BLOODY BELL

by Jeremy Waldron

  Allison debated her response. She understood Samantha’s angle and, when she began to think that Cameron’s baby might still be alive, she said, “I have an idea.”

  “Thank you,” Samantha breathed. “I owe you one.”

  Ending the call, Allison set her phone down by her side and reached for her laptop. Her fingers went to work and soon she was on Tyler’s Instagram feed. Allison found the video and watched it to make sure it was the post Samantha requested be taken down. Then she reported the content as inappropriate, knowing the exact language to use to gain the attention of the company’s moderators. After her response was written, she pressed ‘send’ and crossed her fingers, hoping her plan would work.

  Suddenly, a knock on her door brought her back to the present.

  Dr. Pico stepped inside Allison’s room and frowned when seeing her behind her computer, working. “You really should be resting,” he said.

  “I would really like to go home.” Allison closed her computer.

  “And you will. Soon. Have you given any more thought to the clinical trial we discussed?”

  Allison thought about what Susan said, the miracle she witnessed at the conference, but also thought about why she wasn’t talking to Benjamin. “I have.”

  “And?”

  “I’m not sure I’m ready yet.”

  “It’s perfectly natural to have your doubts. And you have time. You haven’t shown any symptoms yet.”

  “Be honest with me, Doctor, what are the risks associated with this type of therapy?”

  “There is always the chance your body will reject the therapy and it won’t work.”

  “And if it does work? Besides never having Huntington’s Disease, I mean?”

  “We don’t know how it would affect any offspring.”

  Allison burst out laughing. “That would mean actually having a love life,” she joked.

  “Perhaps I’m not the most qualified candidate to be explaining this to you. I’d like for you to speak with a fertility doctor—”

  “Whoa.” Allison’s hand shot up from her side. “No need. I’m already 40. I don’t see myself becoming a mother in the near future, if ever. I guess I can at least go ahead and put my name on the trial list.”

  “That’s great.” The doctor smiled. “But I’d still like you to know the complete risks even if you’re adamant about not having children. It’s worth speaking with a specialist, and I think you’ll find what he has to say very interesting.”

  “Fine,” Allison conceded. “You connect me with the fertility doctor and, in the meantime, let’s organize my release papers so I can finally go home.”

  “Very well.” The doctor’s eyes glimmered. “His name is Dr. Glenn Wu, and he’s the best that there is on the subject of CRISPR gene therapy. I’ll put a call in to him now and see if he’s available to speak with you first thing tomorrow morning.”

  Chapter Fifty

  An hour later, I was back at Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center and stepping into the visitor’s lounge when I spotted Erin’s blonde hair glowing in a dark corner. She was sitting cross-legged and alone, swiping her thumbs over the screen of her phone. I wondered where Ms. Dee was and how she was handling the tornado of the last couple of hours.

  “How is Cameron?” I asked as I fell into the seat next to Erin.

  Erin turned her head and looked me in the eye. “Considering what she’s lived through? Really great.”

  “Are we allowed to see her?”

  Erin nodded and stood. “Follow me.”

  We didn’t have much time. I knew a team of detectives would be arriving soon to begin questioning Cameron, and I needed to get a statement from her before we were cut off for good, left to pick up only crumbs.

  “Sam,” Erin leaned into my shoulder as we strode down the hall, “I don’t feel right about how the police are going about this.”

  I didn’t either.

  “Someone knew that we spoke to Tyler,” Erin whispered softly into my ear, not wanting our conversation to be overhead.

  “Detective Campbell saw us there.”

  “Did you see him at the press conference?”

  “How could I not?” I said, thinking about how he prominently placed himself next to the mayor—perfectly framed to get his mug on TV. “King said Mayor Goldberg wants this story to end now, and that the chief called a meeting to tell everyone working the case to do what they had to do to make an arrest.”

  “So it’s not even about the facts.”

  I frowned and shook my head. “Apparently not, but Tyler did give them a way out when he decided to flee.”

  Erin stared at the floor as we walked. She was quiet for a moment as she gathered her thoughts. “Campbell saw us at Tyler’s house, and then Cameron is placed there to make it look like he had something to do with her attack.”

  I knew what Erin was thinking, but I wasn’t convinced Campbell was involved in these crimes. His angle was only to give himself and the mayor a win. “Is that what Cameron is saying happened?”

  Erin shook her head.

  “I don’t take Campbell to be a dirty cop—”

  “Just an asshole.”

  I smiled. “But someone knew about Tyler and Cameron’s relationship; how else would they have known to place her inside his house?”

  Erin hit the brakes and locked her gaze on mine. “We can’t let Tyler go down for this if it wasn’t him.”

  “I know. But why did he run?” I still had my doubts. Even if I didn’t believe Tyler was responsible for what happened to Cameron, he knew too much to be completely innocent.

  Erin stopped at the desk and logged both of us in. The security door opened and we were escorted to Cameron’s room. As soon as we arrived, Ms. Dee stood from her chair and approached us with arms folded across her chest.

  As I gauged Ms. Dee’s body language, I thought about Allison and the video of Ms. Dee and Tyler. It wasn’t worth warning Ms. Dee what I feared might happen if it was discovered. Journalists dug into everything when trying to piece together a story. I was guilty of turning over stones as much as anybody else. The only difference was that some of us reporters had integrity while others did not. It was those few bad apples I most feared because they were often also the reporters who had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

  Before we got too far, Ms. Dee warned us about Cameron feeling especially vulnerable after what had happened to her. And who could blame her? We needed to establish trust and get her talking quick. Not easy to do.

  “She’s terrified her baby might be dead,” Ms. Dee whispered to us.

  “Does she recall what happened?” I asked.

  Ms. Dee shook her head. “Her memory seems a bit fuzzy.”

  “She’s been through a lot. It’s going to take some time.”

  Ms. Dee turned to her daughter and stepped back into the room. “Cameron, honey. Some friends of mine are here to ask you some questions.”

  We approached, taking small hesitant steps as Ms. Dee explained that she recruited us to help find her when she went missing. I introduced myself and told her who we were. Cameron looked like a mother who had just given birth and then was immediately hit by a bus. But beneath the droopy eyes and purple bruises, it was easy to see her natural beauty.

  “Where is my baby?” Cameron flicked her watery eyes between Erin and me.

  Her pleas chipped away at my heart as I stood there with my legs rooting themselves into the floor. No one expected her to live. She’d been left to die, just like Kate. Yet she lived to tell the tale. As Cameron kept calling out for her baby, I couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or not.

  “Do you know where my baby is?” Cameron asked me.

  Ms. Dee fought back her own tears as she gripped her daughter’s hand and asked her listen to what we’d come to say.

  “Someone took my baby,” Cameron sobbed into her mother’s shoulder.

  Tightening my armor, I steeled myself against feeling too deeply about what happe
ned to Cameron and the other young women. Finding Cameron alive was the break in the case we had all been hoping for and I wasn’t about to let it go to waste.

  “We’d like to ask you some questions to piece together the last four days,” I said. “Can you do that for us?”

  Cameron wiped her cheeks and nodded.

  “Let’s work backwards. They found you at Tyler Lopez’s house unconscious,” I reminded her.

  “That’s what everyone keeps saying.”

  “But you don’t remember?”

  Cameron shook her head and I believed her. She reached for her womb as if forgetting her baby was no longer there. Her brow furrowed and the air around us went still.

  I felt bad for her. All she had left was a scar to remind her of the trauma she’d endured and the continuing worry of not knowing whether her baby was dead or alive.

  “But you do know who Tyler Lopez is, right?” Erin lifted her pen off her small notepad.

  Cameron nodded and shared a knowing glance with her mother.

  “May I see?” I asked, pointing to her stomach.

  Cameron rolled up her hospital gown and revealed the suture. The line ran parallel to her pelvic bone and was a cesarean just like Erin said the doctor stated. Cameron got lucky—even if whoever did this to her wanted her to die.

  “Is it okay if I take a couple photos?”

  Cameron gave me the go-ahead and I snapped a quick collage for the story I wanted to publish on my website—knowing Dawson would never approve this for the paper, even if he wanted me to write tomorrow’s headline.

  “Let’s back up,” I said, watching Cameron unroll her gown and cover herself back up. “Tell us what you do remember. Like when you first learned you were pregnant.”

  Cameron’s story unfolded like any first-time mother-to-be—the rollercoaster of emotion of thinking you were pregnant; the fear of not knowing how you were going to afford to give this child a life they deserved. I knew those feelings well. But where Cameron’s story diverged from my own was when she told me it started with her wanting to get an abortion.

  “You knew you were pregnant?”

  Cameron picked at her nails without looking up. “I was trying to prevent it.”

  “By having an abortion?”

  “I had unprotected sex and wasn’t on birth control.” Her eyes swept up to her mother. An apologetic look that said I know, it was stupid. “So I went to see about getting a morning after pill.”

  “And where did you seek emergency contraception?”

  “Mile High Health Clinic.”

  I shared a quick glance with Erin as Cameron went on to explain how she got what she needed and was told to come back for follow-up. She was initially relieved when it seemed her cycle came. But it was too light to be normal. She hoped it was just from the morning after pill. But when she went back for her follow-up appointment for bloodwork and an ultrasound, her excitement was shattered by the devastating news she received.

  “They confirmed what a part of me already knew.” Cameron’s eyes were back on her fidgeting hands.

  “You were pregnant?”

  “Yes.” Cameron’s face twisted as she began to cry.

  “And Tyler was the father?” I asked, watching Ms. Dee’s expression harden.

  Cameron picked at her bed sheets. “He’s the only one it could have been.”

  “Why did you choose Mile High Health Clinic?” I asked.

  “Their services are free.”

  I stood there thinking about everything her mother had shared when we were still looking for Cameron. The financial burden, the fear of having to give up the life she knew. It was all lining up but I was stuck on the timing of when she got pregnant.

  “Your mom said you responded to an ad online. Can you tell us about that?”

  Cameron shook her head. “It wasn’t an ad.”

  I felt my eyebrows knit.

  “It was a referral given to me by the physician’s assistant at Mile High Health Clinic.”

  Erin stepped forward. “What exactly was the referral?”

  Cameron flicked her eyes to Erin. “I was just told to visit the website and put in my application for financial assistance and medical services. The PA said that he would put a good word in for me and he knew that I needed help.”

  Ms. Dee tilted her chin down and frowned. She was clearly disappointed that her daughter refused her help throughout this journey.

  “After you applied, how long did it take for you to hear back?”

  “Not long. A week or two.”

  “And where did it take you?”

  Cameron bit the edge of her lip as she thought about it. “I wish I had my purse with me. The card I was given is inside. But I think the organization was called the Guardian Angel.” She rolled her eyes up to mine and shrugged. “Something like that.”

  Cameron gave us the location of the clinic and Erin jotted it down. We locked eyes and I knew she was also thinking we had struck gold. “Do you remember the physician’s name you saw?”

  “That was the surprise.” Cameron tipped her head back and stared. “I do remember his name because it was the same name of the PA at MHHC.”

  I tilted my head to one shoulder and felt my body freeze.

  “His name was Dr. Cherub, and he’s the one who called me the other day requesting I come to the clinic.”

  “He called you? Why?”

  Cameron inhaled a deep breath of air. She stared at her thighs, looking as if her complete memory was coming back to her. “He said he had found something in my charts that needed immediate attention.”

  “Did you ask if he could tell you over the phone?”

  Cameron shook her head. “I was in the area. I didn’t think it was a big deal. But when I arrived, he made me stay for observation. I was so scared something was wrong with my baby.”

  “Did you tell anyone you were there?”

  “No,” Cameron said in a whispery tone.

  “What did Dr. Cherub tell you was wrong?”

  Cameron shook her head. “I couldn’t repeat his exact words. But I only saw him occasionally. It was his assistant who made sure that I had everything I needed.”

  “What was his name?”

  “I can’t remember.”

  “And did you have everything you needed?”

  “No.” Tears pooled in Cameron’s eyes. “They took everything from me. My phone, my clothes, and wouldn’t let me leave even after I asked to go.”

  The hair on the back of my neck stood. My mind was churning with possibilities to why these doctors were abusing their powers and why they targeted Cameron. Women were getting kidnapped and killed, but for what? “Did these men deliver your baby?”

  “I don’t know.” Her chin quivered. “My water broke just after I made a phone call to Tyler.”

  “You called Tyler?” My voice shot to the ceiling with surprise. “From whose phone?”

  “I was scared and alone. I wanted someone to know where I was but they wouldn’t let me. One day I was able to steal the nurse’s phone when she wasn’t looking.”

  “And did Tyler answer?”

  Cameron lowered her gaze and shook her head.

  I was afraid all this had happened when we were sitting Tyler down to talk. A sharp pang of guilt twisted my side when I asked if there was anyone else at the clinic with her.

  “I never saw anyone, but I always had a feeling that I wasn’t alone.”

  “What made you think that?”

  “It was the way the staff worked, what I heard them say. Patient in Room 1. Room 2. You get the idea.”

  I brought my phone from my pocket and was about to bring up photos of Kate Wilson and Tracey Brown with hopes of Cameron identifying them as being at the clinic when suddenly a heavy knock pounded on the door behind us.

  I turned my head and knew immediately that we were finished. Our time was up.

  “That’s enough, you two,” Detective Campbell said in an authoritative voice. “Camer
on Dee is officially a material witness. Any further questions directed toward her and I’ll arrest you for witness tampering.”

  Chapter Fifty-One

  “That’s fine, I’ll wait.” King leaned back in his chair after being put on hold.

  He was waiting to receive word from Sam on Cameron’s status. Checking his cell phone, there was still no message. He knew she had a short window of opportunity to crack Cameron before Detective Campbell put a stop to her questioning. King had messaged her as soon as he knew Campbell was on his way, but he never got a message back.

  The music played loudly in his ear and his knee bounced with impatience.

  King feared that Samantha had been right in saying the press conference would have the opposite effect of what Mayor Goldberg and Chief Watts had hoped. Instead of easing the public’s anxiety, it had only heightened their fears. A monster was not only loose and hiding in the community they called home, but now everyone had a face to go along with their nightmares.

  Next to King, Alvarez kept taking calls of sightings of Tyler Lopez. It was a witch hunt. Though experience told them most calls would lead to nowhere, they had to take each one seriously and treat them all as if it was the needle in the haystack they were looking for.

  After several minutes of waiting, the line finally clicked over. “Detective King, I’m afraid there is no record of your request.”

  King tipped forward, bringing his elbows to his desktop. “Are you sure about that?”

  “I’ve doubled checked everything you mentioned. The case files are either not here or have been suppressed by the judge.”

  King stared at nothing in particular as he tried to make sense of what he was being told. He was busy trying to locate both the judge and the docket of the court filing Joshua Zinn shared about the Browns going to trial, the hearing that was supposed to have begun yesterday.

  “Suppressed by the judge?” King asked.

  “It’s the only conclusion I can think of, besides it not existing at all.”

  King thanked the county clerk and set the phone back in its cradle before shoving his hand through his thick head of hair. This threw him for a loop. Either Mr. Zinn had been mistaken, or the clerk was right about the case being suppressed. But if it was, why?