Chapter 1

It was mid-June, June 15th to be exact, and I was depressed. June is the month of wedding bells, blushing brides, and something blue. The month of kiddos starting summer break, looking forward to a long stretch of lazy days with nothing to do but play. Young lovers were tallying up the returned RSVP's from their wedding invitations and selecting photographers. Dads were polishing up the Airstream while mom dug out the tents. Grandma shook out the sleeping bags while Grandpa fired up the grill. All around me it was butterflies, puppy-dogs, and eternal sunshine. And I was stuck in this dark, dank, dingy office with nothing to look forward to. No one went missing around here in the summer; everyone was too busy having fun! Everyone but me, that is. No wedding cake or family reunions for me. I guess that's why I got into this lonely gods-forsaken profession to begin with. If I did make a wrong move and get knocked off, I wouldn't be leaving any grieving spouse, kids, or parents behind. I wouldn't because I possessed none of those things. I was a spouse-less, child-less, pet-less, god-less orphan. And even though I was a detective, I didn't have the first clue how to go about finding a way to change my own sorry state of affairs.

As fate would have it, life changed all that for me. I received a call that mid-June evening around 9 pm, just when I was contemplating calling it a day and closing up shop. I owned and operated the county's only Private Detective agency, concentrating mainly on missing persons. I had been snooping and finding for what seemed like forever. Even as a youngster I was locating folks' lost keys, dogs, and the occasional neighborhood kid for some frantic mother. I picked up the phone.

"Newman Detectives. You lose 'em, we find 'em. Randi Newman speaking. How may I help you?"

"Hello? Is this Mr. ...Err…I mean...is this Randi Newman?"

I sighed. Here we go.

"Yes." I said as cheerfully as I could muster. "This is she." And I waited for the inevitable.

"Oh… Well I assumed you would be a man, but there it is. Just how much experience do you have anyway young lady?"

"Ma'am, I've been a practicing Private Detective for thirteen years now. Very successfully I might add. I would be more than happy to send you my credentials," I lied.

"Weellll," the lady said doubtfully. "I suppose you will do. As you are the only detective in the county, it's not like I have much choice now is it? I don't imagine you have a man working with you?"

What is it (I asked myself for the hundredth time) with these old broads acting like only a man can solve their problems! It really is ten shades of annoying!

"No, there's no man, but I assure you I am just as qualified as any man could be. May I ask your name and the nature of your request?"

"My name is Sophia Honeycutt. I am calling concerning my granddaughter, my namesake. Our young Sophia has gone missing."

"And how old is 'young Sophia'?"

"She's 23."

"I see. And my I ask why you think she is missing? By that, I mean, what the circumstances are surrounding the reasons you think she is missing as opposed to say, just away on her own for a while. She wouldn't be off the grid, so to speak, on purpose?"

"Oh NO! Not my Sophia! Her parents, that is to say my son and that ghastly wife of his, think I am over reacting, but I know our Sophia! She has called me every week for the last four years. Well, maybe not every week, but at least three times a month, and I haven't heard from her in almost six months! No one in the family has. When I bring it up to anyone they just pooh-pooh me off like I'm some blabbering old hen that doesn't know what she's talking about! They say she's probably just out 'finding herself'."

"Does she have any siblings or a boyfriend…a girlfriend? Any close friends that would have any ideas as to her whereabouts? Is she employed or in school?"

"Sofia is an only child and there is no significant other that I am aware of. She is no longer in school and yes she is employed, although I am sorry to say it is as a barmaid…that's so beneath her. I did talk to her roommate, but she said it wasn't unusual for Sophie to just disappear for a while. She did think it was rather odd for her to be gone for this long; although she says Sophie does mail her a check for her share of the rent each month."

"So, Ms. Honeycutt, are you asking me to find Sophia?"

"It's Mrs., and yes I am. I would like you to start as soon as possible."

"That, I can do. I should let you know that I require a $200 expense fee up front. The rest can be paid at the end of the investigation. I also would like you to give me a recent pic of Sophia, her birth date, cell phone number, current address, the roommate's name, place of employment, and any other pertinent information you can think of. You can bring it here to me personally or snail-mail it…or I could come to your residence and pick it up."

"I'll have my assistant deliver everything to you first thing in the morning. When do you open?"

"I'll be here at 6 am."

"Perfect. It will be there by 7."

"OK, Mrs. Honeycutt, until then, good evening."

"Good evening."

Mrs. Honeycutt hung up and I turned off the lights, locked the door, and left my dingy office to head home to my equally dingy apartment. The only thing that made everything a little less dingy was the prospect of a new job and reuniting Mrs. Honeycutt with her granddaughter Sophia. Of course, there was always the snag that Sophia didn't want to be reunited.