Tuesday Tales: From the Word Fly

Welcome to this week’s Tuesday Tales, the blog post that lets you come along for the ride as a select group of authors share their works in progress. I’m continuing with The White Dahlia, The Harvester Files, Book Four.

“What will your squad do now? From what I can see, you have two connected cases: this homicide, and what did you say the missing girl’s name was?”

“I didn’t, but it’s Rebecca Winston. She’s been missing three week. I’m not sure how much she has to do with this—hell, I’m not even sure the two cases are related.” He frowned, his whole face getting into the action, reminding her of some grumpy old man although he couldn’t be much more than forty.

“If you felt that way, why add Rachel in with the current cases? I didn’t even notice the file on Rebecca. Of course, it was Rachel’s tattoo that caught my eye.”

He shrugged. “It was a long shot. I have nothing to go on with Rebecca, and it’s driving me crazy. Since I started working in Missing Persons, over fifteen hundred cases have crossed my desk and remain unsolved. Almost half of them are women. I just wanted to put her out there again. You know, shake the tree and see what falls out. I didn’t expect this. When I read that Rebecca hadn’t made it back from her vacation, I thought, why not? But, essentially, there’s nothing to really tie the cases together—being white, single, in her twenties isn’t enough to go on. Half of those in my files fit that description, yourself included.”

She cocked an eyebrow. “But I’m not missing. And what makes you think I’m single?”

“Don’t fly off the handle. No wedding ring. I know guys often don’t wear them, but most women do.” He shrugged.

“Well, you’re still wrong. I’m not in my twenties, and no, I won’t tell you my age.”

Al raised both hands in surrender. “I’ve just scratched the surface on Rebecca’s case. I haven’t had time to investigate the few leads I have, other than talking to the lawyer she was articling with. Unlike Rachel who lived with her boyfriend and apparently loved it here, Rebecca lived alone and wasn’t thrilled with life in the city. Maybe she just went home. Immigration says she went through passport control, but, like Rachel, that’s where she seems to vanish, which is why I still think I’m looking for someone who picks them up at the port and delivers them to a pimp. I just have to find the driver who’s doing it and figure out why these two were singled out.

That’s it. Stay safe and don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales.