Lynette Eason - Missing

Catelyn stepped into the room as Daniel brushed past her. She said, “I worked the wreck with him. I don’t know what you think you’ll find, but have at it.”

With Daniel’s departure, Lacey felt as if she could breathe again. At least until Mason leaned in close to look at the file with her. His unique scent filled her senses, and she pulled it in as though clinging to that, she could have a piece of him to call her own once again.

She appreciated his support even though she knew he still wanted to discuss the past—and Bethany. However, his priority—finding Bethany—matched hers at the moment and she was grateful.

Mason pulled pictures of the wreck from the file and spread them on Daniel’s desk. Lacey stood to get a better view.

When he unveiled pictures of the dead teen still seated behind the wheel, Lacey gasped and turned away from the photo, nausea swirling in her gut.

“Sorry,” Mason offered. “Let me sort through them. Don’t look until I tell you to.”

Gathering her emotions and clamping them under control, she turned back. “No, I need to see them all.”

“Lacey…”

“Just show me.”

With a heavy sigh, Mason did as she asked and placed them in the order they’d been shot. Gulping a fortifying breath, Lacey studied each photo, throwing up mental blocks that this was a girl she’d had in her home, taken to eat pizza and was Bethany’s best friend. She forced herself to go over every detail even as her heart broke for the precious life cut short.

Oh, Bethany, where are you? Please, God, don’t let Bethany be dead. Keep her in Your care wherever she is.

She studied the interior of the car, the exterior, the shadows behind the vehicle.

And then she saw it.

Another gasp slipped from her as she grabbed Mason’s arm without thinking. “There. Isn’t that a gold necklace on the ground beside the back door?”

Mason moved in for a closer look. The warmth of his bare forearm burned her hand and she snatched it back, curling her fingers into a fist. Before, she would have rubbed her hand up and down his arm in a soothing, affectionate motion, then end with entwining his fingers with hers.

Now she didn’t have that right.

“It looks like it.”

Catelyn and Daniel returned to the office just as Mason picked up the picture. He looked at Daniel. “Do you have a magnifying glass?”

Without comment, the man rounded his desk and pulled open his top drawer. “Here.”

“Thanks.” Mason held the glass over the area of the picture Lacey had pointed out to him. “Yeah, that’s a gold chain all right.” He looked at Daniel. “Can we get this blown up?”

“Why?”

“Because,” Lacey answered, “Bethany had a gold chain she wore all the time. She never took it off. I noticed shortly after the wreck it was gone. When I asked her what happened to it, she said the clasp had broken at school and she’d lost it.”

Daniel shrugged. “Sounds reasonable to me.”

Frustration filled her. “Yes, I thought so too and didn’t think anything more about it, but the more I look at that chain, the more I think it might be hers.”

“How would you identify it? There must be a zillion gold chains out there.”

“But not with a puzzle piece attached to it. She had one half and Kayla had the other half. They each had their names engraved on it along with BFF.”

“Meaning Best Friends Forever,” Mason murmured.

“Right.” She reached for the pictures still laid out on the desk, sorted through them, then pulled one from the pile. “Look, you can see Kayla’s wearing hers here.”

Catelyn took the other picture containing the shot of the gold necklace from the desk. “Follow me.”

Hope making her heart pound like crazy, Lacey didn’t hesitate, but hurried after the woman. She felt Mason’s presence right behind her. And Daniel’s.

She shuddered. When she’d first caught sight of the man walking toward her, she’d wanted to demand that he tell Mason the truth about what had really happened sixteen years ago, but had nearly bitten her tongue off to keep the words from flying from her mouth.

Now wasn’t the time.

This wasn’t about her and Mason—or even Daniel. This was about Bethany. She knew a confrontation with Daniel was coming at some point, though.

And soon.

Catelyn led them into another room that looked like a small lab. “Normally, we use the big lab downtown or send stuff off to Columbia, but this little area was funded by an anonymous donor. One tool we have is a highly efficient microscope that will enable us to get a good look at this chain.”

She maneuvered her way to the device and slid the picture under the glass. After flipping a few switches, the image appeared on the oversize computer screen in front of them.

Within seconds, Catelyn had adjusted the focus and Lacey stared at her daughter’s necklace. “It’s hers.”

Even Mason had to admit it.

A dainty golden puzzle piece dangled from the end of a gold chain. The words Kayla and Bethany—BFF filled the screen.

Lacey felt the air leave her lungs. How she’d hoped she’d be wrong. But she wasn’t. She felt no satisfaction in being right. “What do we do now?” She looked up at Mason. “She was there. Something happened that night other than Kayla just dying in a car accident. Something that instilled a fear in Bethany that she felt she couldn’t share with me.”

Mason scrubbed a hand down his cheek and sighed. He looked at Catelyn. “All right, I think this is enough evidence to prove that Lacey may be on to something, don’t you?”

The detective nodded. “It’s possible.”

Standing, Lacey twisted her fingers together. “You have to get Georgia to tell you what they were doing that night.”

“Daniel?”

They all turned at the voice in the doorway. Lacey gasped and jumped up. “Janice?”

The tall, regal-looking woman paused, her attention swinging from Daniel to Lacey. A hand fluttered to her chest. “Lacey, darling, how are you?”

Feeling a tremulous smile hover on her lips, Lacey gave a low humorless laugh. “I’ve been better. My daughter is missing.”

A perfectly arched brow lifted. “I’d heard you were back with a child in tow.”

Unsure how to take that comment, Lacey just stared at Daniel’s wife, the woman who’d once been her closest friend. Then all of the pretense seemed to slough off of Janice and her expression softened. She moved forward and clasped Lacey in a hug. “I’ve been terribly angry with you.”

Lacey pulled back. “For what?”

“You left without a word sixteen years ago, didn’t call, didn’t send the first Christmas card and then came back to town without calling. What is that all about?”

How could she explain without making everyone in the room more uncomfortable? She couldn’t. “I’m sorry. You’re absolutely right. As soon as we get Bethany home, we’ll get together, all right?” She squeezed her friend’s hand. “I’ve missed you and thought about you often.” That wasn’t a lie. Upon her move back to town, she’d thought about calling Janice but when she’d found out the woman was married to Daniel Ackerman, she just couldn’t bring herself to dial the number.

“Sure.” Janice smoothed a nonexistent stray hair and tugged at the scarf tied in a fashionably loose knot around her neck.

Mason and Catelyn exchanged a look, and Lacey knew exactly what they were thinking. They had an investigation going on and needed to get back to it.

Daniel frowned at his wife, irritation stamped on his features. “What are you doing here? I thought you were working in the shop today? Or volunteering at the hospital or something.”