BLOODY BELL Read online

  Bloody Bell

  A Samantha Bell Mystery Thriller

  Jeremy Waldron

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright © 2019 Jeremy Waldron

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author and/or publisher. No part of this publication may be sold or hired, without written permission from the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are a product of the writer’s imagination and/or have been used fictitiously in such a fashion it is not meant to serve the reader as actual fact and should not be considered as actual fact. Any resemblance to actual events, or persons, living or dead, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication / use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

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  [email protected]

  Also by Jeremy Waldron

  Dead and Gone to Bell

  Bell Hath No Fury

  Bloody Bell

  Bell to Pay

  Burn in Bell

  Mad as Bell

  All Bell Breaks Loose

  * * *

  Never miss a new release. Sign up for Jeremy Waldron’s New Releases Newsletter at JeremyWaldron.com

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  A Word from Jeremy

  Afterword

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Kate Wilson didn’t always want to be a mother. She was just a kid of eighteen who dropped out of high school in pursuit of her G.E.D. A loser, her teachers called her. You’ll never amount to anything, they had said. Kate ignored them all. She didn’t need to listen or care because she had always known those things about herself, thanks to her parents.

  Her mother was the person who introduced her to the abuse and made her numb to the pain. Her father was distant and unresponsive—a deadbeat, just like they said she was. Though her young skin was tight and smooth, it held the strength of seasoned military armor from a decade’s worth of direct hits.

  School meant less to Kate than prospects of work and a paycheck she could use to finally move out of the dinky old rundown apartment she shared with her hatemongering mother on the east side of Denver. Though, for Kate, work was in short supply even if her dreams were not.

  At the time, Kate was more concerned with weekend parties, girl’s nights out, and the sporadic flash in the night hookup with random older boys who thought of her as cute. She could manipulate them for money, booze, drugs, and still walk away hanging on to what little dignity she had left when it was all over. It wasn’t perfect, but it was what it was, and even Kate was smart enough to know that the good times wouldn’t last forever. Kate knew she had to get it while the getting was good.

  She just never expected it to end so soon.

  Kate squeezed the hand she was holding and felt her entire body flex through another excruciating contraction. Her teeth grinded as she clamped her eyes shut. Tears popped free with the force of the pinch. She had never felt anything as intense as what she was going through now.

  When her head hit the pillow she could breathe again. A cold damp cloth swept across her heated forehead and time ceased to exist. All she wished was for it to be over and to hold her daughter for the first time. How many more hours? Would this baby ever come out?

  Her chest rose and fell fast, but not nearly as quick as the thumping of her heart.

  Kate’s once reckless behavior seemed so long ago. It was difficult for her not to think of those days because she swore she would be a different person after this was all over. After all, it was only eight months ago she’d learned she was pregnant.

  “Kate, honey. Drink some more water,” a woman’s soothing voice whispered in her ear.

  Without opening her eyes, Kate pursed her lips and let the woman guide the straw to her mouth. Sucking gulps of cold water down her throat, she felt the liquid begin to cool her core. Without warning, her stomach muscles flexed and Kate was back at it.

  Kate’s torso lurched forward, she wrapped her fingers around the bar attached to the bed, and latched on for fear of falling over. Feeling stronger than she had ever felt before, she growled and pushed, wanting so badly for this baby to come out.

  “We’re almost there. On the next contraction, you’ll be meeting your daughter,” a man’s voice said from somewhere behind the bright light.

  Kate fell back into the bed and let her mind go back to dreaming. She could hear her heart thrashing, feel the cool slick of sweat coat every inch of her naked body. But all she could think about was how much she’d cried the day she learned she would be a mother.

  She could still feel the gigantic pools of tears that had puddled in the palms of her hands that night. She couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t find peace with herself—refused to believe the news was real. Kate blamed herself, cursed the child that was only a cluster of cells—punching her stomach repeatedly with hopes of dislodging the embryo in her womb—but couldn’t place a face to who the father might be. That bothered her most because she took precaution when having sex. Always played it safe, always on the defensive, never wanting to be in the position she found herself in now.

  Kate was all alone and deathly afraid of breaking the news to her mother. Her mother would never forgive her, and certainly wouldn’t help with the unexpected costs. But today, even though Kate was still without anyone close by her side, everything made sense and she was beyond excited to have a fresh start.

  Kate’s muscles contracted. Her mouth opened and she screamed a primal noise of warfare that ricocheted off the walls.

  “There’s the head. Keep going, Kate. You’re
doing great.”

  Something inside of her lit a fuse and Kate put everything she had into evicting this child she had been carrying for the better part of a year.

  Her inner thighs quaked and she kept squeezing her muscles until she felt a sudden release. Though more exhausted than she had ever been, she leaned forward and reached for her daughter.

  The doctor, hiding behind a surgical mask, held her baby inside his hands and Kate knew immediately something was wrong. The urgency and buzz that had lived in this room for the past six hours was instantly replaced by complete silence.

  Kate flicked her eyes between the faces in the room and felt the onset of a panic attack take root. Her lungs squeezed the air free from her body and her veins opened up with anger and fear.

  “Why is she not crying?” No one could look her in the eye. When no one answered her, Kate asked again, “Tell me. Why is my baby not crying?”

  The doctor stood, still cradling the tiny baby in his latex gloved hands, and nodded to the nurse. The nurse threaded her fingers through a pair of scissors and stepped between the baby and Kate, severing the umbilical cord with one quick snip.

  Kate’s eyes swelled. She felt the first warm tear roll down her cheek. Kate knew in her heart that her baby was dead but, until someone confirmed it, she refused to accept it. Why aren’t they trying to save her?

  “Someone tell me what is happening.” Kate grew angry. “Is she dead?” Her chin quivered with fear. “Tell me. Is my daughter dead?”

  The doctor flicked his stony gray eyes at Kate. Kate stared into the swirls of disappointment glimmering in his pupils and felt her body shrink inside of itself as if somehow this was her fault.

  Everyone watched and waited to hear the doctor speak. He never did. Instead, he remained quiet as a mouse as he turned on a heel and tenderly walked out the door, still holding Kate’s lifeless baby inside his hands.

  Chapter Two

  “This is awful,” Susan kept saying. “We have to go now.”

  I slid out from the booth, stood, and turned to the desperate mother still looking to me for help. Her name was Ms. Dee and she had come to me, desperate for help in finding her missing daughter, just before Susan learned that our friend, Allison Doyle, had collapsed and was rushed to the hospital.

  Handing Ms. Dee my card, I said, “Send me the details. I’ll see what I can do to help find your daughter.”

  “Thank you,” Ms. Dee said softly as she took my card.

  I nodded and turned to catch up with Susan and Erin who were stiff-arming the exit and making a run for my car. A ball of anxiety stitched my side but it proved to be only a minor handicap as I rushed to catch up.

  This wasn’t how today was supposed to end. What had begun as a bright sunny March day was now as dark as the sky with the sun behind the Rockies. There were leftover piles of snow in the shaded areas from the storm that had come through a couple days prior, but there was a definite warmth swirling in the air, bringing whispers of the changing season.

  “I’ll drive,” I called out, digging my heels into the pavement before coming to a full stop at my driver’s door. When I wet my lips, I was quickly reminded of the margarita I had drank. Salty and sweet, the news of Allison sobered me instantly.

  “You okay to drive?” Susan asked from the backseat.

  I nodded and started the engine without hesitation as Erin and Susan buckled their belts. Then I backed out of the tight parking spot and headed north on Blake Street before turning on 18th.

  I weaved my car between the tall city buildings, allowing my thoughts to jump from Ms. Dee to Allison. Erin stared at her own reflection in the window, lost in her thoughts, and Susan did the same as we bumped along on our way to St. Joseph’s hospital.

  “Patty is with her,” Susan kept repeating as if needing to reassure herself that Allison wasn’t alone. We didn’t know what to expect once we got there. All we could do was pray that our friend was in good hands.

  Allison’s chief of operations, Patty O’Neil, was the one who’d called Susan. None of us could guess why Allison had suddenly collapsed. And it didn’t matter. We had each other’s backs no matter what and would drop everything to be together as the makeshift family we were.

  When we stopped at a red light, I sighed and drummed my fingers on my thigh. I could hear the clock ticking down to zero inside my head. It did little to ease my worries. Tick tock, tick tock. Like a bomb I couldn’t defuse.

  It wasn’t just that I wanted to rush to be at my friend’s side—which was more important to me than anything—but it was that Ms. Dee’s daughter, Cameron, had already been missing for two days now and we were past the critical first forty-eight hours. That was a tough pill to swallow. The odds of finding Cameron alive now decreased with every minute that went by without her. Where were the police in all this?

  The light flicked over to green and I slammed my foot down on the gas.

  My Subaru Outback pathetically lurched forward. That had to be the reason Cameron’s mother had come to me—the police missed their chance and Ms. Dee knew she was running out of time. I would have done the same thing if Mason was the one missing. Desperation could work miracles if given the chance.

  Handing Erin my phone, I said, “Message King. Ask him if he knows anything about a missing person named Cameron Dee.”

  “A woman is missing,” Erin muttered as she typed up her text message. “Cameron Dee. Heard anything?”

  Erin flicked her gaze to me when she was finished. I turned away. I couldn’t talk with my mind swimming in perpetual worry. A part of me wondered if I got what I’d asked for. Since the Sniper story, I’d been looking for something to get my juices flowing. What I didn’t expect was to get my fix like this.

  When we arrived to St. Joseph’s, I took the first open space we could find. Together, we moved as a team, sticking by each other’s sides until we were able to gain our bearings.

  Susan took the lead, Erin and me following close behind. We galloped through the hallways and soon found Patty in the west wing after a quick elevator ride up to the third floor.

  “Oh, I’m so glad you weren’t far.” Patty hugged each of us.

  “How is she?” I asked.

  “Do they know what caused it?” Susan asked before Patty could answer my question.

  “She’s up and talking.” Patty looked me in the eye as she spoke. Then she turned to Susan. “Still running tests. C’mon, let me show you to her room. She’ll be thrilled to know the party has finally arrived.”

  Chapter Three

  The moment we stepped into Allison’s tiny hospital room, she raised her fists in the air and shook them as if she was holding a pair of maracas. We all laughed, exhaling a collective sigh of relief into the air.

  “Ali, baby,” I smiled when reaching for her hand, “you had us all worried.”

  Allison’s grin was wide when she squeezed my hand. “But Sam, you should have seen how bright the stars were before I fainted.”

  I smiled but I needed to be reassured she would be okay before I started in on the jokes. “You’ve been working yourself too hard.”

  Allison shrugged. “Nothing out of the ordinary. Isn’t that right, Patty?”

  “I plead the fifth,” Patty said from the corner.

  Susan and Erin began hammering Allison with their own questions as I let my eyes rake over the curls of IV tubes slithering up her arm like an iridescent snake. It looked bad but she was in good spirits. That eased me.

  Erin razzed her about secretly having a love life she hadn’t shared with the group. Susan was quick to join in on the jokes. “Not knowing about a pregnancy would certainly explain the sudden dizziness.”

  “If only.” Allison grinned and kept rolling her eyes. “I haven’t been with a man in over a year. Really, it’s nothing. I was probably just dehydrated.” She inhaled a deep breath and blew out a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry for not making happy hour. I was really looking forward to having a margarita or two.”

&nb
sp; We laughed, reassuring her that we drank hers for her.

  My cell dinged with a message, a second one close on its heels. Everyone stopped to stare. “It’s only work,” I said, feeling a bit bashful.

  “And here I thought I was the story.” Allison chuckled.

  I couldn’t help myself. It just came out of me. I told Allison about Ms. Dee approaching Erin and me at the Rio and her request to help find her missing daughter. I could hear my own excitement as I spoke, my fingers already typing up the story on my thigh.

  “Then what are you waiting for?” Allison’s eyebrows pinched, her mood turning serious. “You should understand a mother’s agony better than anybody in this room.”

  I stared into my friend’s chestnut eyes and thought of my son, Mason. “I can’t leave you.”

  “I’ll be fine.” Allison waved me off. “You go find that girl and don’t let her mother down.”

  Chapter Four