Description:
“Yesterday morning we
had two more patients come in showing the same symptoms - stomach pains,
high fever – both were kids. And within six hours, they were dead too.”
Wellton, Arizona. Population 2,864… and falling. Something - or someone - is killing the kids in town, and the Wellton Police Department is called in to investigate the untimely deaths.
Officer Trent Buckley can’t wait to be transferred out of the forgotten desert town, but suddenly he finds himself working the biggest case of his career, one that brings him back in touch with reporter and ex-lover, Sarah Goodwin.
Trent and his mentor Chief Walker race the clock to prevent more deaths and to keep the media from causing a panic, all while battling personal demons they both thought were in the past.
When they finally discover what’s happening in Wellton, will two small-town cops be able to put an end to it?
Defending Wellton blends authentic characters with high-action drama, making this a mystery novel that will leave you asking what’s going to happen next!
Wellton, Arizona. Population 2,864… and falling. Something - or someone - is killing the kids in town, and the Wellton Police Department is called in to investigate the untimely deaths.
Officer Trent Buckley can’t wait to be transferred out of the forgotten desert town, but suddenly he finds himself working the biggest case of his career, one that brings him back in touch with reporter and ex-lover, Sarah Goodwin.
Trent and his mentor Chief Walker race the clock to prevent more deaths and to keep the media from causing a panic, all while battling personal demons they both thought were in the past.
When they finally discover what’s happening in Wellton, will two small-town cops be able to put an end to it?
Defending Wellton blends authentic characters with high-action drama, making this a mystery novel that will leave you asking what’s going to happen next!
Sitting back in his executive chair, Thompson’s
smile faded into a hard line. He was all business now, and his voice lowered
into a more serious tone. “Well, let’s get down to the reason I
called you here.”
Thompson huffed under his moustache, pushing a pile
of papers to the side of his oversized, mahogany desk. “Trent, we’ve got something going on in this
town, and I’m not real sure what it is.”
“What sort of thing, sir?” Trent leaned
back in his chair, pulling out a small notepad and pen from his chest pocket.
“Now you
put that thing away, son. This discussion is off the
record. We don’t want to start a panic or
anything.” Thompson reached for his coffee and took a long sip.
Trent laid the notepad on the desk in front of
him. “Alright then. Why don’t
you tell me what’s going on?”
Thompson set down his cup and began, “It started a
couple of days ago. We got a patient on
Thursday night complaining of stomach pain. He was six years
old. He came in with a fever of a hundred and four and was vomiting. We
got him hooked up to an IV and administered fluids to help him
rehydrate. We ran some tests, but all of his vitals were
normal. We decided to keep him for the night anyway to make sure his
fever went down.
“Well, about three o’clock in the morning, the
mother came running out of the room screaming that the boy was
dead. Sure enough, he had gone into cardiac arrest and couldn’t be
revived. The mother, Ms. Alvarez, refused an autopsy, said it went
against her religious beliefs or something. All we had to go on was
the tests we had run on him before he died. We looked at the results
again more closely, and realized that he had abnormal amounts of intestinal
parasitic growth.”
Trent was
puzzled. “Parasites? That’s how he died?”
Thompson raised an eyebrow. “We weren’t
convinced either. No parasite I’ve seen has ever killed that
fast. So we decided it must have been a specific allergic reaction
to the parasite or an underlying issue we had not yet tested for. Nonetheless,
the kid was dead.”
Trent nodded slowly, attentive to the hospital
director’s every word.
Thompson continued, “Yesterday morning we had two
more patients come in showing the same symptoms - stomach pains, high fever –
both were kids. And within six hours, they were dead too.”
“Jesus.”
Trent muttered.
“Don’t use the Lord’s name in vain,
son. You were raised better than that.”
“Sorry,
sir.” He sat up in his chair. “So this was just
yesterday. Have you gotten any more cases since then?”
“Last night
we had a little girl, ten years old. Her father, Jack Pringle,
brought her in, but she was already dead. It was pretty
bad. The father was screaming through the hallways, yelling at my
doctors to do something. Poor guy lost his wife in a car accident
last year. I guess he just couldn’t handle it again. He
shoved one of my nurses. Security had to
take him outside for a while to cool off. I didn’t want to call your
department. I thought the last thing the guy needed was a night in
jail.”
Trent nodded. “That’s
awful. I know him. I worked
with the highway patrol on his wife’s accident.
Where’s Pringle now?”
“His boss
ended up coming down to be with him. He spent the whole night
holding his daughter, crying.” Thompson shook his
head. “Terrible. Just terrible.”
Trent was leaning forward in his chair
now. “Well, what is it, sir? More parasites? Have you been able to perform autopsies on
the other children?”
“The parents have agreed to autopsy, but you know
how things go around here, Trent. We don’t have that kind of facility at
Wellton Memorial. We had to get them
over to Phoenix. Probably won’t get any results back for at
least two to three weeks. What we did find, though, was the same parasitic
overgrowth like in the first kid.”
“Well, sir, what’s your initial theory?”
“Haven’t quite formulated one yet, kid. Of course, we’ll need to see the autopsy
reports to rule out other causes. But
this parasite is interesting.” He opened
his arms over his desk and eyed the paperwork there. “You caught me in the middle of some
research. I’m reading everything I can
about them. Specifically, parasitic
allergic reactions. The thing is,
nothing here says this particular kind of parasite would do much damage. It’s certainly not one to kill so fast.”
“So you can narrow down the type of parasite?”
“Yes, we were able to narrow it down to a
parasitic class, not the exact species, however. And to tell you the truth, Trent, this class
of parasites is pretty common. I wouldn’t
be surprised if you and I are walking around with them in our stomachs too.”
The thought disgusted him, but he kept his
expression focused. After a long
silence, Trent sighed. “Kids dying in
Wellton. Chief’s not going to like this
one bit.” As an afterthought, he added,
“He already knows all this, though, right?”
“Yes.”
Trent wondered why the Chief had ordered him to
come down instead of coming himself.
This sounded like a serious matter.
And even though Trent had been serving the department for two years, and
the fire department for three years before that, he’d never had to deal with
any kind of medical epidemic before.
As if reading Trent’s mind, Thompson continued,
“No offense, kid, but I expected Chief Walker to come down today. I’m sure glad
to catch up with you and all, but we could be dealing with something serious
here, if you know what I mean.”
Trent was slightly offended. It was one thing for a person to think
himself inexperienced. It was another to
have it shoved in his face by someone else.
About the author:
Kelli Kretzschmar, author of the mystery novel Defending Wellton, researched the novel by visiting Wellton, Arizona, and interviewing several officers of the Wellton Police Department. Kretzschmar says, “I needed to actually experience the feeling of the small town in order to capture Trent’s frustration in feeling stuck there. And speaking with the Wellton Police Department proved invaluable and has given me a lot of material for a second book in the Wellton series.”
Kretzschmar resides in Rancho Santa Margarita, California with her husband and three children. Although this is her first published novel, she says there will be more to come. “Writing is an exciting hobby,” says Kretzschmar. “I have lots of characters in my mind that are ready to come to life on paper. Currently, I’m working on three more novels and expect my next to be released this winter.” When asked to describe what she enjoys most about writing, Kretzschmar states, “There's a point I get to in the process of writing when the characters just start acting things out on their own, and I'm just there to record it all on paper.”
A full-time Marketing Manager for a high-technology company, Kretzschmar finds time to write between an active schedule of work, family life, and practicing her most recent passion, Krav Maga. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Cal State Long Beach.
Kretzschmar resides in Rancho Santa Margarita, California with her husband and three children. Although this is her first published novel, she says there will be more to come. “Writing is an exciting hobby,” says Kretzschmar. “I have lots of characters in my mind that are ready to come to life on paper. Currently, I’m working on three more novels and expect my next to be released this winter.” When asked to describe what she enjoys most about writing, Kretzschmar states, “There's a point I get to in the process of writing when the characters just start acting things out on their own, and I'm just there to record it all on paper.”
A full-time Marketing Manager for a high-technology company, Kretzschmar finds time to write between an active schedule of work, family life, and practicing her most recent passion, Krav Maga. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Cal State Long Beach.
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