  “You got time to help me track down Tyler?” I asked as Heather rolled her eyes and gave up on me. “I could use a wingman.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Erin’s voice jumped up an octave. “Anything to take my mind off the creep who got this woman pregnant.”

  “Good.” I smiled. “I’ll see you in fifteen.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Fifteen minutes later, Erin was in my car asking me if I had a visitor in town. “I heard them on the phone and it didn’t sound like Mason or King.”

  “My sister, Heather, arrived yesterday,” I said, flicking a quick glance in her direction.

  “Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “Because I didn’t know she was coming.”

  I told Erin how I found my sister waiting in the cold on my front porch late last night after I had dropped her off, and how Heather’s visit was a complete surprise.

  “Well, that’s exciting.” Erin’s fingers drummed on her thigh. Her eyes were covered in mirrored lens sunglasses. “I bet Mason is thrilled to have his aunt in town.”

  “He doesn’t know.” I reminded her Mason was on spring break and had spent last night at a friend’s.

  “When is the last time you saw her?”

  “It’s been awhile,” I said, thinking about Heather’s reason for being here. I told Erin about it.

  “And you think the job stuff might not be the only reason she’s here?”

  I couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe there was more to it than what Heather was saying. “She didn’t even tell our mom, and specifically asked me to not tell her, either.”

  “Maybe she’s embarrassed,” Erin mused.

  “Our mom isn’t like that,” I assured her. “There is nothing to be ashamed about. It’s just a job.”

  “Unless she can’t support herself financially.”

  We turned onto Federal Blvd and headed north. The traffic was cooperative and moved at a steady pace as I allowed my thoughts to drift to my own financial struggles. My bank account was permanently low and I was only one disaster away from losing it all. I tried not to let it get to me, deciding it best to believe that everything would work itself out in the end. But if Heather had already met her financial breaking point, I’d find a way to support her until she was back up on her feet again. After all, she was family and family always came first.

  I turned the wheel on W 52nd and thought about how Heather had always been spontaneous, always considered herself right—even when she was wrong—and her history of failed relationships. She had partied hard in college and made some bad decisions along the way. Though I never held any of that against her, I just hoped that she wasn’t here because she was in some kind of trouble.

  “King stopped in for breakfast.” I flicked my gaze to Erin. “He still hasn’t found Tracey Brown.”

  Erin twisted her spine and pushed her shoulders back against the car door. She lifted her sunglasses high on her head. The crease between her eyebrows deepened as she stared. “Any theories as to where she might be?”

  “He says the department isn’t ruling her parents’ deaths as a homicide, but I know King isn’t accepting it until there’s definitive proof.”

  “King doesn’t think that Tracey killed her parents, does he?”

  I shook my head no. “If he does, he didn’t make that clear to me. From how I understand it, he’s hoping Tracey could shed light on why her parents might have taken their own lives.”

  “But she’s still missing.” Erin turned her gaze forward. “Seems odd, doesn’t it?”

  “And that’s why I asked King about Cameron.”

  “Did he know anything?”

  I shook my head. “Not his case. Though we did talk about treating both cases as one until something tells us we shouldn’t. He wasn’t keen on the idea but I can’t seem to separate the girls. They went missing about the same time and are almost the same age. He didn’t convince me to keep them separate so I’m not.”

  “I guess that’s all we can ask of him.”

  “Let’s just make sure we get Tyler to talk, because until one of these girls is found, I’m going to keep assuming they’re both missing for the same reason.”

  The house, not far from my own, was tucked one block off busy Federal Blvd on W 52nd street. We curbed the car and shut off the engine. Together, we stared at the house, assessing it from inside the car.

  It was a bit bigger and a little nicer than the neighbors it shared a block with, and the lawn was in decent shape, too. That surprised me. It wasn’t something I would have expected from the boy Ms. Dee described. Then again, maybe the health of the grass had more to do with the season than the actual people taking care of it.

  “Is that his?” I asked, jutting my jaw at the jet-black Range Rover parked in front of us.

  Erin nodded. “As long as the DMV’s records I pulled up are still correct, it looks like our guy is home.”

  I pulled the keys from the ignition, stepped out from the car, and snapped a few photos of the vehicle with my phone before turning to the house. The neighborhood was quiet, minus the occasional muffler roaring down Federal. We followed the concrete path up to the house and knocked on the bright red door.

  Surprising both of us, it opened not more than a second later.

  The young man’s eyes squinted into the bright outside light. Inside, the house was dark, the curtains drawn. He wore a muscle-man tee which clung tight to his skinny frame. His head was shaved to the skin and he looked at Erin and me with deep suspicion.

  “Can I help you?” he asked.

  A pungent smell swirled past us from inside. “We’re looking for Tyler Lopez. Is he home?”

  His gaze bounced between us. I peered past him and took note of the expensive sound system and electronics surrounding the large curved-screen TV.

  “He’s not home.”

  Erin rolled her eyes to me. “Any idea when he might be back?’

  The young man shook his head.

  I glanced back to the Range Rover we knew was registered in Tyler’s name. “Can you tell us where we might be able to find him?’

  His half-mast eyes flashed as they roamed down our chests, taking us in like we were pieces of meat to be sold at the butcher shop. Suddenly, I caught whiffs of alcohol seeping from his pores.

  “Look, you should have known what you were getting yourself into when hooking up with Tyler.”

  Erin’s eyebrows shot up. Then she started to laugh. “Oh, no honey. We’re not girlfriends and have no affiliation with him. We just want to ask him a couple of questions.”

  “Why don’t you try calling him?”

  I put my hand on Erin’s arm before she could respond. “I would,” I said, “but I lost my phone and his number was on it. Maybe you could give it to me?”

  The young man shook his head and smirked. “Or maybe he didn’t give it to you all.” He paused to stare. Then his brows pinched. “What’s this about?”

  “We want to ask him about his relationship with a woman named Cameron Dee.”

  The man started laughing again. “So you caught him with another woman. Is that it?”

  Erin narrowed her eyes with disgust and a whole lot of annoyance. “We’re not his girlfriends.”

  “We’re hoping yo
u know her,” I said, keeping my voice firm but friendly.

  He tilted his head to one side. “Who?”

  I couldn’t decide if he was serious. “Cameron Dee.”

  “Look, Tyler is a player. He has a different girl on his arm every night of the week. I can’t keep up and I don’t think he can either.” A woman’s voice was calling the man back inside. I tried to see her face but lucked out. “I’ll let him know you stopped by.”

  He shut the door in our faces before I could give him my card.

  “Well that was a complete fail,” Erin said.

  When I turned back to the car, I told Erin that Regis University was only a couple blocks away. “We should see if Tyler is a student and if maybe the girls were, too.”

  “Sure, why not. Anything to not have to talk to this jerk again.”

  Once back at my car, I barely had my door cracked open when an unmarked sedan pulled up behind us. I recognized the make and model as well as the man who stepped out.

  Detective Bobby Campbell leaned his weight into his opened door and smiled. He had his eye on Erin and I watched him remove his aviator sunglasses away from his face so he could get a good look at her soft features.

  I tucked my chin into my neck, debating whether he was about to spit or ask her out. “He’s not here, in case you’re wondering,” I said, saving Erin the embarrassment.

  Detective Campbell shifted his gaze to me and put his sunglasses back over his eyes. We knew each other from me working the crime beat. He was part of the Major Crimes and Investigations Unit working cases of domestic violence, including kidnapping—which I assumed was the reason he was here.

  “I’m sorry, who are we talking about?” He played coy with me.

  “You don’t have to play dumb with me, Detective. We both know why you’re here.”

  “And does it have to do with why you’re here as well?”

  “You can knock if you’d like, but your boy isn’t here.”

  “Why don’t you leave the detective play to a professional, Ms. Bell?”

  My cell rang and interrupted us. I pulled it out of my pocket to check who was calling.