Free Bombshell: A BWWM Billionaire Amnesia Romance Suspense Novel by Mia Caldwell

footage from the night before and rewound it. He then fast-forwarded it until he got to the point where the parking lot was filling up for the ten o’clock show. He kept fast-forwarding, when Holly shouted, “There, and stop.”
    The security footage showed a view looking out from the front of the bar, down towards the entrance, and a portion of the parking lot.
    “That’s my car,” she explained. Sure enough, the top of Jana’s body could be seen as she got out of the car. A moment later, Jana’s head disappeared off screen. Sam fast-forwarded until about the time of the incident in the bar. People were running out of the bar, and what could be seen of the parking lot was emptying fast.
    “Stop,” Holly said again when Jana reappeared on screen. She was running alongside a man who was clearly dragging her by the arm. Then they ran off camera. “Shit,” Holly said. Sam continued to run through the footage, slowing it down.

“There’s the sheriff,” Jimmy shouted, pointing to the bottom of the screen. The sheriff had his arm out in front of him, the gun clearly visible. The gun suddenly rose slightly, then fell. There was no sound. “He just took a shot!” Holly said.
    “You’ve got a video of the County sheriff firing a gun without provocation. Wow.” Jimmy said.
    A moment later, part of a car backed into the top part of the screen, just for a second. Then a part of another car appeared on camera as if thrown into the shot. “Hey, that’s my car,” Jimmy said. “The bastard hit my car.”
    “Back it up,” Holly said. Sam ran the tape back in slow motion until Holly told him to stop. “There,” she said, “see that white car – there’s just a part of it. Do you think that’s the car Jana left it?”
    “Maybe,” Sam said.
    “Can you guys read the license plate? Can you magnify that image?”
    Sam stared at Holly. “Uh, sorry, miss - this isn’t some fancy equipment you find on some a TV show. This is just a basic recording. I’m afraid.”
    He was being so nice. Holly felt guilty for asking too much.
    “Of course, I’m sorry to be such a pain. Can either of you make out the numbers?”
    The all stared at the image. It was fuzzy, but in the end they all agreed on the first few letters of the partial plate.
    Sam wrote it down on a yellow sticky, and handed it to Holly. “I’m sorry about your friend, I hope you find her. Is there anything else I can do?”
    Holly thought about something. “Hey, when we saw Jana leaving with that man – was she carrying anything?”
    “No,” both Sam and Jimmy said together.
    “Then, her stuff – her purse, her bag of clothes – must be still in the bar. Do you have a dressing room or somewhere – where we can look?”
    “Sure, follow me.”
    Holly and Jimmy followed Sam to a backstage area. They searched the entire room and came up short. No sign of Jana’s purse or clothes. Nada.
    “I wonder what could have happened to her things,” Holly said to Jimmy after they thanked Sam for his help and went back outside to see how bad Jimmy’s car had been hit.
     
    ~~*~~ 
     
    After the young people left, Sam locked himself in his office and berated himself for being such a coward. He had evidence now – evidence that could put the sheriff down. The SSB was in the building. He could show the security footage to the group and surely that would give them the courage to reach out to some higher authority. They could make their move – put the Sheriff out of commission – get back to their former, easy going lives. But, he couldn’t do it.
    He was always the one dissuading the group from taking any drastic action. Why? Because Florence ordered him not to rock the boat. She told him he wasn’t meant to be a tough guy. She told him he was a coward. She fucked around on him and flaunted it in his face. And even though it killed him knowing she was screwing other men, it was also the only thing that made him feel alive.
    She rarely told him who she was