MAD AS BELL

by Jeremy Waldron

  “That’s great,” I said, “because I’m going to need to enlist everyone’s help to track down Jenny’s whereabouts.”

  Erin took a seat at the kitchen table and I introduced Archie to my family. Together we sat, flipped open our laptop computers, and began poring over the police report, making notes and highlighting details that we knew were important. We all were curious to know who Josie was and why no one seemed to be able to locate her body.

  Cooper barked and the front door swung open. Susan called out, announcing her arrival, and I hurried to the front of the house with Allison close behind. Susan had brought Naomi with her and I smiled at all three of them. Bennett latched the door closed once everyone was through. They all looked a little beaten up, but as soon as I locked eyes with my friend, the corners of hers crinkled into a reassuring smile.

  I reached out for Susan’s hand and pulled her into a hug. Then I hugged Naomi and welcomed her to my house, doing the same with Bennett when I heard Susan apologize to Allison for what happened to him.

  “This was all my fault,” Susan said. “I told Daniels about Jenny and Eva, hoping he could bring attention to their story and end this.”

  “You didn’t know,” Allison responded.

  Then the entire house came to a stop when Susan said, “There’s good news though. Naomi thinks she might know who Jenny is with.”

  “Is that true, Naomi?” I asked.

  Naomi looked me in the eye and nodded. “It’s our teacher, Scott Helton.”

  Erin reached for my arm. I shared a knowing look with both her and Archie. Our investigation came full circle, funneling its way into my house. Helton had to be the serial rapist the police were looking for. Archie caught him on camera at Burger King the night Jenny went missing. We knew he had direct ties to both Megan and Jenny. I wondered if he was also behind Heidi’s attack on Bennett to throw everyone off his trail. Where Josie Zapatero fit in, I wasn’t sure yet. But there was too much evidence against him tying him to the other girls. We had to at least check him out.

  Susan was reading my expression when she helped Naomi explain the connection so there weren’t any doubts. Naomi said, “Mr. Helton was at the same Burger King as us the night Jenny disappeared.” Archie nodded, and I pictured the photo he’d showed Erin and me.

  I thought back to my visit with Rob and Karen Hines, wondering if Helton was the teacher who silenced Megan after walking in on the girls changing in the locker room last spring. Naomi sealed my suspicion when she said Helton was the one who confiscated the phone that had a revealing picture of her on it—the phone supposedly given to Heidi.

  I turned to Bennett. “And Heidi Mitchell thought it was yours?”

  Bennett nodded his head once. “After I heard Naomi’s story, I can only assume it was Helton who tipped Ms. Mitchell off.”

  Allison moved to Bennett and slid her arm around his waist. He draped his big arm over the backs of her shoulders before Allison let go and headed to work on her computer. She seemed motivated by the news and, frankly, so was I.

  I went to work on the police report, searching for a connection between Josie and Helton. Erin was on her computer looking for a link, too, when I turned and asked Naomi, “Was there a Josie Zapatero at your school?”

  “Josie Zapatero?” Susan had a quizzical look on her face. “I know that name.”

  I lifted my head and said, “You do?”

  “Her name was written down in Owen Daniels’s office. And I heard it on his voicemail.” Susan repeated what she heard, giving the most basic explanation of why she was there to begin with. “The mayor is attending the event and at no point should he find himself in front of the protestors… You do that and I’ll make sure to clean up your mess with Josie.”

  A shot of adrenaline pumped through my heart. First Helton and now Daniels? Were they working together? Were these crimes even related? I didn’t know what to think, but it seemed possible Daniels was guilty of at least one murder—Josie’s.

  I asked Susan, “Do you know who left the message?”

  “I’m certain it was Police Chief Gordon Watts’s voice.”

  “Holy shit,” Erin said. She stared at me and I knew we were thinking the same thing. The city really was hiding crimes, just as I’d been suspecting.

  It was our first solid piece of evidence the mayor was actively falsifying crime statistics, but did Daniels murder Josie and have the chief clean it up? It would certainly explain why her body suddenly went missing. The timing of the protests couldn’t be coincidental, but planned to act as a diversion for Josie’s murder.

  I picked up the police report and thought about the sticky note attached. This was the story we were supposed to tell. A cover up to hide a crime committed by Daniels’s accomplice inside the police department.

  I lifted my head and flicked my gaze to Bennett. I felt bad for him. His innocence was ruined by Daniels, who brought an innocent man down to keep the murder of Josie Zapatero out of the media. But what was in it for the chief?

  I asked Bennett, “Do you know where Helton lives?”

  “He lives in an apartment in University.” Bennett gave the name of the complex and the entire table stood in a panic. It was Eva’s building. I asked if he knew the exact apartment number and my heart stopped.

  I’d seen the brass knocker with the word Ace engraved in the middle. We were there. If Helton was home at the time, he heard us knocking on Eva’s door. He knew we were closing in. Did Eva know he was dangerous? I doubted she did.

  “Jesus,” Erin said. “You don’t think she’s with him, do you?”

  I didn’t know. She hadn’t talked about any friends, but she must have known her neighbor. I snapped my fingers and told Erin to call Eva. She dialed and Eva never picked up. I tried Carr, then Stark on my own phone, and Eva wasn’t with either of them. Then I called King, hoping he hadn’t left the area. He didn’t answer, but I left a voicemail.

  “King. Listen. Eva has a neighbor, Scott Helton. He’s a teacher at South High, and I have very good reason to think he might be the person who abducted Jenny Booth. You don’t have to call me back, but please check it out.”

  Cooper lifted his head and growled just as Allison announced, “I got it.”

  I hurried to stand over Allison’s shoulder. Together we searched through Jenny’s school email account. I heard Erin explain to Bennett and Naomi what we were doing. Bennett didn’t protest. He just wanted his name cleared and his reputation restored. We seemed to be getting nowhere fast until Allison clicked back into Jenny’s inbox. Then I pointed to the screen and said, “Open that one.”

  The email opened and we read it. “That’s it. Helton has tenants and a room opened up for Jenny.”

  Cooper growled again and Archie looked worried that he might attack. I told my dog to knock it off and kept reading, trying to decide what the hell kind of relationship Jenny had with Helton.

  “Tenants?” Bennett said.

  I looked him in the eye. “That’s what it said. You know what he means?”

  “She’s not at Helton’s apartment, but at his rental.”

  “Rental?” I parroted.

  Bennett told us how Helton was always talking about an old investment property he picked up that required him to be on site a lot. He was remodeling it. This was news to us, but if we were right about Helton having Jenny, something told me that tenant was code for captive women.

  “C’mon, let’s go check it out,” I said, hurrying to the door. “If Eva’s not with him, I’m certain Jenny is.”

  Reaching for my keys, I opened the front door and understood what Cooper had been growling about. The muzzle of a gun was pointed directly between my eyes.

  Chapter One Hundred One

  Eva wrapped her arms around herself, the tips of her fingers digging deep into her ribcage as she waited for Helton to return. It had been at least ten minutes since he left, and she wondered what was taking him so long.

  Feeling her worries begin to surface, she
stopped pacing and turned to stare at Helton’s framed pictures perched on the end table. He had nice blue eyes that sparkled like tiny diamonds. It was the first thing Eva noticed when meeting him several months ago. Helton also had a bright, trusting smile. He was a man full of confidence who excelled at everything he did.

  Why didn’t he ever ask me out?

  Secretly, Eva wondered if he was gay, but most likely it was simply because Helton knew she was too caught up with Carr to be bothered by the drama that came with it.

  Turning on a heel, Eva moved to the coffee table. Glancing to the deck of cards, all four Aces were turned right-side up. Though she wondered what it was about—his strange obsession with everything Ace—she reached for Owen Daniels’s business card.

  It didn’t take her long to figure out who Daniels was. With South High closed and multiple students missing, Eva could only assume that someone at the news station wanted to interview Helton about his colleague, Nicholas Bennett, who was accused of sleeping with his students.

  Tying her hair up, Eva rubbed her arms until her hairs relaxed.

  She felt a sense of urgency to get out of here and to some place far away. And fast. She knew time was against her. The longer Helton took, the more likely someone would be back to knock on her door.

  Traveling the same path she carved out in the carpet from endlessly pacing, she moved to the window, peeked past the curtain to the street below, and was eased when seeing everything getting back to normal after witnessing the man who had been following her get arrested.

  Eva knew better than to jump to conclusions.

  She wasn’t safe until she was gone, out of the city.

  Archie was still somewhere out there. Because of it, her anxiety swelled with wanting to know why she had suddenly become every man’s interest.

  The sounds of keys at the front door had her spinning around.

  She waited, and when Helton entered, he locked eyes with her. “I moved the car near the back door.”

  “Did you see anyone?”

  “No one you mentioned.” Helton sighed. “If we’re going to leave, we must do it now. I don’t think we’ll get another chance.”

  Eva nodded, but her feet didn’t move. Helton read her hesitation and closed the gap between them, clamping his strong hands around her arms and smoothing down the gooseflesh populating Eva’s soft skin.

  He whispered, “I believe in you. You can do this.”

  Eva’s gaze fell to the floor, but her head continued bobbing up and down. “Are you sure I shouldn’t bring anything with me?”

  “It will be quicker if we don’t take bags.” Helton hooked Eva’s chin with his finger and brought her eyes up to his. “I have everything you need at the house, and I can always come back and get more if you absolutely need it.”

  Eva stared into his coffee bean colored eyes. “How long do you think I’ll have to stay?”

  “Not long. Just until things die down.”

  Eva turned her head and glanced to the pictures of Helton on the end table, thinking about his blue eyes glistening like the ocean.

  “Wear this,” Helton handed her a hooded sweatshirt, “and put the hood over your head.”

  Eva pushed her arms through the sleeves and pulled the shell over her head.

  Helton smiled. “Now, let’s go before anyone notices we’re gone.”

  Chapter One Hundred Two

  King rubbed his lower back with his right hand, attempting to smooth out the dull pain filling his side. He couldn’t take his eyes off Christopher Bowers.

  He’d been here for no more than fifteen minutes, asking himself if this bipolar lunatic was his ticket to clearing his own name or just the asshole who had kidnapped Eva. He was hoping for both.

  Bowers sat with his hands cuffed and on his lap. His head swung wildly back and forth above a knee bouncing so high it knocked the table. If King didn’t know any better, he would have thought Bowers had headphones stuffed inside his ears while rocking out to music only he could hear.

  “How will I get your attention?” King whispered to an empty room.

  Bowers was certainly drunk, probably high, and his arrest could have gone to hell quick. Instead, King counted his blessings for not having to fire his weapon during the arrest.

  But something still didn’t sit right with King.

  He questioned if Bowers was Megan’s murderer. Mrs. Bowers was certain of it. They’d found enough evidence inside the truck Bowers was driving to suggest he was involved in something. The missing link was how someone like Mrs. Bowers could go for someone like Christopher.

  How could she not know he was a kidnapping murderer before today? They seemed worlds apart. King’s first meeting of Bowers at the hospital seemed like forever ago. King had a hard time believing he was looking at the same man. King had believed he had rescued Eva that night. Had he? They’d gone after him because they thought he killed Megan, but was there more to his laundry list of crimes? Was Eva his victim? Could his wife be lying about who her husband truly was?

  King rubbed his fingers together and brought them to the tip of his nose. He could still smell Bowers’s sharp body odor mixed with the scent of enough alcohol to breathe fire. Bowers had let himself go and King wondered if this was the reason for his wife to turn on him.

  His phone buzzed with an incoming call. King didn’t bother looking, letting it go to voicemail.

  “You’ll disappear with them if you’re not careful.” Bowers kept repeating the same mantra he’d been touting since King brought him in.

  “Is this the drugs and alcohol talking?” Detective Gray slid up alongside King and folded her arms as they both looked on. King hadn’t heard her enter the room, but was glad she was here.

  “We found a nearly empty fifth on his front seat,” King said.

  “I got the call back,” Gray said, turning her neck to gaze up into King’s eyes. “Sage’s younger sister’s name was Josie Zapatero.”

  “You found her parents?”

  “Would have certainly made things easier if I did. Unfortunately, her father died of a work-related injury seven years ago and I was told their mother moved back to Mexico.”

  “Then what the hell was a fifteen-year-old Josie still doing here in the States?”

  Gray shrugged. “Wish I knew. I’ll let the ME know that we have a name, if still no body.”

  When Gray made a move toward the door, King said, “At least stay for the show.”

  “As much as I would like to see you break this lunatic down,” Gray smiled over her shoulder and reached for the doorknob, “I’ll take a raincheck on today’s matinée.”

  Chapter One Hundred Three

  Bowers was still rocking and mumbling under his breath when King stepped inside the interrogation room with today’s newspaper tucked beneath one arm, a case file held in his opposite hand. He was anxious to know what Bowers was doing outside Eva’s apartment.

  King dropped down and sat in the metal chair opposite Bowers. He opened the newspaper and turned it so Bowers could see today’s headline. King waited for a reaction.

  “Murdered,” King said. “Put in a shallow grave. She was only sixteen.”

  Bowers stopped moving.

  When Bowers didn’t react to the news about Megan’s murder like King had hoped he would, he asked, “Any idea who might have done it?”

  Bowers kept still.

  “Some people think it was you.” King then opened his case file and slowly spread the pictures of both Megan and Jenny out so Bowers could see. “Recognize these girls?”

  Bowers blinked and looked away.

  King inhaled a breath of hope when he said, “I know you do. And what do these two girls have in common? They share a similar look to Josie Zapatero.”

  King raised his brow and waited for a reaction. Bowers’s body was unusually still and he couldn’t look King in the eye. Did he know Josie, too? King wasn’t certain he did. Bowers reeked of guilt, just for what, it wasn’t yet clear.
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  “We brought you in because your wife is afraid you murdered her.” King gently laid his finger next to Megan’s image.

  Bowers snapped his neck and growled, “I didn’t murder no one.”

  King mentioned the evidence they discovered in his truck.

  “Rope and duct tape, are you serious? I’m a contractor by trade. What are you going to tell me next? That this girl was killed by a strike from a framer’s hammer?”

  “You know what else your wife said? She said she caught you taking pictures of your stepdaughter and her friend with your phone this morning.” King then revealed that he knew about the specific room he’d labeled Play Pen at the house he was working on. “There is a team at your worksite now, and something tells me they are going to find the room where you kept Eva Martin captive. Bold move to hold her at a worksite.”

  Bowers brought his cuffed hands to the table and pulled the newspaper closer to his chest. King watched his finger begin tearing single words off the page until they formed a single sentence.

  He’ll kill the girl if you don’t help.

  “Who, Christopher? Who is it we’re supposed to help?”

  Bowers continued tearing the paper into tiny pieces as he mumbled, “You have the wrong man. I’m not the person who you want.”

  “Who do I want?”

  “There is someone better than me doing this.”

  “Who, Christopher?”

  “An educator.” Bowers glanced up at King from under his brow. “I saw it with my own eyes. He took her.”

  “Took who, Christopher? Took one of these girls?” King pointed to the photographs.

  “He took Jenny after she told him she didn’t want to sleep with him again.” When King asked how Bowers knew, he said, “I was at Burger King. I saw because I wanted Naomi and Jenny for myself. But he got to them first.”