Tolly

By J. Patrick Lemarr

When Nevaeh Wheaton investigates an anonymous hero, she stumbles upon a deeper mystery that leads her to the doorstep of a small-town pastor. She assumes that her questions will lead to a logical answer. She hopes that answer will be the foundation of a Pulitzer-worthy news story and a higher profile career. What "Tolly" has to say, however, will change her understanding of whose story is important and, perhaps, the very course of her life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Write Crowd Publishing
• Release date: Jun 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9781958476017

J. Patrick Lemarr

J. Patrick Lemarr currently lives in Indiana with his wife, Heidi, and their children. When he isn’t crafting horror and fantasy for Write Crowd Publishing, he is writing exclusive content for his Patreon supporters. The Lemarrs film reactions and reviews for movies and television on their YouTube channel, Pop Pop Fizzle, and discuss all things pop culture on their podcast, Pop Pop Culture.

Book preview

Tolly

Tolly

J. PATRICK LEMARR

Write Crowd Publishing

Copyright © 2022 by J. Patrick Lemarr

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

For Dad

And Jesus said to her, Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?

JOHN 11:40 ESV

Contents

Tolly

Afterword

About the Author

Also by J. Patrick Lemarr

Tolly

My name is Nevaeh Wheaton, and I have been an investigative journalist for 17 years. In that time, I’ve built a reputation for being relentless in my pursuit of the truth. My ferocity has earned me several prestigious awards and opportunities most young journalists would kill for. I never cared. My goal was never hunting fame or fortune. I never gave a single damn about being a network anchor or sitting on a CNN panel. The story was what I wanted. Over the years, I’ve chased after stories that put me directly in the path of danger. It’s never stopped me. The truth is my beacon. It calls to me night and day, and I run after it until all the strength has left my legs and my lungs are devoid of air. It’s who I am. It’s how I was built.

Seven months ago, a fire destroyed a small garage in Duburk and its chief mechanic, one Arthur McLowry, nearly died trying to free his employee, Sahir Ustad, from beneath a Buick Encore that had snagged his coveralls. McLowry freed Ustad but then collapsed from the smoke inhalation after sending his employee running for the exit. The Duburk fire brigade—an all-volunteer outfit filled with inexperienced day jobbers—did their level best to battle the blaze and get to McLowry, but the smoke was thick and black from the burning tires, and those young men were too mindful of their wives and their babies to risk the unknown.

Sahir Ustad, screaming from the street for someone to save his boss, tried to rush back into darkness himself. He was pulled away, kicking and screaming, by the police who had gathered to block off the two-lane street. When I interviewed him a few days later, Ustad said he had truly believed his boss would perish in the flames. No one would risk the toxic cloud or the intense heat. He said that in the heart of his heart he was already in mourning.

But then, something strange happened—the moment which set me on the path to this discovery. From the side of the blazing garage, a half-dead Arthur McLowry limped into view. He was as black as a raisin, covered in particulates and ash, but he was alive. The local ABC affiliate interviewed McLowry the next day from his room at St. Thomas and he claimed not to remember the events of the fire after freeing his employee from the grip of a determined Buick. He only remembered groggily coughing soot from his lungs as the stranger who had administered CPR slipped away. He never even saw the man’s face. I watched the interview from my usual perch in my favorite pub. I was hooked. I wanted to know who rescued McLowry and why, in the age of Instagram and Twitter, the hero wasn’t grabbing for his fifteen minutes of fame.

I visited the area and spoke with several witnesses to the fire, but none remembered seeing the stranger or his rescue of Arthur McLowry. When you’ve been in the game as long