I was a detective, key word was I left the force after I had a traumatic accident that left me in a hospital bed and a serial rapist behind bars. Now I spend every day looking over my shoulder with a taser in my purse to protect myself because every time I shut my eyes I hear his breathing, his laugh, and feel the knife he stabbed into my abdomen after he finished with me. My family treats me like I'm made of glass. Like I will break if they say the wrong thing. My ex-boyfriend left because he couldn't handle the nightmares or the scars left all over my body due to the incident. The only person I have left that doesn't  treat me any differently lives in Bristol Virginia. My best friend Erica we have been friends since we were five years old. She knows about the accident because she flew all the way to California where I live when it happened. But now she’s gone missing so it’s up to me and the pretty cute P.I.  her mom hired to find her.

One Big Mystery

 I open the door and walk into Erica’s room, the layout is pretty familiar to me due to our many face times. The P.I. is wearing a runt in the carpet due to the pacing, I then notice Erica’s laptop open and sitting on her desk a failed password screen flashing red telling him he has two more chances before it locks. I walk purposely over to it and input her password unlocking it with ease. He seems to finally notice me and what I have done and let’s a small grunt-like noise as he walks towards me and the now unlocked laptop. I immediately begin searching for anything unusual. Going into her files I find her journal and open it, but my breath leaves me in a huff as I realize it says nothing out of the ordinary. 


 I slowly close the laptop and get up from the chair leaving the P.I. standing behind me. I continue my search of her room top to bottom. But find nothing that makes me think she ran away and she was not taken from here or her things would be out of place. The P.I. finally speaks his voice coming out deeper than expected. This causes a shiver to run down my spine as I turn towards him as he speaks. He says “Alright Blondie I let you do a little search, looked you up online, but I'm not interested in some L.A. detective comin up here and trying to show up the local P.I. alright? I work alone so how about you go on your way.” 


 I stand silent for a moment before I speak with renewed venom in my voice “I don't know who you think you're talking too but it sure ain’t me.” 


 He smirks at me then and walks towards the door, all I want to do is wipe that smug little smirk off his face but instead 


I say “Look you may not wanna work with me, but I honestly could care less Austin Stone, you know you're not the only one who can look up someone online. You have a problem with cops. The locals won’t work with you, but they will with a detective who caught the LA hospital dropper.” 


 He smiles at me then, and says “Aright Jade Anderson let’s go to the scene of the crime,” with that said he walks out the door I follow behind knowing we are heading to the diner where Erica closed then was not seen again. My memories tug at me hearing the word crime scene but I push them back as I follow behind him and admire the view of his backside. Not bad I think to myself as we head out the front door, Erica’s mom fell asleep on the couch so I close the door quietly behind me so we don’t disturb her. 


We go to his car and climb in, when I get in I notice first how clean it is. That’s unusual for a 24 year old man I think to myself but don’t comment as he pulls out of her driveway and heads towards the diner. I looked it up on the plane ride. A small mom and pop business has been in the same spot for the last 20 years or so. Erica’s been working there since she moved in to help her mom out. She says it’s a pretty chill job beside leaving at 1 or 2 when she closes. She never liked the dark growing up. I used to think she was crazy for being scared but now I know better. I hope she is okay and not hurt, I think to myself as we turn onto the street of the diner.


Chapter Five/ A Pretty Cute P.I.