Bell to Pay

by Jeremy Waldron

  “What’s this about Parker Collins being a fraud? Did you uncover that while investigating Donny’s exchange?”

  My eyebrows squished. “I’m still working on the Ponzi scheme story,” I said. “I haven’t confirmed anything yet.” I stared at my toes, not knowing what the hell Dawson was talking about.

  “I’m just repeating what you wrote in the email you sent me fifteen minutes ago.”

  “I didn’t send an email.”

  “Really?” I heard Dawson tapping away at his computer. “Because it came from your account.”

  The sky swirled above as I thought about how Travis left Brett alone, free to roam staff computers, and wondered how, if at all, it related to Garcia looking for me now.

  Suddenly, all the evidence, all the facts, came crashing to the forefront of my brain like a tidal wave and I was overwhelmed by the influx of information.

  “You said Parker Collins?”

  “Yeah,” Dawson said.

  This was Loxley. I was sure of it, and Dawson confirmed it. He was telling me who he was going to kill next.

  “Does that mean something to you?”

  I wished it didn’t, but I knew it did.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  In a panic, I rushed to Erin. “I just got a tip from Dawson.”

  Her eyes widened a fraction as she looked toward King. It was clear she’d heard everything he said about needing to get to Rose Wild before she possibly escaped.

  “Loxley is going after Parker Collins next.”

  “How do you know this?” she asked.

  “Dawson received an email for me, an email I didn’t send.” I could see her planning our next move as I explained what was inside the email to make me think Collins was next on Loxley’s list.

  “Sam, I don’t know who that is. Should I?”

  Parker Collins hadn’t been on my immediate radar either, and I certainly didn’t know the crimes he was being accused of. But I caught Erin up to speed with what little I did know.

  “He’s a business mogul who has his hands in dozens of projects around the world. But I’ve never written a story about him and I’m not completely sure why Loxley is targeting him, just that he fits the pattern of the others and I can’t take any risks by not acting.”

  Erin didn’t argue but I could see the doubt creeping up her spine. “But if you don’t know what he did, how can we be sure Loxley is even targeting anybody?”

  It was a valid concern, one I didn’t have an answer for. At least when it came to Richard Thompson, I’d known. Thanks to my history with Josh Stetson, Donny Counts made sense, too. But Parker Collins? He was on an island all by himself.

  Erin was staring into my eyes as if debating whether he was worth the risk or not.

  “What do we have to lose?” I said, almost immediately realizing we had everything to lose, including our reputations if we got this wrong. Parker Collins would destroy us. But if I was right, I could potentially save his life.

  “Do you even know where to find Collins?”

  “Believe it or not, I think I do,” I said, mentioning the flier for a business leader’s impact entrepreneurship summit at MSU. “Garcia had my name chicken scratched next to Collins’s. I should have seen it then—”

  “Is Garcia Loxley?”

  My answer caught in my throat. I didn’t want to believe he was, but I didn’t have enough evidence to cross him off my list of suspects either. “If so, we’ll see him there.”

  “And if he’s not, how will we even know who to look for?”

  My mind scrambled to think how Parker might be killed. Up until now, Loxley had chosen ingenious methods. Without getting in his mind, we were left to only guess.

  King stared from a distance as we debated our options. Susan was chatting with Alvarez while Allison was staring into her phone’s screen. Soon, King found his way over to me.

  I briefed him on the email, following up with, “Parker Collins, is he on your radar?”

  King’s thoughts swirled in his pupils. “No, but I recently came across his name,” he said, telling me about the notes he found at Garcia’s house.

  “Garcia had what?” I snapped.

  “A list.” King mentioned who was on it. I couldn’t believe it. “I just assumed they were either stories or sources he was working.”

  I rubbed my temples to little relief. If I doubted Garcia’s involvement before, the case against him was now growing so substantial it was hard to think it could be anybody else.

  “That’s it. We have to go,” I said, leaping forward.

  King grabbed my arm and pulled me back. My hair cascaded over my eyes. “Where, Sam? Where are you going? What exactly are you going to do?”

  “Don’t you see it?”

  “One name, Sam. That’s all. Everyone else on that list is only a guess.”

  I didn’t want to admit it, but I knew it was true. But Garcia also had my Thompson story in his home office, and Rose said Garcia would know the key code to the Bitcoin account found with Richard Thompson.

  I looked to Allison. She’d had her head buried in her phone for the last ten minutes when she suddenly snapped her head up and shouted, “I found something.”

  Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to stare.

  Allison held her phone into the air. “Damien Black was a convicted hacker.”

  King’s expression pinched. Alvarez asked for directions to Backstage. And everyone’s next move seemed to be lining up for them.

  “I knew I was right to have my suspicions about him,” Susan said.

  Was Garcia working with Damien Black? No, it didn’t make sense. I needed to get to MSU and track down Collins with hopes of finding Garcia there before anything bad happened to either one of them.

  I caught King staring. “Damien is about to lose his lab. If you ask me, that’s motive for targeting the people he despises. He has the resources and know-how to do it without getting caught.”

  “But is he our guy?” Erin asked openly to the group.

  We couldn’t take any chances. Not with what Allison just learned about Damien Black.

  Without discussing it any further, everyone jumped into action at once.

  Alvarez already had the engine rumbling when he called out to King, telling him to jump in.

  King opened the car door and pointed at me. “Stay behind, Sam. I’m serious. Don’t go doing police work. I’ll call in for a uniformed officer to look out for Parker Collins.”

  “No way. We’re in this together,” I argued, waving Erin to my car. With King speeding away, I hit the gas as soon as Erin was buckled into her seat and we squealed out of the parking lot with no time to spare. I had to get to Parker Collins first and stop the evil I thought was coming for him.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  I drove my car like it was stolen as we raced across town. Weaving through traffic, I accelerated through the knots of cars, listening to my engine whine. I cranked the wheel when having to make tight turns and heard the tires squeal as they skidded over the asphalt.

  There was no time to stop. We couldn’t afford to be late or get this wrong.

  I kept my grip tight on the wheel and my foot heavy on the gas.

  Erin hung on as if her life depended on it. Once she settled into the crazy rollercoaster ride I’d put us on, she asked, “So who is Loxley? Joey Garcia or Damien Black?”

  I’d been asking myself the same question. “If Damien is Loxley, it could be the reason he picked Susan up out of the blue.”

  Erin said she’d been thinking the same thing. “Maybe as a way to get closer to you.”

  I flicked my gaze to her. Our eyes met and locked for a second as the thought settled in my gut. It was a frightening thought, but also one that would explain how Loxley seemed to know so much about me.

  Neither of us had mentioned any of this on our blog or on Erin’s podcast. Somehow, Loxley still knew—writing to me as if we were friends fighting a common enemy.

  A
wave of chills moved beneath my collar. I was hot. I was cold. Mostly, I was just pissed.

  Erin had her doubts, too, and expressed them to me. “Loxley is smarter than that.”

  “Than what?” I asked.

  “For it to be Damien. It’s too obvious a choice.”

  “Hiding in plain sight? Asking Susan out? Working his way into our tight circle?” I could have kept going but Erin got my point. Damien and Garcia were all we had and I couldn’t stop thinking about the hacker event. I needed to know more, see a list of competitors—stop the madness.

  As I honked at the car in front of me drifting into my lane, my thoughts swung back to King.

  I appreciated him sharing what he knew, but I didn’t like him telling me to back down. And I certainly didn’t like that King found my Thompson article in Garcia’s house. But what bothered me most was Garcia’s list of targets or possible targets. Donny Counts was already dead and it appeared that Parker Collins was likely next. I had my bets on Ronald Hyland’s life coming into Loxley’s crosshairs soon.

  We needed to warn Collins. We had to throw a wrench in Loxley’s plans. But the longer it took us to get to MSU, the more I doubted we’d make it time.

  I hoped I was right about Collins—if he lived—but was also afraid of what I might be walking in to.

  Did Loxley want me to figure this out? If so, why? What would he do to me if I stayed away? What would he do to me if I got too close to the truth?

  The tips of my fingers tingled and I wrung out my hands as I kept glancing at the clock. Suddenly, my rearview mirror flashed a red and blue with emergency vehicle lights creeping up on me fast. The vehicles behind me pulled off the side, and so did I.

  Erin twisted around in her seat and we both watched as the first police cruiser flew past us. It was quickly followed by an ambulance. Something told me we had the same destination in mind.

  I punched the gas and quickly caught up with the ambulance.

  “What are you doing, Sam?”

  Knowing I was breaking the law, I said, “Hitching a ride.”

  “You think it’s going to the university?”

  “We’ll take it as far as we can,” I said. “I hope I’m wrong.”

  Moments later, black smoke was visibly billowing into the air. Silence filled the air when the ambulance killed the siren and hit the brakes, EMS rushing out to help anyone lucky enough to survive the car crash.

  I tipped forward in my seat and stared at the dark Toyota RAV4 smoking out its front, but it was the white BMW 7 series that stopped my heart. I pulled off to the side and said, “That could certainly be Parker Collins’s car.” Erin raised a brow. “Only someone with money can drive a brand-new Beemer like that.”

  Next thing I knew, Erin kicked her door open and took off running. I was quick to follow, chasing after her. The front of the RAV4 was smashed and billowing a thick smoke, threatening to explode. A woman had been pulled from the seat and was now being led to safety by a couple civilians. She was bleeding from the nose but appeared to be fine.

  I flicked my gaze to the BMW. Three men worked to pull an unconscious man from the front seat. There was blood everywhere and I couldn’t immediately tell if I was looking at Parker Collins.

  “Is it him?” Erin clamped her hand on my shoulder and pushed up on her toes.

  “It’s him,” I said, catching a glimpse of his face. His body was limp and he was unconscious. I swiveled my head around thinking Loxley might be here, watching to see if I came. Then, as if on cue, I felt my phone hum with an incoming text message. One glance at my screen and I knew it was him. Loxley. He was here. And he was watching me.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  It didn’t take long for the scene to get chaotic with EMS and fire crews dashing in and out of the crash. Everything seemed to get louder—the water spraying from the fire hose, the shouts for assistance, even the rumbling of cars passing by. Soon, the fire was out and I kept looking for Loxley.

  There were too many faces, too many distractions to hide behind. But my gut told me to keep looking. Then Erin surprised me by saying, “I’m going in.”

  She took off running before I could stop her.

  “Miss, did you see what happened here?” a uniformed officer asked me without seeming to notice Erin sprinting toward Collins’s car.

  “No,” I said, looking to see if he recognized me. “I arrived after the crash.”

  Then a man stepped forward from the group behind me. “I saw that same BMW nearly collide with another car about three blocks back. I thought the driver was drunk.”

  The officer turned his head and asked, “And did you see what happened here?”

  “No,” the man said. “But I’m certain it’s the same car.” He pointed to an emblem near the rear tail light and the officer pulled him off to the side to make an official statement.

  I spun around, pressing a hand to my forehead.

  Loxley’s message was still bouncing around my head.

  Men of power are robbing us of our riches as you stand around and do nothing. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. I am here to put a stop to it. No longer will I allow their lies to justify their means. But I cannot do it alone. I need your help. When will you recognize that?

  Just as I was asking myself where he could be, I looked up and found the eye of a traffic camera staring down on me. Could he be watching from there? I darted my gaze to several people recording from their cell phones. Or was he watching from those? With Loxley, he could be anywhere.

  I stepped out of the way when the tow truck arrived. Collins was being loaded into an ambulance and I prayed he would survive to tell the tale of what happened.

  “Sam,” I heard Erin call from twenty yards out as she stood behind Collins’s car. “Come take a look at this,” she said, waving me over.

  With the officer standing with his back to me, I hurdled over the obstacles in front of me and pushed my way through the line, curious to know what Erin had found.

  “Stay down, they won’t like us being here,” Erin said. “But I had to look for myself, and I’m glad I did.”

  We were crouched down low next to Collins’ crumpled car, thumbing through a packet of notes and transcripts neatly packaged together. They were addressed to Collins and, ironically, also all about him.

  “It’s dirt,” Erin said.

  I saw it too. Every story and fact a negative piece to Parker Collins’s life. “Is there a key code here?” I asked, splitting up the papers into two piles.

  Erin took half and quickly filed through each paper. “Nothing here.”

  My breath caught in my chest when I suddenly stopped my search.

  “What is it?” Erin asked, taking her eyes off her pile and casting them to mine.

  My heart was beating loud and fast as I read through the threat that had my name on it. I handed it to Erin.

  Her eyes moved across the sheet of paper as she read it aloud. “I suggest you think long and hard about what this means, because all this could quickly go to Samantha Bell.” Erin swept her gaze up to mine. “This has Joey Garcia’s name written all over it.”

  As much as I didn’t want to believe it, I had to come to terms with the fact that Garcia might have been attempting to blackmail Collins. Did that also mean he could have blackmailed Richard Thompson? Could Rose Wild actually be telling the truth?

  “Sam, do you recognize any of this?” Erin fanned out the papers in each of her hands. “Was this a past story you were working?”

  I thought about the event at MSU and Collins’s name on Garcia’s desk. I had a better idea now what was happening here, and I knew this was him. But could I prove it?

  I gathered the papers and placed them back into the neatly packaged folder before lifting my shirt and stuffing it into my waist. “C’mon. Let’s not discuss this here.”

  As soon as we stood, a fireman started yelling at us. “Hey! It’s not safe to be back there.”

  Without hesitating
, I reached into my back pocket and produced my press badge. “Samantha Bell with the Colorado Times.”

  “And you can join the others in the bullpen over there.” He pointed to the first of the news vans, its crews already reporting.

  We headed back to my car. There was nothing else for us here. On the way, I called King. “Have you found Damien Black?”

  “We’re just pulling into his place now.”

  King must have heard the commotion swirling around me, and when he asked, I said, “Parker Collins was in a car accident.”

  King was silent for a brief pause. “Is he injured?”

  “From what I could see, yes.” But I already knew his chances of making it were slim. I was still in a state of shock, none of what just happened sinking in yet. King asked how and I told him what I knew. “I don’t know if this was Loxley or just a freak accident,” I told him. But that was Loxley’s MO. Murders made to look like unfortunate accidents.

  “Wait there,” King said. “I’m turning around.”

  I swung my head and glanced at the scene, now dying down. “Don’t bother. It’s over.” King didn’t protest, and I told him to speak with Damien as originally planned. “Maybe gain insight into whether he was behind this accident or not.”

  “Stay safe, Sam.”

  “You too.”

  As soon as I ended my call with King, I dialed Joey Garcia’s cell hoping he could explain the list King found on his desk and why Parker Collins had a pile of dirt that seemed to have come from Garcia’s desk.

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Joey Garcia was driving when he felt his cellphone vibrate.

  He touched his breast pocket where the device rang. He was curious to know who was calling, but decided not to answer. Having only met Parker Collins less than thirty minutes ago, he was afraid that it might be him calling to tell him he’d changed his mind.