CHAPTER5
Drake heldthe door for Cassie to climb into his truck. Once he’d settled into the driver’s seat, he pulled out onto Main Street. “You’ve lived here your whole life; where’s the best place to stargaze?”
Cassie grinned. “As teens, we used to get together at the bluffs overlooking the river to watch the Perseid meteor shower.” She gave him the directions and leaned back in her seat.
“A teen hangout. Hopefully, not on a school night.” Drake shot a glance in her direction. “Let me guess…when you hung out here, alcohol was involved.”
With a shrug, Cassie nodded. “There might have been a party or two there. It was the favorite necking site until Deputy Barron started making it a regular stop on his weekend night shift. After that, the teens rotated hangout sites to keep the sheriff’s department guessing.”
“Now that you’re part of the sheriff’s department, are you policing the fresh batch of teens?”
She nodded, a grin spreading across her face. “It helps keep the teen pregnancy rate down and breaks up the parties before anyone gets so drunk they’ll fall off a cliff. The parents like it.”
Drake chuckled. “I’m sure the teens aren’t as appreciative.”
“Not at all. But then I’m not doing this job to make friends. I want the people of my community to be safe and live long, healthy lives.”
“You care about them.”
“I do. So many of them are like family. Especially since I lost my folks.”
“Do you have a strong support network of friends?” he asked.
She nodded. “I grew up with what we called our band of sisters. The six of us went through grade, middle and high school together. We were there for each other when we had our first crushes, first breakups, a couple of weddings, a miscarriage and divorces.”
“Do all six of you still live here?”
Cassie glanced away, her sad face reflected in the window. “All but one.”
“Where did she end up?”
“Los Angeles. She followed her boyfriend out to Hollywood. He was set on becoming the next big movie star.”
“And did he?”
“No. He’s done a couple of commercials, but no big breakthroughs. The last I heard, he was a valet at a high-end hotel.”
“And your friend?” He glanced at Cassie in time to see her grimace.
“I don’t know where she is. She phoned her mother four months ago, saying she was coming home for good.” Cassie stared out the front windshield. “She never made it.”
“What do you mean?”
“She disappeared. I’ve been searching for her ever since. She’s listed on the missing persons database, but nothing has come up. Even her car has disappeared. I think her boyfriend did something, but the LAPD confirmed his alibi for the night she left their apartment. He was in San Francisco that night with several friends.”
“No way to trace credit cards?”
Cassie gave a humorless laugh. “We’ve tried everything. “I think she would’ve used cash. Her boyfriend was abusive. We subpoenaed her bank records. She withdrew all of her money the day before she called her mother. She was preparing to run and probably didn’t want to leave a trail of credit card receipts.”
Drake nodded. “Which makes it even harder to trace her.”
“Exactly,” Cassie said. “If she hadn’t called her mother and said she was coming home, I would’ve suspected her of going into hiding. But she wouldn’t have gotten her mother’s hopes up if she hadn’t planned on coming home.”
“Unless she determined coming home would put her family in danger…?”
“That’s a possibility,” Cassie said. “But she would’ve found a way to tell her folks she’d changed her mind.”
“Is your missing friend part of the reason you’re so determined to discover the identity of the woman we found behind the wall?”