Colton K-9 Cop

The vibration of her phone caught her moments before the ringer went off, her best friend Rae’s name and picture filling the screen. She toyed with not answering when the overwhelming urge to talk to someone who believed her struck hard.

“Hey there.”

“What’s wrong? You sound upset.”

Bellamy smiled despite the horrible weight that had pressed on her chest since leaving Sally Borne’s office. The quick response after a simple greeting was straight-up Rae and at that moment, Bellamy couldn’t have been more grateful.

“Well. Um.” The tears that had threatened on the walk back tightened her throat once more. “I’m packing my office.”

“What? Why?” The noise of the Whisperwood General Store echoed in the background, but nothing in the noise could dim Rae’s concern. “Who would do that? You’re one of their best employees.”

“As of a half hour ago, they began treating me like Enemy Number One.”

“What? Wait—” Rae broke off, the din in the background fading even as she hollered at someone to come help her at the counter. “Okay. I’m in my office. Talk to me.”

Bellamy laid it all out—the email, the walk to HR and the weird meeting, even Gus’s kindness in letting her have a few minutes.

“Gus’ll give Sutton Taylor what for. Why don’t you let him?”

“I need to process this. Something’s going on and the faster I figure out what it is, the faster I can get my job back.” If I even want it.

The thought was so foreign—and such a departure from who she’d been for the past thirteen years—Bellamy nearly repeated the words out loud.

Was it possible the damage of an afternoon could remove the goodwill of nearly a decade and a half?

“Who do you think did it?” Rae’s question interrupted the wending of Bellamy’s thoughts.

“I wish I knew. It’s dangerous, Rae. If it’s a joke it’s a horrific slander on the company. And if it’s true—” Bellamy stopped, barely able to finish the thought. “If it’s true, it’s a problem beyond measure. We serve the public good. We can’t take that good away from them, especially in flu season.”

“I’ve already had a few people in complaining about it. I’m tempted to drag on a surgical mask each morning before I open up.”

Rae would do it, too, Bellamy thought with a smile. That and a whole lot more, she had to admit.

“Look, Rae. I need you to keep this to yourself until I understand what’s going on.”

“Bell, come on, you have to tell someone.”

“I will. But. Well. Look, just don’t say anything, okay? Please promise me.”

The quiet was nearly deafening before she heard her friend acquiesce through the phone. “Okay. I’ll hold my tongue for now.”

“Thank you. Let me get my feet under me and I can figure out what comes next.”

“So long as it entails a visit to the police at some point.”

Since her thoughts hadn’t been too far from the same, Bellamy had to admit Rae had a point. “I’ll call you later. I need to finish packing up and get out of here. Even with Gus’s willingness to give me time, the dragon in HR is going to expect me off the grounds.”

“Okay. Call me later.”

They hung up with a promise to do a good raging girls’ night, complete with margaritas and a gallon of ice cream. It couldn’t erase her day, but as promises went it was certainly something to look forward to.

Bellamy glanced down at her box, her meager possessions all she had as evidence of her time at Lone Star Pharmaceutical.

Securing the lid, she took a deep breath and pulled her purse over her arm.

She’d already lived through the loss of her family, both through death and through abandonment. She would survive this.

Resolved, Bellamy picked up the box and walked out of her office. She refused to look back.

* * *

THE MID-DECEMBER AFTERNOON light was fading as Bellamy trudged toward her car. She’d snagged a spot in the far back parking lot, beneath an old willow that she loved for its sun protection and the added benefit of more daily steps, to and from the front door. Now it just seemed like more punishment as she put one foot in front of the other, her box completing the professional walk of shame.

Thankfully, the parking lot was rather empty, the impending holiday and the general spirit of celebration and success at LSP pushing even more people than she’d expected to knock off early.

Gus had been kind when he met her in the lobby, his expression sorrowful as he took her badge and her corporate credit card. Sally Borne hadn’t shown up for the proceedings but her office lackey, Marie, had been there to take the badge and credit card before bustling off back where she’d come from.

It was unkind, but Bellamy hadn’t been able to dismiss the image of a small crab scuttling back to its sandy burrow the way the woman rushed off.

And then it had just been awkward with Gus, so she’d given him a quick kiss on the cheek and a warm hug, promising to visit with him in town at the annual tree lighting in the town square the following week. She’d already committed to Rae that she’d go and she’d be damned if she was going to hide in her home like the same crab she’d mentally accused Marie of being.

Shifting the box in her arms, Bellamy laid it on her rear bumper as she dug for her keys. After unlocking the car, then pressing the button for her trunk, she juggled the box into the gaping maw of her sedan, only to fumble it as she attempted to settle it with one hand while her other held her purse in place.

A steady stream of expletives fell from her lips when a brisk wind whipped up, catching the now-loose box lid and flinging it from the trunk.

“Damn it!”

The temptation to leave the lid to fly from one end of the parking lot to the other was great, but she dutifully trudged off to snag it where it drifted over the concrete. She might be persona non grata but she wouldn’t add litterbug to the litany of sudden crimes she’d apparently perpetrated against LSP. Nor would she put someone at risk of tripping on it inadvertently.

Box lid in hand, she crossed back to the car, dropping into the driver’s seat and turning on the ignition. The car caught for the briefest moment, then rumbled to life. She put her foot on the brake, about to shift into reverse, when her gaze caught on the rearview mirror and her still-open trunk.

Resigned, she opened the door once more and crossed back to the trunk. That damn cardboard box stared up at her, the lonely receptacle of her professional life and—finally—she let the tears she’d fought all afternoon fall.

Lost job. Lost family. Hell, even a holiday that was shaping up to be a lost cause. All of it seemed to conspire against her until all she could see or think or feel was an overwhelming sense of loss.

Frustrated, Bellamy stepped back and slammed the lid.

Instantly, a wall of heat flared up, consuming her before she felt her body lifted off the ground and thrown across the parking lot.

* * *

DONOVAN WAS MIDWAY down his parents’ stone-covered driveway when the call from Dispatch came in. He answered immediately, responding with his badge number and his location.

“We have a bomb called in at Lone Star Pharmaceutical. Your location indicates you’re closest to the site.”

LSP?

An image of the imposing corporate park on the edge of Whisperwood filled his thoughts, along with the pretty woman he’d met a million years ago who worked there. Who was bombing the town’s largest employer? And why?