Page 30 of The Girl and the Lies

I get off the phone and head for a shower, then change into pajamas, hoping to convince my body to rest. By the time I’m back to the table, I have a message from Tracy with the name and information for the contact at the school, whom I’m assuming Marcus Kelsey went through to get the talk set up. I call the number and leave a voicemail introducing myself and asking Samantha Clark to call me back. I then get my computer and look up the school along with Tracy Ellis’s name, wanting to see if any coverage of the protest will pop up.

It doesn’t take long for me to get a hit on my search. An article in what looks like the student paper comes up first. There’s an image on the front of police officers standing among a group of students in an outdoor area with a caption describing the scene. I read the article and find out the group of protestors was a campus organization that called themselves the Student Action Committee. The vagueness of the name is enough to put me on edge. That’s the kind of name a group gives itself when it doesn’t want to be clear about what it’s actually doing. I jot the name down so that I remember to ask about it tomorrow and keep researching.

There’s little news coverage of the incident, and the rest steers away from naming the group, simply referring to them as “protestors” and focusing on the physical assaults that led to the police involvement. One has a close-up picture of Ander standing with one of the officers, and I notice blood trickling down the side of his face. I remember him saying he had to subdue some people, and I see the blood as evidence of just how far it actually went.

I find another article about the incident and look at the picture attached. Rather than being of either of the security guards, the caption reveals that the man in khakis and a polo shirt is Marcus Kelsey. In the picture he’s standing close to Tracy Ellis and a police officer. It looks like he’s making an angry and agitated gesture. I read through the article wanting more information, but it is largely the same as the other one.

Resigned to the fact that I’m not going to find out anything more tonight, I gather everything back up and bring it to the guest room. It’s still early, so I go back out into the living room and find Eric stretched out on the couch with the remote, flipping aimlessly through the channels on the TV.

“Feel like binging some cooking competition shows with me?” I ask.

“Sounds good to me,” he says, tossing me the remote.

I curl up in a recliner and flip through on-demand screens until I find the show I want and turn it on.

“I didn’t get a chance to ask you how things are going with the investigation,” he says. “How is Tracy Ellis in person?”

“She’s a lot,” I tell him. “What you thought when you watched that video of her talking about Terrence Brooks—yeah, that and then some. I sat in on a company meeting, and she sounded just like she did in that video. Just as worked up and intense, and she was just talking to her employees. It makes me understand even better why people have a problem with her. But also why people would be obsessed with her. She would definitely be the kind of person some people would desperately want to be accepted by. They would want to feel like they were part of the special, exclusive group she creates just by talking about how terrible everything else is.”

“That’s how people like her end up gaining so much popularity. People really want to feel like they are included in something that others aren’t or that they are better than other people in some way,” Eric says.

“Even when the whole point is supposedly to reach out to people and make them better,” I say bitterly. “Bring them into the truth. That seems like one of her favorite words. Everything is about the truth.”

“Convenient when that’s exactly what you’re trying to find.”

I let out a breath. “Yeah.”

Samantha Clark calls me back when I’m in the middle of making breakfast the next morning.

“Thank you for getting back to me,” I say.

“Sure. What can I help you with, Agent?” she asks.

“I’m working on a case involving the Tracy Ellis Ministry. I heard that she had a talk on campus and you organized it,” I say.

“That’s right,” she says.

“Would I be able to come to your office and speak to you about it?” I ask.

“I have some time this morning,” she says.

“Great. Does an hour work for you?” I ask.

“That’s fine,” she says.

“I’ll see you then.”

I finish making breakfast and eat as quickly as I can before rushing back to my room to get ready.

“Where are you headed?” Bellamy asks when I rush past her heading into the kitchen.

“The college,” I tell her. “I just heard from the woman who organized the talk with Tracy Ellis, and she’s willing to talk to me about it. Hopefully, I can find out something more about the protestors.”

“When do you think you’ll be back?” she asks.

“I don’t know.” I suddenly feel bad. “I’m sorry I’m just kind of running in and out so much. If you want me to move to a hotel, I really can. It’s fine.”

“You’re not moving to a hotel,” she tells me firmly. “Go. I’ll see you whenever you get back.”

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