It’s WIP Wednesday and I’m excited! By the end of the month I’ll have the draft for Forgotten complete. And that leaves NaNoWriMo wide open for me to work on the draft for my historical set in the early 1900s.
So, I figured it’s time to share a snippet. I hope you enjoy this unedited excerpt. And of course it goes without saying, no plagiarizing. It’s rude and punishable by red hot pokers and my extreme disappointment in you. You won’t like me when I’m disappointed. *growls*
Anyway, without further ado, here’s a taste of Forgotten.
***
Stark forced himself to pay attention to the print out Evie had given him, instead of the subtle aroma of jasmine and cold air that was her scent. It didn’t take long when he realized what he was reading. It was a news report, with a picture of a pretty girl with long red hair and warm brown eyes in the left hand corner. It was a high school photo, one where she was turned to the side, smiling with one of those plastic roses resting daintily against her shoulder. He skimmed quickly over the report and found out that the girl’s name was Margot Jane Fisher. She was nineteen, had lived in the small town of Mason, New Hampshire. As of two weeks ago her body was found naked, battered, and decomposing in a ditch a few miles away from a seedy motel where she was last spotted several months before.
The second page was a large print out of the girl’s photo. Nothing in particular stood out. Unless he counted the bracelet on the girls wrist. A silver bracelet with lemon and honey colored gems, identical to the one in his hand. When he turned his eyes back to hers, Evie was staring up at him, practically begging him to see the significance.
“It could just be a strange coincidence, Evie. Lots of people have similar jewelry.”
“There are initials,” she whispered. “M.J.F.”
Sure enough, when he glanced at the inside of the bracelet, the girl’s faded initials were staring back at him. The bustle of ringing phones, fingers tapping on keyboards, voices rising and falling and footsteps shuffling quickly back and forth were drowned out as he processed this new information.
A murdered girl who only lived one state away was linked to Evie’s disappearance.
“I know,” she said with a nod as if he’d spoken aloud.
“Have you ever seen this girl before? Did she go to the same school?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“You’ve never seen her before? Not even in passing?”
Again she shook her head, then paused and said, “Well, not that I know of anyway.”
Stark breathed a deep sigh, while Evie attempted to fill the ominous silence covering them despite the bustle in the room.
“I don’t remember this girl, but as soon as I saw the report on TV I recognized the bracelet and she seemed so familiar. But I don’t know from where. I don’t know how it’s possible for me to recognize her,” Evie said though her body language seemed to suggest that her subconscious remembered more than she knew. Her voice was hushed and her shoulders slightly hunched. “And then there’s the fact that she was missing and now she’s dead all during the time I was gone. That creeps me out to no end.” She shook her head and nibbled at her lip. “How could I have a bracelet from a dead girl?”
Stark looked off to the side, slowly moving his jaw back and forth as if trying to loosen it while he thought. He turned back to her squinting for a moment and then said, “So, I suppose you want to know what you should do next, huh?”
“It’s the only thing I have to go on. I was thinking maybe I could talk to someone that knew her,” Evie said tentatively. “The article said her mother lives in the same town and it’s only a little over two hours away. I could return the bracelet and see if anything triggers a memory. What do you think?”
He nodded. “I wouldn’t start flashing that bracelet around just yet. Her mother might get the wrong idea about your involvement in her daughter’s death. But you’re right, if you want answers Mason’s the place to get them. When did you plan on doing that?”
“As soon as possible, before I lose my nerve. Tomorrow.”
