Page 12 of Atop the Bell Tower (Spire #1)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Richard Bellamy

BELLAMY SAT FROZEN in the moment. He stared at the detective's card. His pulse hammered in her ears. The walls were closing in fast. His career was teetering on the brink. Naomi’s disappearance, the inquiry into his research, and his funding slipping further away every day.

How much did Farmer know? How he wished he could read her mind, just a peek into the stoic detective's brain would let him know how many steps ahead he needed to be.

Bellamy tossed the card onto his desk and stood. Pacing the room, he felt the facade of everything he had built beginning to crumble. That girl’s disappearance had been an unfortunate complication. One he hadn’t anticipated. But he couldn’t let it derail his work. No, in fact, he needed to increase the speed of his work. He was so close to something extraordinary. Pausing at his window that looked out onto a darkened campus, somewhere Farmer was piecing it together. He clenched his fists, forcing himself to calm down. Bellamy knew he needed to compose himself, and get ahead of this. There was too much he could lose.