The Vanishing Victim (ePub)

Kora Bradley, a seventeen-year-old high school senior, disappears on a Friday night in April. Despite an extensive search for Kora, no trace of her can be found. There are rumors that she was involved with drugs, and it is perhaps significant that one of her friends and classmates, Shonda Edwards, was found to have three ounces of marijuana in her locker shortly before Kora disappeared.

Two weeks after Kora's disappearance, Casey Garrett, a successful psychiatrist, has his first session with Brianna Edwards, who is Shonda's mother. After explaining to Brianna that the conversations between a psychiatrist and a client are privileged information that can't be disclosed to anyone else, Casey eventually discovers that Brianna is a woman who is haunted by an incident in her past with a woman named Valetta Lopez...a terrible incident that has haunted her for fifteen years...a pond at twilight...a woman fighting desperately for her life...the remorseless will of her attacker.

Brianna is quite literally a haunted woman. At night, she sees the ghost of Valetta, and during the day, she lives in fear of a demon who she thinks will run her over if she tries to cross the street. Casey does his best to help her, but his sessions with Brianna become a lot more complicated after Kym, his daughter, has a big fight with Shonda. It seems like a fairly typical conflict between two high school seniors, but perhaps it portends something that has the potential to spiral out of control. Things only become worse when Brianna accuses Kym of planting drugs in Shonda's handbag in an attempt to destroy her daughter's reputation. Casey doesn't believe that Kym would ever do such a thing, but Brianna is adamant that Kym has tried to frame her daughter. Finally, after accusing Casey of lying to protect Kym, she storms out of his office.

The next day, Kora Bradley's body is found, and when Casey discovers where Kora's body was found, it doesn't take him long to figure out who murdered her. But time is running short—much shorter than Casey realizes—and unbeknownst to Casey, the murderer is seeking him out and is much closer to him than he realizes. In the end, a catastrophe ensues that will forever alter Casey's life.