LITMIR.BIZ

       Chapter 1

      The soothing pendant lighting and upscale atmosphere of Pinocchio’s in Chesterville, West Virginia, didn’t cast its usual charm without Payton Everett. Sitting on a leather bistro chair with two of her other friends, Jaslene Chabot would never again joke about their Sex and the City bond. They were one woman short.

      Tatum Garvey stirred her speared olives in her martini glass. “I think it’s time to let her go,” Catherine Starr said.

      “I can’t let her go.” Jaslene missed Payton terribly and she couldn’t live with the torture of not knowing what had happened to her friend, a reporter for a local newspaper with ambitions, fiery red hair and green eyes. She loved reporting on community issues, ranging from Good Samaritans’ deeds to personal injustices.

      “I can’t, either,” Tatum said. A tall, stunning blonde, she’d started her own interior design business and had been featured in a popular home magazine. She dressed to match the part without trying. She had an eye for style. “But why haven’t the cops found her yet?”

      Payton had been missing for seven months.

      “You two do realize that Payton is dead,” Catherine said. “Right?”

      The wife of a successful insurance broker, she had two kids and was trying for a third. She wasn’t as tall as Tatum, but she had pretty dark hair and sparkling gray eyes. She had a way of stating what she thought without censor. While Jaslene took offense, she couldn’t dispute the possibility. She just didn’t want to face that yet.

      “You don’t know that for certain,” Jaslene said.

      “The detective told you the case had gone cold,” Catherine said.

      He’d called her to tell her, as if doing so would make her back off. “Yes. I’m going to go see him tomorrow.”

      “You’ve gone to see him a lot and it doesn’t seem to do any good.”

      Jaslene eyed Tatum in disgruntlement. No amount of pushing made the case move forward. She couldn’t will it to, either, which highly frustrated her. There weren’t any real leads. Payton’s car had been found at a park. Had she gone for a walk and something happened? She was not the type of person who would run off. Something had to have happened to her, something bad.

      “If there is no evidence, no detective alive can make it magically appear,” Catherine said.

      “So, you both are just going to...give up?” When both her friends didn’t respond, she grew incensed. “How do you think Payton would feel about that? Her closest friends throw up their hands and assume she’s dead and turn their backs and go on with their lives and forget all about her?”

      “That isn’t fair,” Tatum said. “We need to go on with our lives. That doesn’t mean we’ll forget about Payton. She’ll always be one of us.” She spread her hand palm up in a half circle from Jaslene to Catherine.

      “I will never give up.” Even Payton’s family had stopped looking. They waited for news from Jaslene, but they had lost hope.

      Catherine reached over and put her hand over Jaslene’s. “You were always the closest to her.”

      Jaslene slid her hand away, not understanding how Catherine and Tatum could give up so easily. She saw her friends from a different perspective. She had always thought they’d stick together. No matter what. Now that Payton was gone, that no longer applied. It was as though she had been the glue that held the four of them together.

      “Well.” Jaslene took out her wallet and put some cash on the table.

      “Jaslene,” Tatum protested. “We aren’t turning our backs. We have jobs and families. We can’t take a leave like you did and you have no one waiting for you at home.”

      She had taken a leave from her job as an environmental geologist and she

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