What Lies Beneath by Archer David

Author:Archer, David
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-01-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

“Okay,” she said finally, once their orders were taken. At his insistence, she had ordered lobster. She loved lobster and could tell he was making an effort to impress her, but she also wondered what Dex would think if he knew that she could not only afford to buy her own dinner, she could afford to buy this restaurant if she so chose. “So what is this problem?”

“Straight to the point,” Dex said. “That was one of the first things I liked about you. You didn’t beat around the bush when you came to see me today. You knew what you were after, and you asked the questions that would get you the answers you needed.”

“You’re stalling,” she said. “Start talking, or I get up and walk out.”

“Okay, okay,” he said, holding both hands up as if to ward off a threat. “Just promise you’ll hear me out all the way. Would you do that? It’s gonna sound kind of crazy at first, but I promise you I’m completely serious.”

“I’m listening, aren’t I?” Cassie let a bit of irritation enter her voice and saw the twitch of his eye that said he recognized it.

He let out a deep sigh. “Here it is,” he said. “There’s this girl I used to know. It was about two years ago, not long after I got back from overseas, and we got to be good friends. I think we probably would’ve started dating, but she had this ex who wouldn’t leave her alone. He was always calling or stopping by, trying to act like he was just being a friend, but it was easy to tell that he wanted her back. You know the kind I mean?”

“Of course,” Cassie said. “I deal with men like that a couple times a week. They’re the kind who become abusive.”

“Which is another reason why you’re the gal I need to help me with this. Well, anyway, we had started some pretty playful flirting and I was just about to ask her out, and then one night she calls me and says she thinks we need to stay away from each other for a while. I asked her why, and she said it was because she didn’t want me to get hurt. I asked her was it because of the jackass and she said yes, but that it was more than that. I tried everything I could to talk her out of it, but she told me to quit calling, quit coming over, just stay away. So, I did.”

“Too bad,” Cassie said. “What she was probably doing was screaming for help, and you didn’t recognize it. Where is she now?”

“That is the question I need you to answer. About six months later, I decided to just check in on her, make sure she was all right, you know? And she had vanished, and when I say vanished, I mean she vanished without a trace. I talked to her landlord, and he didn’t know she was gone until the police started asking questions.

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