Chapter 47 #2
“Or at least that’s what he goes by now,” Samantha said, flipping back through the pages to one dedicated to him. “Look at this, he is associated with four different towns in the last ten years.”
“All within a fire department or something official.” Jasper added, pointed out a list of his titles at those four towns.
“At least by that name.” I gasped, “What if he’s changed it more than once? What if he’s associated somehow with them all?”
“Either way,” Samantha whispered, lowering the papers with a bewildered look on her face like she couldn’t quite believe it. “You just identified the link. You just cracked this whole thing wide open.”
My heart was racing in my chest, “We have to tell Tanner.” I turned to Jasper, clutching his arm. “And Rhea. Before the game!”
“You can’t,” Samantha shook her head, pulling us both back to her with wide eyes. “You don’t understand what that man is capable of.”
“I don’t understand,” I cried. “You just said we cracked it open. We figured it out! We have to tell them. Tanner is a police officer, and—”
“And Cedar Bluff has been luckier than the other towns in more than one way.” Samantha said firmly.
“Spit it out, lady!” Jasper urged, flapping his hand out toward her paperwork. “This isn’t a trashy mid-day soap opera! We don’t need to take three days to spill the beans!”
“It wasn’t just accidents and property damage done in the other towns. There were a few who faced far worse outcomes.” She said with a face full of fear.
“What happened?” I asked, afraid to find out what could be worse than the full destruction of entire towns.
“People—” She paused, tilting her head as if she hated saying it out loud. “Went missing. Unexplained. Multiple unsolved disappearances. Even a few unexplained deaths.”
“Oh good. Love that for us.” Jasper whined, fanning his face as he started pacing around in a circle. “This just went from fun, juicy tea time to a true crime podcast. Spectacular.”
“Jasper!” I hissed, on edge and fully trying to keep myself from spiraling into a mental breakdown.
“What?” He hissed back, smacking my arm. “I didn’t sign up for this! I’m too pretty to end up in a ditch!”
I waved him off as he went back to pacing and looked back at Samantha. “So, now what?”
“Now, we call Anastasia and try not to panic before she can get here and—” The rest of her plan was cut off when a door deeper in the charred mechanical room creaked open and we all jumped, and then froze in fear.
“Shh!” she whispered, and I grabbed her and Jasper’s arms, quickly running into the dark shadows behind a collapsed metal rack that held chemicals for the cooling system.
I didn’t know who was coming into the closed-off section, but if there was a murderer on the loose, I wasn’t going to be caught just standing around in a dark hallway, waiting to die.
Jasper's fingers dug into my arm as he covered his mouth to stay silent as we three settled behind the metal racks, hidden in the darkness.
My heart raced a million miles a minute, and I cursed myself when I went to grab my phone to call Tanner and found my pocket empty. I must have set it down at the bakery table and forgotten about it earlier.
I was so dumb.
“What the hell are you doing here?” An angry voice echoed through the concrete room, and every hair on my neck stood up when I recognized the deep baritone voice.
“It’s him!” I mouthed to Samantha, who stared back at me with wide eyes.
Chief Tolbert came out into the hallway, wearing athletic gear as if he’d been getting ready to put his pads on for the game, and anger radiated off his big body as he turned with his hands on his hips to whoever he was talking to.
“You wouldn’t answer your phone,” a calmer male voice said with an air of arrogance to it. “What choice did you leave us?”
As soon as the second man stepped into the hallway so we could see him, I recognized him and his voice.
Martin Lister, the man who stood outside my bakery once upon a time and told me I wouldn’t make it as a business owner, before handing me a flyer for the one he was opening right across the street.
Damn. This was bad.
Turning to Samantha again, I whispered, “Bakewell Industries.”
Her eyes bugged out of her head again, but this time she pulled her phone from her pocket and started recording them, hiding behind the racks as she did.
Damn it, I hoped she at least got their confession and sent it off to someone before they found us and killed us.
“They’re circling me!” Tolbert snapped angrily. “They know there was someone involved on the inside!”
“Then do what you do best.” Martin demanded, scowling at the other man. “Make them look at someone else!”
“I can’t!” Tolbert clenched his fists, “This town—they’re different here. They don’t listen to me like the others.”
My blood ran cold as I watched the villain in our story reveal himself.
Martin cocked his head to the side, cold and calculated the same way he talked to me on the sidewalk that night, “Then do what you do second best. Make them.”
Tolbert groaned in frustration, “I’m under a microscope here, between that cop and the fucking bitch that got cleared of our charges—” He huffed, “I’m telling you, it’s too hot here. We have to pull out.”
“If we pull out now, they have their case. And we lose. Everything.” Martin warned, a lethal edge to his voice. “And if Bakewell loses this, I assure you, we will take you down with us.”
Tolbert’s body froze solid as he stared the other man in the face. “What do you expect me to do?”
“Get rid of the evidence.” Martin said evenly. “Start with the cop. That will shake the town enough that they’ll stop worrying about property damage and they’ll start looking somewhere else.”
Jasper wrapped his arm around my waist when my knees went lax under me. Tanner! They were talking about my Tanner.
“Then what?” Tolbert snapped, “It doesn’t work off just one disappearance, you know that! We’ve done this too many times before; we know that doesn’t work.”
“Did I say anything about a disappearance?” Martin raised one brow boldly. “Kill him. Make it public. Make it fucking hurt the people of this town so badly they never want to step foot on Main Street again.”
“Jesus.” Tolbert scoffed, shaking his head. “This is too much. It’s too far!”
“One way or another,” Martin adjusted his suit jacket with a condescending glare at Tolbert, “This town will be ours. Maybe eliminating the golden boy cop isn’t the best way for Bakewell Industries to get what we want.
Maybe a devoted and highly decorated fire chief dying in the town square will get the job done. ”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, the vile, crass way they talked about life and death left me sick to my stomach.
“Fine.” Tolbert conceded, choosing self-preservation in the end. “I’ll get it done.”
“Today.” Martin demanded. “After the game.”
“Whatever.” Tolbert shook his head. “I’ll figure something out.”
“Good.” Martin slid his hand into his pants pocket and took a step back. “Or you won’t see tomorrow’s sunrise. We have too much invested, too many assets used up in this godforsaken town to lose it all now.”
“Got it.” Tolbert said, stepping around the man with a huff. “I’ll do it after the game.”
I heard nothing else they said as they walked away, back through the other exit. When they were gone, my knees gave out completely, and Jasper held me up against him.
Leaning around me, he stage whispered to Samantha, “Please tell me you got that, because I am not emotionally prepared to relive that!”
“I have to warn him.” I whispered in shock, ignoring him. My mind spun so fast I felt like I was going to throw up. “I have to get to Tanner.”
“You can’t,” Samantha dug her fingers into my arm, pulling me around to face her as she sent the video off to someone on her phone.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I snapped, shaking her off with anger at her absurd statement. “Of course I have to! He’s in danger!”
“He’s safe through the game.” Samantha urged, “You heard him, he said he’d do it after the game.”
“And if I don’t just believe the insane maniac at his word about not murdering my boyfriend ahead of schedule?” I whispered so loudly that my throat burned. I didn’t know where Tolbert and Martin went, but I wasn’t about to give them a reason to come back.
“I have it handled.” She said firmly, staring me right in the eye.
“I’ve got reinforcements coming. They’ll be here before the game is over.
If you tell Tanner now, he’ll give himself away to Tolbert, and the man will bolt.
I know it. He won’t risk sticking around if he thinks that Tanner is onto him. And then he’ll disappear!”
“At least Tanner will be safe!”
“And what about everyone else?” Samantha snapped angrily, taking me back and throwing me off kilter.
She swallowed, forcing a deep breath into her lungs, but tears pooled on her lash lines as she stared at me.
“What about everyone else that he’s killed?
What about them? And their loved ones? Don’t they deserve justice? ”
“Oh my god,” Jasper whispered at my side, clutching me tighter. “He did this to you, didn’t he?”
She licked her lips, steeling her spine as she tried to hold her composure, but I could see the pain in her eyes clear as day.
“My husband, Kyle. He was killed eleven years ago in our hometown.” Taking a deep breath, she went on, “He owned a barbershop that his grandfather had passed down to him. Every male in Kyle’s family for six generations worked in that barber shop in the middle of the town square.
We were going to continue that tradition on.
” A tear fell over her lashes as she told her tale, and my stomach clenched.
“We were excited to start our family together, but I wanted to wait just a little bit. I wanted to enjoy being newlyweds for just a little while longer. But then things started happening in our town. Things that didn’t make sense, even saying it had been a stroke of bad luck, didn’t cover it at that point. It was too much.”
“What happened to him?” I asked.
“A gas leak.” She breathed, closing her eyes as the memories no doubt assaulted her.
“It was a bright, sunny, August morning. I remember it as if it were yesterday. I was at home, a few streets over from the shop, making a grocery list at our kitchen table.” Her lips wobbled as she went on.
“The blast rattled our windows, and I knew in my heart almost instantly that Kyle was gone.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said, wiping away a tear that fell from my own eyes.
“It wasn’t until after his funeral that I found all the notices from investors and the zoning office hidden in the back of his desk.
They were trying to force him out of the shop, but he had refused.
And they killed him for it. They killed three others in the process too.
So, believe me when I tell you, I do not ask this of you lightly.
I do not want anyone else to get hurt in this, I promise.
But I need you to wait until help is here to shut this entire thing down. ”
“I don’t know—” I shook my head, feeling absolutely lost. “I don’t know if I can.”
“You have to.” Jasper said, surprising me. “We have to do this. And I’ll make sure he has someone on that ice that will have his back. We can’t tell Tanner or Rhea, because we both know they’ll blow it. But I know someone who could annoy a mime with his silence.”
“Thomas.” I said, understanding who he meant.
“Bingo.” Jasper said with a small smile. “He’ll keep an eye on Tanner and Rhea through the game. And then we’ll blow the lid off this popsicle stand!” Instantly he grimaced and sent Samantha a pained expression, “I’m so sorry. That was an untimely joke.”
Samantha wiped away her tears with a small smile on her face, taking another deep breath as she tucked her phone away. “It’s okay. And believe me, no one wants to see Bakewell Industries crash and burn more than I do. And I appreciate every single ounce of your bravery and help here.”
“You can count on us,” Jasper answered for us just as the buzzer sounded from the rink on the other side of the concrete wall. “Well, we’d better get moving. I have to find a way to sneak into the boys' locker room to talk to Thomas.”
“I would have thought you’d be a pro at sneaking into a locker room.” I joked, trying to lean on his strength as mine felt fragile.
“Pfft,” he waved me off, helping me out from behind the racks with a quick glance over his shoulder to where the two men had disappeared, as if he were looking for the bogeyman. “I, Jasper Wilde, do not sneak. I am invited.”
I didn’t even comment back on that as we headed back out to the main lobby, blending into the crowd.
“Stay with Goldie while I go talk to Thomas.” Jasper told Samantha, firmly shoving me in her direction.
“And don’t believe her for a second, she will cut your Achilles tendon with a pastry knife to run off to Tanner and Rhea right now.
She’s a flighty little feral badger for those two, so don’t let her out of your sight! ”
With that, he turned and melted into the crowd, leaving us standing there as if we hadn’t just uncovered a murder plot in the middle of a charity hockey game.
Just a normal Saturday in Cedar Bluff lately.